Cape Town is raving! Next week it’s Joburg’s turn!

There’s just one week to go until Joburg audiences get to experience the multiple award-winning one-woman play My Name Is Lucy Barton and to see for themselves why the Cape Town audiences have been raving about the play that explores the delicate threads that connect us to our family and past.

My Name is Lucy Barton is heading to Joburg, opening next week, and on stage for a limited season at Theatre on the Square in Sandton.

The production stars multiple award-nominated actor Julie-Anne McDowell (The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Revlon Girl) who takes the audience on an emotional journey of memories and reconciliation.

The play is directed by multiple-award winning Charmaine Weir-Smith (The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Train Driver). Design is by Kieran McGregor (Expelled).

Presented by How Now Brown Cow the multiple award-winning My Name Is Lucy Barton is written by Elizabeth Strout and adapted by Rona Munro. It is the story of a writer reckoning with the legacy of a scarred family life who is coming to terms with the cost of her childhood and the rewards of her art.

Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2016, the Bailey Womens Prize For Fiction 2016 and a #1 New York Times Bestseller, Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout shows the most tender relationship of all – the one between a mother and daughter.

My Name Is Lucy Barton has been adapted for the stage as a one woman show by acclaimed TV, Film and Theatre writer Rona Munro (winner of the Evening Standard Award, NOOK Award and the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Award). It opened at The Bridge Theatre in London in 2018 starring Laura Linney who reprised her role on Broadway in 2020.

Lucy Barton wakes after an operation to discover – much to her surprise – her estranged mother at the foot of her bed. Over the course of her mother’s visit, she and Lucy seem to reconnect, but just below the surface lies the tension and longing that have informed every aspect of Lucy’s life.

Lucy’s encounter with her mother brings into sharp focus her troubled childhood in rural Illinois and her current life in New York City. Knitting these powerful memories together, Lucy begins to come to terms with her past and her future as a writer.

is a story for anyone who has questioned how family defines oneself. It is a powerful narrative of hope and triumph about a woman who finds her truth and reclaims her story.

The production will star multiple award-nominated actor Julie-Anne McDowell (The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Revlon Girl) anMy Name is Lucy Bartond be directed by multiple-award winning Charmaine Weir-Smith (The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Train Driver). Design is by Kieran McGregor (Expelled).

Reviews and comments from Cape Town included:

  • ‘Charmaine Weir-Smith keeps the pace flowing steadily as Julie-Anne McDowell inhabits the stage with confidence and grace.’ Karen Rutter, Weekend Special
  • ‘Julie-Anne McDowell is trefseker in haar vertolking van ma en dogter….My Name is Lucy Barton is teater wat empatie ontlok, wat die kyker pantser en jou in ander se skoene laat loop.‘ Laetitia Pople, Netwerk 24 / Die Burger
  • ‘will move you deeply……you have a chance to watch a theatrical delight……go to see ‘My Name Is Lucy Barton’ Brian van Rheede

My Name is Lucy Barton is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc.

My Name is Lucy Barton was originally produced on Broadway by the Manhattan Theatre Club, Lynne Meadow, Artistic Director, Barry Grove, Executive Producer, The London Theatre Company, Nicholas Hytner, Nick Starr, in association with Penguin Random House Audio on January 15, 2020.

My Name is Lucy Barton was originally produced by Nicholas Hytner and Nick Starr for the London Theatre Company at the Bridge Theatre in June 2018.

Show Information:
My Name is Lucy Barton

Johannesburg:
Theatre on the Square, Sandton
9 to 27 October 2024

Times:
Tuesday to Friday at 19h30;
Saturday at 16h00 & 19h30;
Sunday at 15h00

Ticket Prices:
From R170 (including VAT)

Bookings: 
Computicket or the Theatre Box Office (011) 883 8606

Age restriction:
PG

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About How Now Brown Cow:
How Now Brown Cow was launched in 2020 during a global pandemic. The company, founded by Actor and Writer Julie-Anne McDowell, was established to offer world class South African and international works for local and international audiences and stages. Daniel Galloway, who was The Fugard Theatre’s Managing Director and Lead Producer from 2009 to 2020, is the General Manager and co-Producer alongside Julie-Anne. During the global theatre shutdown of 2020 and 2021, How Now Brown Cow launched the How Now Brown Cow Writer’s Collective which saw the commissioning of 12 new South African scripts several of which are now in the next phase of development. In 2022 the Production Company released their first short film, The Hive, which was screened to critical acclaim on the international and local film festival circuit. The Beauty Queen of Leenane was How Now Brown Cow’s first stage production in South Africa which was presented in Johannesburg in October 2022 and Cape Town’s The Baxter Theatre in August 2023. The production won five Naledi Theatre Awards, including Best Production of a Play. How Now Brown Cow will be staging 3 new productions in the coming 16 months.