This exciting project, the first time these two David Mamet plays have been paired together, will be on at the Arcola Theatre in Spring 2011.

With a cast of 8 actors, including 5 that double roles this is set to be a challenging and intimate journey through LAKEBOAT and PRAIRIE DU CHIEN.

LAKEBOAT is a farce set among a gang of ship workers on a lake at night, while PRAIRIE DU CHIEN is a haunting ghost story told by strangers in a claustophobic train carriage. Each play is due a major revival and the pair has never been seen together. Michael Billington recently wrote, 'Why doesn't someone revive Prairie du Chien?’, so we are thrilled to have the opportunity to do so.

Directed by Abbey Wright (previously Resident DIrector / Associate at the Donmar Warehouse), and produced by Eleanor Lang (General Manager of Y Touring Theatre Company) and Michelle Knight (2009/10 Clore Fellow), this will be a chance to get to know two Mamet plays rarely seen on stage.

The set, props and costumes will be designed by Helen Goddard, winner of the 2007 Linbury Biennial Prize for Stage Design and designer of Kwame Kwei-Armah’s new play, Let There Be Love, at the Tricycle Theatre in January 2008. The lighting will be designed by Emma Chapman whose credits include Lulu (Gate Theatre), Wet Weather Cover (Arts Theatre), Maddening Rain (Matthew Dunster, Old Red Lion), The Ones That Flutter (Theatre 503), Comedians (Bolton Octagon), The Mountaintop (Theatre503/Trafalgar Studios 1).

The total budget for this project expenditure is £40,000 and, as the box office income from the performances won't cover this amount, we have to raise a significant amount of this to cover the shortfall through donations.

We are therefore asking for help from We Fund supporters towards the costs of the set and lighting for the two shows: £2,000.