Jenna Coleman and Aidan Turner will star in the West End premiere of Sam Steiner’s provocative play, Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons.
The stage production imagines a world where people are restricted to a daily limit of 140 words each, as imposed by the government. It follows Coleman and Turner as two people who meet, fall in love, mature together and grow apart, and then fight to stay together.
The synopsis reads: “You’re going to speak more than 123 million words in your lifetime. What will you do when they run out? Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons is a tender and funny romantic comedy about what we say, how we say it, and what happens when we can’t say anything anymore.”
According to Steiner, writing Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons taught him “how to be a playwright”.
“The opportunity to revisit and grow the play all these years later and bring it to a larger audience with Josie, Aidan, Jenna and an alarmingly inspiring creative team is thrilling and confounding in equal measure. I hope it speaks to now in a way that I couldn’t have predicted then. And I hope to keep learning.”
Director Josie Rourke added: “I’m thrilled to be working with these electric actors on this brilliant play. I feel we are in a moment where – however indirectly – theatre might help us digest how we lived and changed through the extremes of the past few years.
“Sam’s play finds the humanity in how people and couples work through extreme situations. There is the potential for great joy, fun, reflection and healing in that.”
The play will be revived by Rourke (BAFTA- and Oscar-nominated Mary Queen of Scots) at the Harold Pinter theatre in London in January, before playing at Manchester Opera House and Theatre Royal Brighton.
Coleman stars in Netflix‘s The Sandman and will lead Amazon Prime Video‘s twisted love story Wilderness and World War II drama The War Rooms. Turner will star in Prime Video’s Fifteen Love and Terrance Malik’s The Last Planet.
Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons is at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London from 18th January to 18th March. It then runs at Manchester Opera House (21st – 25th March) and Theatre Royal Brighton (28th March – 1st April).
Tickets go on sale today.
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