Renaissance at Hampstead Theatre after funding boost

The Hampstead Theatre today unveils a raft of new work, thanks to an Arts Council funding boost.

A new translation of Bertolt Brecht's last play and a drama by Evening Standard Theatre Award winner Polly Teale are among three commissions.

There will also be a musical version of children's classic The Little Prince, based on the book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and acclaimed classical actor Michael Pennington will present a series of one-man shows.

The Arts Council boosted Hampstead Theatre's funding by 33 per cent to £890,000 next year. It said it made the award "to maximise potential" of the current building, which opened five years ago, and to develop the theatre's producing capacity. Anthony Clark, the theatre's artistic director, said: "This season will be the first to benefit from the uplift in funding.

"With the extra support, we are extremely proud to be producing three of our own commissions and presenting work from some of the most talented emerging and established writers in the country."

The new translation of Brecht's Turandot - the same story as in Puccini's opera - is by well-known adaptor Edward Kemp. It opens the new season on 4 September.

Teale has written Mine, a story about "a couple who are desperate to adopt and a mother who can't let go". At the 2003 Evening Standard Awards, she was named best director for After Mrs Rochester.

Alexis Zegerman, who plays Poppy's friend Zoe in Mike Leigh's latest film, Happy-Go-Lucky, has written a comedy, Lucky Seven.

It is inspired by the Granada Television series Seven UP!, which follows the same group of people at seven-year intervals in their lives.

The theatre's youth group will continue thanks to a £90,000 donation from John Lyon's Charity, part of the Harrow School Foundation. Hampstead's education programme reached 15,000 people last year.