Stuart Slade, the writer of BU21, turns a real 1977 plot to steal Elvis Presley's corpse into a new dark comedy for the Donmar Warehouse.
Stuart Slade, the writer of BU21, opens his new play The King’s Ransom at the Donmar Warehouse in Covent Garden on Saturday 5 December 2026. Matthew Dunster directs the world premiere, which runs to Saturday 6 February 2027.
Slade writes fast, funny plays about appalling things. BU21, staged at Theatre503 in 2016 and then in the West End, put six survivors of a terrorist attack on a London plane in a room together. His play Glee & Me won the Bruntwood Prize.
The King’s Ransom is built from a real 1977 Memphis plot to steal Elvis Presley’s corpse for ransom. It follows the small-time crook Vince Black after an enigmatic mastermind hands him the job of a lifetime.
Vince assembles a crew of misfits and dropouts to steal the body of the King of Rock and Roll. The plan is to stash it in a chest freezer and collect the million-dollar ransom.
The Donmar seats 250 people and has no bad seat, so a heist this outlandish plays at close range. The play takes the theatre’s Christmas and new-year slot, where a seasonal revival might otherwise sit.