Why it’ll be Misty in the West End this autumn

ARINZÉ Kene (right) is going to play Misty again. No, not the old 1971 Clint Eastwood movie Play Misty For Me. But Kene’s own play, Misty, which he performed at the Bush, in West London, this past spring.

It’s a superbly lyrical piece on identity and, he joked, ‘what it is to be a playwright who looks and sounds like me’.

The show will move into the Trafalgar Studios from September 8 with a first night on September 13.

Misty, with Kene centre stage, features music, singing, acting ... and big balloons.

The actor and writer said he and director Omar Elerian tweaked the piece every night of its run in West London. ‘We’re still not done with it,’ he told me from Dorset, where he was holed up working on a screenplay, before heading off to the Dominican Republic to join Tamara Lawrance, Hayley Atwell and Jack Lowden in a three-part BBC adaptation of Andrea Levy’s novel The Long Song, about a slave on a sugar plantation in 19thcentury Jamaica.

The audience at the Bush reflected the culturally diverse play. ‘Every night, there were people from all backgrounds,’ said Kene, who was brought up in Hackney by his Nigerianborn parents.

He revealed one of the negotiating points over the transfer was to ensure there would be plenty of affordable seats. So there will be £15 seats — and some more expensive tickets, too. They go on sale today.