He’s certainly no stranger to the theater stage, but I had no idea Mr Fishburne was also a playwright; not a prolific one, as he’s only written one play – at least one that’s been produced anyway. He may have a library full of them that never saw the stage.

Written in 1995, the play titled Riff Raff, is being revived in the U.K. at London’s Arcola Theatre, for an April 6 through April 24 run.

The play, set in New York’s criminal underworld, revolves around half-brothers Mike “20-20″ and Billy “Torch,” who are holed up in an abandoned crack den on the Lower East Side. They’ve got three kilos of smack, blood on their hands and New York’s biggest drug lord on their tail. With nowhere to turn, Mike calls his old friend from Brooklyn to get them out of their mess. When the man arrives and the night draws in, stories are swapped, loyalties are tested and the bleakness of their criminal lives threatens to envelop them forever.

A film based on the play, written and directed by Fishburne himself, was produced in 2000, under the title Once In The Life.

It starred, in addition to Fishburne, Eamonn Walker, Gregory Hines, and others. It was distributed in a really limited theatrical release by Lionsgate in October 2000, playing for just over 2 weeks in New York, L.A. and Chicago, and grossing close to $55,000. Not much, but clearly more than a few people saw it. Did anybody catch it? I didn’t. It’s on DVD now. Based on the write-up and the trailer which follows below, I’ll check it out. You can pick up a copy HERE. Or catch it on Netflix.