Writers Announced for the First Edition of the Royal Court Theatre's Living Newspaper

From December over 60 writers will be involved in the creation of the Royal Court Theatre’s upcoming project Living Newspaper: A Counter Narrative, a weekly live newspaper running over six weeks which will see the theatre reopen since its closure in March.  

The first edition, starting on Thursday 10 December 2020, will be written by Miriam Battye, Amir Gudarzi, Nazareth Hassan,  Matilda Ibini, Sonia Jalaly, Jasmine Lee-Jones, Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan, Somalia Nonyé Seaton, Katherine Soper, Chris Thorpe, Temi Wilkey and Daniel York Loh.  

The designers are Shankho Chaudhuri, Debbie Duru, Cara Evans, Sandra Falase, Zoë Hurwitz and Chloe Lamford who have been working as a Design Collective since early 2020. Together they have radically imagined the Royal Court’s spaces for Living Newspaper. Each edition will be overseen by one of the Design Collective, with Debbie Duru and Zoë Hurwitz leading on Edition 1. 

Edition 1 will also include Lighting by Nao Nagai, Sound by Tony Gayle and Emma Laxton and Sound and Music by Nick Powell, Music from Eädyth and Movement direction by Delphine Gaborit. 

Facilitating the first week will be Royal Court Associates Milli Bhatia, Ola Ince, Lucy Morrison and Trainee Director Izzy Rabey.   

Each weekly edition of the newspaper will be created by both a collective of writers responsible for the front page and overall tone of the edition and contributing writers offering individual pieces. It will include performances relating to the moment we are in with local and global perspectives, longer form pieces, dating columns, a cartoon of the week, the world in pictures, a weather room, agony aunts, horoscopes and much more, and all inspired by world events as well as the Design Collective’s spaces. It will be performed in promenade, taking audiences, in person and online, around the Royal Court building on a journey never before available to the public in this way. 

More than 200 freelance artists will work on the project – as well as the writers –  over 60 actors (including a commitment to cast a 2020 graduate each week as part of the company), animators, choreographers, composers, designers, illustrators, lighting designers, sound designers, stage managers and technicians.  

There is an extensive participation project running alongside Living Newspaper including a series of digital resources, workshops, and a newly formed young writers’ group who will be contributing to editions in the New Year. 

Edition 1 will go on sale on Monday 7 December at 12 noon and be performed Thursday to Saturday that week. There will be multiple performances each day for Edition 1, each with small socially distanced audiences of 15 people, as well as a chance to watch a digital capture of Living Newspaper online from home.  

Writers for editions two to six will be announced each week before their edition.  

The second edition will run 17 – 19 December with tickets going on sale at the beginning of the week.  Editions 3 – 6 will be released in the New Year.  

For the full press release, click here.