Further Dates Announced for Jerwood Theatre Upstairs in July

PRESS RELEASE

FURTHER DATES ANNOUNCED IN THE JERWOOD THEATRE UPSTAIRS AT ROYAL COURT THEATRE

NICK PAYNE returns to the Royal Court to perform his one man piece, The Art of Dying from 1-12 July.

Royal Shakespeare Company bring four new plays by ALICE BIRCH, E.V. CROWE, TIMBERLAKE WERTENBAKER and ABI ZAKARIAN from 15 to 17 July.

CHRIS GOODE’S Men in the Cities plays two performances on 25 & 26 July ahead of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

UNUSUAL UNIONS, produced as part of THE BIG IDEA goes to Wilderness Festival.

LUCY MORRISON and HAMISH PIRIE join Royal Court as Associates.

The Art of Dying
written and performed by Nick Payne
directed by Michael Longhurst
1-12 July, 7.45pm
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs*

“I ask her what’s happening, what’s going on; he doesn’t seem to be getting any better? ‘Yes, your father is extremely poorly.’ The word ‘poorly’ strikes me as an odd choice. A cat with a cold is poorly; I was under the impression my dad was dying.”
A funny and heart-breaking new play about death, dying and the deceased. A mix of fact and fiction.

Nick Payne first performed The Art of Dying, as part of The Big Idea: Death in Open Court – a six week festival of plays, ideas and events chosen by a group of over 140 writers in Vicky Featherstone’s first summer at the Royal Court Theatre. His plays at the Royal Court include Constellations, for which he won the Evening Standard Award for Best New Play, and Wanderlust.
His other credits include Incognito at High Tide Festival, Blurred Lines at the Shed at the National Theatre, The Same Deep Water As Me at the Donmar Warehouse, If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet at the Bush Theatre. He was the winner of the George Devine Award in 2009 and also a member of the Royal Court’s Young Writers Programme.

The Royal Shakespeare Company presents
The Ant and the Cicada by Timberlake Wertenbaker_
Revolt. She Said. Revolt again by Alice Birch
directed by Erica Whyman
15 July, 7.45pm & 17 July, 1.45pm

I can hear you by E.V. Crowe
This is not an exit by Abi Zakarian
directed by Jo McInnes
16 & 17 July, 7.45pm
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs

Four new plays by Alice Birch, E. V. Crowe, Timberlake Wertenbaker and Abi Zakarian and directed by Jo McInnes and Erica Whyman will come to the Royal Court Theatre from the RSC, on 15 to 17 July.
The plays were commissioned as part of the RSC’s first Midsummer Mischief festival, taking place in The Other Place, a purpose-built temporary studio on the current Courtyard Theatre stage to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the original building in 1974, led by Buzz Goodbody. The four writers were asked to respond to the provocation that ‘well behaved women seldom make history’, to complement the ‘Roaring Girls’ season in the Swan Theatre.

The cast includes Robert Boulter, John Bowe, Scarlett Brookes, Ruth Gemmell, Julie Legrand and Mimi Ndiweni.

In Revolt. She said. Revolt again, Alice Birch isolates the forces acting on women in the 21st century and how we can blow them to pieces and start again. Alice received the Arts Foundation Award for Playwriting in 2014 and was shortlisted for the Bruntwood Prize 2013. Her plays include Open Court – Soap Opera (part of Royal Court’s Open Court Season); Little on the Inside (part of Almeida Festival 2013); Life for Beginners and Many Moons. After the performance at the Royal Court. Alice’s play will run at Latitude Festival.

E. V. Crowe looks at a family in flux in her supernatural play I can hear you which follows a family who have a visit from their brother a week after his funeral. E. V Crowe’s plays at the Royal Court include Hero and Kin, for which she was shortlisted for Most Promising Playwright at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards. Her other credits include Virgin at the Watford Palace Theatre and Liar, Liar at the Unicorn Theatre.

Timberlake Wertenbaker’s play The Ant and the Cicada asks searching questions about the economics of our world through the lives of two very different sisters tied together through a shared history and their dilapidated Greek mansion. Timberlake’s plays for the Royal Court include Abel’s Sister, The Grace of Mary Traverse, Our Country’s Good, Three Birds Alighting on a Field, The Break of Day and Credible Witness. Her other plays include The Love of the Nightingale at the RSC; After Darwin at Hampstead Theatre; Our Ajax at Southwark Playhouse. She has translated and adapted more than 20 plays from French, Italian and Greek.

In Abi Zakarian’s This is not an exit, Nora wakes up to find herself tied to a radiator, hands bound with a bag over her head. Abi’s play is a funny and ferocious drama about the absurdity at the heart of modern womanhood and what really stands in the way of fulfilment. Abi is the author of six full length plays including A Thousand Yards and Swifter, Higher, Stronger; she is one of the playwrights-in-residence for the Schoolwrights scheme in East London.
Chris Goode and Company in association with Royal Court Theatre
Men in the Cities by Chris Goode
directed by Wendy Hubbard
25 & 26 July 2014
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs

Innovative Writer and performer Chris Goode (Monkey Bars) will bring his new play Men in the Cities – an incendiary piece of experimental storytelling for two performance ahead of a run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Framed by two violent deaths – the apparently inexplicable suicide of a young gay man, and the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby outside the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich in May 2013 – Men in the Cities is a compelling piece about harm and complicity, and about the forces that shape our relationships.

Through fractured snapshots of seemingly disconnected lives, Men in the Cities presents a challenging but radically humane portrait of how we live now.

Men in the Cities is written and performed by Chris Goode, directed by Wendy Hubbard, designed by Naomi Dawson, with lighting by Katharine Williams.
Chris Goode is a writer, director, performer and sound designer. His recent credits include The Forest & The Field at Ovalhouse, Monkey Bars at the Traverse and Unicorn Theatres and 9 at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. Other credits include two Fringe First award-winning shows: Neutrino (with Unlimited Theatre: Soho Theatre, London, and international tour), and his own solo debut Kiss of Life (Pleasance, Edinburgh; Drill Hall, London), which travelled to Sydney Opera House as part of the Sydney International Festival. He won the Headlong/Gate New Directions Award for his production …Sisters at the Gate Theatre. More recently he was part of the international touring cast of Tim Crouch’s The Author, which first opened at the Royal Court Theatre.
Unusual Unions
Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, Rachel De-lahay, Kieran Hurley, Rebecca Lenkiewicz, Tom Wells
Wilderness Festival, Oxfordshire
7-10 August

Unusual Unions, which was originally commissioned and produced at the Royal Court in March 2014 as part of The Big Idea will go to Wilderness Festival in Oxfordshire, from 7-10 August.
Inspired by Abi Morgan’s The Mistress Contract, Unusual Unions are five new short plays about the bonds we form with each other, performed in five unusual spaces around the festival.
The Big Idea at the Royal Court Theatre is sponsored by Alix Partners.
The Golden Hours
by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig

June and Shinger prepare to say a final goodbye to their mother, watching over her body, trying to make sense of what is left behind.

Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig’s credits include The World of Extreme Happiness at the National Theatre, which will also be produced in Autumn 2014 by the Goodman Theatre, Chicago and the Manhattan Theatre, New York, 410[Gone] and Lidless, which won the Yale Series Drama Award and a Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Festival.
My Twin
By Rachel De-lahay

A play about brothers and sisters and how to make a mark on the world.

Rachel De-lahay’s credits include Routes, for which she won an Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright and her debut play at the Royal Court The Westbridge, which was awarded the Writers’ Guild Award for Best Theatre Play.
Bruises
By Kieran Hurley

Two brothers, a soldier and a peace activist, meet up in the dark to confront the past and the scars it leaves on the present.

Kieran Hurley is an award-winning writer, performer, and theatre maker based in Glasgow whose work has been presented internationally and throughout the UK. His credits include Beats (awarded Best New Play at the Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland), Rantin, Hitch and a number of short mini-plays including London 2012: Glasgow and Belcoo, as part of the Royal Court’s Open Court festival.
Anhedonia
By Rebecca Lenkiewicz

A girl wants to escape from the world; a stranger wants to bring her back.

Rebecca Lenkiewicz is an award-winning writer who, in 2008, was the first living female playwright to have her work produced on the Olivier Stage at the National Theatre. Recent stage plays include That Almost Unnameable Lust, The Painter, The Turn of the Screw and An Enemy of The People. Rebecca’s screenplay Ida, co-written with Pawel Pawlikowksi, was recently awarded Best Film at the London, Warsaw and Gdynia Film Festivals as well as picking up multiple awards at international films festivals.
Phil in Space
By Tom Wells

Phil is a mechanic who’s trying to shed some pounds at the local slimming club – he’s also building a space rocket…

Tom Wells stage plays include Jumpers For Goalposts, Cosmic, Jonesy The Kitchen Sink, which won a Critics Circle Award, Spacewang, Me, As A Penguin, About A Goth and Notes for First Time Astronauts. Ben & Lump, which Tom wrote as part of the Coming Up season (Touchpaper) was broadcast on Channel 4 in 2012.
Lucy Morrison and Hamish Pirie join the Royal Court Theatre as Associate Directors
Lucy Morrison was previously Head of Artistic Programme for Clean Break. At the Royal Court, her credits include Pests by Vivienne Franzmann (a co-production with Clean Break and Manchester Royal Exchange) and Product, (also at Traverse and European tour). For Clean Break, she directed and developed Billy the Girl by Katie Hims at Soho Theatre, Little on the inside by Alice Birch at Almeida Festival and Latitude 2013, it felt empty when the heart went at first but it is alright now by Lucy Kirkwood at the Arcola Theatre, This Wide Night by Chloë Moss at Soho Theatre / Theatre Live Newcastle / Plymouth Drum Theatre. Lucy originated and commissioned the Charged and Re-Charged seasons at Soho Theatre in which she directed Fatal Light by Chloë Moss and Doris Day by E.V. Crowe. Lucy was Artistic Director of the Almeida Festival 2013 and Literary Manager of Paines Plough.

Hamish Pirie was previously Associate Director at the Traverse Theatre. His work at the Traverse includes: I’m With The Band by Tim Price, Quiz Show by Rob Drummond, Love With A Capital ‘L’ by Tony Cox, 3 Seconds by Lesley Hart, Most Favoured by David Ireland, Demos by Tim Price, Bravo Figaro by Mark Thomas, The Last Bloom by Amba Chevannes and 50 Plays for Edinburgh. Other work includes: Salt Root and Roe by Tim Price (Donmar Trafalgar); Purgatory by Steven Berkoff; Stacy by Jack Thorne (Arcola & Trafalgar Studios); Pennies by Mike Bartlett (nabokov); Paper House by Jack Thorne, Pigeons by Robin French. Hamish trained as Resident Assistant Director at Paines Plough and at the Donmar Warehouse.

ends

Notes to Editors:

Press Contacts:

Royal Court Theatre
Anna Evans, 020 7565 5063 annaevans@royalcourttheatre.com

Royal Shakespeare Company
Amy Belson, 01789 412622 Amy.belson@rsc.org.uk
Philippa Harland, or 020 7845 0512 Philippa.harland@rsc.org.uk on

Chris Goode
Dan Pursey at Mobius 020 7269 9929 or 07974 018 905 dan@mobiusindustries.com

Listings Information:

The Art of Dying, written and performed by Nick Payne
directed by Mike Longhurst
1-12 July, 7.45pm
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS
Tickets £15

Revolt. She Said. Revolt again by Alice Birch
The Ant and the Cicada by Timberlake Wertenbaker
directed by Erica Whyman
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS
15 July, 7.45pm & 17 July, 1.45pm
Tickets £15 (£5 tickets for 16-18 year olds, limited availability)

I can hear you by E.V. Crowe
This is not an exit by Abi Zakarian
directed by Jo McInnes
16 &17 July, 7.45pm
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS
Tickets £15 (£5 tickets for 16-18 year olds, limited availability)

Chris Goode and Company in association with Royal Court Theatre
Men in the Cities by Chris Goode
directed by Wendy Hubbard
25-26 July, 7.45pm
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS
Tickets £15

www.royalcourttheatre.com / 020 7565 5000

The Royal Court Theatre is supported by Coutts

Coutts is a private bank and a wealth manager with three centuries of experience, providing customised solutions for its clients. These include investment, trust and tax services. Headquartered in London, Coutts is the Wealth division of Royal Bank of Scotland Group, connecting with clients from over 40 offices in key financial centres in the UK, Switzerland, the Middle East and Asia. Coutts has a long history of supporting the arts going back 200 years, having　looked after　the financial affairs of many famous clients connected with the arts such as Bram Stoker, Charles Dickens and　Chopin.　 In 1816, Thomas Coutts married Harriot Mellon, a popular actress of her day, and together they became partners of a number of London Theatres, including the Drury Lane and the Royal Opera House.　 Coutts　has even　featured in a number of artistic works including The Gondoliers by Gilbert and Sullivan, and Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic story Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. In the new millennium, this tradition has continued not only through managing the finances of many of today’s top writers, actors and musicians, but also through our arts sponsorship programme and we are delighted to support The Royal Court and its diverse range of ground-breaking performances. For further information please visit www.coutts.com

Royal Court Theatre Innovation Partner

The Royal Court Theatre’s Flight Partner is

American Airlines supports the Royal Court by providing transatlantic flights. For more information on American Airlines or our support of theatre, contact our press office at polly.tracey@aa.com.

The Royal Shakespeare Company aims to keep audiences in touch with Shakespeare as our contemporary – understanding his work through today’s artists, actors and writers. Therefore the Company’s repertoire not only includes the work of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, but classic plays by international dramatists and work by living writers. The RSC also produces extensive education and outreach work to engage more people with Shakespeare’s work and live theatre.

The RSC’s work is performed throughout the year in Stratford-upon-Avon, regularly in London and throughout the United Kingdom. Although the UK is the Company’s home, its audiences are global with regular performances in international theatres. Everyone at the RSC, from actors to technicians, milliners to musicians, plays a part in creating the world you see on stage. For more information about the Company visit www.rsc.org.uk. The RSC Literary Department is generously supported by The Drue Heinz Trust.

Wilderness was born from passion and belief: a passion for the outdoors and the artisanal; a belief in the restorative powers of the countryside and the inspirational powers of craftsmanship and creativity. After winning awards and soaking up three years of sunshine, Wilderness today is a fully-formed celebration, a rich tapestry of musicians, chefs, thinkers, actors, outdoor experts and teachers. Those who make the pilgrimage to the festival are an equally brilliant bunch, a mix of families, nature lovers, culture vultures, night owls, fitness enthusiasts and thespians. Wilderness is as proud of its audience as it is its programme.
www.wildernessfestival.com