PRESS RELEASE: NEW SEASON ANNOUNCEMENT

PRESS RELEASE

Tuesday 3 March 2015

ROYAL COURT THEATRE

APRIL – JULY 2015

• In the run up to the election the Royal Court stages a timely new verbatim play examining one of the most important issues on the public agenda, the NHS. WHO CARES by Michael Wynne will be directed by Debbie Hannan, Lucy Morrison and Hamish Pirie and will take place throughout the building, 10 April – 16 May

• debbie tucker green returns to the Royal Court to direct her new play hang with cast including Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Claire Rushbrook in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, 11 June – 18 July

• Gary Owen makes his Royal Court debut with VIOLENCE AND SON directed by Hamish Pirie in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, 03 June – 11 July

• After great success in the West End and on Broadway, Nick Payne’s CONSTELLATIONS directed by Michael Longhurst embarks on a tour to eight regional venues in Spring 2015

• New short plays written by children aged 8 to 11 are showcased as PRIMETIME returns to the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs after a three week primary school tour to schools in London, 18 – 25 July.

• THE NETHER opened to great acclaim in the West End where it runs at the Duke of York’s Theatre until 25 April 2015.

• THE BIG IDEA continues with a programme of talks, debates and workshops exploring the work on stage. The Royal Court has now presented over 50 Big Idea events live and online reaching people around the world.

• Tickets for the new season go on sale to Friends and Supporters on Wednesday 4 March at 10am and on sale to the general public on Thursday 5 March at 10am. 020 7565 5000 / “www.royalcourttheatre.com”:https://royalcourttheatre.com

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Artistic Director Vicky Featherstone said;

“The plays in this season seem to be all about society – the big themes of how we live together as a community in an ordered way with shared laws, morals and desires and the challenges that brings. The work over the next few months continues our commitment to make questioning and challenging theatre, with the writers giving us insight into the world around us in morally complex and innovative ways.

The NHS has become one of the most criticised yet vital parts of our society and the debate around it will play an important part in the run up to the election. It is timely and thrilling that Michael Wynne has been collating this extraordinary verbatim material over the last 18 months in order to create this moving and incisive play which will take us on a journey throughout the entire building of the Royal Court. At its heart the question – do we deserve our NHS?

debbie tucker green’s new play hang is a morally challenging and taut three-hander with Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Clare Rushbrook. It is an honour to welcome debbie back to the Royal Court and be a part of her journey as an artist. hang looks at the very difficult relationship between a victim and the perpetrator of a crime, and how we can live once our personal security has been undermined.

Violence and Son is Gary Owen’s first play at the Royal Court. The play is set in the Welsh valleys and is a brilliant exploration of a father and son relationship with a teenage boy whose life should just be beginning.

I am continuing my mission of taking more work outside of the building with a touring production of both Constellations and Primetime. The former was by a young playwright Nick Payne, who started his writing in the Royal Court’s Young Writers Programme. Now his multi award winning play will tour regionally across England.

Primetime further develops our work beyond the court by creating new writers aged 8 – 11 years old. They have written plays that will tour to primary schools across London before bringing their shows to the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs. Hopefully we are building our future generation of writers.”

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Who Cares

by Michael Wynne
directed by Debbie Hannan, Lucy Morrison and Hamish Pirie
Friday 10 April – Saturday 16 May 2015
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs
Press Night Thursday 16, Friday 17, Saturday 18 and Monday 20 April, reviews embargoed until post show on 20 April

“A phrase we used to use: it is the best gift the British people have given to themselves. Because it is. No one else has done this.”

The NHS belongs to us. In the run-up to the 2015 General Election the NHS is emerging as the key issue in the party political agenda. The Royal Court is responding to that public passion and debate by staging Michael Wynne’s new verbatim play Who Cares.

Over the past 18 months Michael Wynne has interviewed nurses, doctors, paramedics, historians, policy makers and politicians up and down the country, gathering an unrivalled collection of verbatim testimonies from those connected to every aspect of the NHS.

Taking over the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs as well as hidden spaces around the building, this journeying performance will give voice to the unheard perspectives on the past, present and possible future of our NHS. In a promenade performance audiences will be led around intimate spaces by a cast of professional actors.

This is a standing, promenade performance. If you are unable to stand or have access requirements please speak to a member of Box Office when booking on the 020 7565 5000.

Debbie Hannan, Lucy Morrison and Hamish Pirie will each direct parts of the production. Design will be by Andrew D Edwards, lighting design by Natasha Chivers and sound design by Daniel Krass.

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The cast includes Philip Arditti, Robert Bathurst, Elizabeth Berrington, Martina Laird, Paul Hickey. and Eileen O’Brien.

Michael Wynne’s first play The Knocky (Meyer Whitworth Award – Best New Playwright and Best New Writer Nomination – Writers Guild) was produced by the Royal Court in 1995. His other credits for the Royal Court include The Priory (Olivier Award – Best New Comedy), The People Are Friendly, The Red Flag and Friday Night Sex. Wynne’s work also includes the first new play at the rebuilt Liverpool Everyman, Hope Place and Canvas (Minerva Theatre, Chichester), Sell Out (Best Off West End – Time Out Theatre Awards) and Dirty Wonderland (both Frantic Assembly), Tits/Teeth (Soho Theatre) and The Boy Who Left Home (Actors Touring Company). He has also written extensively for screen, including My Summer of Love (BAFTA – Best British Film, Evening Standard Film Awards – Best Screenplay), Lapland and Being Eileen for the BBC.

Debbie Hannan was a trainee director at the Royal Court. She has previously co-directed Theatre Local’s Peckham: The Soap Opera at the Royal Court by Bola Agbaje and Rachel De-lahay. She has worked as Assistant Director on various other productions at the Royal Court including How To Hold Your Breath by Zinnie Harris, Teh Internet is Serious Business by Tim Price, The Nether by Jennifer Hayley, Primetime by various primary school children, Birdland by Simon Stephens and The Mistress Contract by Abi Morgan. Her directing credits also include Notes from the Underground (Citizens Theatre), Panorama, Roses Are Dead, You Cannot Call it Love_ (The Arches), Yellow Pears (Swept Up) and Grimm Tales, Nights at the Circus (Theatre Paradok).

Lucy Morrison is Associate Director at the Royal Court where her credits include Product (also at Traverse and European tour) and Pests for the theatre. Pests was a Royal Court co-production with Clean Break for whom Lucy has worked as Head of Artistic Programming and directed Billy the Girl (Soho Theatre), Little on the Inside (Almeida Festival and Latitude), it felt empty when the heart went at first but it is alright now (Arcola Theatre) and This Wide Night (Soho Theatre). Morrison also originated and commissioned the Charged and Re-Charged seasons at Soho Theatre in which she directed Fatal Light and Doris Day.

Hamish Pirie is Associate Director at the Royal Court and this will be his second production for the theatre after directing Teh Internet is Serious Business in 2014. His previous directing credits include I’m With The Band and Demos, Quiz Show, Love With A Capital ‘L’, 3 Seconds, Most Favoured, Bravo Figaro and The Last Bloom at the Traverse, Edinburgh (where he was previously Associate Director) and Salt Root and Roe for the Donmar Warehouse’s Trafalgar Studio season.

Philip Arditti’s theatre credits include Catch 22 (Northern Stage), Facts (Finborough), Chance Encounter (Young Vic), Sixty-Six Books (Bush), The Holy Rosenbergs, Blood & Gifts and England People Very Nice (National), Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, Silver Birch House and A Family Affair (Arcola), Rope (Almeida), 1001 Nights Now (UK Tour) and Photos of Religion (Latchmere). Television credits include Ripper Street, The Honourable Woman, Game of Thrones and Twenty Twelve. Film credits include Exodus, Arrivals, Hyena and Monsters 2.

Robert Bathurst’s theatre credits include Love, Loss and Chianti, An Ideal Husband, Getting Married (Chichester Festival), Blue/Orange, Present Laughter (UK Tour), Blithe Spirit (Theatre Royal Bath), Alex: The Stage Play (Worldwide Tour), Whipping It Up (New Ambassador’s), Member’s Only (Trafalgar Studios), Three Sisters (The Playhouse), Hedda Gabler (Theatre Royal), Alarms and Excursions (Gielgud), Good Copy (West Yorkshire Playhouse), The Rover, The Choice (Salisbury Playhouse), Channel 4 Sitcom Festival (Riverside Studios), The Nose, The Comedy of Errors, The Importance of Being Earnest (Nottingham Playhouse), Footlights Revues, Lady Audley’s Secret (Lyric Hammersmith), Noises Off (Savoy), Saint Joan, Little Hotel on the Side (National Theatre), The Swap (The Box Soho), Dry Rot (Lyric Theatre), The Next Best Thing (Nuffield Theatre). Television credits include Toast, Downton Abbey, Agatha Raisin, Cockroaches, Dracula, Wild at Heart, The Pillars of the Earth, Emma, The Queen, Roman’s Empire, My Family, Kingdom, My Dad’s the Prime Minister, White Teeth, Hornblower, Cold Feet, The Good Sex Guide, The Detectives, Joking Apart, The Lenny Henry Show, Who Dares Wins, Red Dwarf, Comic Relief. Film credits include Absolutely Anything, Mrs Brown’s Boys, Heidi, The Thief Lord, Wind in the Willows, Whoops Apocalypse, Just Ask for Diamond and Twenty-One.

Elizabeth Berrington’s last appeared at the Royal Court was in The Low Road, The Nocky (Royal Court Young Writer’s Programme) and in a rehearsed reading of The Rebirth of Robert Samuels. Other theatre credits include Holes (Arcola), Absent Friends (Sonia Friedman Productions), Abigail’s Party (Hampstead Theatre), Top Girls (Oxford Stage Company), The Shagaround (Nuffield Southampton, Croydon Ashcroft), The Country Wife (Sheffield Crucible), Together (Edinburgh Festival), _Y A Otra Cosa Mariposa (Battersea Arts Centre), The Last Waltz (Gateway) An Ideal Husband (Royal Exchange), The Left-Over Heart (Offstage Downstairs), Rupert Street Lonely Hearts Club (ETT Tour, Donmar Warehouse, The Criterion). Her television credits include The Syndicate, Pramface, Cuckoo and Midsomer Muders. Film credits include Saturday, The Alan Partridge Movie, Untitled 13, Hard Boiled Sweets and In Bruges.

Paul Hickey’s theatre credits include Children of the Sun, Our Class, The Playboy of the Western World, Peer Gynt, Romeo and Juliet (National), The Merchant of Venice (RSC), The Last Yankee (The Print Room), Incognito (Bush), and Little Light (Orange Tree). Other theatre includes O Go My Man (Royal Court/Out of Joint), Fewer Emergencies, Crazyblackmutherfuckinself (Royal Court), Faith Healer (Hong Kong Arts Festival), Ghosts (Arcola), Wallenstein (Chichester Festival), In a Little World of Our Own, Pentecost (Donmar), Protestants (Traverse and Soho), Drink Dance Laugh and Lie (Bush), Fall (Traverse), My Night with Reg, Dealer’s Choice (Birmingham Rep), The Deep Blue Sea (Royal Exchange), Red Roses and Petrol, The Ash Fire, Lady Windermere’s Fan (Tricycle), The Plough and the Stars, Aristocrats, The Silver Tassie, Howling Moons Silent Sons, Spokesong and Shiver (Abbey Theatre).

Martina Laird appeared at the Royal Court Theatre in Breath Boom. Other theatre credits include The House That Will Not Stand (Tricycle), Moon on a Rainbow Shawl (National and Tour), Hopelessly Devoted (Birmingham Rep), Inheritance (Live Theatre Co Ltd), All the Little Things We Crushed (Almeida), Bad Blood Blues (Theatre Royal, Stratford East), Mules (Young Vic), Othello (Donmar Warehouse), The Five Wives of Maurice Pinder (National), Arabian Knights (West End/World Tour), Hyacinth Blue (Clean Break Co), The White Devil, Three Hours After Marriage, Troilus and Cressida (RSC), Venetian Heat (Finborough Arms), Hungry Ghosts (Tabard Theatre), Vibes From Scribes (Double Edge), The Wax King, Blood Wedding (Man in the Moon). Television includes The Dumping Ground, London’s Burning, Coronation Street and Doctors. Film includes Blitz, For-Get-Me-Not and The Hurting.

Nathaniel Martello-White last appeared at the Royal Court in Teh Internet is Serious Business and Gastronauts. He was also part of the Collaboration cast in Open Court. He also appeared in Oxford Street by Levi David Addai. Other credits include Edward II at the National Theatre, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, City Madame, Marat/Sade at the RSC and Blackta, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone and The Brothers Size at the Young Vic.

Eileen O’Brien’s was last at the Royal Court Theatre in Redundant. Her previous credits include Sex and the Three Day Week, Macbeth, ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, Alfie, A Doll’s House, Funny Peculiar, Breeze Block Park (Liverpool Playhouse), Hope Place (New Everyman), Forget-Me-Not (Belvoir, Sydney), I Can Dream Can’t I?, The Revenger’s Tragedy, Basil and Beattie, Across Oka, Rafts & Dreams, Yerma, Prize Night (Royal Exchange, Manchester), We Are Three Sisters (No.1 Tour/Northern Broadsides), When we are Married (Yorkshire Playhouse/L’pool Everyman), Death of a Salesman (York Theatre Royal), An Inspector Calls (Oldham Coliseum), The Crucible, The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Bolton Octagon), Kindertransport (Shared Experience/Hampstead Theatre), Foxes (West Yorkshire Playhouse), On the Shore of the Wide World (Royal Exchange/National Theatre), Beyond Belief, Death of a Salesman (Library), A Doll’s House (Shared Experience/The Ambassador’s), Enjoy (Yorkshire Playhouse), Richard III (Northern Broadsides), Bedroom Farce, Absent Friends, Confusions (Stephen Joseph Theatre), Dracula, Twelfth Night, Caucasian Chalk Circle (Contact Theatre). Television credits include Holby City, Doctors, Emmerdale and Being Eileen. Film includes Before Dawn, Fanny & Elvis, A Private Function and A Month in the Country.

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The Big Idea: Who Cares

Michael Wynne, Debbie Hannan, Lucy Morrison and Hamish Pirie in conversation
Chaired by Emily McLaughlin

Tuesday 5 May, post-show
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs
Free with a ticket to this performance
If you are unable to stand or have access requirements please speak to a member of Box Office when booking on 020 7565 5000.

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Listings Information:

Who Cares
by Michael Wynne
directed by Debbie Hannan, Lucy Morrison and Hamish Pirie
Friday 10 April – Saturday 16 May 2015
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs , Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS
Monday – Saturday 7.45pm
Saturday matinees (from 18 April) 3pm
Wednesday matinees (from 22 April) 3pm
Captioned Performance2 stars Friday 8th May
Press Night, Thursday 16 (7.45pm), Friday 17 (7.45pm), Saturday 18 (3pm and 7.45pm) and Monday 20 April (7.45pm), reviews embargoed until post show on 20 April
Age Guidance 14+
Tickets £25 (2 tickets per booking only)
Concessions £20* (available in advance until 18 April, and all matinees. For all other performances, available on a standby basis on the day)
Access £12 (plus a companion at the same rate)
*ID required. All discounts subject to availability.

We work closely with Stagetext to achieve the highest possible standard of access for our deaf, deafened and hard of hearing patrons. Patrons who wish to use the captioning should be aware that captions may not be available for 100% of the performance due to the technical challenges presented by a promenade show. As always, we will work hard to display as much of the text as possible and will also be seeking feedback after the performance about the experience.

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hang

written and directed by debbie tucker green
Thursday 11 June – Saturday 18 July 2015
Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS
Press Night, Tuesday 16 June, 7pm

“Fuck your sympathy and keep it with your sorrys.”

A crime has been committed. 
The victim has a choice to make.
The criminal is waiting.

A shattering new play about an unspeakable decision.

debbie tucker green returns to the Royal Court to direct her new play hang.  The cast includes Marianne Jean-Baptiste who makes her Royal Court debut and Claire Rushbrook.

hang is designed by Jon Bausor, with lighting design by Tim Mitchell, music composition by Luke Sutherland, sound design by Christopher Shutt and movement by Polly Bennett.

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debbie tucker green’s previous plays for the Royal Court include truth and reconciliation (which she also directed), random and stoning mary. Other plays include nut (writer/director, National Theatre), generations (Young Vic), trade (RSC) and born bad (for which she won an Olivier Award, Hampstead Theatre). She won a BAFTA for Best Single Drama for her Channel 4 film adaptation of random which she also directed. Her debut feature film Second Coming (writer/director) stars Nadine Marshall and Idris Elba and is released later this year.

Marianne Jean-Baptiste has recently appeared on screen in Broadchurch. She most recently performed on stage in The Amen Corner at the National Theatre, and before that The Winter’s Tale and The Merchant of Venice for Shakespeare in the Park for The Public Theatre New York. Other previous productions include Peter Brook’s Le Costume (Paris and tour), Phyllida Lloyd’s The Way of the World (National Theatre) and Declan Donnellan’s Measure for Measure (Cheek-by-Jowl) for which she received a nomination for the Ian Charleson Award. She collaborated with Mike Leigh on stage in It’s a Great Big Shame at Stratford East, as composer for Career Girls and then again on film in Secrets & Lies, which garnered her Academy Award, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actress. Marianne is well known for her role as Vivian Johnson in long running American Television series Without A Trace. Her extensive film credits include RoboCop, Won’t Back Down, 360, Takers, Spygame, The Cell and 28 Days.

Claire Rushbrook previously appeared on the Royal Court Theatre stage in stoning mary, Food Chain and Hated Nightfall. Her extensive theatre credits include Market Boy (National Theatre), Festen (Almeida), Uncle Vanya (Almeida and Tour), Good Natur’d Man (Orange Tree) and Raising Fires (Bush Theatre). She is currently best known for her role as Rae’s Mum in My Mad Fat Diary, for which she received a BAFTA nomination. Her other television credits include Whitechapel, Ashes to Ashes and the Channel 4 comedy Spaced.

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The Big Idea: hang

Dialogue Theatre Club

Hosted by theatre and pop critic Maddy Costa, and Jake Orr of A Younger Theatre, Dialogue Theatre Club works like a book group: you see the show in your own time, then meet up to chat about it over nibbles and drinks. No one involved in making the show is present – no actors, writers, directors or designers – so you can say what you like.
9 July, 7.45pm
Free but ticketed

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Listings Information:

hang
written and directed by debbie tucker green
Thursday 11 June – Saturday 18 July 2015
Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS
Monday – Saturday 7.30pm
Saturday matinees (from 20 June) 2.30pm
Thursday matinees (from 25 June) 2.30pm
Captioned Performance Wednesday 15 July, 7.30pm
Press Night Tuesday 16 June, 7pm
Audio Described Performance Saturday 11 July, 7.30pm
Age Guidance 14+
Tickets £35, £25, £16, £12
Mondays all seats £10 (available in advance to Friends and Supporters subject to availability and on the day of the performance from 9am online)
Concessions £15 Concessions £5 off top prices (available in advance until 20 June, and all matinees. For all other performances, available on a standby basis on the day)
25s and under £12 (limited availability)
Schools and HE Groups 8+ 50% off top two prices (available Wednesday – Saturday matinee, plus midweek matinees)
Groups of 6+ £5 off top price (available Wednesday- Saturday matinee, plus midweek matinee)
Access £12 (plus a companion at the same rate)
*ID required. All discounts subject to availability

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Violence and Son

by Gary Owen
directed by Hamish Pirie
Wednesday 03 June – Saturday 11 July 2015
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs
Press Night, Monday 8 June, 7pm

“People know, you’re my boy. And they know better than to lay a fucking finger on you. See? You are safer here with me, than you have ever been.”_

Liam’s 17 years old, lived in London, loves Dr Who and has lost his mum. He has had to move to Wales, to the valleys, to the middle of nowhere, to live with a dad he doesn’t know. Whose nickname isn’t Violence for nothing.

Gary Owen’s intimate new play is about what parents pass on and trying to do the right thing.

The production is designed by Cai Dyfan with lighting design by Lizzie Powell.

Welsh playwright Gary Owen  makes his Royal Court debut with Violence and Son. He is winner of the Meyer Whitworth, George Devine and Pearson best play awards.  His other plays include Iphigenia in Splott, Love Steals Us From Loneliness, Crazy Garys Mobile Disco,  The Shadow of a Boy (winner, Meyer Whitworth Award, George Devine Award),  The Drowned World  (winner, Fringe First and Pearson Best Play Award),  Ghost City, Cancer Time, SK8, Big Hopes, In the Pipeline, Blackthorn, Mary Twice,  Amgen Broken, Bulletproof, The Ugly Truth and Free Folk. His adaptations include  Spring Awakening and Ring Ring a new version of La Ronde_  for the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and  Dickens A Christmas Carol  for Sherman Cymru. He is a Creative Associate at Watford Palace Theatre, where his plays _We That Are Left, Mrs Reynolds and the Ruffian, and Perfect Match have been produced. 

Hamish Pirie is Associate Director at the Royal Court and this will be his third production for the theatre after directing Who Cares and Teh Internet is Serious Business. His previous directing credits include I’m With The Band and Demos, Quiz Show, Love With A Capital ‘L’, 3 Seconds, Most Favoured, Bravo Figaro and The Last Bloom at the Traverse, Edinburgh (where he was previously Associate Director) and Salt Root and Roe for the Donmar Warehouse’s Trafalgar Studio season.

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The Big Idea: Violence and Son

Violence and Shame
Psychologist and poet Jonathan Asser in conversation with Royal Court Associate Director Hamish Pirie about the impulses that drive men to commit acts of violence.
Wednesday 10 June, 6pm
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs
£5 (or free with a ticket for that evening’s performance)
Gary Owen in Conversation
The playwright talks to Royal Court Associate Director Hamish Pirie
Thursday 25 June, post-show
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs
Free with a ticket for this performance
Power and Consent
With Dr Susan Hansen and Dr Jackie Gray academics specialising in forensic psychology at the University of Middlesex.
Wednesday, 8 July, 6pm
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs
£5 (or free with a ticket for Violence and Son)

Jonathan Asser is an award-winning published psychotherapist and poet. He is credited with developing a unique approach to working with the small number of violent gang members who continued to dominate within the largest prison in the UK. Jonathan used this experience to write his first feature-length screenplay, Starred Up.

Jackie Gray is an Associate Professor in Forensic Psychology at Middlesex University. Her research interests centre on the operation of justice, with particular emphases on sexual violence, internet trolling and terrorism. Her underlying concern is how the beliefs of individuals, groups and society influence behaviour, particularly in relation to issues of justice for both offenders and victims of crime.

Susan Hansen is Chair of the Forensic Psychology Research Group at Middlesex University. She is an applied conversation analyst with an interest in conflict and coercion in human interaction, and in particular the negotiation of sexual consent and sexual refusal.

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Listings Information:

Violence and Son
by Gary Owen
directed by Hamish Pirie
Wednesday 03 June – Saturday 11 July 2015
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs , Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS
Monday – Saturday 7.45pm
Saturday matinees (from 13 June) 3pm
Thursday matinees (from 11 June) 3pm
Captioned Performance Tuesday 07 July 2015, 7.45pm
Press Night Monday 08 June, 7pm
Age Guidance 14+
Tickets £20
Mondays all seats £10 (available on the day from 9am online)
Concessions £15* (available in advance until 13 June, and all matinees. For all other performances, available on a standby basis on the day)
School and HE Groups of 8+ £10 (available Wednesday – Saturday matinee, plus midweek matinee)
Access £12 (plus a companion at the same rate)
*ID required. All discounts subject to availability.

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Royal Court: UK Tour

Constellations

by Nick Payne

directed by Michael Longhurst

Following sold-out runs at the Royal Court Theatre, in the West End and on Broadway, the award winning Constellations tours the UK in Spring 2015.

Quantum multiverse theory, love and honey. Constellations is an explosive play about free will and friendship from one of the leading voices in UK theatre, Nick Payne.

Sparked by the first encounter of bee-keeping Roland and scientist Marianne, the boundless potential of their connection leads us through a heart-breaking love story of endless invention.

The production is designed by Tom Scutt with lighting design by Lee Curran. The composer is Simon Slater, sound design is by David McSeveney and movement by Lucy Cullingford.

Nick Payne‘s most recent plays at the Royal Court were Constellations (winner of the Evening Standard Best Play Award), The Art of Dying and Wanderlust. His other credits include Constellations in the West End and on Broadway, Incognito at HighTide Festival/Bush, 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. Nick is currently playwright in residence at the Donmar Warehouse and working on projects for BBC Films.

Michael Longhurst directs. Previously for the Royal Court he directed Constellations (winner of the Evening Standard Best Play Award) and Remembrance Day. He is a recipient of the Jerwood Directors Award (2007) at the Young Vic and a Fringe First in 2005. Michael recently directed Bad Jews (St James’s Theatre). He directed Nick Payne’s play If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet for the Roundabout Theatre Company in New York in Autumn 2012 starring Jake Gyllenhaal. Previously Michael directed the world premiere of Stovepipe by Adam Brace. Other credits include On The Beach as part of The Contingency Plan at the Bush Theatre, On The Record at the Arcola, dirty butterfly (winner of the Jerwood Directors Award at the Young Vic), 1 In 5 as part of Daring Pairings at Hampstead Theatre and Fringe First Award winner Guardians at the Edinburgh Festival.

Nick Payne’s Constellations was first staged in 2012 as part of the Royal Court’s Jerwood New Playwrights programme, supported by Jerwood Charitable Foundation.

Tour Dates:

New Victoria Theatre, Woking 14 – 16 May
The Ambassadors, Peacocks Centre, Woking, Surrey, GU21 6GQ 
0844 871 7645 / www.atgtickets.com/venues/new-victoria-theatre/
Liverpool Playhouse 19 – 23 May
Williamson Square, Liverpool, L1 1EL
0151 709 4776 / everymanplayhouse.com
Bristol Old Vic  27 – 30 May      
King Street, Bristol, BS1 4ED                            
0117 987 7877 / www.bristololdvic.org.uk 
Nuffield Theatre, Southampton 2 – 6 June
University Road, Southampton, SO17 1TR
023 8067 1771 / www.nuffieldtheatre.co.uk
The Lowry Salford Quays 9 – 13 June (on sale 6 March)
Pier 8, Salford Quays, M50 3AZ
0843 208 6000 / thelowry.com
Cambridge Arts Theatre 16 – 20  June                            
6 St Edward’s Passage, Cambridge, CB2 3PJ
01223 503333 / www.cambridgeartstheatre.com
Richmond Theatre 23 – 27 June                              
The Green Richmond, Surrey, TW9 1QJ
0844 871 7651/ www.atgtickets.com/venues/richmond-theatre/ 
Theatre Royal Brighton 30 June – 4 July                                  
New Road Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 1SD
0844 871 7650 / www.atgtickets.com/venues/theatre-royal-brighton/ 
For press information please contact Clióna Roberts on 020 7704 6224 / 07754 756504 or email cliona@crpr.co.uk
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Royal Court: London Primary School Tour

Primetime: New plays by children showcased at the Royal Court

Saturday 18 July – Saturday 25 July
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs
Primetime returns to the Court for the second time after great success in 2014. A series of new short plays written by primary school children aged eight to 11, Primetime will showcase the plays at the Royal Court Theatre from 18 July. The production arrives after a free primary schools tour across London with a programme of practical workshops, introducing young people to playwriting in primary schools across London in the summer term of 2015.
The production of ten-minute plays will run for eight performances in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, alongside free family writing sessions.
This is the third time the Royal Court has taken a production to schools, having toured Suhayla El-Bushra’s play Pigeons to secondary schools in 2013 and Primetime to 15 Primary Schools last year.
Last year’s Primetime saw a cast of crazy characters on some surreal and heart-warming adventures, dreamt up by the brilliant brains of 8-11 year olds. And there’s more in store this time around…
Primetime is supported by John Lyon’s Charity, The Mercers’ Company, John Thaw Foundation, and The Austin and Hope Pilkington Trust.

Listings Information:

Primetime

Saturday 18 July – Saturday 25 July
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs , Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS
Saturday 18, Friday 24 and Saturday 25 July at 3pm and 6pm
Wednesday 22 and Thursday 23 July at 3pm
Tickets £10, children under 14, £5
Age guidance 7+
Family writing workshops are free but bookable in advance, available online www.royalcourttheatre.com or 0207 565 5000

Royal Court: West End

The Nether

by Jennifer Haley
directed by Jeremy Herrin
in a Headlong and Royal Court Theatre co-production
Sonia Friedman Productions and Scott M Delman in association with Tulchin Bartner Productions, Lee Dean & Charles Diamond, 1001 Nights, JFL Theatricals / GHF Productions, Scott & Brian Zeilinger / James Lefkowitz present the West End transfer of The Headlong and Royal Court Theatre co-production of The Nether.

Directed by Jeremy Herrin, Jennifer Haley’s critically acclaimed multi-award-winning play The Nether opened on 23 February to renewed acclaim and is booking for only a further 8 weeks to 25 April 2015.

Original cast members Amanda Hale (Morris), Stanley Townsend (Sims) and Ivanno Jeremiah (Woodnut) are joined by David Calder (Doyle), with Isabella Pappas, Jaime Adler and Perdita Hibbins who will alternate the role of Iris. Set designs are by Es Devlin, with costume designs by Christina Cunningham, video design by Luke Halls, lighting by Paul Pyant, compositions by Nick Powell and sound by Ian Dickinson for Autograph.

The Nether offers complete freedom – a new virtual wonderland providing total sensory immersion. Just log in, choose an identity and indulge your every desire. An intricate crime drama and a haunting thriller set in the year 2050, The Nether follows an investigation into the complicated, disturbing morality of identity in the digital world, and explores the consequences of making dreams a reality.

Listings Information:
Until 25 April 2015
Duke of York’s Theatre, St Martin’s Lane, London WC2N
Monday – Saturday 7.30pm
Saturday matinees 2.30pm
Thursday matinees 2.30pm
Age Guidance 14+
Royal Court prices in the West End £10, £20.50, £35
Over 500 accessible tickets per performance for the West End run.
100 tickets at £10, 200 tickets at £20.50, 300 tickets at £35*

Box Office: 020 7565 50000 / www.royalcourttheatre.com (no booking fees)
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Royal Court: International Tour

Not I, Footfalls, Rockaby

a co-production between the Royal Court Theatre and Lisa Dwan Productions, in association with Cusack Projects Ltd
by Samuel Beckett
performed by Lisa Dwan
directed by Walter Asmus

The trilogy of Samuel Beckett plays performed by Lisa Dwan, which sold-out their original runs at the Royal Court and West End, continue their national and international tour, returning to London with the final date at the Barbican this summer.

Lisa Dwan’s performance of Beckett’s Not I was staged at the Royal Court in 2013 to great acclaim, 40 years after it’s UK premiere there in 1973. In January 2014 Dwan returned to reprise the production alongside Footfalls and Rockaby, directed by Beckett’s long-time collaborator Walter Asmus. The production then moved to play full houses in a West End run before heading on tour around the UK and Ireland as well as visiting New York.

Tour Dates:
“Athénée Théâtre / Louis Jouvet, Paris”:http://www.athenee-theatre.com”
11-15 March
7 rue Boudreau 75009, Paris 

“Barbican Centre”:http://www.barbican.org.uk/
2-7 June
Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS
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For more information or images please contact Anoushka Hay on 0207 565 5063 / AnoushkaHay@royalcourttheatre.com

Notes to Editors:

Press Nights:

Who Cares by Michael Wynne
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs & around the building
Thursday 16, 7.45pm, Friday 17, 7.45pm, Saturday 18, 3pm and 7.45pm and Monday 20 April, 7.45pm, reviews embargoed until post show on 20 April

hang by debbie tucker green
Jerwood Theatre Downstairs
Tuesday 16 June, 7pm

Violence and Son by Gary Owen
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs
Monday 8 June, 7pm

The Big Idea is a strand of work offering audiences radical thinking and provocative discussion inspired by the work on stage. The Big Idea seeks to foster debate and collaboration, bringing together leading thinkers and artists from all walks of life to engage with the big ideas of our times, through a series of debates and events. AlixPartners support The Big Idea at the Royal Court Theatre.

Coutts is the Royal Court Theatre Innovation Partner

Coutts is the wealth division of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group. 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 Coutts managing the finances of many of today’s top writers, actors and musicians, but also through our arts sponsorship programme. We are delighted to support The Royal Court and it’s diverse range of ground-breaking performances. For further information please visit “Coutts”:http://www.coutts.com

The Big Idea is sponsored by AlixPartners.

The Royal Court offer radical thinkers and provocative voices a home, wherever they come from. The Big Idea series brings this to life by engaging the public in debate and discussion about civic, political, domestic and international issues. As a leading global business advisory firm of results-oriented professionals who specialise in creating value and enhancing performance, we share in this conviction to challenge pre-conceived standards and generate new ideas. AlixPartners is delighted to support the Royal Court in this exciting new programme.

Primetime is supported by John Lyon’s Charity

Nick Payne’s Constellations was first staged in 2012 as part of the Royal Court’s Jerwood New Playwrights programme, supported by Jerwood Charitable Foundation.

In 2014 Jerwood New Playwrights, the longstanding partnership between the Jerwood Charitable Foundation and the Royal Court Theatre is 20 years old. Each year, Jerwood New Playwrights supports the production of three new works by emerging writers, all of whom are in the first 10 years of their career. The Royal Court carefully identifies playwrights whose careers would benefit from the challenge and profile of being fully produced either in the Jerwood Downstairs or Jerwood Upstairs Theatres at the Royal Court.

The Jerwood Charitable Foundation supports the Jerwood New Playwrights programme and is dedicated to imaginative and responsible revenue funding of the arts, supporting emerging artists to develop and grow at important stages in their careers. The aim of its funding is to allow artists and arts organisations to thrive; to continue to develop their skills, imagination and creativity with integrity. It works with artists across art forms, from dance and theatre to literature, music and the visual arts. For more information visit “Jerwood”:http://www.jerwoodcharitablefoundation.org