ROYAL COURT THEATRE PRESENTS SUMMER OF PIONEERING URBAN STORYTELLERS

• KATE TEMPEST returns to the Royal Court with fellow urban wordsmith HOLLIE MCNISH for one night of acoustic poetry

• SPEECH DEBELLE performs a one off gig showcasing her new album and collaborates with the Royal Court in the creation of a music video

• Award-winning MEN IN THE CITIES by Chris Goode returns to the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs for a two week run

• LIVE LUNCH returns with new British East Asian stories to be performed during your lunch break

• The Royal Court joins Market Stall sellers at Tachbrook Street Market, Pimlico, every Thursday and Friday until the end of August

• PRIMETIME primary school tour plays by 9-11 year olds announced

• HANG and VIOLENCE AND SON trailers released

Tickets go on sale 3pm 020 7565 5000 / www.royalcourttheatre.com

Artistic Director Vicky Featherstone said;

“For a few weeks this summer we are delighted to be presenting an eclectic and joyful mix of story-telling; a tribute to these extraordinary writers and theatre-makers who represent only the tip of the iceberg of our startling homegrown talent. Their interpretation of the world we share is galvanising, provocative and humanising and requires us all, the community of the audience, to bring it to life.”

Kate Tempest with special guest Hollie McNish
Jerwood Theatre Downstairs
Tuesday 28 July 2015 8pm

For one night only Kate Tempest and Hollie McNish bring an evening of readings and poetry to the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs.

The irresistible rise of Kate Tempest has been truly remarkable. Starting at age 16, she is now a respected playwright, novelist, poet and recording artist: already under her belt are two albums, two collections of poetry, three critically acclaimed plays and the Ted Hughes Prize for her epic narrative poem Brand New Ancients which sold out when performed at the Royal Court in 2014.

Kate will be reading from her latest collection of poetry, Hold Your Own. Supporting Kate is internationally acclaimed poet and spoken word artist Hollie McNish. Reciting words of love, politics, race, breasts and all that comes in between, Hollie was UK Slam poetry champion in 2009, representing the UK and finishing third behind Canada and the USA in the World Poetry Slam Finals in Paris.

A very special evening of spoken word that brings together two of UK’s most incisive and articulate urban wordsmiths.

Kate Tempest grew up in South-East London where she still lives. Her work includes the plays Wasted and Hopelessly Devoted (Methuen). Her epic narrative poem Brand New Ancients won the Ted Hughes Prize and is published by Picador. Everybody Down, her Mercury Prize nominated debut solo album, came out on Big Dada Records in 2014. Her collection of poetry, Hold Your Own was published by Picador in 2014 and she was named by the Poetry Society as a Next Generation Poet, a once a decade accolade. She is currently touring her album and finishing her debut novel The Bricks that Built the Houses, to be published by Bloomsbury in 2016.

Hollie McNish aka Hollie Poetry is a published UK poet and spoken word artist. She has released three poetry albums, Touch, Push Kick and Versus and two collections of written poetry, Papers (Greenwich Exchange) and Cherry Pie (Burning Eye Books, 2015). She lives between Cambridge, London and Glasgow. Her poetic journal of parenthood, Nobody Told Me, will be published by Blackfriars Books in Spring 2016.

Listings Information:

Kate Tempest with special guest Holly McNish
Jerwood Theatre Downstairs
Tuesday 28 July 2015 8pm
Age Guidance 14+
Tickets £25, £20, £15, £12

Speech DeBelle Live
Jerwood Theatre Downstairs
Friday 31 July 2015 8pm

British rapper and winner of the 2009 Mercury Music Prize Speech DeBelle performs tracks from her new album Breath in a special one off gig at the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs. Speech will be accompanied by her full live band. The album is scheduled to be released in January 2016, produced by Speech over the last year alongside Nick Trepka with writing from Neil Cowley (Neil Cowley Jazz Trio) and Mike Lindsay (Spinnin’).

Collaborating with the Royal Court Theatre Speech and director Ed Sayers will create a music video shot with a live audience. The film features the track Terms and Conditions with backing vocals from Shingai Shinowa (Nosiettes) and Baby Sol. The filming will take place in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs with special instructions emailed to all ticket holders.

Ed Sayers will direct, with cinematography by Eben Bolter, who previously worked on the Royal Court’s Off The Page micro-plays in partnership with The Guardian.

Speech DeBelle won the 2009 Mercury Prize for her debut album Speech Therapy. Speech’s single Spinnin from her second album Freedom of Speech, released in 2012, was re-worked by Tinchy Stryder and used as one of the official anthems of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. In February 2012, Speech released her follow-up album, Freedom of Speech. Trebuchet Magazine described Speech as ‘a fiery, if naïve, seeker of justice and truth’, and said “she has a cracked lusciousness to her voice that strongly recalls Martina Topley-Bird’s most meltingly sexy moments on Tricky’s Maxinquaye. MTV gave the album 5/5 stars, and said, “What makes this a truly great hip hop album is that her words, piling up on one another, take on the quality of incantations – and that those incantations take on a life of their own.” According to AllMusic in a review (4/5 stars), “Speech DeBelle is now the most interesting and possibly the most exciting British MC on the scene.” Speech’s third album entitled Breathe is scheduled for release January 2016. The first single Terms and Conditions, which features backing vocals from Shingai Shinowa (Noisettes) and Miss Baby Sol, will be released August 2015.

Ed Sayers has worked as a producer and director in London production companies and ad agencies alike. With Mother London and Saatchi & Saatchi, Ed helped to create a range of live and filmed events, including the Edinburgh Fringe Festival show Pot Noodle The Musical and the T-Mobile live event ads: Dance at Liverpool Street Station and Singalong in Trafalgar Square. Ed has directed short films including Goldfish with Michael Fassbender. His first music video was for Handsome Boy Modeling School and most recently for Ivor Novello nominated band Bear’s Den. Ed founded the super 8 short film competition straight 8 in 1999.

Listings Information:

Speech Debelle Live
Jerwood Theatre Downstairs
Friday 31 July 2015 8pm
Age Guidance 14+
Tickets £25, £20 £15, £12

Men in the Cities
By Chris Goode
Directed by Wendy Hubbard
Chris Goode & Company in association with Royal Court Theatre
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs
Tuesday 21 July – Saturday 1 August

Following sold out preview performances at the Royal Court in July 2014 and receiving a Fringe First for the Edinburgh run in August 2014, Chris Goode returns with his award-winning one-man show for a two week run in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs.

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.

Written and performed by Fringe First winner (2014) Chris Goode, directed by Wendy Hubbard with design by Naomi Dawson and lighting design by Katharine Williams.

A Chris Goode & Company production in association with Royal Court Theatre.
Supported by Arts Council England

Chris Goode’s writing credits for the Royal Court include Men in the Cities and The New Order. His other theatre credits include The Forest & The Field (Ovalhouse), Monkey Bars (Traverse/Unicorn Theatres), 9 (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Neutrino (Soho/International tour) and Kiss of Life (Pleasance/Drill Hall/Sydney Opera House). As an actor Chris’ credits include The Author (Royal Court & International Tour). Chris received the Headlong/Gate New Directions Award for …Sisters (Gate).

Wendy’s directing credits for theatre include The Adventures of Wound Man and Shirley (Pleasance/ National Tour), God/Head (Oval House/Theatre in the Mill), Kiss of Life (Sydney Opera House), …Sisters (The Gate) and Speed Death of the Radiant Child (The Drum Theatre Royal Plymouth). Wendy co-directed The Pink Bits (Riverside Studios) and was the winner of the Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award (2004).

Listings Information:

Men in the Cities
By Chris Goode
Directed by Wendy Hubbard
Chris Goode & Company in association with Royal Court Theatre
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs (following Edinburgh run)
Tuesday 21 July – Saturday 1 August
Tuesday 21 July – Thursday 23 July 8pm
Friday 24 July – Saturday 25 July 9pm
Monday 27 July – Saturday 1 August 7.30pm
Age Guidance 16+
Tickets £20, £10 Mondays
Concessions £15 previews (Tuesday 21, Wednesday 22, Thursday 23 July)
Access £12 and companion at same price

Live Lunch Presents Hidden
by Vivienne Franzmann, Kathryn Golding, Amber Hsu, Lucy Lai-Tuen Chau, Chris Thompson and Daniel York Loh
directed by Lucy Morrison
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs
Friday 19 June – Saturday 20 June 1.15pm – 2.15pm

Live Lunch returns with six new plays. Six writers have been commissioned to create short plays with British East Asian experiences at the centre of their stories to be performed live as lunchtime readings on Friday 19 June and Saturday 20 June at 1.15pm in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs.

Working with Associate Director Lucy Morrison, the group has been busy exploding myths, questioning types and discovering hidden narratives of British East Asian lives lived just out of view.

These short plays are presented as rehearsed lunchtime readings directed by Lucy Morrison. Running time 1 hour. Cast to be confirmed.

The six plays include;

Breathe by Vivienne Franzmann
A short play about the unseen.

Being Suzy Wong by Kathryn Golding
A short play about finding your tribe.

(No One Disaster is Total) by Amber Hsu
A short play featuring: Death! Tragedy! And a story untold.

Restrain your grief and adapt to the mishap by *Lucy Chau Lai-Tuen
A short play about cultural discord and cruel timing destroying the dream of a better life.

Mulan by Chris Thompson
A short play about taking what’s not yours and fucking with it.

(Hidden) In The Screen by Daniel York Loh
A short play about heroes, history, and exotified flesh on the stage and the screen.

Lucy Chau Lai-Tuen was born in Hong Kong and brought up in the UK by adoptive parents. She trained as an actress at Rose Bruford and has worked exensively in theatre and film since 1986.

Vivienne Franzmann’s credits for the Royal Court include Pests and The Witness. Her other theatre credits include Mogadishu (Royal Exchange Manchester / Lyric). Vivienne is winner of the Bruntwood Playwriting Award (for Mogadishu) and was awarded the George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright as well as winner of the Pearson Playwrights’ Bursary (for Witness).

Kathryn Golding is a graduate of the Royal Court’s Unheard Voices Programme and is currently working on projects for both stage and television. This is her first stage reading.

Amber Hsu’s credits for the Royal Court include, Loop 36 :: Prime 151 an Audio Short Play commissioned for Lost in Theatre (Open Court Festival). Her other theatre includes If These Walls (Islington Community Theatre) and The Shadow (The Orange Tree). Her film credits include Next Time. Amber is a graduate of the Royal Court’s Unheard Voices Programme.

Chris Thompson’s credits for the Royal Court include Burn (Live Lunch). Other theatre includes Albion (Bush Theatre), Carthage and A Film About Someone You Love (Finborough Theatre). Chris was awarded the C4 playwrights award (formally the Pearson playwriting award) for Carthage and the Simon Gray Award 2014 for Albion. He was a finalist in the 2015 OFFIE awards for Most Promising New Playwright and Best New Play (Carthage). He has recently completed an attachment at the National Theatre Studio and is currently under commission with the Royal Court.

As an actor Daniel York Loh has worked at the Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal Court Theatre, National Theatre, Hampstead Theatre and Edinburgh Traverse. Daniel’s writing credits include The Fu Manchu Complex (Ovalhouse), various short plays at the Orange Tree, Bush, Rich Mix and Stratford East. Short film, Mercutio’s Dreaming which was nominated for four awards at the World Independent Music & Film Festival.

Lucy Morrison is Associate Director at the Royal Court where her credits include Who Cares, Product (also at Traverse and European tour) and Pests. 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.

Bring along a sandwich and listen to a new play, performed live in your lunch break.

The Royal Court Bar & Kitchen will be serving lunch pre and post show.

Tickets for all readings £8 available at www.royalcourttheatre.com 020 7565 5000.

Listings Information:

Live Lunch Presents Hidden
by Vivienne Franzmann, Kathryn Golding, Amber Hsu, Lucy Lai-Tuen Chau, Chris Thompson and Daniel York Loh
directed by Lucy Morrison
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs
Friday 19 June – Saturday 20 June 1.15pm – 2.15pm
Age Guidance 14+
Tickets £8

The Royal Court Theatre joins Market Stall sellers at Tachbrook Street Market, Pimlico every Thursday and Friday until the end of August.

The Royal Court Theatre supported by Bloomberg has set up a Market Stall at Tachbrook Street Market in Pimlico as part of its three year engagement with the area. Trading every Thursday and Friday between 10am – 3pm until the end of August the Market Stall hosts a range of events and is an arena to listen to suggestions from local residents on what they would like to see happen in the area.

Your local theatre is now even closer.

For the next three years we’re going to be camped on your doorstep, hanging out on your high street, hawking in your market and generally being a friendly neighbour.

Visitors to the Market Stall will have access to Pimlico Playground, new journeying audio plays written by Royal Court writers, and Espresso Plays, ‘made to order’ plays written by a resident writer.

There will also be the opportunity to take part in miniature scriptwriting workshops and a chain-written community play, with access to ticket flash sales for Royal Court productions and free copies of Royal Court plays to take home.

Commenting on the project Royal Court Artistic Associate, Ola Animashawun said:

“I am delighted to welcome with open arms the people of Pimlico to our Theatre Stall in Tachbrook Street Market. Providing the theatre with a great opportunity to engage with the community and offer something that is at once, novel, unique and creative, to invite interest and ignite curiosity. Simultaneously this will enable us to create the launch pad for our wider ambition of tapping into the creative energy, desires and ambitions of the people in Pimlico.”

SW Once (Part of South West Fest)
with Ola Animashawun
22 June 2015 2pm
St. James Theatre, Studio Space, 12 Palace Street, London SW1E 5JA
Free but places must be booked in advance

Local actors will be performing a selection of rehearsed readings, as part of this year’s South West Fest. The plays will be written during six introductory playwriting workshops. The workshops will be run by the Royal Court working with Open Age, an organisation that helps older people to develop new and stimulating interests.

To book email info@southwestfest.org.uk

The Espresso Plays
Every Thursday & Friday 10am – 2:45pm
Tachbrook Street Market

Written by a resident writer, the Espresso Plays are inspired by ideas suggested by Market Stall visitors.

Come and chat to our market stall playwrights and within 5 minutes a freshly brewed, personalised play will be written for you, all served in a takeaway coffee cup.

Pimlico Playground
by Diana Nneka Atuona, Josh Azouz, Olivia Hirst, Sarah Kosar, Simon Longman and Nessah Muthy
directed by Ola Animashawun, Debbie Hannan and Chris Sonnex
Every last Thu & Fri of the month (28, 29 May, 25, 26 Jun, 30, 31 Jul, 27, 28 Aug)
10am – 2:45pm
Tachbrook Street Market

Short enough to experience on your lunch break, these six location-based audio plays by Royal Court writers will take you on an imaginative journey through your everyday surroundings, animating the space between Tachbrook St. Market and the playground.

Head to our market stall, grab an MP3 player and a map, and have a wander…

The original short plays were recorded by actors from Pimlico Academy and Mulberry Alumni Theatre group, both of which the theatre has been working with over the past year.

The Pimlico Playground plays include:

Untitled by Diana Nneka Atuona
Bike by Josh Azouz
Hopscotch by Olivia Hirst
Big Body Tiny Head by Sarah Kosar
Bricks by Simon Longman
Brides by Nessah Muthy

Running time 30m

Pimlico Playground writers’ biographies:

Diana Nneka Atuona’s credits for the Royal Court include Liberian Girl. As well as winning the Alfred Fagon Award for Playwriting, Liberian Girl was long listed for both the Verity Bargate and the Bruntwood Prize. It was staged at the Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict. The summit was hosted by William Hague MP and Special Envoy to the UN, Angelina Jolie. Diana attended the Royal Court’s Peckham Writers Group, as part of Theatre Local. She is currently on commission with the Old Vic Theatre.

Josh Azouz’s Theatre includes The Mikvah Project (The Yard); Bar-Mitzvah Boy (OvalHouse); Sink or Shpin (Bannatyne’s Health Club/Boom Cycle London). As director, theatre includes: The Man Who Almost Killed Himself (Summerhall/BBC iplayer/Odeon release); Spur of the Moment (ALRA North/Home’s Replay Festival); On Dis Ting (OvalHouse); Gargantua (Library Theatre); No! Mr Lawrence! (The Lowry); Harissa (Tricycle) Europe (Contact).

Olivia Hirst‘s theatre includes Goodstock and Play for September (Lost Watch); The Longley Viking Museum (Soho); Baby’s Gone (Performance Academy Newcastle College). She is a Writer and Co Artistic Director of Lost Watch Theatre Company.

For the Royal Court Sarah Kosar theatre includes: Spaghetti Ocean (Live Lunch). Other theatre includes Hot Dog (Descent/The Last Refuge/Thinking Cap). Short plays include Runt (Oxford School of Drama/Soho), Ice Cream (Little Pieces of Gold/Southwark), Fox (Descent/Little Pieces of Gold/Southwark), Pineapple and other short plays (Outlines/Old Red Lion), Gynotime (Orange Tea/Amsterdam). Radio includes Hashtag (Roundhouse Radio/Theatre Centre).

Simon Longman’s theatre includes Milked (Pentabus); Why I Don’t Like the Sea and Popcorn (Arcola). He was a member of the Royal Court Young Writer’s Group in 2013 and is currently under commission for the Royal Court.

For the Royal Court Nessah Muthy’s theatre includes: Beastie (Live Lunch), Gastronauts, Hungry (Lost in Theatre, Open Court). Other theatre includes: This is not a Slog (OvalHouse); IED (HighTide Festival); Sucker (Old Vic New Voices); Sex with Robots & other Devices (Cloakroom); Nazma (Kali); Freya & Mr Mushroom (The Building Site/Southwark).

Primetime: New plays by children showcased at the Royal Court
By Lola Clark, Jared Blue Gale, Lily Habibyan, Zed Levy, Zoë Milne, Yaseen Mohamed, Daniel Santangelo and Maia Settecasi.
directed by Debbie Hannan
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs
Saturday 18 July – Saturday 25 July

The Royal Court Theatre will tour a series of short plays written by children between the ages of eight and eleven to 15 schools in outer London boroughs before being performed in the Royal Court’s Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, from 18 to 25 July.

The Primetime plays were written by primary school children aged eight to 11 from Hammersmith & Fulham, Haringey, Kensington & Chelsea and Westminster.

They were developed in Autumn 2014 during a six-week playwriting workshop at the Royal Court led by playwrights Vivienne Franzman (Mogadishu, Pests, The Witness) and Nessah Muthy (Gastronauts, Beastie).

Primetime is designed by Ruta Irbite with sound by George Dennis

The craziest plays written by the littlest writers are taking over the Royal Court this summer.
Get ready for intergalactic rap battles, time traveling Ninjas and shapeshifting cats in an explosion of adventure and fun for the whole family.

Primetime is directed by past trainee director for the Royal Court Debbie Hannan.

The Royal Court has also commissioned free family workshops to take place alongside the production with the aim of introducing young people to playwriting.

This is the third time the Royal Court has taken a production to schools. In 2013 with Suhayla El-Bushra’s play Pigeons and the last Primetime to 15 Primary Schools in 2014.

Primetime is supported by John Lyon’s Charity, The Mercers’ Company, The Haberdashers’ Company, Ernest Code Trust, John Thaw Foundation, Royal Victoria Hall Foundation and The Austin and Hope Pilkington Trust.

The Primetime plays to be performed will be:

Chicken Wings in Space by Yaseen Mohamed (aged 11)
The Human Monster by Lola Clark (aged 9)
The Lady Bird by Daniel Santangelo (aged 10)
The Ice Cream That Never Melts by Zoë Milne (aged 9)
Lost by Zed Levy (aged 9)
Grampa Ninja and the Lost World by Jared Blue Gale (aged 10)
I Want Money!!!! By Maia Settecasi (aged 10)
The Adventures of Ms Vennily by Lily Habibyan (aged 9)

Family writing workshops are free but bookable in advance, available online www.royalcourttheatre.com or 0207 565 5000

Debbie Hannan was a previous trainee director at the Royal Court. For the Royal Court her directing credits include Who Cares (as Co-Director) and Peckham The Soap Opera. As Assistant Director for the Royal Court her credits include How To Hold Your Breath, Teh Internet is Serious Business, The Nether, Primetime 2014, Birdland and The Mistress Contract. Other directing credits 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).

Listings Information:

Primetime
By Lola Clark, Jared Blue Gale, Lily Habibyan, Zed Levy, Zoë Milne, Yaseen Mohamed, Daniel Santangelo and Maia Settecasi.
directed by Debbie Hannan
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs
Sat 18 – Sat 25 Jul
Wednesday to Saturday 3pm
Friday & Saturday 6pm
Tickets £10 Adult, £5 Children, £10 Child ticket and meal deal
Age guidance 7+

Family writing workshops are free but bookable in advance, available online www.royalcourttheatre.com or 0207 565 5000

Violence and Son
by Gary Owen
directed by Hamish Pirie
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs
Wednesday 3 June – Saturday 11 July 2015

Trailer released for Gary Owen’s play Violence and Son at the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court Theatre (3 June to 11 July – press night 8 June).

To embed the trailer see here

Directed by Hamish Pirie, Gary Owen‘s intimate new play is about what parents pass on and trying to do the right thing.

“_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, 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.

Morfydd Clark will play Jen, Jason Hughes will play Rick (aka Violence), David Moorst will play Liam and Siwan Morris will play Suze.

The production is designed by Cai Dyfan, with lighting design by Lizzie Powell and music and sound design by Mark Melville.

Violence and Son will be accompanied by three Big Idea events Violence and Shame with psychologist and poet Jonathan Asser (10 June), Gary Owen in Conversation (25 June ) and Power and Consent with academics Dr Susan Hansen and Dr Jackie Gray who specialise in forensic psychology (8 July).

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 Gary’s 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.

Morfydd Clark’s theatre credits include Blodeuwedd at Theatr Genedlathol Cymru. Her television credits include Arthur & George (ITV1), A Poet in New York (BBC) and New Worlds (Channel 4). Film credits include Love and Friendship, The Call Up, Pride Prejudice & Zombies, The Falling, Madame Bovary and Two Missing.

Jason Hughes last appeared at the Royal Court in A Real Class Affair and Phaedra’s Love. Other theatre credits include In The Next Room (St. James), 4:48 Psychosis (Royal Court US Tour), Caligula (Donmar), Design for Living, Fight for Barbara (Theatre Royal, Bath), A Wing and a Prayer (Battersea Arts Centre), Kiss Me Like You Mean It (Soho Theatre), In Flame (New Ambassador’s), Look Back in Anger (Lyttelton), The Herbal Bed (Royal Shakespeare Company), Snake in the Grass (Old Vic), The Illusion (Royal Exchange, Manchester), Badfinger (Donmar); Nothing to Pay (Thin Language); The Unexpected Guest (Theatre Royal, Windsor), Macbeth (Theatre Clwyd), A Slice of Saturday Night (Theater Auf Tournee). His television credits include Midsomer Murders, Dead Long Enough, Mine All Mine, Plain Jane, The Flint Street Nativity, Harry Enfield and Chums, Strangers in the Night, This Life, King Girl, Casualty, Castles, Peak Practice, The Bill and London’s Burning.

David Moorst is a recent LAMDA graduate. He has recently appeared in Wonderland at Hamsptead Theatre. His television credits include Partners in Crime and Holby City.

Siwan Morris last appeared at the Royal Court in Gas Station Angel. Other theatre credits includes Tonypandemonium, A Good Night Out in the Valleys (National Theatre Wales), Cloakroom (Sherman Cymru), Knives in Hens (Bath Theatre Royal), Midsummer Nights Dream, Suddenly Last Summer (both at Theatr Clwyd), The Seagull (Bristol Old Vic), Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night (UK Tour), The Merchant of Venice, The Winter’s Tale (Ludlow Festival), Feast of Snails (Lyric), The Rabbit, King Lear, Flora’s War, Hosts of Rebecca, The Journey of May Kelly, Rape of the Fair Country, Equus (all at Theatr Clywd). Her television credits include Pishyn Glo (S4C), Doctor Who, Our Girl, Wolfblood, Holby City, Whites (BBC), Caerdydd (Fiction Factory), Miss Marple (ITV) and Skins (Channel 4/E4). Her film includes Dark Signal, the Devils Vice and The Machine.

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)

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.

hang
written and directed by debbie tucker green
Jerwood Theatre Downstairs
Thursday 11 June – Saturday 18 July 2015

Trailer released for debbie tucker green’s play hang at the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, Royal Court Theatre (11 June to 18 July – press night 16 June).
To embed the trailer see here

debbie tucker green returns to the Royal Court to direct her new play hang with cast including Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Claire Rushbrook and Shane Zaza.

“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, Claire Rushbrook and Shane Zaza.

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.

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), Three Sisters (Oxford Stage Company/ West End), Hindle Wakes (Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester). 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, Murder, Enid, Great Expectations, Dr Who, Home Fires and the Channel 4 comedy Spaced. Her film credits include Under the Skin and Secrets and Lies.

Shane Zaza previously appeared on the Royal Court Theatre stage in Oxford Street (93.2FM & House of Agnes). He is currently playing one of the lead roles Behind the Beautiful Forevers for the National Theatre and has recently been seen as series regular Shafiq Shah in Sally Wainwright’s drama Happy Valley on BBC One. Other theatre credits includes Henry V, 13 (National); Behind the Lines, Repentance (Bush); Mongrel Island, Realism, Minutes Pass, Furnace Four (Soho); Pieces of Vincent (Arcola); Deadeye (Birmingham Rep / Soho); Peter Pan (National Theatre Scotland), Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet (Globe); Players (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Billy Liar (Liverpool Playhouse); Mercury Fur (Paines Plough); George’s Marvellous Medicine (Bolton Octagon); The Master and Margarita, Kes, Nicholas Nickleby (Lyric); The Arbitrary Adventures of An Accidental Terrorist (Lyric Studio); The Long Way Home (New Perspectives); East is East (New Victoria). His television credits includes Silent Witness, Coming Up: Micah, Doctors, Mouth to Mouth, The Omid Djalili Show, Spooks, 10 Days to War, The Bill, Casualty, Murphy’s Law, Watch Over Me, Doctor Who, Doctors, Dalziel and Pascoe, Waterloo Road, Messiah. Film includes Generation Z, Spooks: The Greater Good, Keeping Up With the Joneses, Plastic, Two Tone, Jadoo, Clean Skin, Love at First Sight, The Da Vinci Code and Spark.

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

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

As previously announced

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 is now on tour.

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.

Constellations by Nick Payne was supported in 2012 by Jerwood New Playwrights.

Tour Dates:

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

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, returns to London this June for the final leg of the tour at the Barbican.

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.
Barbican Centre 2-7 June Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS
020 7638 8891 / http://www.barbican.org.uk/

ENDS

For more information or images please contact Anoushka Hay on 0207 565 5063 / AnoushkaHay@royalcourttheatre.com

Notes to Editors:

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.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, The Mercers’ Company, The Haberdashers’ Company, Ernest Cook Trust, John Thaw Foundation, Royal Victoria Hall Foundation and The Austin and Hope Pilkington Trust.

Constellations by Nick Payne was supported in 2012 by Jerwood New Playwrights.

Jerwood New Playwrights is a longstanding partnership between the Jerwood Charitable Foundation and the Royal Court. 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 www.jerwoodcharitablefoundation.org