Spring-Summer 2013 Season Announced

ROYAL COURT THEATRE: SPRING–SUMMER 2013 SEASON

Dominic Cooke announces his final season as Artistic Director of the Royal Court Theatre today (Monday), after nearly seven years at the theatre’s helm. The season includes writers from his first year at the Court, such as Bruce Norris, Polly Stenham and Anthony Neilson, alongside new plays by Anders Lustgarten and Polish writer Anna Wakulik.

• Anders Lustgarten’s If You Don’t Let Us Dream, We Won’t Let You Sleep opens in a production without décor, directed by Simon Godwin.
• Dominic Cooke directs Bruce Norris’ third play and first commission for the Royal Court, The Low Road.
• Polly Stenham returns to the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs with her third Royal Court play No Quarter, directed by Jeremy Herrin.
• Anna Wakulik’s new play A Time To Reap, translated from Polish by Catherine Grosvenor, is directed by Caroline Steinbeis.
• Anthony Neilson writes and directs a new play in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs to conclude the season.
• The Rough Cuts programme explores our relationship with the internet in a series of experimental readings and works in progress.

Dominic Cooke, Artistic Director of the Royal Court said:

“This season is my last as Artistic Director. It includes plays by three very different but equally original writers whose work I programmed at the start of my time here. It’s a pleasure to welcome Polly Stenham, Bruce Norris and Anthony Neilson back to their London home.

“They will be joined by two equally unusual talents making their Royal Court debuts. Anders Lustgarten grapples with the complex question of national debt; who is responsible and who should pay? Anna Wakulik gives us a witty and vivid account of the Polish diaspora in London. In April I hand over to the brilliant Vicky Featherstone and the Court begins what promises to be a thrilling new chapter in its history.

“In the mean time I hope you will join us in Sloane Square for an eclectic and provocative group of plays by some of the World’s most exciting writers.

In the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, the first recipient of the Harold Pinter Playwright’s Award, Anders Lustgarten, opens his first play at the Royal Court as a production without décor looking at the politics of global banking. Dominic Cooke’s final production as Artistic Director will be Bruce Norris’ new play The Low Road – a fable of free market economics. Bruce Norris’ The Pain and the Itch in 2007 was the first play Dominic directed in his first season in charge.

In the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, the season also echoes Dominic Cooke’s first year in post, with new plays from Polly Stenham and Anthony Neilson, both of whom were programmed in 2007 with Stenham’s debut That Face and Neilson’s The Wonderful World of Dissocia. Stenham’s third play, No Quarter, is an anarchic twist on the drawing room drama and Anthony Neilson’s play, currently untitled, will be created in the rehearsal room. Polish writer Anna Wakulik’sA Time To Reap about abortion and the Catholic church is the latest play to come out of the Royal Court’s extensive international work and will be Anna’s first production in the UK.

Tickets for the new season are on sale from tomorrow to Friends and Supporters (Tuesday 6 November) at 12pm online and by phone. It will be on general sale on Friday 9 November at 12pm. Tickets available online at www.royalcourttheatre.com or from the Box Office on 020 7565 5000.

Jerwood Theatre Downstairs

If You Don’t Let Us Dream, We Won’t Let You Sleep
By Anders Lustgarten
Directed by Simon Godwin
Fri 15 Feb – Sat 9 Mar 2013
Jerwood Theatre Downstairs
Press Night, Wednesday 20 February 2013, 7pm

The Low Road
By Bruce Norris
Directed by Dominic Cooke
Thurs 21 March – Sat 27 April
Jerwood Theatre Downstairs
Press Night, Wednesday 27 March 2013, 7pm

Jerwood Theatre Upstairs
No Quarter
By Polly Stenham
Directed by Jeremy Herrin
Fri 11 Jan – Sat 9 Feb 2013
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs
Press Night, Wednesday 16 January 2013, 7pm

A Time to Reap
By Anna Wakulik
Translated by Catherine Grosvenor
Directed by Caroline Steinbeis
Fri 22 Feb – Sat 23 March 2013
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs
Press Night, Wednesday 27 February 2013, 7pm

A New Play written and directed by Anthony Neilson
Fri 5 April – Sat 4 May 2013
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs
Press Night, Wednesday 10 April 2013, 7pm

If You Don’t Let Us Dream, We Won’t Let You Sleep
A production without décor
By Anders Lustgarten
Directed by Simon Godwin
Fri 15 Feb – Sat 9 Mar 2013
Jerwood Theatre Downstairs
Press Night, Wednesday 20 February 2013, 7pm

“I believe that open markets and free enterprise are the best imaginable force for improving human wealth and happiness. And I would go further: where they work properly, they can actually promote morality.”
David Cameron, Jan 2012

As the financial world issues its shock treatment, what happens when the City’s agenda is taken to its ultimate conclusion?

Anders Lustgarten explodes the ethos of austerity and offers an alternative. This passionately argued new play is written with insider knowledge.

Anders Lustgarten won the inaugural Harold Pinter Playwright’s Award in 2011 which is given annually by Pinter’s widow, Lady Antonia Fraser, to support a new commission at the Royal Court.

His first produced play A Day at the Racists about the workings of the British National Party premiered at the Finborough Theatre in March 2010. Since turning to playwriting in 2007, he has completed writing attachments at Soho Theatre, National Theatre and Bolton Octagon. He read Chinese Studies at Oxford and alongside his writing, he works as a political activist across the world, focusing on the actions of multi-national corporations in developing countries.

Simon Godwin will direct. Associate Director at the Royal Court, his credits include NSFW by Lucy Kirkwood, The Witness by Vivienne Franzmann, Luke Norris’ Goodbye to All That, Anya Reiss’ The Acid Test, and Nick Payne’s Wanderlust.

His other credits include A Kind of Alaska and Krapp’s Last Tape, Faith Healer and Far Away at Bristol Old Vic, The Winter’s Tale for Headlong and the Nuffield Theatre Southampton, Mister Heracles at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. As Associate Director of the Royal and Derngate Theatres in Northampton under Artistic Director Rupert Goold, Simon directed seven main stage shows.

If You Don’t Let Us Dream, We Won’t Let You Sleep will be presented as a production without décor in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs. A regular fixture at the Royal Court on Sunday evenings in the 1960s, a production without décor gave an emerging playwright the opportunity to have their play showcased on the main stage, in a full production but with minimal setting.

If You Don’t Let Us Dream, We Won’t Let You Sleep is part of the Royal Court’s Jerwood New Playwrights programme, which aims to discover and support the next generation of world class playwrights, supported by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation.

If You Don’t Let Us Dream, We Won’t Let You Sleep
By Anders Lustgarten
Directed by Simon Godwin
Fri 15 Feb – Sat 9 Mar 2013
Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square SW1W 8AS
Monday-Saturday 7.30pm
Saturday Matinees 2.30pm (from 23 Feb)
Thursday Matinees 2.30pm (from 7 Mar)
Press Night Wednesday 20 February, 7pm
Post-Show Talk Tuesday 5 March
Captioned Performance Wednesday 6 March, 7.30pm
Audio Described Performance Saturday 2 March, 2.30pm
Age Guidance 14+
Tickets £28, £20, £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 £5 off top two prices* (available in advance for all performances until Saturday 23 February inclusive and all matinees. For all other performances, available on a standby basis on the day)
25s and under £8* (available on £20 and £12 tickets)
School and HE Groups of 8+ 50% off top two prices (available Tuesday-Friday, plus matinees)
Groups of 6+ £5 off top price (available Tuesday-Friday)
Access £12 (plus a companion at the same rate)
*ID required. All discounts are subject to availability

The Low Road
By Bruce Norris
Directed by Dominic Cooke
Thurs 21 March – Sat 27 April
Jerwood Theatre Downstairs
Press Night, Wednesday 27 March 2013, 7pm

“Tis one thing to admit the inescapable cruelty of nature, friend, but quite a different one to encourage it.”

A young entrepreneur sets out on a quest for wealth with priceless ambition and a purse of gold.

A fable of free market economics and cut-throat capitalism.

Bruce Norris’ previous credits include Clybourne Park, for which he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize and received the Tony Award for Best Play. It opened at the Royal Court in September 2010 to critical acclaim before transferring to the West End. His other credits include The Pain and the Itch at the Royal Court, The Infidel, Purple Heart and The Unmentionables. The Low Road is Bruce’s first commission at the Royal Court.

Artistic Director of the Royal Court Dominic Cooke directs. His recent credits at the Court include In the Republic of the Happiness, Ding Dong The Wicked, Choir Boy, In Basildon, Chicken Soup with Barley, for which he was nominated for an Evening Standard Award, and the multi award-winning production of Clybourne Park for which he was nominated for an Olivier Award. Credits elsewhere include The Comedy of Errors at the National Theatre, as well as adapting and directing Arabian Nights and Noughts and Crosses at the RSC.

Bruce Norris’s The Pain and the Itch was the first play directed by Dominic in his inaugural season and The Low Road will be the final play he directs as Artistic Director of the Royal Court.

The Low Road
By Bruce Norris
Directed by Dominic Cooke
Thurs 21 March – Sat 27 April
Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square SW1W 8AS
Monday-Saturday 7.30pm
Saturday Matinees 2.30pm (from 30 Mar)
Thursday Matinees 2.30pm (from 18 April)
No performances Friday 29 March or Monday 1 April
Press Night Wednesday 27 March, 7pm
Post-Show Talks Tuesday 9 April and Thursday 25 April
Captioned Performance Wednesday 24 April, 7.30pm
Audio Described Performance Saturday 20 April, 2.30pm
Age Guidance 14+
Tickets £28, £20, £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 £5 off top two prices* (available in advance for all performances until Saturday 30 March inclusive and all matinees. For all other performances, available on a standby basis on the day)
25s and under £8* (available on £20 and £12 tickets)
School and HE Groups of 8+ 50% off top two prices (available Tuesday-Fridayn and all matinees)
Groups of 6+ £5 off top price (available Tuesday-Friday)
Access £12 (plus a companion at the same rate)
*ID required. All discounts are subject to availability

No Quarter
By Polly Stenham
Directed by Jeremy Herrin
Fri 11 Jan – Sat 9 Feb 2013
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs
Press Night, Wednesday 16 January 2013, 7pm

“You were brought up on mythology. That’s why you’re all stuck, all angry, a prince in the wrong story. A prince with a black eye.”

Fleeing a world he has rejected, Robin finds solace in his music and the sanctuary of his remote family home. But as his kingdom begins to crumble around him, how far will he go to save it and at what cost?

Polly Stenham returns with an anarchic twist on the drawing room drama. Following That Face and Tusk Tusk, her new play asks what is the right way to live?

Polly Stenham’s debut play That Face, written when she was just 19, received its world premiere in 2007 at the Royal Court, having been developed through the Royal Court’s Young Writers Programme, before transferring to the West End. She went on to win both the Evening Standard’s Charles Wintour Award and Critics’ Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright as well as the TMA Award for Best Play. Her second play Tusk Tusk played to sold out houses and critical acclaim in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs in 2009.

Jeremy Herrin is Associate Director at the Royal Court. His credits at the Royal Court include Hero, Haunted Child, The Heretic, Kin, Spur of the Moment, Off the Endz, The Priory, Tusk Tusk, That Face and The Vertical Hour. Credits elsewhere include This House at the National Theatre, Children’s Children (Almeida), Absent Friends (West End), Uncle Vanya (Chichester), Death and the Maiden (West End), Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare’s Globe), South Downs (Chichester and West End).

The production will be designed by Tom Scutt, with lighting by Philip Gladwell and sound by Fergus O’Hare.

No Quarter
By Polly Stenham
Directed by Jeremy Herrin
Fri 11 Jan – Sat 9 Feb 2013
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS
Monday-Saturday 7.45pm
Saturday Matinees 3.30pm (from 19 Jan)
Thursday Matinees 3.30pm (from 17 Jan)
Press Night Wednesday 16 January, 7pm
Post Show Talk Wednesday 6 Feb
Captioned Performance Tuesday 5 February, 7.45pm
Age Guidance 14+
Tickets £20 Mondays all seats £10
Concessions £15* (available in advance until 19 Jan incl, and all matinees. For all other performances, available on a standby basis on the day)
School and HE Groups of 8+ £10 (avail. Tue-Fri and mats)
Access £12 (plus a companion at the same rate)
*ID required. All discounts are subject to availability.

A Time to Reap
By Anna Wakulik
Translated by Catherine Grosvenor
Directed by Caroline Steinbeis
Fri 22 Feb – Sat 23 March 2013
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs
Press Night, Wednesday 27 February 2013, 7pm

“For the briefest of moments, you feel sure that your life has a meaning.
It makes you feel smaller and bigger at the same time.”

From a forested Polish village to the blinding lights of London, A Time to Reap looks at one woman’s story against the mountain landscape of an evolving nation and one of Poland’s hottest political topics – abortion and the Catholic Church.

Anna Wakulik is an exciting new Polish voice with a crop of political provocations.

Anna Wakulik currently works as literary manager for Tarnowski Teatr im. L. Solskiego in Tarnow, where she is writing new play, Heroes. Her play Krzywy Domek was presented in a public rehearsed reading during the Festival of Contemporary Polish Drama R@PORT in Gdynia in 2010. Other works include Sans Souci at Polish Theatre in Poznan, Helzbieta H. at National Wybrzeze Theatre in Gdansk. The Polish version of A Time to Reap will be performed in Poznan in November 2012. Anna wrote A Time To Reap when she attended the Royal Court Theatre’s 2011 International Residency for Emerging Playwrights. She has been developing the play with the Royal Court ever since.

Translator Catherine Grosvenor’s performed plays include One Day All This Will Come To Nothing (Traverse), Cherry Blossom (Traverse/Polski Teatr Bydgoszcz, 2008) and Gabriel (Oran Mor 2009). She also wrote the Scottish adaptations of Esa Leskinen and Sami Keski-Vähälä‘s Continuous Growth and The Overcoat. She prepared the literal translation of Our Class by Tadeusz SÅ‚obodzianek at the National Theatre and has worked with both German and Polish writers on the International Residency at the Royal Court.

International Associate Caroline Steinbeis directs. Her credits include Earthquakes in London (UK Tour for Headlong Theatre), Fatherland (Gate Theatre), Charged/Re-Charged (Soho Theatre), Mad Forest at BAC, Mile End (UK Tour), Photo Story (BAC). Her opera work includes: Cosi Fan Tutte (Sadler’s Wells, Bridgewater Hall, Ascoli Festival). Caroline is founder of Strike Ensemble.

The production is designed by Max Jones, with lighting by Anna Watson.

Since 1996 the Royal Court Theatre has travelled the world, running long-term play development projects and building relationships between playwrights, directors, actors and translators. Working with playwrights and theatre artists in 70 countries and in 30 languages, the work is supported by the Genesis Foundation and the British Council.

A Time to Reap is presented as part of International Playwrights: A Genesis Foundation Project.

During A Time to Reap from 12-16 March, the Royal Court will present four rehearsed readings in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs from the Royal Court’s long-term project with Georgian and Ukrainian playwrights. Further details to be announced shortly. These readings will be presented as part of International Playwrights: A Genesis Foundation Project, with support from the British Council.

A Time to Reap
By Anna Wakulik
Translated by Catherine Grosvenor
Directed by Caroline Steinbeis
Fri 22 Feb – Sat 23 March 2013
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS
Monday-Saturday 7.45pm (EXCEPT: Tue 12, Wed 13 and Fri 15, 8.30pm)
Saturday Matinees 3.30pm (from 2 Mar)
Thursday Matinees 3.30pm (from 28 Feb)
Press Night Wednesday 27 February, 7pm
Post Show Talk Friday 1 March
Captioned Performance Wednesday 20 March, 7.45pm
Age Guidance 14+
Tickets £20 Mondays all seats £10
Concessions £15* (available in advance until 2 Mar incl, and all matinees. For all other performances, available on a standby basis on the day)
School and HE Groups of 8+ £10 (avail. Tue-Fri and mats)
Access £12 (plus a companion at the same rate)
*ID required. All discounts are subject to availability.

A New Play written and directed by Anthony Neilson
Fri 5 April – Sat 4 May 2013
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs
Press Night, Wednesday 10 April 2013, 7pm

Why no title?
“Because I want to write from passion, not obligation.
Because I want to write for the actors I’ve cast, not cast for the parts I’ve written.
Because I want to be stupid enough to do the wrong thing when it’s right.
Because risk is everything.
Because everything is changing.
Because I’m doing something else right now.
Because I want to surprise myself.
Because I want to surprise you.
That’s why.”
Anthony Neilson

Anthony Neilson’s play will be created in the rehearsal room with a cast of actors to be announced. Anthony Neilson’s work at the Royal Court includes Get Santa!, Relocated, The Wonderful World of Dissocia (winner Best Production in both the TMA and Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland), Heredity, The Lying Kind and The Censor, which won the Writers Guild and Time Out Award. His other work includes Edward Gant’s Amazing Feats of Loneliness (Headlong Theatre), Stitching (The Traverse, The Bush – Time Out Off West End Award) and Normal (Edinburgh Festival). His films include The Debt Collector and Deeper Still.

A New Play written and directed by Anthony Neilson
Fri 5 April – Sat 4 May 2013
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS
Monday-Saturday 7.45pm
Saturday Matinees 3.30pm (from 13 April)
Thursday Matinees 3.30pm (from 11 April)
Press Night Wednesday 10 April, 7pm
Post Show Talk Tuesday 23 April
Captioned Performance Tuesday 30 April, 7.45pm
Age Guidance 14+
Tickets £20 Mondays all seats £10
Concessions £15* (available in advance until 13 April incl, and all matinees. For all other performances, available on a standby basis on the day)
School and HE Groups of 8+ £10 (avail. Tue-Fri and mats)
Access £12 (plus a companion at the same rate)
*ID required. All discounts are subject to availability.

Rough Cuts
17-26 January 2013

Rough Cuts – a regular mini season of short plays, experimental readings and works in progress continue, taking over the Wilson rehearsal studio from 17-26 Jan, exploring our relationship to the internet.

Internet Shorts
directed by Charlotte Gwinner
Four new short plays by Alia Bano, DC Moore, Nick Payne and Penelope Skinner examining and exploring our relationship to the internet. With multiple platforms on which to share our thoughts and say what we think, what is freedom of speech on the internet?

17, 18, 19, 21, 22 Jan at 7pm in The Wilson Studio at the Royal Court
Tickets £8 (concessions £6)
Running time: approx one hour

Searched
A new work in progress by E.V. Crowe directed by Carrie Cracknell. Search technology has more power than anyone cares to notice. One worker is sent to remedy a glitch, that irrevocably changes her position within the new order.

23-26 Jan at 7pm in The Wilson Studio at the Royal Court
Tickets £8 (concessions £6)
Running time: approx 40 minutes

The Studio is supported by the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation.
Rough Cuts is supported by the Columbia Foundation Fund of the London Community Foundation.

ends
(05/11/12)

For more information, please contact Anna Evans on 0207565 5063 annaevans@royalcourttheatre.com

Coutts is the Principal Sponsor of the Royal Court Theatre

Coutts is the UK private banking arm of the Royal Bank of Scotland. 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.

The Genesis Foundation supports the Royal Court’s International Playwrights Programme.

To find and develop the next generation of professional playwrights, the Genesis Foundation funds workshops in diverse countries as well as residencies at the Royal Court. The Foundation’s involvement extends to productions and rehearsed readings which helps the Royal Court to provide a springboard for young writers to greater public and critical attention. For more information, please visit www.genesisfoundation.org.uk.

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