Vicky Featherstone announces Summer 2013 at Royal Court

PRESS RELEASE

VICKY FEATHERSTONE, NEW ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF THE ROYAL COURT THEATRE ANNOUNCES OPEN COURT IN SUMMER 2013

In her first summer at the helm of the Royal Court Theatre, new Artistic Director Vicky Featherstone will hand over the building to the playwrights in Open Court – a six week festival (10 June – 20 July) of plays, ideas and events chosen and suggested by a group of over 140 writers.

The Open Court programme appears ahead of Vicky Featherstone’s first full season of plays, which will start in September 2013 and be announced in June 2013. Open Court will include creating a weekly repertory company, performing a different new play each week; a surprise theatre experience; a chance to hear a Royal Court playwright read aloud one of their plays; a nightly soap opera in Peckham; a weekly big idea, exploring sex, age, death, collaboration, European austerity and a week of workshops, plays and events for 8-11 year olds and their families.

Alongside Open Court, Theatre Local continues with two plays outside the building. US playwright Annie Baker opens Circle Mirror Transformation at the Rose Lipman Building in Haggerston, N1 from 5 July – 3 Aug and the National Theatre of Scotland’s production of David Greig’s The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart will be performed at the London Welsh Centre, WC1 from 12 July- 3 Aug, followed by a run at the Bussey Building in Peckham from 5-9 Aug.

Vicky Featherstone also announces her Artistic team, appointing Carrie Cracknell and John Tiffany as Associate Directors, joining existing Associate Simon Godwin. Lucy Davies will join the Royal Court as Executive Director from the National Theatre of Wales from next week.

Tickets for Open Court and Theatre Local will go on sale to Friends and Supporters on Monday 22 April at 10am and on sale to the general public on Tuesday 23 April at 12pm. 0207 565 5000 www.royalcourttheatre.com

“With the summer a blank canvas before my first season of plays at the Royal Court starts in the autumn, I turned to the only people who could possibly answer the question of what to do with it, how to fill it. The writers. It is because of them, after all, that we exist.

“I asked each member of staff here to come up with three writers each that they would like to see take over at the Royal Court and the reasons why.

“I then invited 80 writers to a town meeting on 14 February this year and met with a further 60 writers from all the Court’s writers’ programmes and laid down the challenge. I was going to give them the keys of the Royal Court for six weeks in the summer. What did they want to do with them?

“What ensued has been a testament to the creativity, the anarchy, the playfulness, the restless questioning of who we are and the desire to surprise and thrill an audience, of our brilliant writers.

“They are showing us what the Royal Court is and what it can be – as they have always done. They have started the adventure for me.

“It is also thrilling to place two such exceptional plays Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker and The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart by David Greig in site specific productions, in the heart of different communities continuing and developing the work of Theatre Local.”
Vicky Featherstone, Artistic Director Royal Court Theatre

“Whenever I’ve worked at the Royal Court I’ve always enjoyed feeling part of a community of playwrights. So it’s exciting to bring that community together to ‘occupy’ the building over the coming summer. I see Open Court as a rolling performance/party/seminar which I hope new and familiar audience members will enjoy taking part in.”
Mark Ravenhill, Playwright

“The energy and attack of Open Court is not only urgent but manages to feel both fresh and at the same time steeped in the metabolism of that extraordinary theatre’s extraordinary history.

“It’s like nothing else the Royal Court has staged before.

“Which, at its best, is what the Royal Court has always done.”
Simon Stephens, Playwright

Theatre Local and Open Court are supported by Bloomberg.
“From dance on the streets and theatre in squares, to pavilions in parks and installations on billboards, Bloomberg is committed to reaching new audiences and we are delighted that our continued collaboration with the Royal Court Theatre on Open Court and Theatre Local will inspire artists and audiences to engage in new ways and in new spaces. This represents an exciting new dimension to Bloomberg’s ongoing commitment to provide opportunities to those who might not otherwise have access to the arts. We are delighted to be part of such a unique and extraordinary project.”
Jemma Read, Bloomberg

OPEN COURT
• Weekly Rep (Tue-Sat, 11 June-20 July) Six new plays in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs in six weeks with one company of 14 actors and four directors.
• Surprise Theatre (Mon & Tue, 10 June – 16 July) Theatre of the Unknown in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs
• Playwright @ Your Table (Sat, 15 June – 13 July) A Royal Court playwright reads you their play in a secret location around the building.
• Lost in Theatre (Daily, 10 June – 20 July) A theatrical treasure-hunt. Ten new plays hidden around the Royal Court. Pick up some headphones and listen in.
• Found Plays(Throughout the festival) Discovered, uncovered, captured, or overheard, the Royal Court will be searching for Found Plays in all guises.
• Soap Opera (1-13 July) A soap opera written and created by Royal Court playwrights, performed in nightly five minute episodes at the Bussey Building in Peckham, culminating in a live omnibus edition.
• The Big Idea: Friday nights (Fri 14, 21 June & 12 July) exploring the big themes of Sex, Age and Death including plays, talks and late night events in the Café Bar.
• The Big Idea: PIIGS(25-29 June) Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain. Working with international and UK playwrights to explore the five countries in the European Union that have been hit hardest by European austerity, including verbatim conversations reported, translated and put on stage within 24 hours of them happening.
• The Big Idea: Collaboration (4-6 July) Six writers will work with writer and director Anthony Neilson to explore collaboration through his unique devising style in the rehearsal room.
• The Big Idea: Kids Court (16-20 July) A week of plays, workshops and special events curated by young playwrights aged 8-11.

THEATRE LOCAL
• Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker at the Rose Lipman Building, Haggerston, N1 from 5 July – 3 Aug.
• The National Theatre of Scotland’s The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart by David Greig at the London Welsh Centre, WC1 from 12 July- 3 Aug and CLF Theatre at the Bussey Building in Peckham, SE15 from 5-9 Aug.

Weekly Rep
Tue-Sat
11 June-20 July

The weekly rep, suggested by playwright Caryl Churchill, echoes the famed summer seasons in repertory theatres around Britain. A new play will be produced every week, for six weeks, in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs from one ensemble of 14 actors and four directors, including Carrie Cracknell, Vicky Featherstone, John Tiffany and Caroline Steinbeis. From birth to death, friendship, coming of age and revolution these six new plays are from playwrights just beginning their relationship with the Royal Court.

“Theatres have more plays than they have time or money for, so writers these days often get encouragement, workshops or readings rather than productions. Writers live in hope, or despair, and do a lot of rewrites. But a play doesn’t really exist till it’s happened on a stage, and a writer learns more from that than from anything, and can move on and write another one. So even a short rehearsal and short run is worth having. And if a play is done more or less at once, as it was written, though it may be rougher there is less danger of innovation being blunted by too much advice.

“Of course we often envy European theatres which have the money for rehearsals twice as long as ours. But there is a different and exhilarating skill to enjoy in getting a play on in a week – it’s how actors used to develop their craft in theatres all over the country and the audience can get to know a company of actors and see them doing something different very week.”
Caryl Churchill, Playwright

The President Has Come To See You
by Lasha Bugadze
translated by Donald Rayfield
Tue 11- Sat 15 June

Georgia is at war. Again. And the President can’t cope. So he abandons his post and flees into the city to hide in the homes of his unsuspecting civilians.

An absurd comedy about cowardice and power.

Lasha Bugadze is a writer based in Tbilisi, Georgia. His previous credits include Otari, Nugzar and the Mephistopheles and Naphthaline. He is also the author of numerous novels, essays and short stories and has received a number of awards in his native country. The President Has Come To See You was developed on the 2011 Royal Court International Residency and was first staged as a rehearsed reading at the Royal Court in March 2013, as part of the season of New Plays from Georgia and Ukraine.

The President Has Come To See You is presented as part of International Playwrights: A Genesis Foundation Project, with additional support from the British Council.

Death Tax
by Lucas Hnath
Tue 18- Sat 22 June

As long as you can keep paying, there’s really no need to die.

80 year old Maxine is convinced her daughter is paying Nurse Tina to bump her off before an impending tax deadline.

A darkly comic play about death and taxes, and how we must live with both.

Lucas Hnath is a playwright based in New York. His previous credits include Death Tax (Humana Festival/Steinberg Award Isaac’s Eye (EST) and the short play, NightNight (Humana Festival). Upcoming plays include A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay about the Death of Walt Disney (SoHo Rep) and Red Speedo (Studio Theatre, DC).

Pigeons
by Suhayla El-Bushra
Tue 25- Sat 29 June

Amir and Ashley are best mates. Ashley spends as much time as possible at Amir’s house losing at chess to Amir’s dad, flirting with his sister and eating his mum’s food.

As the pressure and prejudices of the outside world start to invade their lives, the cracks begin to show.

A searing insight into the reality of growing up in an apparently multicultural society.

Suhayla El-Bushra is a playwright based in Hove. On television, she is currently writing for Hollyoaks and other credits include a feature screenplay for Jeva Films (supported by the Film Council), an interactive teen drama and several scripts for Doctors. Her theatre credits include 66 Books at the Bush Theatre and Cuckoo, produced at the Unicorn next year.

Mint
by Clare Lizzimore
Tue 2- Sat 6 July

Over five years of imprisonment Alan’s life has been measured out in weekly visits from his family; slices of the normal life he’s left behind. Everything will be so much better once he’s finally out and back home for good. Won’t it?

A sharp and detailed portrayal of a man struggling to keep his head above water.

Clare Lizzimore is a playwright and director based in London. Mint is her first play. As a director, her credits include Bull by Mike Bartlett at Sheffield Crucible, One Day When We Were Young by Nick Payne as part of the Paines Plough Roundabout Season, Lay Down Your Cross by Nick Payne at Hampstead Theatre. At the Royal Court, she directed Faces in the Crowd by Leo Butler and has worked extensively with the International department.

Untitled Matriarch Play (or Seven Sisters)
by Nikole Beckwith
Tue 9 – Sat 13 July

On the eve of her 55th birthday Lorraine gathers her four daughters around her and announces a new sibling is on the way. Utterly sick of her daughters she is determined to have a son…by surrogate.

A biting and witty family comedy in broody and bumpy times.

Nikole Beckwith is a playwright and screenwriter based in New York. Nikole’s play Everything is Ours was produced by the Chautauqua Theater Company. Her screenplay adaptation of her play Stockholm, Pennsylvania garnered her a 2012 Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting and was included in the 2012 Black List of best, unproduced screenplays.

Talk Show
by Alistair McDowall
Tue 16 – Sat 20 July

Sam runs a daily talk show from his basement bedroom.

Upstairs his Dad and Grandad barely speak, but keep in touch through a baby monitor. With the return of Sam’s wayward uncle can this peculiar form of domestic harmony stay uninterrupted?

A black comedy about talking and transmission.

Alistair McDowall grew up in the North East of England. He was a member of the Young Writers Programme and his play Brilliant Adventures was performed as a reading as part of the Young Writers Festival at the Royal Court in 2012, and was produced at Manchester Royal Exchange. His other credits include Captain Amazing at Live Theatre Newcastle.

Weekly Rep writers Suhayla El-Bushra, Clare Lizzimore, and Alistair McDowall are part of the Royal Court’s Jerwood New Playwrights programme, funded by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation, which aims to discover and support the next generation of world class UK playwrights. Responding to the format of the Open Court season, the Programme takes a unique approach in supporting three short runs of these writers’ plays instead of one full length production run.

OPEN COURT: Weekly Rep
Tue 11 June – Sat 20 July 2013
Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS
Tuesday-Saturday 8pm (7pm on Thursday 13 June)
Saturday Matinee 3.30pm (except 20 July)
Captioned Performance Sat matinees 3.30pm (except 20 July) & Fri 19 July at 8pm Touch Tours: Thursdays 6.30pm (6pm on Thursday 13 & 20 June)
Age Guidance 14+
Tickets £20 & £12
Concessions £15* (available Sat matinees. For all other performances, available on a standby basis on the day)
School and HE Groups of 8+ £10
Access £12 (plus a companion at the same rate)
Under 26s £8* (limited availability)
Day Seats available for all Weekly Rep performances.

MULTIBUY OFFER2 stars Buy 3 or more plays from the Weekly Rep and save 20%
*ID required. All discounts are subject to availability.

Surprise Theatre
Mon & Tue
10 June -16 July 2013

In today’s information loaded world is it still possible to be truly surprised by anything? Every Monday and Tuesday nights during Open Court, there will be a different surprise performance from a diverse and wide-ranging field of writers and theatre-makers; each creating a one-off performance, which will remain a mystery to its audience right up until the lights go down.

Each surprise will be performed twice-nightly and the second performance will be live-streamed and available to view for the duration of the festival on the Royal Court website.

“Most of the time we go to the theatre having read a review or two, or seen the theatre’s flyer, or heard about the play from a friend. It can feel as if we are just sitting through the experience we more or less knew we were going to have – very different from that magic feeling, as children perhaps, of waiting for a curtain to go up and not knowing what was going to happen. I’ve often thought how I’d like a theatre where there was something different every night and you never knew what to expect. A theatre of the unknown, a surprise theatre.”
Caryl Churchill, Playwright

OPEN COURT: Surprise Theatre
Mon 10 June -Tue 16 July 2013
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS
Mondays & Tuesdays 7.30pm and 9pm (No 9pm performance on Monday 24 June)
No Performance on 25 June
Age Guidance 14+
Tickets £10

Playwright @ Your Table
Saturdays 10am
15 June – 13 July

Playwright @ Your Table, suggested by Royal Court Writers Tutor Leo Butler, allows audiences a rare opportunity to hear writers read aloud their own plays in a secret location around the building.

The Café Bar will open early for tea, coffee and bacon sandwiches on Saturday mornings where audiences will then select their chance encounter from a tombola draw.

Writers will include Moira Buffini, Leo Butler, Caryl Churchill, John Donnelly, David Eldridge, Rob Evans, David Greig, Tanika Gupta, Terry Johnson, Dennis Kelly, Joe Penhall, Penelope Skinner, Simon Stephens and Roy Williams.

“Sitting at the same table as a playwright and hearing them read their script aloud can be the most raw, insightful and moving productions of a play you will ever get … and perhaps even the most definitive. None of those pesky actors fluffing or paraphrasing their lines, and no sign of a director with their various safety nets and conjuring tricks. Just the words as they were written, naked, with every pause and exclamation as they were meant to be.

“I always try and read my plays aloud to a director before a rehearsal so that they (and myself) can begin to discover what the play is really driving at, and, for that same reason, I always encourage my playwriting students to read their plays aloud to each other too … and, of course, to have a lovely cup of tea and a chat with the writer about it afterwards.

“So when Vicky Featherstone handed out the keys to the Court, I immediately thought that this deliciously intimate treat – with a menu of exciting playwrights to choose from – should be offered to the public too.”
Leo Butler, Playwright

OPEN COURT: Playwright @ Your Table
Sat 15, 22, 29 June & Sat 6, 13 July 2013
Various locations around Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS
Saturdays Playwright lottery draw:10am, Readings start: 10.30am
Age Guidance 14+
Advance Tickets £10 (max 2 per booking)
Day Seats: £10 available on the door at 10am (minimum 10 seats available, max 2 tickets per booking)

Lost in Theatre
Mon 10 June – Sat 20 July 2013

A theatrical treasure-hunt, suggested by playwright Archie Maddocks. Writers have concealed ten new plays around the Royal Court. Audiences can pick up headphones and go behind the scenes or download their own podcast and explore the nooks and crannies of the Royal Court’s public areas at their leisure.

Lost in Theatre will include five minute plays by Alex Bulmer, Leo Butler, EV Crowe, Clint Dyer, Amber Hsu, Archie Maddocks, Abi Morgan, Nessah Muthy, Luke Norris and Penelope Skinner.

“I was interested in the idea of public solitude, how people are able to find a personal haven in the public world, whether that’s achieved through listening to music on your headphones or being in your car.

“When we talk to others, we miss so much of what they are saying through body language and inflection because our primary focus is on the words they use, so I wanted to put a dialogue in people’s heads and allow them to explore the building to explore the conversations that are really taking place that we don’t allow ourselves to listen to.”
Archie Maddocks, Playwright

OPEN COURT: Lost in Theatre
Mon 10 June – Sat 20 July 2013
Various locations around Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS
Back of House Experience: Wed & Thurs 4.30pm-6.30pm. Last entry 30 mins before end. Free, with a small deposit for headsets. Bookable on the day from 10am. Not available 17 &18 July.
Front of House Experience: Daily. Free, with a small deposit for headsets available from the Box Office during Box Office opening hours (see website for full details) or free to download as a podcast. Not Bookable in advance.
Age Guidance Back of House Experience 18+. Front of House Experience 16+
Accessible Performances: Sat 1.30pm-2.30pm
Found Plays
Throughout the Festival

Throughout Open Court, the Royal Court will be searching for Found Plays, inviting submissions from writers of all ages, levels and experience to fill the building with hidden discoveries for audiences to find.

A Found Play could be a piece of text, a scrap of dialogue, or transcribed series of movements, that has been ‘found’ and framed on paper. It could be a set of diagrams from a tango manual, a salacious conversation, or a particularly arresting tannoy announcement. Found plays can be discovered, uncovered, captured, overheard, transcribed, translated, unearthed, illuminated, grown, plucked or excised, but the place they were found must always be respected.

It’s a broad church
Found on an online forum

A: Can anyone tell me why she says “if you go into the bookshop in town all his books are in there?” You can’t STOP someone writing and selling books, can you?
B: Ollie’s involvement doesn’t strike me as likely either.
C: Something not right there. I really hope Tom didn’t hurt Danny.
B: It must be his dad then… no – his mum? His dad’s secret is the affair. His mum has no secret.
C: What about the IT teacher?
A: Answering my own question from earlier: Joe was a paramedic.
B: Someone at work has just said Joe and the vicar are having an affair.
C: Mind. Blown.
B: Does the vicar live in the church? He’s always there.
C: It’s the psychic obviously. No evidence for this of course, but I feel it in my waters.
A: I am very confused.

A found play should fit on the back of an envelope. Plays can be submitted by email from Friday 19 April to foundplays@royalcourttheatre.com or by post Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS or by freephone 0800 756 9597 (5 minutes maximum message length). Visit www.foundplays.co.uk for more information

Playwright and Royal Court resident Writers Tutor Leo Butler will explore the art of the Found Play in a free workshop on Saturday 1 June at the Wilson Studio. Tickets free, but bookable in advance www.royalcourttheatre.com.

Soap Opera
Mon 1 – Sat 13 July 2013

The lives and loves of Peckham locals will be played out and streamed live every night for two weeks in five minute episodes, inspired by an original idea from playwright Lucy Kirkwood.

Each episode will be performed live in front of a studio audience by actors from the local community, culminating in a Saturday omnibus edition at the Bussey Building in Peckham

Bola Agbaje and Rachel De-lahay will first work with people from the Peckham area to come up with ideas for a fictional soap world and then work with a team of writers from the Royal Court, including Brad Birch, Alice Birch, Adam Brace, Robin French, Roy Williams, Lucy Kirkwood, Chloe Moss and David Watson to create five minute episodes to be performed each night.

“A theatrical soap opera is a brilliant chance to see writers passing a baton to each other and playing with unexpected narrative form, interrogating and embracing theatre’s main predator (TV) rather than fearing or denying its existence. I hope it will also be a really fun way to involve lots of people, reach out to younger audiences and draw them in with something accessible.”
Lucy Kirkwood, Playwright

OPEN COURT: Soap Opera
Mon1 – Fri 12 July 2013
CLF Theatre, Bussey Building, 133 Rye Lane, London, SE15 4ST
Daily at 7pm (except 6 & 7 July). Tickets Free (not bookable in advance)
Five minute episodes filmed in front of a studio audience.

OPEN COURT: Soap Opera Omnibus Edition
Saturday 13 July 7pm
CLF Theatre, Bussey Building, 133 Rye Lane, London, SE15 4ST
Tickets available as Pay What You Like on the door (not bookable in advance)
10 x five minute episodes

The Big Idea: Friday Nights
Are we afraid of the big idea? Inspired by a suggestion by Martin Crimp, the Royal Court presents a range of events exploring Collaboration, Death, Sex, Age, and European austerity, as well as a week of events and workshops for children aged 8-11 and their families.

Friday night events will explore the themes of Sex, Age and Death including a programme of plays, talks and late night events in the Café Bar, curated by different writers.

Sex – Friday 14 June from 6pm
Curated by E.V. Crowe
Talks, Plays and Events to be announced

Age – Friday 21 June from 6pm
Curated by Penelope Skinner and DC Moore
Talks, Plays and Events to be announced

Death – Friday 12 July from 6pm
Curated by Vivienne Franzmann and Nick Payne
Talks, Plays and Events to be announced

_“There is just one certainty in life. Yes, you’ve guessed it. We are all going to die.
We can delay, obstruct, toy with, retreat from, seek out, avert our eyes, divert our minds, but there are no givens but this, it is all going to end._

“It is arguable that there has never been a worse time to die in the Western World. We, as individuals, are less equipped to deal with the reality of death than ever before; I have to be young, look young, think young. I am important. I can be fixed. I must exist.
By the time we face the reality of death, our minds have spent little time preparing for it.

“It is not the inevitably of death that is interesting, but what we do when death enters our lives, both as living people and dying people.”
Vivienne Franzmann, Playwright

The Big Idea: PIIGS: Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain
A week of events and plays around the five countries in the European Union that have been hit hardest by European austerity. Working with International and UK playwrights to explore the effects of austerity, each evening will include short response plays and verbatim conversations reported, translated and put on stage within 24 hours of them happening. PIIGS will be filmed and live-streamed, available online on the Royal Court website.

“With unemployment reaching almost 30% in Greece, soup kitchens springing up and immigrants being physically assaulted by Neo-Nazis on a daily basis it seems like the right time to put the lives of those affected by the eurozone crisis centre-stage at the Royal Court. Collaborating with writers from the countries on the frontline of austerity and using a variety of theatrical forms we will bring the PIIGS into the heart of London for a week of tragedy, comedy and rage” Alexi Kaye Campbell, Playwright

PIIGS is presented as part of International Playwrights: A Genesis Foundation Project.

PIIGS (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain) Directed by Richard Twyman
Tue 25 – Sat 29 June
PORTUGAL Tuesday 25 June
April De Angelis (London)
Sandra Pinheiro (Lisbon)
Translated by Mark O’Thomas

ITALY Wednesday 26 June
Anders Lustgarten (London)
Fausto Paravidino (Rome)
Translated by Gillian Hanna

IRELAND Thursday 27 June
Kieran Hurley (Glasgow)
Deirdre Kinahan (Dublin)

GREECE Friday 28 June
Andreas Flourakis (Athens)
Alexi Kaye Campbell (London)
Translated by Alexi Kaye Campbell

SPAIN Saturday 29 June
Vanessa Montfort (Madrid)
Alexandra Wood (London)
Translated by William Gregory

Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS
Tuesday-Saturday 7.30pm. Tickets: £10
Age Guidance 14+

The Big Idea: Collaboration. Six writers will work with writer and director Anthony Neilson to explore collaboration through his unique devising style in the rehearsal room.

Rehearsing with Anthony and a company of writers for two weeks, each writer will create a thirty minute devised piece. The results will be presented in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs over three nights. Writers include E.V. Crowe, Vivienne Franzmann, Robin French, Joel Horwood, Janice Okoh and DC Moore.

“I haven’t had many theatrical epiphanies but I did have one watching Penetrator at the Old Red Lion ten years ago in 2003. Despite having studied drama at school and university, seeing Penetrator was the first time that I genuinely realised that you could make drama about everyday life and everyday people (it’s very different to technically know something and viscerally experience it). It led me to ‘Anthony Neilson’s Plays 1’ and I’ve been a fan of his ever since.

“The Wonderful World of Dissocia and Get Santa! were two of the best things I’ve seen at the Royal Court and the way he continues to play with form and narrative is a brilliant gauntlet for people like me who’ve yet to experiment or rough things up in quite the same way. As such, I can’t wait to work with him.”
DC Moore, Playwright

Anthony Neilson’s work at the Royal Court includes Narrative, 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.

Collaboration with Anthony Neilson
Thurs 4 – Sat 6 July 7.30pm
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS
Tickets: £10

The Big Idea: Kids Court. A week of plays, workshops and special events curated by young playwrights aged 8-11.

In the final week of Open Court, the Royal Court grown-up writers will be handing the keys to a group of writers aged 8-11 who are hot on their heels.

The week includes Primetime, plays written by primary aged children, Upfront, where the Royal Court will be staffed by children aged 8-11 for one evening, Happy Hour workshops, VIP Hostage talks, In a Minute – plays created by a local school, Backstage Tours led by Primary School Playwrights and a Family Play in a Day created and performed the same day.

OPEN COURT: KIDS COURT
Tue 16 – Sat 20 July 2013

KIDS COURT: Primetime
Fri 19 July 5pm & Sat 20 July 11am
*Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS
Age Guidance 5+ (Under 14 must be accompanied by an adult)
Tickets: Adults: £10, Children (Under 16): £5

Ten short plays written by 8-11 year olds for the Royal Court’s Young Writers Festival 2012 and the Peckham Young Playwrights Project. Performed as productions in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs by a company of professional actors and directed by Simon Godwin.

KIDS COURT: In a Minute
Wed 17 July 4pm
Royal Court Theatre Café Bar, Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS
Age Guidance 5+ (Under 14 must be accompanied by an adult)
Tickets: Free. Not bookable in advance

Working with a local school, young people aged 8-11 will take part in a project to write a one minute play. The final plays will be performed in the Royal Court Café Bar.

KIDS COURT: Happy Hour – Writing Workshop – Introduction to Playwriting
Wed 17 & Thurs 18 July 5-6pm
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS
Age Guidance 8-11 years
Tickets: £5 (includes entry to VIP Hostage)

A playwriting workshop for young people aged 8-11 years old, run by playwright Vivienne Franzmann.

KIDS COURT: Happy Hour -VIP Hostage
Wed 17 & Thurs 18 July 6.15pm – 7pm
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS
Age Guidance 8-11 years
Tickets: £5

A panel of children will have the chance to take the famous person of their choice hostage, putting them in the hot seat to answer their burning questions.

KIDS COURT: Family Play Day – Family Play in a Day
Saturday 20 July 10am-5pm. (Public Sharing at 5.30pm)
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS
Age Guidance 7+
Tickets: £5 for family workshop. Free for performance at 5.30pm

Families will have the chance to create a play in a day, in a workshop lead by Royal Court Writers. At the end of the day, there will be a chance to perform their new work in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs

KIDS COURT: Family Play Day – Family Writing Workshop
Saturday 20 July 3.30pm-5pm
The Wilson Studio, Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS
Age Guidance 8-11
Tickets: £5

A playwriting workshop for young people aged 8-11 years old and their families, run by writer Nick Payne.

KIDS COURT: Family Play Day – Backstage Tours by Young Writers aged 8-11
Saturday 20 July 1pm, 2pm and 3pm
Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS
Age Guidance 7+
Tickets: Free (but ticketed)

Audiences will have the chance to take a trip around the Royal Court Theatre in a guided tour by young people aged 8-11.

Theatre Local*
Summer 2013*

The Royal Court’s Theatre Local project will continue in Summer 2013 with two new plays outside the building. Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker will take place at the Rose Lipman Building in Haggerston and the National Theatre of Scotland’s production of The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart will take place at the London Welsh Centre near Kings Cross and at the Bussey Building in Peckham.

Theatre Local aims to take plays to alternative spaces. It was launched in 2010 at Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre in an empty shop unit, before transferring to the Bussey Building, Peckham in 2011 where the project continued in 2012.

Circle Mirror Transformation
By Annie Baker
Directed by James Macdonald
Friday 5 July – Saturday 3 Aug 2013
Rose Lipman Building, 43 De Beauvoir Rd, London, N1 5SQ
Press Night, Thursday 11 July 2013, 7pm

“Thanks guys. I think this was a really, really great start.”

Five lost people come together at a community centre class to try and find some meaning in their lives. Counting to ten can be harder than you think.

Over six tangled weeks their lives become knotted together in this tender and funny play.

Cast includes Toby Jones and Imelda Staunton. The production will be directed by James Macdonald, designed by Chloe Lamford with lighting by Peter Mumford and sound by Carolyn Downing.

Toby Jones’s theatre credits include The Painter at the Arcola Theatre, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour at the National Theatre and Parlour Song at the Almeida. Screen credits include The Girl, Titanic and Doctor Who, and on film Berberian Sound Studio, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and the Harry Potter series.

Imelda Staunton’s most recent theatre credits include Sweeney Todd at Chichester Festival Theatre and in the West End, A Delicate Balance and There Came a Gypsy Riding at the Almeida and Entertaining Mr Sloane at Trafalgar Studios. Her varied screen career includes Mike Leigh’s recent triumph Another Year and the Oscar-nominated lead in Vera Drake. On screen, she has also become well known to family audiences playing Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter films.

Annie Baker’s credits include The Aliens, which opened at the Bush Theatre in 2010, starring Ralph Little and MacKenzie Crook, and won Obie Award for Best New American Play at its premiere at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. Other credits include Body Awareness at Atlantic Theater Company, Circle Mirror Transformation at Playwrights Horizons, which also won the Obie Award for Best New American Play, The End Of The Middle Ages and Nocturama. Her latest play The Flick has recently finished a run at Playwrights Horizons in New York.

James Macdonald directs. His previous credits at the Royal Court include Love and Information, Cock, Drunk Enough to Say I Love You, Dying City, Fewer Emergencies, Lucky Dog, Blood, Blasted, 4.48 Psychosis (including European/US tours). He last directed Imelda Staunton in A Delicate Balance at the Almeida. His production of Love and Information will be produced by the New York Theater Workshop in 2014.

THEATRE LOCAL: Circle Mirror Transformation
Fri 5 July – Sat 3 Aug 2013
The Rose Lipman Building, 43 De Beauvoir Rd, London, N1 5SQ Overground: Haggerston
Monday-Saturday 8pm
Press Night: Thursday 11 July 7pm
Saturday Matinee from 13 July 4pm
Wednesday Matinee from 17 July 4pm
Captioned Performance Friday 2 August 8pm
Touch Tour: Tuesday 30 July 6.30pm
Age Guidance 14+
Tickets £20 Mondays all seats £10 (available online at 9am on day of performance)
Concessions £15* (available until Saturday 13 July and all matinees. For all other performances, available on a standby basis on the day)
School and HE Groups of 8+ £10 Tue-Fri and matinees
Access £12 (plus a companion at the same rate)
*ID required. All discounts are subject to availability.

The Royal Court Theatre presents the National Theatre of Scotland’s production of
The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart
Created by David Greig (Writer) and Wils Wilson (Director)
Friday 12 July – Friday 9 Aug 2013
Press Night, Monday 15 July 2013, 7pm
London Welsh Centre, 157-163 Grays Inn Rd, followed by Bussey Building, Peckham

The National Theatre of Scotland’s acclaimed production of The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart will play at the London Welsh Centre, WC1 and CLF Theatre at the Bussey Building in Peckham as part of the Royal Court’s Theatre Local project.

The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart takes theatre into pubs and other unlikely venues, where stories are told, re-told, sung and passed on. Audiences are invited to share a lock-in with the National Theatre of Scotland’s company of actors and musicians and to indulge in an evening of supernatural storytelling, music and theatre inspired by the Border Ballads, Robert Burns and the poems of Robert Service.

The production opened to critical acclaim and full houses at the 2011 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, before embarking on National Theatre of Scotland’s longest ever international tour, spanning three continents.

Created by writer David Greig and director Wils Wilson with designer Georgia McGuinness and composer Alasdair Macrae. The full cast is Annie Grace, Melody Grove, Alasdair Macrae, Paul McCole and David McKay.

One wintry morning Prudencia Hart, an uptight academic, sets off to attend a conference in Kelso, in the Scottish Borders. As the snow begins to fall, little does she know who or what awaits her there. Inspired by the Border Ballads – and delivered in a riotous romp of rhyming couplets, devilish encounters and wild karaoke – Prudencia’s dream-like journey of self-discovery unfolds among and around the audience.

“The bare rolling stretch of country from the North Tyne and Cheviots to the Scottish southern uplands was for a long time the territory of men who spoke English but had the outlook of Afghan tribesmen; they prized a poem almost as much as plunder, and produced such an impressive assembly of local narrative songs that some people used to label all our greater folk poems as ‘Border Ballads” AL Lloyd, ‘Folk Song in England’

The National Theatre of Scotland sent writer David Greig, director Wils Wilson and composer Alasdair Macrae to an old pub in Kelso in the Scottish Borders for the weekend, to research the Border Ballads for a new piece of theatre. It was the coldest winter for many years. Maybe it was the unique atmosphere in the pub that night, or maybe it was the knee deep snow outside, but no one wanted the evening to end, so at midnight the Landlord closed the doors and they found themselves “locked in”. Deep in the wee hours, one old man told a story about another group of people who’d come to look for songs a few years back and of how one of them, a woman, had never after been seen again. It was a story, which he said was ‘one hundred and ten percent true’ a story of love, of music and of the Devil. This was the inspiration for The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart.

David Greig is a playwright, screenwriter and director. His work for the National Theatre of Scotland includes, One Day in Spring, Dunsinane, Peter Pan, The Bacchae and Gobbo. Other recent theatre work includes Yellow Moon, The Monster in the Hall, The American Pilot, Midsummer, Miniskirts of Kabul, Damascus, Pyrenees, San Diego, Outlying Islands and The Cosmonaut’s Last Message to the Woman He Once Loved in the Former Soviet Union. His production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory opens in the West End in 2013.

THEATRE LOCAL: The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart
Fri12 July- Sat 3 Aug 2013
London Welsh Centre, 157-163 Grays Inn Rd, London, WC1X 8UE
Tube and Overground: King’s Cross & St Pancras
Monday-Saturday 8pm
Press Night: Monday 15 Julyl 7pm
Saturday Matinee 3pm (from 20 July)
Captioned Performance: Thursday 1 August 8pm
Touch Tour: Wednesday 31 July 6.30pm
Age Guidance 14+
Tickets £20 Mondays all seats £10 (available online at 9am on day of performance)
Concessions £15* (available until Saturday 20 July and all matinees. For all other performances, available on a standby basis on the day)
School and HE Groups of 8+ £10
Access £12 (plus a companion at the same rate)
Regrettably, there is no wheelchair access at the London Welsh Centre
*ID required. All discounts are subject to availability.

THEATRE LOCAL: The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart
Mon 5 – Fri 9 August 2013
CLF Theatre, Bussey Building, 133 Rye Lane, London, SE15 4ST
Monday-Friday 8pm
Thursday matinee 8 Aug 3pm
Touch Tour: Thursday 8 August 6.30pm
Age Guidance 14+
Tickets £20 Mondays all seats £10 (available online at 9am on day of performance)
Concessions £15* (available until Saturday 20 July and all matinees. For all other performances, available on a standby basis on the day)
School and HE Groups of 8+ £10
Access £12 (plus a companion at the same rate)
There will be a minimum of 30 tickets released each day, available as Pay What You Like from the Bussey Building Box Office from 6.30pm in person only
*ID required. All discounts are subject to availability.

For more information, please contact Anna Evans on 0207 565 5063 annaevans@royalcourttheatre.com

Notes to Editors:

CARRIE CRACKNELL
Carrie Cracknell will be Associate Director at the Royal Court from April 2013.
From 2007 until January 2012 she was Artistic Director of the Gate Theatre.
At the Gate Theatre her credits included: Electra, Breathing Irregular, Hedda, Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat, The Sexual Neuroses of Our Parents (all Gate Theatre), I Am Falling (Gate Theatre and Sadler’s Wells – nominated for Southbank Show Award).
Directing includes: A Doll’s House (Young Vic), for which she was nominated as Best Director in the Evening Standard Awards, Elektra (Young Vic) Dolls (National Theatre of Scotland) Stacy (The Tron, Glasgow); A Mobile Thriller (National Tour and The Harbourfront, Toronto) Winner Herald Angel Award; Broken Road (British Council Showcase) Winner Fringe First Award; Death and The City (The Tron); The Hush (BAC and The Ohio Theatre, New York) Macbeth (Djanogly Theatre, Nottingham).
She is currently Associate Director at the Young Vic, and Genesis Fellow 2012/13.

SIMON GODWIN
Simon Godwin will continue as Associate Director at the Royal Court, a post he has held since 2012. His credits at the Royal Court include If You Don’t Let Us Dream, We Won’t Let You Sleep by Anders Lustgarten, NSFW by Lucy Kirkwood, The Witness by Vivienne Franzmann, Goodbye to All That by Luke Norris, The Acid Test by Anya Reiss, Wanderlust by Nick Payne. Other credits include Krapp’s Last Tape/A Kind Of Alaska, The Faith Healer, Far Away (Bristol Old Vic); The Winter’s Tale (Headlong with Nuffield Theatre and Schtanhaus, UK tour);
Simon is currently Associate Artist of Bristol Old Vic.
JOHN TIFFANY
John Tiffany will be Associate Director at the Royal Court from April 2013.
His work for the National Theatre of Scotland includes Macbeth, Enquirer, The Missing, Peter Pan, The House of Bernarda Alba, Transform Caithness: Hunter, Be Near Me, Nobody Will Ever Forgive Us, The Bacchae, Black Watch, for which he won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director, as well as a Critics’ Circle Award for Best Director, Elizabeth Gordon Quinn and Home: Glasgow.

Recent work includes Once (New York Theater Workshop, Broadway and the West End). For Once John won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical, a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical, an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical and an Obie Award.

He was Associate Director at the National Theatre of Scotland from 2005 to 2012.
Open Court and Theatre Local are supported by

Bloomberg, the global business and financial information and news leader, gives influential decision makers a critical edge by connecting them to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas. The company’s strength-delivering data, news and analytics through innovative technology, quickly and accurately-is at the core of the Bloomberg Professional service, which provides real time financial information to more than 300,000 subscribers globally.

Through our philanthropy programme, we help charities and non-profit organisations around the world with education and literacy programmes, health and medical research, social work, arts and culture, public parks and the environment.

 
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 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. 

Weekly Rep writers Suhayla El-Bushra, Clare Lizzimore, and Alistair McDowall are part of the Royal Court’s Jerwood New Playwrights programme, funded by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation, which aims to discover and support the next generation of world class UK playwrights. Responding to the format of the Open Court season, the Programme takes a unique approach in supporting three short runs of these writers’ plays instead of one full length production run.  

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

The President Has Come To See You by Lasha Bugadze, presented as part of the Weekly Rep and PIIGS are part of International Playwrights: A Genesis Foundation Project, with additional support from the British Council

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

The President Has Come To See You by Lasha Bugadze, presented as part of the Weekly Rep is supported by British Council Wider Europe. For more information on the British Council and its work, please visit www.britishcouncil.org.

The Rose Lipman Building is a creative project space in Hackney programmed by The Mill Co. Project and Create London.

Create London’s 2013 activities at the Rose Lipman Building include; Open School East, Theatre Rite’s production Bank on It and a series of Create London talks. Details of further events, exhibitions, and open days will be announced soon. The Rose Lipman Building is supported by Create London, The Mill Co. Project and the Barbican.

The Mill Co. Project is a social enterprise scheme providing affordable creative work space for the local independent creative community, workshops and events and

Create London commissions and produces multi-disciplinary art projects in east London, which extend the barriers of socially engaged practice. Their conviction is in the power of art to make a positive contribution to our daily lives, encouraging debate, constructive change and social progress.

The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart is a National Theatre of Scotland production

Since its launch in February 2006, the National Theatre of Scotland, (previously led by Vicky Featherstone, new Artistic Director of the Royal Court, and now led by Laurie Sansom) has been involved in creating over 189 productions in 162 different locations. With no building of its own, the Company takes theatre all over Scotland and beyond, working with existing and new venues and companies to create and tour theatre of the highest quality. It takes place in the great buildings of Scotland, but also in site-specific locations, airports and tower blocks, community halls and drill halls, ferries and forests. The National Theatre of Scotland has performed to over 830,000 people across four continents. www.nationaltheatrescotland.com

The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart will be at the London Welsh Centre

The London Welsh Centre is a cultural and social hub offering a variety of events and activities throughout the year, where there is truly a warm welcome for everyone. We are proud to share our rich heritage and to offer a little corner of ‘Cymru’ in Central London. http://www.londonwelsh.org/

The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart will be at the CLF Theatre at the Bussey Building

The CLF Art Cafe and Warehouse Lounge is a Multi-level Warehouse space, curated by Mickey Smith, dedicated to pushing the boundaries of creativity in music, film, animation, art, theatre and dance, championing progression, experimentation and improvisation.