Script-in-hand performances of a new play by Lucy Kirkwood, co-directed by Royal Court Theatre Artistic Director Vicky Featherstone and Royal Court Associate Directors Milli Bhatia and Lucy Morrison.
About Maryland:
“This play was for many years a private conversation with myself. The horrific murders of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman in 2020 and Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa this year have galvanised me into making it public. I hesitate to even call it a play when it is simply a howl, a way of expressing what I feel about a culture of violence against women, but I am sharing it because I wonder if it might express a little of what other people feel about it too. It was written very quickly, and I am grateful to the Royal Court for snatching up a gauntlet thrown down last Friday night with such energy, care and seriousness.“ Playwright Lucy Kirkwood
“Sometimes you don’t know what you need until it arrives like a bolt from the blue and things are turned upside down. This is what happened to us at the Royal Court when Lucy Kirkwood’s play Maryland arrived in our inboxes on Friday night. Since then we have all stepped up to her extraordinary rallying cry and are able to give her voice our space in search of some kind of understanding, howl, communal event in light of the horrific actions still being committed against all women and victims of gendered violence.
We all live in the same world, hear the same news, share the same existential fears and longings. Some people specialise in tending to our health, and some people tend to our roads and buildings, and some people tend to the food we eat and some people teach us to read and write and some people move important things from a to b. And then there are some other people who sit in the same world as us but with their pattern of words and ideas show that world back to us in a way which momentarily stops us feeling so alone, so fearful, so lost. There is order. There is hope. This is what this tiny enormous play does. This is what the Royal Court is for. This is what art is for.
We are so proud to be stepping up. We are devastated we still have to.”
Vicky Featherstone
The Maryland Casts
21 – 23 October
Shiloh Coke, John Heffernan, Wendy Kweh, Stephanie Street, Letty Thomas, and Hara Yannas
The chorus of Furies are Naomi Denny, Shadi Hamta, and Rosie Thackeray
18 – 20 October
Taj Atwal, Edyta Budnik, Seroca Davis, Nick Fletcher, Reece Lyons, and Nadia Nadarajah
The chorus of Furies are Naomi Ankrah, Winnie Imara, and Kim Teresa Marsh
15 – 16 October
John Heffernan, Beth Hinton-Lever, Amaka Okafor, Danusia Samal, Eileen Walsh and Gabby Wong
The chorus of Furies are Queenie Saoul, Irene Saviozzi, and Mei Leng Yew
13 – 14 October
John Heffernan, Jennifer Joseph, Amy Morgan, Gloria Obianyo, Dawn Sievewright and Anjana Vasan
The chorus of Furies are Muminah Abdullah, Maureen Ferry and Aisling Towl
11 – 12 October
Nadia Albina, John Heffernan, Katie Leung, Rebekah Murrell, Rochenda Sandall, Kiran Sonia Sawar
The chorus of Furies are Heidi Carmichael, Sarah Farrell and Lydia Luke
7 – 9 October
Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo, Ayesha Dharker, Lisa Hammond, John Heffernan, Mariah Louca, and Jodie McNee
The chorus of Furies are Daniella Harrison, Lucy Donald and Sharon John
Find out more about other performances of Maryland across the UK:
Crescent Theatre, Birmingham – Saturday 20th November, 3pm and 6pm
Lantern Theatre, Brighton – Saturday 27th November, 7.30pm
Bury Theatre Workshop, Bury St Edmunds – Saturday 20th November, 4.30pm
The Aphra Theatre, Canterbury – Sunday November 21st, 6pm
Southside Community Centre, Edinburgh – Saturday 20th November, 7pm and 8.30pm
Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh – Wednesday 24th (7pm) and Thursday 25th (1pm and 7pm)
Tower Theatre, London – Sunday 21st November, 6pm
Questors Theatre, London – Saturday 27th November, 8:30pm
Theatre Royal Stratford East, London – Thursday 25 November, 7pm and 8.30pm
South London Theatre, London – Sunday 21st November, 8pm and 9.30pm
Bread and Roses Theatre, London -25th November, 7:30pm
The Edge Theatre & Arts Centre, Manchester – Sunday 21 November 7pm and 8.30pm
Royal Grammar School – Wednesday 24th November, 7pm
Nonsuch Studios, Nottingham -Thursday 25th November 7:30pm
Quay Theatre, Sudbury – Sunday 21st November 6pm
Friargate Theatre, York – Friday 26 November 6.30pm and 8.30pm
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs
Mon – Sat: 7.45pm
Running time: 30 mins
Captioned: 14 Oct, 18, 19, 20 & 22 Oct at 7.45pm
Tickets: £5
As we’d usually charge £12 for each ticket, but are charging £5 we’d ask you to donate the £7 difference to Rape Crisis England & Wales charity here if you are able to.
Rape Crisis England & Wales is the umbrella organisation for a network of independent Rape Crisis Centres who provide a range of specialist services for women and girls that have been raped or experienced any form of sexual violence – whether as adults or as children. Find out more here
