In a press statement, artistic director Vicky Featherstone stated, "The plays in this season seem to be all about society – the big themes of how we live together as a community in an ordered way with shared laws, morals and desires and the challenges that brings. The work over the next few months continues our commitment to make questioning and challenging theatre, with the writers giving us insight into the world around us in morally complex and innovative ways."
Michael Wynne's Who Cares will begin performances April 10, prior to an official opening April 20, for a run through May 16. Directed by Debbie Hannan, Lucy Morrison and Hamish Pirie, who will each direct parts of the production, this standing, promenade performance takes place in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs as well as hidden spaces around the building.
Over the past 18 months Wynne has interviewed nurses, doctors, paramedics, historians, policy makers and politicians up and down the country, gathering an unrivaled collection of verbatim testimonies from those connected to every aspect of the U.K.'s public National Health Service (NHS).
Featherstone commented,"The NHS has become one of the most criticised yet vital parts of our society and the debate around it will play an important part in the run up to the election. It is timely and thrilling that Michael Wynne has been collating this extraordinary verbatim material over the last 18 months in order to create this moving and incisive play which will take us on a journey throughout the entire building of the Royal Court. At its heart the question – do we deserve our NHS?"
The cast includes Philip Arditti, Robert Bathurst, Elizabeth Berrington, Paul Hickey, Martina Laird, Nathaniel Martello-White and Eileen O’Brien. Debbie tucker green's hang will begin performances June 11 prior to an official opening June 16, for a run through July 18. In the play, a crime has been committed. The victim has a choice to make. The criminal is waiting.
Featherstone commented, "Hang is a morally challenging and taut three-hander with Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Clare Rushbrook. It is an honour to welcome debbie back to the Royal Court and be a part of her journey as an artist. Hang looks at the very difficult relationship between a victim and the perpetrator of a crime, and how we can live once our personal security has been undermined."
Green’s previous plays for the Royal Court include truth and reconciliation (which she also directed), random (subsequently filmed for Channel 4, for which she won a BAFTA for Best Single Drama) and stoning mary. Other plays include nut, generations, trade and born bad (for which she won an Olivier Award). Her debut feature film "Second Coming," which she has written and directed, stars Nadine Marshall and Idris Elba and is released later this year.
Gary Owen's Violence and Son will begin performances June 3 in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, prior to an official opening June 8, for a run through July 11. The play, which will be directed by Hamish Pirie, is described as an intimate new play about what parents pass on and trying to do the right thing. Owen, who makes his Royal Court debut with the play, has previously written Iphigenia in Splott, Love Steals Us From Loneliness, Crazy Gary's Mobile Disco, The Shadow of a Boy, The Drowned World, Ghost City, Cancer Time, SK8, Big Hopes, In the Pipeline, Blackthorn, Mary Twice, Amgen:Broken, Bulletproof, The Ugly Truth and Free Folk.
Nick Payne's Constellations, first staged in 2012 in the Theatre Upstairs, will be revived for a U.K. tour, beginning performances May 14 at Woking's New Victoria Theatre, then visiting Liverpool, Bristol, Southampton, Salford Quays, Cambridge, London's Rochmond Theatre and Brighton.
To book tickets, contact the box office on 020 7565 50000 or visit www.royalcourttheatre.com.
