The first, entitled Britain Isn't Eating, is a collaboration between Royal Court playwright Laura Wade and director Carrie Cracknell, and The Guardian's social affairs correspondent Amelia Gentleman and food writer and blogger Jack Monroe. It is available to watch on TheGuardian.com now.
The micro-plays, which will each be around five minutes long, are intended to respond to key areas of Guardian coverage. Royal Court theatre-makers have drawn upon the specialist expertise of the Guardian’s feature writers, columnists and editors for the plays.
Britain Isn't Eating explores food banks and our obsession with cookery shows. The cast includes Katherine Parkinson and Kyle Soller.
Subsequent micro-plays cover music, fashion, politics, sport and education, and casts will include Rafe Spall, Tobias Menzies and Ruby Ashbourne Serkis. Other creatives involved are playwrights Rachel De-lahay, Robin French, Chloe Moss, Tim Price and Roy Williams and directors Clint Dyer, Christopher Haydon, Gbolahan Obisesan, Hamish Pirie and Bijan Sheibani. Guardian journalists taking part include Aditya Chakrabortty, Hadley Freeman, Barney Ronay, Michael Rosen and John Harris, whose article on England’s identity crisis was an early inspiration for the project.
In a press statement, Chris Wiegand, Stage editor of Guardian News & Media, commented, "Over the past few years there has been a huge transformation in Guardian journalism – we are responding to stories in more ways and in more depth than ever before. Our project with the Royal Court allows us to interpret current affairs in a new, informed and really creative fashion. The micro-plays are a true extension of our journalism. We’ve brought together some fantastically talented people and set them quite a challenge – with the names involved, I know these six pieces will be witty, smart and hard-hitting." The second microplay, on the subject of music, will be launched Nov. 20. The remaining four films will appear online over the following fortnight, and the full series will be screened at a Guardian Membership event at the Royal Court Dec. 5.
