Broadway is sorely lacking when it comes to women-penned plays, but the Royal Court’s new season is a bright spot amid lots of bad news about women in theater. “Two thirds of the writers and directors are women across the season at the London venue,” The Stage reports.
The influential theater’s upcoming season includes Natal’ya Vorozhbit’s “Bad Roads,” a Ukraine-set story about women’s lives during war, and the memorably-titled debut play of Anoushka Warden, “My Mum’s a Twat,” an exploration of growing up with a mother who was a cult member. Both of these productions will be helmed by Vicky Featherstone, Royal Court’s Artistic Director.
“Having had an extraordinary first half of 2017 at the Royal Court where some of Britain’s major world class theater artists have made remarkable, landmark work, this autumn we invite emerging writers from across the world to make radical new work for Britain,” said Featherstone. “From Syria, Ukraine, Argentina, and the U.S., these writers — all women — are writing about conflict, radicalism and justice. Whether it is the impact of war on women as in ‘Bad Roads’ by Natal’ya Vorozhbit or the lies and bribes used to quieten the families losing their sons in Syria in Liwaa Yazji’s ‘Goats,’ these plays are hewn from the need to magnify, to tell, and to deepen our understanding of the often closed off stories and lives that we only witness filtered through news channels.”
Two recent studies revealed that a glass ceiling exists for female execs working for nonprofit, or residential, theaters and women and people of color are being shut out of theater jobs in Broadway and off-Broadway productions.
Tickets for the Royal Court’s new season go on sale to the general public on July 13. Find more information about the lineup and tickets over at the theater’s site.
Check out the complete lineup for the upcoming season below, courtesy of The Stage.
Minefield by Lola Arias
Directed by Lola Arias
November 2 to 11, press night November 3
Bad Roads by Natal’ya Vorozhbit, translated by Sasha Dugdale
Directed by Vicky Featherstone
November 15 to December 23, press night November 22
Goats by Liwaa Yazji, translated by Katharine Halls
Directed by Hamish Pirie
November 24 to December 30, press night December 1
Grimly Handsome by Julia Jarcho
Production created by Sam Pritchard and Chloe Lamford
December 6 to 23, press night December 9
My Mum’s a Twat by Anoushka Warden
Directed by Vicky Featherstone
January 8 to 20, 2018, press night January 9
Rita, Sue and Bob Too by Andrea Dunbar
Directed by Max Stafford-Clark
January 9 to 27, press night January 11
Gundog by Simon Longman
Directed by Vicky Featherstone
January 31 to March 10, press night February 7
Girls and Boys by Dennis Kelly
Directed by Lyndsey Turner
February 8 to March 10, press night February 15
Black Men Walking by Testament
Directed by Dawn Walton
March 21 to April 7, press night March 22
