PLAYING WITH GROWN UPS Opens Tonight as Part of Brits Off Broadway

59E59 Theaters welcomes KPS Productions, in association with the Pleasance Theatre in Edinburgh to Brits Off Broadway & supported by Jersey Arts Trust, with PLAYING WITH GROWN UPS by Hannah Patterson, directed by Hannah Eidinow. PLAYING WITH GROWN UPS began performances on Tuesday, April 29 for a limited engagement through Sunday, May 18. Press opening is today, Tuesday, May 6 at 7:15 PM. The performance schedule is Tuesday - Thursday at 7:15 PM; Friday at 8:15 PM; Saturday at 2:15 PM and 8:15 PM; and Sunday at 3:15 PM and 7:15 PM. Performances are at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street, between Park and Madison Avenues). Tickets are $35 ($24.50 for 59E59 Members). To purchase tickets, call Ticket Central at (212) 279- 4200 or visit www.59e59.org.

Late thirties, careers under their belts and a new baby just arrived. Isn't that what everybody wants? Faced with the reality of her new life, Joanna tries to make sense of the events and decisions, which lead her to this point. Full of regret, with a husband who's pretending that everything's fine, the last thing she needs is her ex-lover turning up with an unexpected guest. Or maybe it's exactly what she needs.

Called a "cocktail of pathos, wit and dramatic intensity" by British Theatre Guide, PLAYING WITH GROWN UPS is a wry, provocative look at what it is to be a woman today, in a society that tells us we can have it all and our ambitions can be unlimited, all we need to do is "Lean In."

The cast for PLAYING WITH GROWN UPS features Alan Cox (Cornelius at Brits Off Broadway at 59E59), Daisy Hughes (Richard III with the Royal Shakespeare Company), Trudi Jackson (Road Rage at the Arcola, Miramax's The Libertine), and Mark Rice-Oxley (Mark Ravenhill's Pool, No Water with Frantic Assembly).

The design team includes Simon Scullion (set design); Nicholas Holdridge (lighting design); and Natalie Pryce (costume design). The Production Stage Manager is Raynelle Wright.

Hannah Patterson's (playwright) debut play MUCH premiered at The c*ckTavern, directed by Hannah Eidinow. One act plays The Editor and Self-Help have been performed at Hampstead and the Pleasance, in association with The Factory, Invincible Summer at The Union, and Charity Begins at Home at Waterloo Theatre East. The Weakness in Me and AID were both winners of the one-act Spearpoint New Plays Project, run by the Jersey Arts Trust in association with Old Vic, New Voices. Having taken part in a Paines Plough residency, she has written and performed Résistantes as part of their 'Come to Where I'm From' series. Playing with Grown Ups has been nominated for an Off West End Award for Best New Play and the Susan Smith Blackburn Award. As a writer for film, she is currently adapting MUCH with Outsider Films and is in development with her World War Two feature Resistance, which won the Galway Film Fleadh Pitching Award. She has written several shorts for RADA Films, and been invited to participate with projects on the Edinburgh International Film Festival Talent Lab, the London Film Festival's Think-Shoot-Distribute, Creative England's Triangle program and the LA CineStory Screenwriting Lab. She has also written about film for magazines and newspapers including Sight & Sound, The International Film Guide and The Guardian, and commissioned and contributed to a series of publications about cinema.

Hannah Eidinow (director) is a multi-award winning director, including five Scotsman Fringe First Awards at the Edinburgh Festival for An Instinct for Kindness (Edinburgh Festival 2011; UK Tour & Trafalgar Studios 2012; LitLive, the Mumbai LitFest; recipient of the Argus Angel Award 2012; nominated for Best Solo Performance Whatsonstage Awards 2012); Somewhere Beneath it All, A Small Fire Burns Still (Edinburgh Festival 2011); Lockerbie: Unfinished Business (Edinburgh Festival 2010; UK Tour); What I Heard About Iraq (Edinburgh Festival 2006; UK Tour & Arts Theatre, West End 2007); and Gone (Edinburgh Festival 2004; New Ambassadors 2004; Guardian Best Fringe Play). She was recipient of the 2010 Vauxhall Collective Award for Theatre. Further credits include: Playing with Grown Ups by Hannah Patterson (Theatre 503); Maurice's Jubilee by Nichola McAuliffe (ATG No. 1 UK Tour 2013; Edinburgh Festival 2012, "Best Actress" Stage Award for Nichola McAuliffe); Hand Over Fist by Dave Florez (Edinburgh Festival 2012, nominated for Best Solo Performance Stage Award); A British Subject by Nichola McAuliffe (Arts Theatre 2011; Edinburgh Festival & Brits Off Broadway 2009); The Lady From The Sea, a new version by Frank McGuinness starring Lia Williams (Arcola, Sunday Times and Guardian Top Theatre Pick; BBC Radio 3 with Hugh Bonneville); plays by Anthony Neilson, April de Angelis, Dave Florez, Lucy Kirkwood, and Mike McShane in The Terror Season 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 (Southwark Playhouse and Soho Theatre); compiled, edited and directed text for Five Minutes to Midnight, a premiere conceived by Damon Albarn with Brian Eno (Greenpeace 2007); New Israeli Political Drama Platform Series (Royal National Theatre); Holding Hands at Paschendale, a premiere of a new play by Martin Lynch (Lyric Theatre Belfast and Northern Ireland tour 2006).