CHALK FARM to Receive US Premiere at Brits Off Broadway, Begin. 5/21

59E59 Theaters has introduced ThickSkin to New York with the US premiere of CHALK FARM, written by Kieran Hurley & AJ Taudevin, and directed by Neil Bettles. Part of Brits Off Broadway, CHALK FARM begins performances on Wednesday, May 21 for a limited engagement through Sunday, June 8. Press opening is Wednesday, May 28 at 7:30 PM. The performance schedule is Tuesday - Thursday at 7:30 PM; Friday at 8:30 PM; Saturday at 2:30 PM & 8:30 PM; and Sunday at 3:30 PM & 7:30 PM. Performances are at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street, between Park and Madison Avenues). Tickets are $25 ($17.50 for 59E59 Members). To purchase tickets, call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200 or visit www.59e59.org.

An explosive new play centered around the aftermath of the 2011 London riots, CHALK FARM offers an uncompromising and ultimately heartbreaking examination of a fractured society. The relationship between a single mother and her teenage son is tested when she confronts him about his involvement in the looting of the Chalk Farm Estates.

Enhanced by rapid-fire multi-media elements and cutting edge trance music, CHALK FARM packs a powerful punch. It was called 'brilliant, sharp, poetic, passionate, full of searing insight into the politics of blame' by The Scotsman when it premiered at the 2013 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. It subsequently transferred to London's Bush Theatre as part of the Radar Festival this past fall.

The cast features Thomas Dennis and Julia Taudevin.

The design team includes Simon Wilkinson (lighting design) and Neil Bettles (production design). The Production Stage Manager is James Steele.

Neil Bettles (director) is co-founder and Artistic Director of ThickSkin. Directing credits for ThickSkin include: Chalk Farm, The Static (winner of the Scottish Theatre Award and ThreeWeeks Editors' Award), Blackout (winner of The Arches Brick Award), Overture and These Imagined Stories. Co-direction for ThickSkin includes Boy Magnet and White Noise. As Associate Director / Choreographer: Blood Wedding and The Bacchae (The Royal & Derngate's Festival of Chaos). For Frantic Assembly, Neil was Associate Director of Beautiful Burnout and Lovesong, and Assistant Director of Dirty Wonderland. As Associate Choreographer: The Full Monty (Sheffield Theatres) and The Light Princess (the National Theatre). Other directing credits include: Playlist for the Belgrade Theatre Coventry and Brave for BAC Homegrown. Other movement direction includes: Much Ado About Wenlock (Vamos Theatre); Platform (Old Vic New Voices); Henry IV Part One (Drum Theatre Plymouth); One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Secret Cinema); Stanley Pickle an animated short film (NFTS, winner of 31 awards worldwide). As Video Designer: In An Alien Landscape (Birds of Paradise).

Kieran Hurley (co-writer) is an award-winning writer, performer, and theater maker based in Glasgow whose work has been presented internationally and throughout the U.K. His monologue Beats was developed with the Arches Platform 18 Award and was awarded Best New Play at the Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland (CATS) before being presented at the Traverse Theatre during the Edinburgh Fringe. Other recent work includes: Hitch (Arches, Forest Fringe, CATS Best New Play nominee); Rantin (National Theatre of Scotland/The Arches); and a number of short mini-plays including London 2012: Glasgow (Theatre Uncut) and Belcoo (Royal Court, Open Court Festival). Kieran is currently writer in residence with the National Theatre of Scotland as recipient of the Pearson Playwrights' Scheme bursary.

As a writer, AJ Taudevin (co-writer) plays include: Some Other Mother (Tron Theatre), The 12:57 (Theatre Uncut); and The Jeans Jacques Rousseau Show, Demons, and The Deficit Show (Òran Mór, A Play, a Pie, and a Pint); and The YelloWing (Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival). Later this year her play Mrs Barbour's Daughters will premiere at the Òran Mór in Glasgow and in 2015 Blow Off will open the Tron Theatre's spring season before transferring to the Traverse Theatre. She was artist in residence at the Tron Theatre and one of the Traverse Fifty writers in 2013. She won the Playwrights' Studio Scotland New Playwrights Award in 2010. As an actor, Julia Taudevin's theatre credits include Rantin (National Theatre of Scotland), The Knight Of The Burning Pestle (Royal National Theatre), The Rivals (Wimbledon Theatre), Much Ado About Nothing (Greenwich Park Open Air Theatre), Hannah & Hanna (Catherine Wheels) and The Lord Of The Flies (TNT). Her screen credits include the feature film Sunshine On Leith and The Glasgow Girls for BBC3.

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