Citizens Theatre Announces 2019 Season, Putting Women Center Stage - NORA: A DOLL'S HOUSE, and More!

The Citizens Theatre has announced a new season of work by women writers that will put women centre stage.

2019 will be dedicated to showcasing the extraordinary and wide-ranging talent of professional and community women theatre-makers in Glasgow and throughout Scotland; and the power of performance to transform lives. All productions announced today will also be directed by women.

The Citizens is committed to diversity in all areas of its work. It has developed an expertise and reputation working with vulnerable women in Glasgow. Therefore, in 2019 it will give a platform to the inspiring stories and journeys of the remarkable women participants it engages with.

Further projects and collaborations will be announced throughout the year.

The 2019 season will include:

Nora: A Doll's House: A new commission by Olivier Award-winning Stef Smith (Swallow, Girl in the Machine, Human Animals) that radically re-examines Ibsen's famous play for contemporary audiences. Telling Nora's story from the turn of the century, through women's suffrage and the swinging sixties to today, this bold and urgent new interpretation by one of Scotland's most talked about playwrights will be directed by Elizabeth Freestone (Artistic Associate at English Touring Theatre).

The Duchess [of Malfi]: A new adaptation written and directed by Zinnie Harris (Rhinoceros, Oresteia: This Restless House). Winner of the 2017 CATS Best Director award and a 2017 Herald Angel award, Harris will direct this Jacobean revenge tragedy of bloody treachery that explores male rage and female resistance in a new contemporary setting. A co-production with Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh.

Fibres: A funny and touching play written by Frances Poet (Adam, Gut). With Glaswegian humour and shocking frankness it tells the story of the terrible legacy of asbestosis in the Clyde shipyards and a daughter's attempt to overcome her grief. The play is a co-production with award-winning Scottish theatre company Stellar Quines and will be directed by Artistic Director and Chief Executive, Jemima Levick.

What Girls Are Made Of: Cora Bissett's autobiographical indie-pop play that was a huge hit at this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe will be part of the Citizens Theatre's residency season at Tramway as it embarks on a Scottish tour.

Artistic Director of Citizens Theatre, Dominic Hill, introduces the 2019 season:
"The shows I have chosen for 2019 are both a response to the current media debates regarding empowerment and equality for women, and what I feel is the most exciting and ambitious work that we should be presenting to audiences in Scotland. We are delighted to be working with Stef Smith and Zinnie Harris who bring radical perspectives on classic texts and Frances Poet who will premiere a new play that will particularly resonate with Glasgow audiences. Three fantastic playwrights and three gripping stories that are relevant today. We will also put a spotlight on the brilliant work that our Learning team deliver with women in marginalised communities who, through our projects, become inspiring theatre-makers in their own right."

The Citizens Learning team is committed to enhancing the lives of people of all ages and backgrounds. 2019's programme will showcase a number of projects with a focus on women, including:

Since 2012, the Citizens Learning team has delivered a creative residency at the Chara Centre, a residential service supporting women who are experiencing homelessness. A team of artists lead weekly multi-artform sessions which include creative writing, performance skills, songwriting and costume-making, culminating in performances devised and written by the women residing at the Centre. The group also create a magazine, The C Word, which is written and designed by the women at the Centre. This project is supported by Comic Relief and Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership.

Elly Goodman, Community Drama Artist for the Citizens Theatre explains,
"We believe that our artistic intervention has generated positive change and personal development for the women we have engaged with. It is vital that the arts are recognised for the tools they provide to those who seek to take charge of and rebuild their lives. Over the years, our projects and performances have shown that the women we work with are capable of truly astonishing and inspiring journeys, making themselves better placed to step forward into self-determined life-paths filled with positivity and hope."

In addition, our Young Co. will be presenting two shows touring to secondary schools in 2019. Working in partnership with Sense Over Sectarianism, Scarfed For Life written by Martin Travers will be directed by Lauren Mitchell, a former Young Co. member. Empty - a piece devised by the company that explores social and emotional pressure in teenage relationships - is the second part of Scratched Love (Young Start: National Lottery Funded), the first part of which was written by Catriona McNicoll during her time with the company.

Many other strands of the Learning team's work will respond to the Citizens Women theme including drama classes for 4-18 year olds, our Community Collective weekly drama drop-in and our play-reading workshops for seniors, Off the Page. School workshops and masterclasses will also focus on the role of women within the arts.

Nora: A Doll's House, What Girls Are Made Of and The Duchess [of Malfi] will be presented at Tramway. Tickets for Nora: A Doll's House and What Girls Are Made Of will go on sale on Tuesday 4 December, 10am. Tickets for The Duchess [of Malfi] will go on sale on Monday 7 January, 10am. Available from the Citizens Theatre Box Office on 0141 429 0022 or citz.co.uk

This season of work in 2019 joins the already announced The Dark Carnival - a music and theatre spectacle performed by Vanishing Point and A New International. A co-production with Vanishing Point in association with Dundee Rep Ensemble.

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