National Theatre Wales Present COTTON FINGERS and FOR ALL I CARE at Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2019

For All I Care, performed by Welsh actress Hannah Daniel, best known for Hinterland, Holby City and Keeping Faith and here making her Fringe debut, and written by Alan Harris, whose previous highly acclaimed work presented at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe includes Sugar Baby and How My Light is Spent, is one of two productions from National Theatre Wales to be performed at Summerhall throughout Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2019.

Fast moving, touching and funny, Harris's script explores one woman's experience of mental health as For All I Care sees two individuals meet in Tredegar - birthplace of the National Health Service - amid interweaving, unexpected connections and collisions.

Jac Ifan Moore, acclaimed co-director of PowderHouse, directs the work in Edinburgh.

Clara and Nyri. Two very different women. Two complicated lives. Both having a very bad day.

Mental health nurse Nyri's woken up hungover with a younger man. Meanwhile, Clara has developed a compulsive wink and can't remember if she's taken her meds.

Nyri needs to get to Ebbw Vale Hospital via Greggs, and Clara is dodging signs telling her - rather rudely - to kill herself, so she can get cracking with her shoplifting list for The Devil.

Written by author and playwright Rachel Trezise at the time of the historic referendum which saw a landslide result to repeal the 8th amendment in the Republic of Ireland, Cotton Fingers is a blisteringly relevant and politically charged story of one woman's journey to end her pregnancy told with powerful insight and the humour of a life being lived through difficult times shining out.

In the USA several southern states have recently voted to restrict or ban terminations. And here at home in the UK, Northern Ireland still blocks free access to abortion. A recent report found there has been a 22% rise in women from Northern Ireland seeking abortions in the UK. This timely story is set in Belfast and follows a young woman making the journey to Wales to access free NHS abortion care.

Cotton Fingers was originally performed in west Wales, in venues close to the port town of Fishguard, where Irish ferries dock.

Winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize for her first short fiction collection, Cotton Fingers is the third production of a Trezise play by National Theatre Wales.

Northern Irish actress Amy Molloy - whose recent stage credits include the award-winning Abbey Theatre and Royal Court production of Cyprus Avenue, originating the role of Julie and starring alongside Stephen Rea in Dublin, London, Belfast and New York (2016-2019); and Tea Set at Pleasance Courtyard (Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2015) - brings her critically acclaimed performance in Cotton Fingers to the Edinburgh stage.

Julia Thomas, National Theatre Wales' Associate Director, directs this bold one-woman show about the cycles of secrecy and the power young women hold over their futures.

Through a complex, multi-layered narrative the nuances and the complexities of the journey the play takes us on are woven into a truly compelling experience. Illuminated with warm and cutting humour, and with the doubts and strength of the young woman whose tale we follow shared with honesty and compassion, Cotton Fingers is an unmissable piece of theatre.

Aoife is hungry and in need of something to do.

Cillian makes a mean cheese toastie.

As Aoife's boredom and hunger are satisfied by half an hour in Cillian's bed, her life changes forever.

As social and political upheaval grips the country she loves, can Aoife regain control over her future?

These "Love Letters to the NHS" both premiered in July 2018 as part of the NHS70 Festival, National Theatre Wales celebration of the Service's 70th birthday

For the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2019, Cotton Fingers is presented as part of the British Council Edinburgh Showcase 2019; For All I Care is presented as part of This is Wales - Edinburgh showcase.

National Theatre Wales is a multi-award-winning theatre company that has been making English Language productions in locations across Wales, the UK and internationally and online since 2010.

Previously National Theatre Wales shows which have appeared at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Festival are Dark Philosophers, Wonderman and Bradley Manning - a play about the American soldier convicted of releasing US state secrets to Wikileaks. The show was the first play to win the James Tait Black prize for drama at the festival.

Tickets are now on sale for both Cotton Fingers and For All I Care.

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