Inside Intelligence to Bring PRODUCT to the Arcola Theatre This Spring

Product by Mark Ravenhill will play the Arcola Theatre, 24 Ashwin Street, Dalston, London E8 3DL from Monday 27th April to Saturday 23rd May 2015. Press night: Tuesday 5th May, 8pm.

Mark Ravenhill's satirical and ferocious monologue Product interrogates the media's response to terrorism, exploring society's desperate need for a narrative and its insistence on finding closure. Olivia Poulet (The Thick of It and In The Loop) once again packs a powerful punch playing Leah in this first revival.

Product tells the story of a producer, pitching a dire script about a 9/11 widow who falls in love with a Muslim suicide bomber -- a beautiful wounded man, a dark stranger, a sublime passion, a nightmare and a suicide pact. Ravenhill's perfectly observed satire of Hollywood's worst cliche?s spikily undercuts the producer's sycophantic pitch.

Olivia Poulet as Leah smothers the imagined actor, Julia, with false flattery. Posh, poised and luvvie-ish, she conveys both the monstrousness and the fragility of Leah, whose smooth patter, easy sycophancy and asides like 'we've got Gucci onboard', 'we've got Versace onboard' belie the fact she is obviously terrified of this pitch failing (Time Out).

It's a brilliant premise, and Ravenhill's play is a gleeful send-up of the hypocrisy and artificial dream-building of the Hollywood machine (The Telegraph). Product is Ravenhill versus Hollywood with torrid scenes of passion across the spectre of international terrorism.

Olivia Poulet comments: I'm excited to be working with Inside Intelligence again, reprising the role of Leah in Robert Shaw's brilliant revival of Mark Ravenhill's Product.

Inside Intelligence was founded by Robert Shaw in May 1995 and, this year, is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Shaw comments: "We've always been about doing theatre and contemporary opera. In this anniversary year, I'm thrilled to say we get to do both - the first revival of Mark Ravenhill's coruscating satire Product starring the inextinguishable Olivia Poulet and, in August, we're truly privileged to premiere Tarik O'Regan's extraordinary new opera The Wanton Sublime."

Product by Mark Ravenhill runs Monday 27th April - Saturday 23rd May 2015, 8pm Saturday matinees at 3.30pm.
No performances on Sundays. Run time: 50 minutes. Performances at the Arcola Theatre, 24 Ashwin Street, Dalston, London E8 3DL. For tickets and more information, visit www.arcolatheatre.com, or call 020 7503 1646. All tickets £12; Monday - Saturday evenings: £17 (concessions £12); Matinees: £14 (concessions £12); Pay what you can Tuesdays.

Arcola Theatre is located on Ashwin Street, off Kingsland Road. The nearest stations are Dalston Kingsland and Dalston Junction (on the London Overground). Both connect with Highbury and Islington (on the Victoria and Overground Lines), Whitechapel (on the District and Hammersmith and City Lines) and Stratford (on National Rail and the Central, Jubilee and DLR Lines). Hackney Downs station, ten minutes by train from Liverpool Street, is a 3-minute bus ride on numbers 30 and 56.

Olivia Poulet - Olivia's theatre credits include: Top Girls (Trafalgar Studios), Fred's Diner (Chichester Festival Theatre), Adult Supervision (Park Theatre), Captain of Kopenick (The National Theatre), Shivered (Southwark Playhouse), A Voyage Round My Father (Salisbury Playhouse) and Fiasco (Soho Theatre). Film includes In The Loop BBC and Killing Me Softly (MGM) Television includes: The Thick of It, Sherlock, Love Soup, Silent Witness and Inspector Lynley (BBC); Teachers and Secret Diary of a Call Girl (Tiger Aspect); The Bill (Thames TV); Outnumbered (Hat Trick Productions); Without You (Freemantle); Acorn Antiques (Channel 4) and Whatever Love Means (Granada). Radio Includes: Goodbye and Sex Latte, Paperclips (BBC Radio).

Inside Intelligence - Inside Intelligence was founded by Robert Shaw in May 1995. Robert graduated from Cambridge University in 1979. Since 1981 he has directed, translated and adapted over forty plays in London, Edinburgh, New York and Cambridge. His acclaimed production of Sylvia Plath's only play Three Women was staged in London, Edinburgh and New York. His most recent credits include Happy New (Trafalgar Studio 2) starring Lisa Dillon, Children of Fate (Bussey Building) starring Sia?n Reese- Williams and Tejas Verdes by Fermi?n Cabal (Gate Theatre). Robert's own play Teddy and Topsy was critically acclaimed in Edinburgh 2010 and successfully revived in London and Edinburgh, 2011. Other credits include the UK premiere of The Woods by David Mamet, starring Peter Polycarpou, Poem Without a Hero by Anna Akhmatova (Edinburgh 2010) and Robert's adaptation of James Kennaway's Some Gorgeous Accident (Assembly 2010, Trafalgar Studio 2 June 2013).

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