Jess Phillips To Join Writing Team For World Premiere Of WOMEN IN POWER

Director of Nuffield Southampton Theatres, Samuel Hodges, today announces Labour MP, Jess Phillips will join the writing team for the world première of Women In Power. The production sees some of the UK's most influential female voices, including Wendy Cope, Jenny Eclair, Suhayla El-Bushra, Natalie Haynes, Shappi Khorsandi and Brona C Titley, come together to write this musical comedy based on the Greek classic, The Assemblywomen. Directed by NST Associate Director Blanche McIntyre, the production opens on 6 September at NST City and runs until 29 September.

Jess said today, "I'm delighted to be taking part in this project with so many brilliant woman. Women in power is what my political career has all been about; what a pleasure to be able to be part of something so creative as a new way of fighting the good fight."

350 BC. Athens.

The country is in political turmoil. Recent wars and alliances have left Athenians no option but to take the most extreme action. The most radical: a government of women!

Praxagora masterminds and leads a daring coup d'état, outlining her utopian vision of total equality to her crowd of cross-dressing collaborators. A world where power imbalance is eradicated and with it debt, greed and theft. But this has unintended and hilarious consequences.

A raucous new comedy, and a reimagining of the original, by a team of leading female writers from the world of poetry, broadcasting, theatre and stand up. Combined with an exceptional comic cast and led by NST Associate Blanche McIntyre, Aristophanes' Women in Power is turned into a celebration of sketches with songs, dance, music and women taking the lead.

Wendy Cope is an Award-winning poet. Her first collection of poems, Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis, were published in 1986. Titles include Serious Concerns, If I Don't Know, Two Cures for Love: Selected Poems 1979-2006, Life, Love and the Archers and Family Values. Her most recent collection, Anecdotal Evidence, was published earlier this year.

Jenny Eclair is an award-winning comedienne and has most recently been seen touring the UK with her new show How to be A Middle Aged Woman (Without Going Insane). As a writer her novels include Moving, Camberwell Beauty, Having a Lovely Time, Life Death and Vanilla Slices. Television credits include Storage Hunters UK Celebrity Special, Alan Davies as Yet Untitled, QI, Battlechefs, Fifteen to One, Celebrity Masterchef, It was Alright In the 80's, Countdown, The Joan Rivers Position and Room 101. For theatre her credits include Steaming (Piccadilly Theatre), Mum's the Word (Albery Theatre) and The Vagina Monologues (Wyndhams Theatre).

Suhayla El-Bushra is a screenwriter and playwright. Recent stage work includes Arabian Nights (Royal Lyceum Theatre), The Suicide (National Theatre), The Iphigenia Quartet (Gate Theatre, London). Pigeons (Royal Court Theatre), Cuckoo (Unicorn Theatre) and The Kilburn Passion (Tricycle Theatre). She is currently under commission from Out Of Joint, English Touring Theatre, The National Theatre and The Bridge Theatre. She has been a core writer on C4 shows Ackley Bridge and Hollyoaks, and has just made a short with Film4. She has various film and TV projects in development.

Natalie Haynes is a writer and broadcaster. Her first novel, The Amber Fury, was published to great acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic, as was The Ancient Guide to Modern Life, her previous book. Her second novel The Children of Jocasta, a reimagining of the tales of Oedipus and Antigone, was published in 2018. She is a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4, reviewing for Front Row and Saturday Review and has appeared as a team captain on three seasons of Wordaholics. A second series of her show, Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics, will be broadcast on Radio 4 next year. Her documentary on the Defining Beauty exhibition at the British Museum, Secret Knowledge: The Body Beautiful aired in 2015 on BBC4 in the UK and on BBC World News everywhere else.

Shappi Khorsandi quickly established herself as one of the country's finest comedians in 2006 with her sell out Edinburgh show, Asylum Speaker, and, in 2007 went on to win Best Breakthrough Act at the Chortle Awards. That same year, she took her show Carry on Shappi to the Fringe and then on to Soho Theatre. Her television credits include I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here, Mock The Week, 8 Out Of 10 Cats, Have I Got News For You, QI, Live At The Apollo & Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow. Her screenwriting debut was in the form of Sky's Little Crackers.

Jess Phillips was elected the Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley in 2015 and has since been re-elected in 2017. Before this, she worked with victims of domestic violence sexual violence and human trafficking, and continues to speak out on behalf of those who struggle to have their voice heard, most recently on the subject of abortion and online trolling. She has worked with the Home Office, the Ministry of Justice and the Department for Communities and Local Government on issues of Violence Against Women and Girls. Phillips was one of the women who launched the #NotTheCost campaign to combat the violence faced by politically active women, and the Recl@im The Internet campaign, which challenges online abuse. Her first book, Everywoman: One Woman's Truth About Speaking The Truth, was published to great acclaim in 2017.

Brona C Titley is an award-winning writer and is currently Head Writer on Next Week's News with Merman, whilst also writing on Tracey Breaks the News for BBC and a new series for Nickelodeon. She has most recently been working on The Mash Report, 8 Out of 10 Cats and with Disney on several projects including The Lodge, for which she wrote a newly broadcast episode. Further television writing includes Harry Hill's Alien Fun Capsule, Host the Week, Dave Gorman's Modern Life is Goodish, Newzoids and Off Their Rockers, along with the script for the BAFTA Television Awards.

Blanche McIntyre directs. Previous credits for Nuffield Southampton Theatres include Noises Off, Tonight at 8.30 and The Nutcracker. Other theatre credits include The Norman Conquests (Chichester Festival Theatre), Titus Andronicus and The Two Noble Kinsmen (RSC), Welcome Home Captain Fox! (Donmar Warehouse), The Oresteia (HOME Manchester), As You Like It and The Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare's Globe), Arcadia (Ambassador Theatre Group), The Seagull (Headlong), Accolade (St James Theatre), Repentance/Behind the Lines (Bush Theatre), Ciphers (Out of Joint), The Birthday Party (Manchester Royal Exchange), Foxfinder, Accolade and Moliere or The League of Hypocrites (Finborough Theatre), Liar Liar (Unicorn Theatre), The Only True History of Lizzie Finn and Open Heart Surgery (Southwark Playhouse), The Seven Year Itch (Salisbury Playhouse), When Did You Last See My Mother? (Trafalgar Studios); and for film as a writer, The Hippopotamus.

Age recommendation 12 +

Nuffield Southampton Theatres is one of the UK's leading professional theatre companies. The company is led by Samuel Hodges, supported by a team of associates: directors Blanche McIntyre, Natalie Abrahami and Michael Longhurst, designer Tom Scutt, playwright Adam Brace, choreographer Drew McOnie and poet Inua Ellams. NST develops and produces work with some of the UK's most exciting and dynamic regional theatres. In 2016/17 290,000 people saw an NST production across all 9 regions of the UK. NST won Best Director at UK Theatre Awards 2014 (The Seagull), Regional Theatre of the Year at The Stage Awards 2015, Best Design at UK Theatre Awards 2015 (The Hudsucker Proxy) and the 2017 Renee Stepham UK Theatre Award for Best Presentation of Touring Theatre (Fantastic Mr Fox).

NST City is Nuffield Southampton Theatres brand new venue just opened in Southampton's city centre. The new theatre will run alongside their existing theatre NST Campus situated on the Highfield Campus at the University of Southampton.

Nuffield Southampton Theatres is an Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation and a registered charity, receiving additional core funding from the University of Southampton and Southampton City Council.

Now in its 80th year, Oxford Playhouse and its Burton Taylor Studio present and produce a wide range of live performance. The programme includes the best of British and international drama, family shows, contemporary dance and music, student and amateur shows, comedy, lectures and poetry. The Playhouse produces and co-produces and tours its own shows, hosts Evolve, (an artists in residence programme), runs Playhouse Playmaker (a writers-on-attachment programme with Oxford Playmaker) and presents Playhouse Plays Out, an ongoing series of off-site events which happen at locations across the county. The theatre's Learning team works with over 15,000 people each year through post show discussions, workshops, work experience, holiday schemes, a youth theatre and a young people's theatre company.

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