Sharon Byrne's New Play GUTTED Set for The Marlowe Studio

The Marlowe Theatre continues to support local talent by making a Whitstable playwright its first "supported artist".

Sharon Byrne's new play Gutted will be performed at the Canterbury venue next month (February). With fast-paced, Irish storytelling at its heart, it is set in a Dublin fish factory where three women dramatise the events of a very significant night in their lives. Tales of family, trust, love and loss are shot through with dark humour, Irish brogue and adult language.

Sharon's writing attracted the attention of The Marlowe Theatre's creative team via the Roar! writing programme and she was invited to produce Gutted for The Marlowe Studio.

The cast comprises Nancy Sullivan (Delores), Lucia Mc Anespie (Breda), and Rose O' Loughlin (Deirdre). Nancy Starred in the one-woman show Fabric, which was made by Robin Rayner in association with The Marlowe Theatre and which won a prestigious Edinburgh Fringe First Award last year. Lucia, who comes from Belfast but now lives in Deal, has just finished The Plough And The Stars at the National Theatre. Dublin-born Rose recently starred as Rosalind in As You Like It at the Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre.

Sharon has gathered a production team that is almost entirely from Kent, including Primetime Emmy award-winning set designer Jo Kornstein, designer Marianne McConnell, and co-producer Sarah Horner. Nicola Samer is Gutted Director; she is currently Resident Director with the Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company, and is co-founder and Artistic Director of IronBark, presenting Australian Theatre in the UK.

Gutted is at The Marlowe Studio at 8pm from Tuesday 21 to Saturday 28 February. Tickets, priced £12.50 (concessions available; booking fee applies), are from the Box Office on 01227 787787, and marlowetheatre.com.

Gutted is supported by The Marlowe Theatre Creative Opportunity Fund, Canterbury City Council and the Arts Council for England.

Sharon Byrne earned a BA in Creative Writing at The University of Middlesex, which she followed with seven years as a part-time lecturer in Writing for Stage and Screen at the University of Kent. Since 2010, Sharon has focused on her writing career and completed the following projects: four screenplays, two of which have been optioned; Charlie's Wake, a short play produced at The Finborough Theatre, London; Gutted, a play selected by The Marlowe Theatre for performance in 2017; current screenplay collaboration with Rob Sprackling is currently awaiting production.

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