The Royal Court Announces Sping 2010 Line-up; Features Work by Williams, Agbaje, Grosso and More

According to a report on whatsonstage.com, The Royal Court has announced its spring 2010 season.  The Lineup includes plays by Roy Williams, Laura Wade, Nick Grosso and Bola Agbaje, DC Moore,Anupama Chandrasekhar, and newcomer 17-year-old Anya Reiss.

Of the season, Artistic Director Dominic Cooke of The Royal Court says in whatsonstage.com: "As the world finds its way through financial crisis and the nation faces a general election, this season our writers ask how far we have really come in terms of our ability to move within the class structure... Our playwrights represent a huge range of experience, from 17-year-old Anya Reiss ... to the prolific Roy Williams and Nick Grosso who we first produced over 15 years ago. It is striking, however, that they are all united by their shared experience of coming through the Royal Court's unparalleled writing courses. I am delighted to present such a strong stable of homegrown talent."

The work to be presented includes:

In the Main House:

As Part of The Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Downstairs Programe:

Off the Endz, by Bola Agbaje
February 16 - March 13 2010 (previews from February 11)  

In Off the Endz, David, Kojo and Sharon grew up on a London estate. Now in their mid 20s, they're eyeing another kind of life. But how do you choose the right path when temptation lies around every corner? If your emotional or financial debt is sky high, how do you buy your way out?

Bola Agbaje's smart, savvy second play for the Royal Court asks whether being out of the system might be just as good as being in it.

Bola Agbaje came through the Royal Court's Critical Mass programme. Her debut play Gone Too Far! premiered at the Royal Court in 2007, and won an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement and a Most Promising Playwright nomination at the Evening Standard Awards 2008. Detaining Justice opens as part of the Not Black and White season at the Tricycle in November. Her other plays include If Things Were Different and In Time. Most recently she wrote Anything You Can Do for Soho Theatre.

Posh, by Laura Wade
15 April-22 May 2010 (previews from April 9)

In Posh, in an oak-panelled room in Oxford, ten young bloods with cut-glass vowels and deep pockets are meeting, intent on restoring their right to rule. Members of an elite student dining society, the boys are bunkering down for a wild night of debauchery, decadence and bloody good wine. But this isn't the last huzzah: they're planning a takeover.

Welcome to the Riot Club.

Laura is a graduate of the Royal Court Young Writers Programme. Her first play for the Royal Court, Breathing Corpses played in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs in 2005 and won her the Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Most Promising Playwright, the Pearson Playwrights Best Play Award, the George Devine Award and an Olivier Award Nomination for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre. She also worked on a collaborative project, Catch, for the Royal Court in 2006, with a group of female contemporaries. Her other plays include Other Hands and Colder Than Here at Soho Theatre.

Sucker Punch, by Roy Williams
June 18-July 24 2010 (previews from June 11)

Sucker Punch looks back on what it was like to be young and Black in the 80s and asks if the right battles have been fought, let alone won.

In the red corner: Leon Davidson - Black British champ or Uncle Tom?
In the blue corner: Troy Augustus - American powerhouse or naïve cash cow?

Two former friends step into the ring and face up to who they are.

The Jerwood Theatre Downstairs will be reconfigured for this production.

Roy Williams' early work at the Royal Court was supported by Jerwood New Playwrights, in partnership with the Jerwood Charitable Foundation. His previous plays at the theatre include Lift Off and Clubland in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs and Fallout in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, which was later made into a film for Channel 4. Recent credits elsewhere include Category B, part of the Not Black and White season at the Tricycle and Joe Guy for Tiata Fahodzi at Soho Theatre.

As Part of The Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Upstairs Program:

Disconnect, by Anupama Chandrasekhar
February 22- March 20, 2010 (previews from February 17)

In Disconnect, your credit card is maxed out, and you hang up the phone on Ross chasing your payments. But Ross is actually Roshan and though the sun is shining for you it's past midnight in his window-less call centre. With a new accent and invented back story, bright young graduates in India are renamed and rebranded as they work to claw back the cash spent by Americans crippled by debt.

Chennai-based playwright Anupama Chandrasekhar was discovered and developed by the Royal Court's International Department. She attended the International Residency for Young Playwrights on a British Council-Charles Wallace India Trust fellowship in 2000. Her first play Free Outgoing opened at the Royal Court in 2007, transferring Downstairs in 2008 as part of the Upstairs/Downstairs Season.

Ingredient X, by Nick Grasso
May 26-June 19, 2010 (previews from May 20)

In Ingredient X, it's Saturday night and the judges are gathering for their prime-time slot, feeding the nation their weekly fix. Except the harshest critics are sitting on your sofa and the mute button doesn't seem to work.

A tough new comedy about addiction.

Nick Grosso came through the Royal Court's Young Writers Programme and his monologue Mama Don't (1993) was produced by the Royal Court, staged at The Commonwealth Institute. His subsequent plays at the Royal Court include his debut, Peaches (later made into a film), Sweetheart, Real Classy Affair and Kosher Harry.

Spur of the Moment, by Anya Reiss
July 20-August 14, 2010 (previews from July 14)

In Spur of the Moment, Pre-teen Delilah enjoys High School Musical, swim parties and ogling the lodger. Whilst her parents throw verbal grenades at one another, they barely notIce Their 21 year old tenant starting to notice her.

Spur of the Moment looks at the distance between close family relations and a young girl on the brink of adolescence. It is the debut play by Anya Reiss, written when she was seventeen.

Anya has attended holiday courses at the Royal Court since she was fourteen and progressed from the Introduction Group to the Advanced Group.

The Royal Court Theatre is Britain's leading national company dedicated to new work by innovative writers from the UK and around the world. The house that launched the much hyped Enron and Jerusalem, The theatre's pivotal role in promoting new voices is undisputed - the New York Times described it as 'the most important theatre in Europe'. The Royal Court receives and considers an extraordinary quantity of new work and each year it presents an ambitious programme in its two venues at Sloane Square in London. In recent years the Royal Court has also staged productions in New York, Sydney, Brussels, Toronto and Dublin. In addition to the high profile of its productions, the Royal Court facilitates international work at a grass roots level, developing exchanges which bring young writers to Britain and sending British writers, actors and directors to work with artists around the world. The Royal Court Young Writers Programme also works to develop new voices with their bi-annual Festival and year-round development work for writers under the age of 26.

For more information on all of The Royal Courts productions, click here.

 

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