Theatre Uncut Announces Rights-free Release of Plays on Refugee Crisis

Since 2011, each year Theatre Uncut has released a set of short plays that can be downloaded and performed rights free by anyone, anywhere for a month, creating a mass participation international political theatre event. This Autumn, Theatre Uncut will release a set of works by writers from the UK, Turkey and Denmark that respond to the refugee crisis. The six short plays offer a thought provoking and often moving analysis of Europe's response to the events that have seen many thousands of people risk everything in the attempt to escape war, terrorism and poverty the Middle East and Northern Africa.

The plays available for download were written over six days in June 2016 in Copenhagen using Theatre Uncut's model for creating rapid theatrical response to current events, and performed at Theatre Grob at the end of the intensive workshop period. The writers include three leading Danish playwrights who were selected by Theatre Grob: Aleksa Okanovic, Henrik Szklany and Joan Rang Christensen. Joan is best known to UK audiences for BBC Radio 4's Borgen/Outside the Castle, a radio spin-off of the political TV drama. Theatre Uncut selected two UK based writers, Sabrina Mahfouz and Atiha Sen Gupta, and Berkun Oya, who previously took part in Theatre Uncut's collaboration with Theatre Dot in Turkey in 2014.

Groups and individuals wishing to perform the plays, which are rights free from 1-30th November can visit www.theatreuncut.com from 1st October to download the texts. Previous events have seen a diverse range of participants including community groups, trade unions, school and university groups as well as professional and amateur theatre companies.

Theatre Uncut began in 2011 as a response to the cuts in public spending introduced by the coalition government. Each year since then, writers have contributed original short political plays responding to world events, which have included the referendum on Scottish independence and the rise of the far right. To date. Theatre Uncut plays have been performed by over 3,000 people in 17 countries across four continents and contributing writers have included Mark Ravenhill, Lucy Kirkwood, Neil LaBute and Caryl Churchill.

From its roots in the anti-cuts movement in the UK, Theatre Uncut has evolved into an organisation which encourages people everywhere to use theatre as a means of exploring politics, fostering an international community of participants.

Hannah Price and Emma Callander Artistic Directors of Theatre Uncut said "Following the Brexit vote we feel it's more important than ever to work in collaboration with our European partners, to provoke debate on urgent humanitarian issues. These plays a call to action, for us all to take responsibility for the welfare of those suffering the effects of war, poverty and displacement"

@TheatreUncut | www.theatreuncut.com

Aleksa Okanovic studied playwriting at the theatre school in Aarhus from 2001-03. He then premiered his first play Restaurant D'amour for which he received a Reumert Prize for talent of the year, an honour which he also received for Diamond/Dust/Shoes in 2006. A year later Diamond was read at the Schaubühne in Berlin. In 2008 Aleksa received a three- year scholarship from the Danish Arts Council and premiered Modern Life, which led to a residency for emerging playwrights at the Royal Court in London. A year later Aleksa participated in the group-play Confessions at the Schaubühne theatre's FIND 11. After a long break Aleksa has returned to the theatre and in January 2017 will premiere his play VHS vs. Betamaxwhile also writing two other plays for the European Drama festival at Husets Theatre in June.

Atiha Sen Gupta has been writing short plays, long plays and everything in between since the age of 14 for the Heat & Light Company (a drama youth group based at Hampstead Theatre) and the Anna Scher Theatre. At age 17 Atiha was commissioned by Hampstead theatre to write What Fatima Did - a play about the hijab - which was produced on the mainstage and was nominated for a number of awards. Concurrently she was a member of the writing team of e4's Skins and co-wrote an episode. In 2014, her play about police racism, State Red, opened at the Hampstead Downstairs at the same time that Ferguson was in flames after a grand jury's decision to acquit a white police officer who had shot dead an unarmed black teenager. Her play Counting Stars about two Nigerian nightclub toilet attendants who are united in love but divided by a toilet wall in a club in post-Lee Rigby Woolwich played at the Edinburgh Fringe 2015. In early 2016 Atiha co-wrote an episode of BBC1's medical drama Holby City. She is currently under commission to The Bush Theatre.

Berkun Oya was born in 1977. He started writing for theatre in his early twenties and became the youngest playwright commissioned by the State Theatre of Turkey with Prayer For Fire which he also designed and directed. In 1998 he founded the Krek Theater Company, one of the most influential Contemporary Theatre companies based in Istanbul. He has received a number of awards for his work as a director and a playwright. In 2010, his plays, La Bombe, Condolence and Atonal Proposal were performed at the Odeon Theatre in Paris. He was the first Turkish writer invited to the Royal Court International Residency in London where he wrote Best Bits On Our Side. In 2011, Best Bits On Our Side won the Best European Play Award at the 'Heidelberger Stückemarkt' Playwright's Festival in Germany and was produced by the Heidelberg State Theatre. He also works as a screenwriter and a film director. Berkun Oya lives in Istanbul and works primarily as a writer for theatre.

Henrik Szklany's debut play was the football-drama AaB till I die in 2014 and the teen-audience digital bullying tragedy #bitch #cunt #backstabber, followed by 839 days; an investigation of the pirates of Somalia. For these he received the talent award of The Danish Playwrights' and Screenwriters' Guild and a talent award from the Reumert Awards. His latest work ended the season of Aalborg Theater 2015/2016 with The day a rocket struck JesPer Nielsen's trampoline and blew Europe to pieces.

Joan Rang Christensen born in South Korea in 1976. A graduate of the National School of Playwriting, she has had more than 30 stage and radio plays produced. Recent work includes Wings, about transcultural identity, Lilly's Denmark History, about gender (in)equality and Tonight the war comes home about the killings at Charlie Hebdo in Paris. Joan is best known to UK audiences for Borgen/Outside the Castle, a radio spin-off of the political TV drama which was produced by BBC Radio 4 in 2013. She has won numerous awards for her work.

Sabrina Mahfouz is currently the Poet in Residence for Cape Farewell, an organisation that provides a cultural response to climate change. She is an Associate Artist alumni at the Bush Theatre in London; a Writer at Liberty for the UK civil rights charity LIBERTY and the Creative Director of poetry Production Company P.O.P. Her creative work has been recognized with a number of awards. Most recently, these include receiving a 2014 Fringe First Award; the 2013 Sky Arts Futures Fund Award; an Old Vic New Voices Underbelly Edinburgh Award; a UK Young Artists Award; The Stage Award for Best Solo Performance 2011 nomination; an Old Vic New Voices TS Eliot Award and a Westminster Prize for New Playwrights. Her first book, The Clean Collection, is available from Bloomsbury. Her recent solo show Chef won widespread critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Fringe 2014 and won a Fringe First. It transferred to the Soho Theatre in June 2015. Her garage musical With A Little Bit of Luck tours the UK in 2016.

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