Troupe Announces The World Premiere Of Joy Wilkinson's THE SWEET SCIENCE OF BRUISING At Southwark Playhouse

Troupe today announces the World Première of Joy Wilkinson's The Sweet Science of Bruising. Directed by Kirsty Patrick Ward, the production opens at Southwark Playhouse on 5 October, with previews from 3 October, and runs until 27 October.

"Place your bets, gents, and raise your glasses for the Lady Boxing Champion of the World."

London, 1869. Four very different Victorian women are drawn into the dark underground world of female boxing by the eccentric Professor Sharp. Controlled by men and constrained by corsets, each finds an unexpected freedom in the boxing ring. As their lives begin to intertwine their journey takes us through grand drawing rooms, bustling theatres and rowdy Southwark pubs where the women fight inequality as well as each other. But with the final showdown approaching only one can become the Lady Boxing Champion of the World...

Based on historical research into 19th century women's boxing, The Sweet Science of Bruising is a fascinating new play by Joy Wilkinson (Verity Bargate Award winner). Featuring an ensemble cast and thrilling up-close boxing matches, this is an epic tale of passion, politics and pugilism.

Joy Wilkinson is an award-winning writer working across theatre, film, television and radio. Her stage plays have been widely produced in the UK and internationally, and she has won prizes including Soho Theatre's Verity Bargate Award and the International Student Playscript Competition. Her plays include Fair (Finborough Theatre, Trafalgar Studios and National Tour), Now is the Time (part of the Tricycle Theatre's Olivier Award-nominated 'Afghanistan' season which toured the USA and was revived in 2017 by Teatro Elfo Puccini, Milan), Acting Leader ('Women Power and Politics' season, Tricycle Theatre) and Britain's Best Recruiting Sergeant (Unicorn Theatre). She has been awarded two attachments at the National Theatre Studio and is published by Oberon Books and Nick Hern Books. For television, Wilkinson was a graduate of the first BBC Drama Writers Academy, and her screen credits include Casualty, Holby City, Doctors and Land Girls. She also wrote Nick Nickleby, a critically-acclaimed five-part modernisation of Nicholas Nickleby for BBC1. Wilkinson's extensive work for BBC Radio 4 includes a five-part spin-off from the hit Danish drama Borgen as well as numerous adaptations and original plays.

Kirsty Patrick Ward directs. Her credits include Exactly Like You (VAULT Festival Spirit Award at Underbelly Edinburgh and The Vaults), Chef (Scotsman Fringe First Award at Underbelly Edinburgh and Soho Theatre), I'm Not That Kind of Guy (The Vaults and Paines Plough), Mary Louise (The Vaults), Evita (MT4Uth, Belfast), People Like Us (Pleasance London), Snow White (National Tour for The Old Vic), A Writer's Response to 'Chavs' by Owen Jones (Lyric Theatre Hammersmith), Present Tense (Live Theatre), Brave New Worlds (Soho Theatre), Life Support (York Theatre Royal) and Old Vic New Voices: The 24 Hour Plays (The Old Vic). Work as Associate Director includes The Comedy About a Bank Robbery (Criterion Theatre), Brideshead Revisited (English Touring Theatre and York Theatre Royal) and Young Pretender (Underbelly Edinburgh and National Tour). Work as Assistant Director includes Othello and King Lear (Shakespeare's Globe), Our New Girl (Bush Theatre) and Bunny which won a Scotsman Fringe First Award (nabokov, Underbelly Edinburgh and National Tour).

Troupe's recent production of Rasheeda Speaking by Joel Drake Johnson starred Tanya Moodie and Elizabeth Berrington at Trafalgar Studios and was nominated for five Off West End Awards. Troupe returns to Southwark Playhouse after its critically acclaimed productions of Dear Brutus by J. M. Barrie, which starred Miles Richardson, and The Cardinal by James Shirley, which starred Stephen Boxer and Natalie Simpson for which she won the Ian Charleson Award. It was supported by an inaugural MGCfutures Bursary Award. Troupe's previous rediscoveries at the Finborough Theatre - Rodney Ackland's After October, Robert Bolt's Flowering Cherry and R. C. Sherriff's The White Carnation, which later transferred to Jermyn Street Theatre - have been nominated for a total of five Off West End Awards.

www.troupe.eu

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