World Premiere of Kathryn O'Reilly's SCREWED to Play Theatre503 in June

Ticking time-bombs Luce and Charlene are 30-something binge-drinking soulmates. They clock in after a heavy night out on the tiles, popping caffeine pills and downing miniatures on the factory floor, boasting about last night's sexual conquests. When you're living for today it's hard to think about tomorrow.

Screwed is a gripping and hilarious portrait of a dysfunctional friendship. This powerful play is a debut drama from Kathryn O'Reilly and is directed by award-winning Sarah Meadows (Where Do Little Birds Go?, VAULT Festival and Edinburgh).

This new play explores a variety of taboo subjects including socio-economic status and current attitudes to diversity in a setting that highlights ladette culture, the pervasive insidious nature of alcoholism and violence amongst women.

Writer Kathryn O'Reilly comments, My aim is to engage and challenge audiences in a way that's both artistic and personal. I want to shine a spotlight on current issues that aren't going away and put these stories on stage.

This production, accompanying workshops and post-show discussions will offer a platform for discussion, stimulating the debate surrounding gender, class, binge drinking, violence and promiscuity among women and its cultural impact on society. Screwed is more pertinent today than ever before with more than 2.5m people drinking more in one day than the 14 units recommended per week (Financial Times, March 2016). As a result of habits like these, there has been a rise in alcohol binge related deaths and hospitalisations from violence by and towards women.

Kathryn O'Reilly is better known as an actress and will be starring in A View from Islington North at the Arts Theatre this June. She recently appeared in Call The Midwife (BBC) in a guest lead role and toured nationally and internationally playing Liz Morden in Out of Joint's Our Country's Good, directed by Max Stafford-Clark.

O'Reilly was a member of the Royal Court Young Writers programme. Her play Scarred was long listed for the Bruntwood Prize. She has been developing Screwed over the past few years with support from ATC, OvalHouse Theatre, Pleasance Islington, The Production Exchange, Theatre Deli as well as Out of Joint and The Richard Carne Trust.

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