Photo Flash: First Look at Maxine Peake, Michael Shaeffer & More in Rehearsal for Royal Court's HOW TO HOLD YOUR BREATH

"Because we live in Europe. Because nothing really bad happens. The worst is a bit of an inconvenience. Perhaps not such a good mini break. But really in the grand scheme of life, not so bad."?

The first pictures are released today for How to Hold Your Breath, a new play by Zinnie Harris. Directed by the Royal Court's Artistic Director Vicky Featherstone, the cast includes Christine Bottomley, Neil D'Souza, Peter Forbes, Maxine Peake, Siobhán McSweeney, Maxine Peake, Danusia Samal and Michael Shaeffer. Take a first look at the cast in rehearsal below!

Starting with a seemingly innocent one night stand, How To Hold Your Breath is a darkly witty and magical play. Zinnie Harris dives into our recent European history, providing an epic look at the true cost of our principles and how we live now. The production is directed by Vicky Featherstone, designed by Chloe Lamford, with lighting by Paul Constable, music by Stuart Earl, sound design by Gareth Fry and movement by Ann Yee.

Artistic Director of the Royal Court Vicky Featherstone directs. Since she started at the Royal Court, her credits have included Dennis Kelly's The Ritual Slaughter of George Mastromas, Abi Morgan's The Mistress Contract and Molly Davies's God Bless the Child. She opened her first season at the Royal Court with Open Court - a festival of plays, ideas and events, chosen by over 140 writers. At National Theatre of Scotland, her credits included Enquirer (co-directed with John Tiffany), Appointment With The Wicker Man and 27. Prior to Scotland, Vicky was Artistic Director of Paines Plough.

Zinnie Harris' credits at the Royal Court include Nightingale and Chase. Her play The Wheel for the National Theatre of Scotland, directed by Vicky Wicker Man and 27. Prior to Scotland, Vicky was Artistic Director of Paines Plough. Featherstone, won a Fringe First Award, jointly won an Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Theatre Award and was shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Her other recent credits include The Message on the Watch and The Panel at the Tricycle and A Doll's House at the Donmar (adapt.). Her 2000 play Further than the Furthest Thing won the Peggy Ramsay Foundation Award, a Fringe First, and the John Whiting Award. On television, she has written extensively for Spooks and is currently writing Tommy and Tuppence based on the Agatha Christie series for David Walliams on BBC1.

The Big Idea: How To Hold Your Breath

The Big Idea is a strand of work at the Royal Court launched during last year's Open Court festival, offering audiences radical thinking and provocative discussion inspired by the work on stage.

How to Find the Good: A.C. Grayling delivers a guide to modern morality
Wednesday 25 February, 6pm
Jerwood Theatre Downstairs
£5 or free with a ticket to How To Hold Your Breath

In Conversation with Zinnie Harris
Friday 6 March, post-show
Jerwood Theatre Downstairs
Free with a ticket to this performance

A.C Grayling MA, DPhil (Oxon) FRSL, FRSA is Master of the New College of the Humanities, and a Supernumerary Fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford. He was Chair of the Judges for the Man Booker Prize 2014 and his latest books are The God Argument (2013) and Friendship (2013). Until 2011 he was Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London. He has written and edited over thirty books on philosophy and other subjects including The Good Book, Ideas That Matter, Liberty in the Age of Terrorand To Set Prometheus Free. For several years he wrote columns for The Guardian and The Times. He is a frequent contributor to national newspapers, the BBC and a contributing editor of Prospect magazine. He is a representative to the UN Human Rights Council for the International Humanist and Ethical Union, a Vice President of the British Humanist Association, the Patron of the United Kingdom Armed Forces Humanist Association, a patron of Dignity in Dying, an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society and Supernumerary Fellow of St Anne's College Oxford.

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