Photo Flash: Inside Rehearsals For DAMES at the Pleasance, Islington

Siberian Lights & Rachel Kraftman Productions present the world premiere of the new play Dames by Charlotte Merriam at the Pleasance, Islington from Tues 17th April to Sun 29th April 2018.

It's 2am on some idle Friday. Six women collide in the only place for honesty... a club toilet. Dames tells the story of six dysfunctional millennials struggling to make sense of the world beyond the bog. Dive into a cubicle of inebriated women drowning in their own word-vomit. Charlotte Merriam's debut play is a gloriously rude, obscure and shambolic glimpse of females with no filter.

Dames is the first play to be developed and presented by Siberian Lights, inspired by the hundreds of women involved with their network.

Siberian Lights is a female centric theatre company set up in 2015 to celebrate and unite like-minded creatives by giving them a platform into the industry and a playground to flex their imagination. Siberian Lights connects a network of talented actors, writers and directors in order to give women a voice in theatre. They are a community led company that offers workshops, castings, networking events, readings, and free development for female focused work.

"We kept seeing an astonishing amount of phenomenal women in the industry struggling to get their foot in the door. Many women found that they were being boxed into gender stereotypes or simply weren't being challenged. So we set out to build a place where we can collaborate and connect with like-minded creatives."

Producer, Rachel Kraftman (Hostage Song, Vibrant 2014, I Wish To Die Singing, Stay Awake Jake, Madagascar UK Tour), is delighted to be joining forces with Siberian Lights to bring Dames to the stage.

Playwright, Charlotte Merriam, is an actor, writer and comedian. She graduated in 2015 with BA *hons in Acting and has since lived and worked in London. Charlotte is a co-founder of Siberian Lights and Dames is her debut play. She is signed with Lisa Toogood at United agents and her work includes: Off their Rockers (ITV), Soho Theatre YC- Comedy Plus, and her own character comedy material including Charlotte Merriam: Plugholes. She is a Grand Scheme Media TV and SITCOM writing alumni, and is currently writing pilots for a comedy series based on The Mitford Sisters and a character comedy for Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2018.

Director, Jamie Garven, is a freelance director and a staff member at The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. He was Associate Director of The Made in Wales Stage Company, working on new writing for many years and creating plays through improvisation with several different companies. His work has ranged from small scale touring through main stage productions to large-scale opera and circus. Other companies he has worked for include, Spectacle Theatre, Hijinx, Fiction Factory; Difficult Stage; Theatr Clwyd; W.N.O; Opera North; Glasgow Citizens Theatre, and Nottingham Playhouse. Alongside his work in theatre he has spent a year as an interim BBC radio drama producer, and has worked as Acting Coach on two Bafta Award winning television projects with Blast Films.

For tickets, visit https://www.pleasance.co.uk/event/dames#overview.

Photos Courtesy of Arabella Neale

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