Tonic Theatre Honours Women in Theatre with TONIC CELEBRATES

Tonic Theatre today announces the inaugural Tonic Celebrates event which is a new initiative for the company celebrating the achievements of inspirational women in theatre. For the first event on 22 June at Ambassadors Theatre, Tonic Theatre's Director Lucy Kerbel will be in conversation with multi award-winning lighting designer Paule Constable, Artistic Director of the Tricycle Theatre Indhu Rubasingham, and playwright Jessica Swale. Tickets for the event start from just £5 (0207 395 5405/www.theambassadorstheatre.co.uk).

At each Tonic Celebrates event, the company bring together a group of remarkable women to talk about their careers, successes and inspirations. Each event will be followed by a Q&A with the audience.

Lucy Kerbel said today: "Tonic Theatre spends a great deal of time focused on challenging the lack of women at senior level in the industry, but we also think it's important to celebrate the success stories. That's why we're launching Tonic Celebrates, where we shine a spotlight on the success and achievements of women at the top of their game. There's a plethora of outstanding women who are at the forefront of UK theatre and we want to help share their inspirational stories. By joining us at Tonic Celebrates you will not only hear from some of the industry's leading practitioners, but you will be supporting Tonic to continue its important work tackling gender inequality in theatre."

Paule Constable's theatre work For the National Theatre includes Behind the Beautiful Forevers, The Light Princess, Table, This House, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Danton's Death, Phèdre, Death and the King's Horseman, Waves, Women of Troy, Saint Joan, Paul, His Dark Materials. Other theatre work includes Wolf Hall, The Prince of Homburg, The Seagull, Tales from Ovid, The Dispute, Uncle Vanya (RSC), Love Never Dies, Oliver!, Ivanov, Evita, Privates on Parade, Peter and Alice, The Cripple of Inishmaan, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Don Carlos. Other theatre includes: Clybourne Park, The City, Krapp's Last Tape, The Country, Dublin Carol, The Weir, the 25th anniversary tour of LES MISERABLES, the new Phantom of the Opera, Luise Miller, The Chalk Garden, Othello, Proof, Little Foxes, Happy Days, The Good Soul of Szechuan, Generations, Vernon God Little, Blasted, Don Carlos - and five productions for Complicite (West End). Her opera work includes Medea, Cosi, The Cunning Little Vixen, Meistersinger, Anna Bolena; and for dance, Sleeping Beauty, Play Without Words, Dorian Gray, Seven Deadly Sins, Naked. She is the recipient of a Tony, 4 Olivier Awards, 3 LA Critics Circle Awards and both New York Drama Desk and Critics' Circle Awards.

Indhu Rubasingham is Artistic Director of the Tricycle Theatre. Her work for the company includes Red Velvet (which transferred to New York and later to the Garrick Theatre as part of the Kenneth Branagh Season) and Handbagged (winner of Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre - also West End and UK tour). Other productions for the Tricycle Theatre include The Invisible Hand, A Wolf in Snakeskin Shoes, Multitudes, The House That Will Not Stand, Paper Dolls, Women, Power and Politics, Stones in His Pockets, Detaining Justice, The Great Game: Afghanistan, Fabulation and Starstruck. Other theatre credits include The Motherf**cker with the Hat (Evening Standard Award for Best Play), The Waiting Room (National Theatre), The Ramayana (National Theatre/ Birmingham Rep), Belong, Disconnect, Free Outgoing, Lift Off, Clubland, The Crutch and Sugar Mummies (Royal Court),Ruined (Almeida), Yellowman and Anna in the Tropics (Hampstead Theatre), Secret Rapture and The Misanthrope (Minerva, Chichester), Romeo and Juliet (Chichester Festival Theatre ), Pure Gold (Soho Theatre), The No Boys Cricket Club and Party Girls(Stratford East), Wuthering Heights (Birmingham REP), Heartbreak House (Watford Palace Theatre), Sugar Dollies, Shakuntala (Gate Theatre), A River Sutra (Three Mill Island Studios), Rhinoceros (UC Davis, California) and A Doll's House (Young Vic).

Jessica Swale is an award-winning playwright and the Artistic Director of Red Handed Theatre Company. Her most recent play, Nell Gwynn, transferred from the Globe to the West End in 2016, starring Gemma Arterton, and won Best New Comedy at the 2016 Olivier Awards. Her first play, Blue Stockings was performed at Shakespeare's Globe in 2012 and is a Drama GCSE set text. Other writing includes, All's Will that Ends Will, Thomas Tallis, The Playhouse Apprentice, adaptations of Sense and Sensibility, Far from the Madding Crowd, The Secret Garden, Stig of the Dump and a new play, The Mission, about illegal adoptions in the 1920s. In 2012 she won a BAFTA JJ Screenwriting Bursary and is currently writing the movie version of Nell Gwynn for Working Title, the Horrible Histories Movie and Love [Sic], a new play for BBC Radio 4. As director, Jessica set up Red Handed Theatre Company in 2006, with whom work includes The Belle's Stratagem, The Busy Body, The Rivals, Someone Who'll Watch Over Me (Southwark Playhouse), The School for Scandal (Park Theatre) and Palace of the End (Arcola).

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