ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY ANNOUNCES RETURN OF THE MISCHIEF FESTIVAL
- Two new plays exploring contemporary Britain today premiering in The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon
- O, Island! by Nina Segal and Ivy Tiller: Vicar’s Daughter, Squirrel Killer by Bea Roberts
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The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) has today announced the return of the Company’s Mischief Festival featuring two provocative new plays exploring Britain today. The productions run in The Other Place from Friday 30 September – Saturday 5 November 2022.
Talking about the season, RSC Acting Artistic Director, Erica Whyman said:
‘It’s a huge privilege to be presenting this irreverent and playful double-bill of new plays as we celebrate the return of the Mischief Festival to The Other Place.
‘These inventive and engaging commissions were early casualties of Covid, and now seem to speak directly to a world which is navigating new realities, both domestic and political. Both plays focus on Britain’s often overlooked villages and rural communities with an undercurrent of dark and sometimes wicked humour. They each raise profound questions about how we cope with external shocks, what makes a true community and how quickly human beings can plunge into cruelty & crisis.
Nina and Bea are hugely exciting talents and I am so proud we can, at last, premiere this work in our much-missed studio theatre in The Other Place.’
Shortlisted for the George Devine Award 2020, Nina Segal’s O, Island! is a funny and furious modern myth about disaster and community - exploring how borders can be changed by people, by nature and by accident.
The production will premiere from Friday 30 September – Saturday 5 November 2022 in The Other Place.
Nina Segal is a playwright and television writer. Her work has been produced by the Young Vic, Royal Court, Donmar Warehouse, Almeida Theatre, Bush Theatre, Yard Theatre, Gate Theatre and internationally.
The production will be directed by Guy Jones who is currently Literary Associate of the Orange Tree Theatre. Guy was Assistant Director on the RSC’s 2016 productions of Cymbeline, and Always Orange by Fraser Grace, the latter performed as part of the first Mischief festival of new plays premiering in the reopened The Other Place.
Ivy Tiller: Vicar’s Daughter, Squirrel Killer by Bea Roberts, is a darkly comic drama directed by Caitlin McLeod which challenges who belongs and who thrives.
“You know you act like you’re not from here”
Entrenched in her picturesque Devonshire village, Ivy Tiller is preparing to wage a war. Her target: the invasive grey squirrel. Her goal: to oust the invaders and restore the native red squirrels as the ‘rightful’ inhabitants. Galvanised by her important mission, Ivy’s determination swells to uncomfortable heights.
The production will premiere from Thursday 6 October – Saturday 5 November 2022 in The Other Place.
Bea Roberts is a multi-award winning playwright and screenwriter from the West Country. Her debut play, And Then Come The Nightjars, won the Theatre503 International Playwriting Award, made her finalist for the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and is being adapted into a feature film with Finite Pictures. Further biog details below.
The production is directed by Caitlin McLeod, a freelance theatre director/practitioner who has worked extensively with new and established writers on contemporary plays including Caryl Churchill, David Eldridge, Laurie Nunn and EV Crowe. Further biog details below.
O, Island! and Ivy Tiller: Vicar’s Daughter, Squirrel Killer will both be designed by Camilla Clarke, with lighting design by Elliot Griggs, Sound Design by Oli Soames and Dramaturgy by Becky Latham. The Casting Director is Annelie Powell CDG.
TikTok £10 Tickets are available for both productions and are open to all 14–25-year-olds, with a focus on increasing access to theatre regionally across the country and state school sector.
Developed in consultation with the RSC’s Youth Advisory Board, the creative collaboration delivers unique creative and educational experiences for young people and students, with a specific focus on those communities most in need.
ENDS
For further information, please contact Kate Evans (Media and Communications Manager) on 07920 244 434 or email kate.evans@rsc.org.uk
BIOGS:
Nina Segal is a playwright and television writer. Her play O, Island! was shortlisted for the George Devine Award. Upcoming productions include: The Good Person of Szechwan (Sheffield Crucible and Lyric Hammersmith). Previous productions include: AI (Young Vic); Assembly (Donmar Warehouse); (This Isn't) A True Story (Almeida Young Company); Dismantle This Room (Royal Court, Bush Theatre); Big Guns (Yard Theatre, Theater Ingolstadt); and In The Night Time (Before The Sun Rises) (Gate Theatre, Staatstheater Mainz, Theater Bielefeld). Nina is a recipient of the 2022 Playwright's Scheme Award, on attachment with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and is under commission to the Unicorn Theatre, Soho Theatre, Rose Theatre and the Financial Times. For TV, Nina wrote on Hanna Series 2, for NBC and Amazon. She has two script commissions with ITV Studios and is developing other TV projects in the UK.
Bea Roberts Bea Roberts is a multi-award winning playwright and screenwriter from the West Country. Her debut play, And Then Come The Nightjars, won the Theatre503 International Playwriting Award, made her finalist for the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and is being adapted into a feature film with Finite Pictures.
Her next project, the one-woman/no-woman show Infinity Pool: A modern re-telling of Madame Bovary had a sell-out run at the Edinburgh Festival, was nominated for a Total Theatre award and was optioned by Hartswood Films. Bea’s modern feminist adaptation of Little Mermaid won Best Play for Children & Young People at the 2018 UK Theatre Awards. Other writing credits include utopian eco-comedy Loam (Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in association with the Royal Court), The Borrowers (Tobacco Factory Theatres) and Sir F. Mother****ing Drake starring Fleabag’s Jenny Rainsford, part of the My England monologue series at the Young Vic.
As well as developing new work for screen, Bea is currently under commission to New Pictures, English Touring Theatre, Theatre Royal Plymouth and the Stephen Joseph Theatre.
LISTINGS INFORMATION:
THE OTHER PLACE
Ivy Tiller: Vicar’s Daughter, Squirrel Killer
Thursday 6 October – Saturday 5 November 2022
Press performance: Wednesday 12 October, 2pm
“You know you act like you’re not from here”
Entrenched in her picturesque Devonshire village, Ivy Tiller is preparing to wage a war. Her target: the invasive grey squirrel. Her goal: to oust the invaders and restore the native red squirrels as the ‘rightful’ inhabitants.
Galvanised by her important mission, Ivy’s determination swells to uncomfortable heights.
This darkly comic new play from Bea Roberts challenges who belongs and who thrives.
O, Island!
Friday 30 September – Saturday 5 November 2022
Press performance: Wednesday 12 October, 7pm
"You do not feel pain. You do not feel hunger. Now get out there and dance as though you love this island.”
When a river breaks its banks one night resulting in a massive flood, one medium-sized village (or very very very small town) finds itself completely cut off - unexpectedly an island.
As the residents embrace their independence, a new leader rises and a shared identity emerges – but at what cost?
Shortlisted for the George Devine Award 2020, Nina Segal’s O, Island! is a funny and furious modern myth about disaster and community - exploring how borders can be changed by people, by nature and by accident.
The Mischief Festival 2022 is generously supported by Backstage Trust
The RSC is supported using public funding by Arts Council England
The work of the RSC is supported by the Culture Recovery Fund
The RSC is generously supported by RSC America
TikTok £10 Tickets for 14-25s sponsored by TikTok
The work of the RSC Literary Department is generously supported by The Drue and H.J. Heinz II Charitable Trust
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