The Stage

Royal Court’s season to feature plays by Stenham and Ravenhill

Published Friday 7 November 2008 at 11:45 by Matthew Hemley

New plays by Polly Stenham, Mark Ravenhill, Jez Butterworth and Wallace Shawn will form the line-up of the Royal Court’s spring and summer season next year.

Performers confirmed to appear next year include Jane Horrocks, Miranda Richardson and Clare Higgins. They will all take part in a season of work by actor and writer Shawn, who has written his first new play in ten years.

Artistic director Dominic Cooke said: “A key part of our commitment to new writers is the Royal Court’s tradition of attracting the very finest actors to our stages. Rarely has this commitment been more apparent than in the remarkable triumvirate of actresses who will join us in our Wallace Shawn season.”

Shawn’s new play is called Grasses of a Thousand Colours and runs from May 12 to June 13 next year, with Shawn also appearing in it.

Richardson will star in this production, which the theatre said is a “disturbing and funny vision of the embattled relationship between man and beast”.

Other Shawn plays to be produced at the Royal Court include revivals of Aunt Dan and Lemon, starring Horrocks, and The Fever, which will feature Higgins.

The spring and summer season will also include Off the Wall, a series of plays to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which will feature Ravenhill’s new work Over There, starring Luke and Harry Treadaway.

Stenham’s new play is called Tusk Tusk and follows on from her successful debut That Face. Tusk Tusk will run from March 28 until May 2, while Butterworth has written Jerusalem, described as a “comic, contemporary vision of life” in the UK. Jerusalem runs from July 10 until August 15.

Cooke said: “The Royal Court explores today’s headlines, tomorrow’s inheritance and the shockwaves of our recent past. Our programme for the next six months will tackle head on what it means to be alive now, with the legacy of the last century on our shoulders.”

Finally, the Royal Court has announced Ruth Jones, co-creator and star of Gavin and Stacey, will become patron of next year’s Royal Court’s Young Writers Festival.