The Royal Court’s innovative artistic director Vicky Featherstone usually creates a stir when she announces a new season. The one for Septemper 2014 to May 2015 is no exception with revolution in the air, says playwright Maxine Quintyne-Kolaru.
“The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will be staged.” That was the level of fervour from Vicky Featherstone during the recent launch of the Royal Court’s September 2014 to May 2015 new theatre season.
Rather than having a focus on themes, Featherstone confirmed that the new season will herald a response to the changing context and truth of our lives. She promised that the new programme will span “resistance, imagined futures” and will be a cry for “futility” and the “inability to make change happen”. To answer these questions she will bring together diverse writing and individual voices.
At the forefront of these new voices will be a revolution, one not born of working class struggle, she said, but a revolution from the belly of Middle England. Rory Mullarkey, winner of The Pinter Commission and the George Devine Award 2014, will lead this battle charge with his play The Wolf From The Door.
Tim Price’s play THE Internet is a Serious Business will “create an anarchic retelling of the birth of hacktivism”, relived by two teenagers who take on the FBI and try to confront capitalism and change the world forever.
Featherstone also focuses on climate science through Duncan Macmillan and Chris Rapley’s play 2071, which will re-open the conversation about the importance of climate change and its impact on the next generation. The next generation will also take to the stage in Molly Davies’ God Bless the Child, where mutiny comes in the form of rebellious eight year olds.
The impact of rebellion and conflict will also be poignantly explored in first time writer Diana Nneka Atuona’s Alfred Fagon Award winning play Liberian Girl. The play, which will be performed in the theatre upstairs before its run in Peckham and Tottenham, tells one teenage girl’s story through themes of gender politics, sexual violence in conflict, resistance and survival.
This revolutionary season will also explore “the fallout from local council austerity”, European politics, Big Ideas and “whether there is such a thing as English identity”. The season will also use film and take to the streets, going beyond the walls of the Royal Court with projects connected to the community.
There will be literary projects, which will tour village halls, and others which will create 90 second films of theatrical events with Guardian journalists. UK and international tours with the Royal Court in New York and Hamburg are also scheduled.
Closer to home, Featherstone has reiterated her commitment to champion diverse writing and has a number of writers currently under commission. She seems determined to instigate a change committed to creating and sharing new work, developing diverse artists, creative leaders and audiences.