Park Theatre stages all-female triple bill Shutters

The Park Theatre will stage a triple bill of plays about the journey of women over the last century featuring an all-female cast, from 11 July to 3 August (previews from 9 July).

Entitled Shutters, the triptych sees works by Brooke Allen, Phillip Dawkins and Susan Glaspell and is directed by Jack Thorpe Baker. The three American plays are billed as a peak of ‘snapshots of life behind closed doors’.

Two of the three are products of up-and-coming playwrights, Philip Dawkins and Brooke Allen. Dawkins’ Cast of Characters is a family drama of theatrical proportions, while Allen’s The Deer is a story of a woman’s attempt to deal with her grief.

The third play within the triple bill from Marking Productions is a work by Pulitzer Prize-winner Susan Glaspell. Trifles, written in 1916, is a suspense thriller with subtle but courageous feminism.

The female-only cast performing both male and female parts includes Nicola Blackman (Destroy Rides Again, The Lion King), Yolanda Kettle (Birdland, A Doll's House), Joanna Kirkland (Season's Greetings, The Baker's Wife), Beverley Longhurst (All My Sons, Remembrance of Things Past), Lucia McAnespie (The Silver Tassie, Happiness) and Matilda Thorpe (When We Are Married, It's A Girl).

Director Baker made his debut at the Union Theatre, and has also worked at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre. Baker has also previously danced for the Czech National Ballet and Chicago’s Joffrey Ballet.