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Writers Direct Favourites, inc All-Female Glengarry

Four Royal Court writers are set to try their hand at directing in Playwright's Playwrights this summer. Writers Mark Ravenhill, Lucy Prebble, April de Angelis and Joe Penhall will each direct a rehearsed reading of their favourite play by their favourite playwright in the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Downstairs.

Tonight, Wednesday 16 June 2004, Ravenhill directs Bertolt Brecht's 1932 play, The Mother. Ravenhill's previous work includes Shopping and Fucking, (Royal Court/Out of Joint), Some Explicit Polaroids (Out of Joint/West End) and Mother Clap's Molly House (National/West End).

Pelaega Vlasova is a middle-aged widow who is unwillingly drawn into the Bolshevik movement by her desire to protect her revolutionary son - she eventually becomes a figurehead and inspiration for the Bolshevik cause.

On Wednesday 23 June 2004, Prebble directs Caryl Churchill's 1989 play, Ice Cream. Prebble's first play, The Sugar Syndrome, won the Critics' Circle Award for Most Promising Newcomer and the George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright in 2003.

Set in the UK and the USA, Ice Cream tells the story of four people - an American husband and wife and an English brother and sister - who are implicated in each other’s lives more than any of them would wish. Their respective love affairs with each other's countries prove difficult to sustain.

On Wednesday 30 June 2004, April de Angelis' directs an all-female version of Glengarry Glen Ross. David Mamet's 1984 play has become a modern classic, revolving around four real estate salesmen in a cut-throat sales competition. De Angelis' plays includes A Laughing Matter (National/Out Of Joint), Playhouse Creatures (West End) and A Warwickshire Testimony (RSC).

The final rehearsed reading, on Wednesday 7 July 2004, will be Martin Crimp’s 1998 Dealing with a Chair, in which a young female estate agent, an upwardly mobile couple and a mysterious cash buyer clash in the yuppie London of the 1980s. It’s directed by Penhall, whose own plays include The Bullet (Donmar Warehouse), Love and Understanding (Bush), Pale Horse (Royal Court), Some Voices (Royal Court) and Penhall's previous work includes; Blue/Orange (National/West End).

Tickets for all readings are priced £5 (£3 concessions) and are available from the Royal Court box office on 020 7565 5000.

- by Hannah Kennedy

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