Rickman, De Angelis & Sex Addict Spring into CourtDate: 8 December 2004
The Royal Court has announced its spring 2005 season for 2005, which includes offerings from old hands, like April De Angelis, as well as new writers, an Alan Rickman collaboration and, as previously tipped (See The Goss, 24 Sep 2004), a Sex Addict from Edinburgh.
The year starts in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs with April De Angelis’ Wild East, which opens on February 1 2005 (previews from 27 January). In it, we meet Frank, who’s got an important job interview. If he can convince his two female interviewers he’s up to it, he’ll have a chance to get back to Russia. But somehow, history is working against them all.
Directed by Phyllida Lloyd, Wild East will star Tom Brooke, Sylvestra Le Touzel and Helen Schlesinger. De Angelis’ other plays include A Laughing Matter, Playhouse Creatures, Hush and The Positive Hour. Wild East is booking to 12 March 2005.
It’s followed by Debbie Tucker Green’s latest offering, Stoning Mary which opens on 5 April (previews 1 April) and is booking until 23 April 2005. Marianne Elliott directs the play about the return of a child soldier from war. Performers will include Claire-Louise Cordell. Tucker Green’s other work includes Dirty Butterfly and Born Bad. The new production is designed by Ultz.
Meanwhile, the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs plays host to Sex Addict, written and performed Tim Fountain, whose previous monologues include Resident Alien, Julie Burchill Is Away, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People and H-O-T-B-O-I (though he did not perform in them). Fountain claims to have slept with 5,048 men and two women but has no intention of stopping there. As part of his plan to cast the net wider, he asks the audience to help choose his next conquest.
Sex Addict arrives at the Royal Court after a successful, although controversial, successful run at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe (See The Goss, 24 Sep 2004). When Fountain incorporated the gay matchmaking website Gaydar into his show, executives there threatened to sue over breach of confidentiality. The author-performer later admitted that it was a scam, in which the prospective partners were invented and played by a stooge at a remote location. Directed by Kath Mattock, the London Sex Addict season runs from 7 to 29 January 2005 (previews from 10 January).
It’s followed Upstairs by Laura Wade’s Breathing Corpses, which is directed by Anna Mackmin and runs from 28 February (previews 24 February) to 19 March 2005. Amy has found another corpse in a hotel room while Jim’s storage lot has an unusual smell emanating from it.
The final show in the Upstairs spring schedule is My Name Is Rachel Corrie. Corrie was a 23-year-old American who lost her life trying to defend a Palestinian home from Israeli bulldozers. The play stars Megan Dodds and was developed by Alan Rickman and Katherine Viner from Corrie’s writings. It runs previews from 14 to 30 April 2005 (previews from 14 April).
- by Hannah Kennedy
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