Autumn Season at Ovalhouse is Lady-Led

Beginning with Lagan on 28 October, the Lady-Led season seeks to “re-examine how gender functions as an element of artistic practice.”

Lagan, directed by Jane Fallowfield, is a collection of stories from Belfast, specifically of Ian, who returns home to find that everything has changed. Stacey Gregg’s first play Perve opened at the Abbey Theatre in May 2011 to critical acclaim.

Using theatre, unreliable science, Doris Day, and humour, Rachel Mars and nat tarrab look at gender identity and falling in love in Tomboy Blues, opening 3 November.

Directed by Stella Duffy, TaniwhaThames looks at the dichotomy of home and belonging through a spirit in the river Thames. TaniwhaThames opens 17 November.

Same Same, opening 24 November, follows two women whose lives frequently intersect to create a complicated story that they must solve together. Same Same is directed by Rachel Briscoe and Dan Barnard.

After graduating from Bristol University and RADA, Rebecca Atkinson-Lord trained with Frantic Assembly, Complicite, Told by an Idiot, the Young Vic and the Royal Opera House. She is the Founding Director of Arch 468, Director of Theatre at Ovalhouse and works regularly on a freelance basis.

Rachel Briscoe is a director, writer, and producer who won the Young Angels Theatremakers Award 2009 and is nominated for the OffWestEnd “Best Director” Award for her 2011 production of Fixer at Ovalhouse.

“For us, doing a season called Lady-Led where the shows are not ‘about women’ is a statement in itself,” Briscoe said. “Female artists can and do make theatre about anything they want.”

Briscoe said Lady-Led’s gender-specific theme is meant to only be the context of the four plays, and that audiences are invited to draw their own conclusions and ideas.

The Lady-Led Season begins 28 October at the Ovalhouse Theatre with the premiere of Lagan and an RSVP-invitation to meet the directors.

– Natalie Generalovich