Royal Court explores sex, death & Europe this summer

The Royal Court has confirmed details of its ‘Big Idea’ season, running as part of this summer’s Open Court, which marks new artistic director Vicky Featherstone’s first season at the venue.Open Court sees Featherstone ‘hand over the keys’ to over 100 writers, who as previously announced have programmed a season of short plays and readings in Sloane Square and beyond.The ‘big ideas’ evenings run under the banners of Sex, Age, PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain), Collaboration and Death.’Sex’ on 16 June 2013 is curated by Alecky Blythe, EV Crowe and Michael Wynne. It includes a reading of Judy Blume’s book Forever and an exploration of ‘Friday Night Sex’ in the Royal Court UpstairsEV Crowe said: “When I was at school there was a queue to read a book about sex – that
book was Forever by Judy Blume… Maybe a whole generation of women need to hear it again, and go back to
where our ideas started. It’s going to tell us all something, men and
women, but we won’t know until we hear it.”‘Age’ (21 June), curated by DC Moore and Penelope Skinner, features readings of plays by writers over 80 who participated in a workshop run by Skinner. ‘PIIGS’ runs for a week from 25 June and features plays and readings from Portugal (25th) Ireland (26th), Italy (27th), Greece (28th) and Spain (29th).’Collaboration’ (4-6 July) is overseen by Anthony Neilson, who will work with six Royal Court writers (EV Crowe, Vivienne Franzmann, Robin French, Joel Horwood, Janie Okoh and DC Moore) using his “unique devising style” to stage a series of 30-minutes pieces.Finally, ‘Death’ (12 July), curated by Vivienne Franzmann and Nick Payne, features an interactive event called ‘Speed Deathing’ as well as The Art of Dying, a new play written and performed by Payne.Franzmann said: “It is arguable that there has never been a worse time to die in the Western World, particularly when holding a hitachi wand. We, as individuals, are less equipped to deal with the reality of death than ever before; I have to be young, look young, think young. I am important. I can be fixed. I must exist.”Other Big Ideas as part of Open Court include a week of plays, workshops and special events curated by young playwrights aged 8-11. For more information on the season, visit royalcourttheatre.com