Theatre News

Court adds Churchill play to autumn season, Royal Holloway names Caryl Churchill Theatre

The Royal Court has announced that a new short play by Caryl Churchill will run concurrently with her new play Love and Information as part of the venue’s autumn season.

Titled Ding Dong The Wicked, the 30-minute piece will be directed by Royal Court artistic director Dominic Cooke and take place “around” the evening’s performance of Love and Information, with matinee and late night showings on certain days.

Announcing the new addition, Cooke said: “It’s been 40 years since the Royal
Court first staged a play by Caryl Churchill and in that time she has
led the way in reinventing our notion of what a play can be. Ding Dong
The Wicked
is as fresh and unusual as anything she’s written and while
it differs from Love and Information in content and form, to see both
plays in one night promises a fascinating evening.”

Ding Dong the Wicked will be the fourth
play of Churchill’s that Cooke has directed, following Seven Jewish Children, This is a Chair and Identical Twins.

Press material for Ding Dong the Wicked reads: “A child is shut in her room, a dog is dead in the road, someone is
kissing her brother in law. A family locked in hatred is sending a son
to war.”

The cast includes Claire Foy (BBC’s Little Dorrit), Sophie Stanton (EastEnders), Daniel Kendrick (Vera Vera Vera) and Stuart McQuarrie (Clybourne Park, Wanderlust).

Royal Holloway announces Caryl Churchill Theatre

The
news comes on the same day that Royal Holloway announced it
is naming its new £3million theatre in honour of Churchill, whose
award-winning plays include Cloud Nine, Top Girls and
Serious Money.

Professor Dan Rebellato, Head of the Department of Theatre and Drama, said: “Caryl
Churchill is internationally recognized as one of the key playwrights
of the last 100 years. To be able to name our theatre after Caryl
Churchill is a great honour for the College and just recognition of her
restless theatrical creativity.”

Due to open early in
2013, the Caryl Churchill Theatre will offer an “intimate and flexible
space for 21st century artists and scholars to further enrich the
exploration of theatre and performance”. For more information about the
theatre, visit www.rhul.ac.uk.