The Royal Court Theatre announces A Year Of Work September 2019 – August 2020 

Autumn/Winter 2019/20 (on sale from May 2019)

• Total Immediate Collective Imminent Terrestrial Salvation written by Tim Crouch, directed by Karl James and Andy Smith, co-commissioned and produced in association with National Theatre of Scotland, will run in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs Tuesday 3 September 2019 – Saturday 21 September 2019. 
• My Name is Why in conversation with Lemn Sissay – a one-off reading in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs Tuesday 3 September 2019. 
• Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Three plays by Caryl Churchill, directed by James Macdonald, to run in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs Wednesday 18 September 2019 – Saturday 12 October 2019.
• A History of Water in the Middle East written and performed by Sabrina Mahfouz, directed by Stef O’Driscoll, to run in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs Thursday 10 October 2019 – Saturday 16 November 2019. On Bear Ridge, a co-production with National Theatre Wales, written by Ed Thomas, co-directed by Royal Court Artistic Director Vicky Featherstone and Ed Thomas, opening at the Sherman Theatre, Cardiff Friday 20 September 2019 – Saturday 5 October 2019, followed by a run in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs Thursday 24 October 2019 – Saturday 23 November 2019. 
• Midnight Movie written by Eve Leigh and directed by Rachel Bagshaw will run in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs Wednesday 27 November 2019 – Saturday 21 December 2019. 
• A Kind of People written by Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti will run in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs Thursday 5 December 2019 – Saturday 18 January 2020. 
• Scenes with Girls written by Miriam Battye and directed by Royal Court Associate Director Lucy Morrison will run in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs Wednesday 15 January 2020 – Saturday 22 February 2020. 
• Poet in da Corner written and performed by Debris Stevenson, feat. Jammz and directed by Royal Court Associate Director Ola Ince, will return to the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs Thursday 30 January 2020 – Saturday 22 February 2020, followed by a tour to The MAC, Belfast; Leicester Curve; Nottingham Playhouse; Manchester HOME; Birmingham Rep and Hackney Empire. 

Spring/Summer 2020 (on sale October 2019)

• Open Court: Climate Emergency. A season of work all over the Royal Court building curated by the writers in response to the climate emergency, March 2020. For full details see here.
• Shoe Lady written by E.V. Crowe and directed by Royal Court Artistic Director Vicky Featherstone, to run in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs Wednesday 4 March 2020 – Saturday 21 March 2020. 
• Rare Earth Mettle written by Al Smith and directed by Royal Court Associate Director Hamish Pirie, to run in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs Thursday 2 April 2020 – Saturday 25 April 2020. 
• two Palestinians go dogging written by Sami Ibrahim and directed by Omar Elerian in a co-production with Theatre Uncut, to run in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs Thursday 9 April 2020 – Saturday 9 May 2020. 
• IS IN OUR BLOOD – The Song Project performed by Wende, concept by Chloe Lamford and Wende, created by Chloe Lamford, Wende, Isobel Waller-Bridge and Imogen Knight, with words by E.V. Crowe, Sabrina Mahfouz, Somalia Seaton, Stef Smith and Debris Stevenson, to run in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs Thursday 7 May – Saturday 16 May 2020. 
• A Fight Against… written by Pablo Manzi and translated by William Gregory, directed by Royal Court Associate Director (International) Sam Pritchard, to run in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs Wednesday 20 May 2020 – Saturday 20 June 2020. Teatro a Mil Foundation is a project partner. 
• The Glow written by Alistair McDowall and directed by Royal Court Artistic Director Vicky Featherstone to run in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs Friday 29 May 2020 – Saturday 4 July 2020. 
• Purple Snowflakes and Titty Wanks written and performed by Sarah Hanly and directed by Alice Fitzgerald to run in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs Monday 29 June 2020 – Saturday 11 July 2020. 
• Is God Is written by Aleshea Harris and directed by Ola Ince to run in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs Thursday 16 July 2020 – Saturday 15 August 2020. For full details see here.
• Nanjing written and performed by Jude Christian and directed by Elayce Ismail to run in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs Monday 20 July 2020 – Saturday 1 August 2020 before a global tour. 

Writer opportunities;

• The Royal Court Theatre announces the Lynne Gagliano Writers Award, a year-long placement for a young person aged 18 – 25. 
• The Royal Court/Oberon Books Climate Commission – a new environmental initiative in playwriting. 

Tickets for the Autumn/Winter 2019/20 season go on sale to Friends on Wednesday 8 May 2019 at 10am and to the general public on Wednesday 15 May 2019 at 10am.

Tickets for the Spring/Summer 2020 season go on sale in October 2019.

020 7565 5000 / www.royalcourttheatre.com

Commenting on the new season Artistic Director Vicky Featherstone said;

“It is a privilege to be able to announce a whole year’s worth of work at the Royal Court and is testament to writers, both experienced and brand new to us that we have such an extraordinary range of voices, experiences, stories and provocations to put in front of our audiences. I am constantly overwhelmed by our hunger and capacity for story – the human need to make sense of the world in which we live and our openness to be surprised and enlightened by it. This year attempts to reflect that from the intensely private to the global stories of our times.”

A National Theatre of Scotland production in association with the Royal Court Theatre, Teatro do Bairro Alto, Lisbon and Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts Total Immediate Collective Imminent Terrestrial Salvation Written by Tim Crouch Directed by Karl James and Andy Smith Jerwood Theatre Upstairs Tuesday 3 September 2019 – Saturday 21 September 2019

Following a run at the Edinburgh International Festival Tim Crouch’s new play Total Immediate Collective Imminent Terrestrial Salvation comes to the Royal Court Theatre for four week run in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs from Tuesday 3 September 2019 to Saturday 21 September 2019 with press night on Thursday 5 September 2019, 7pm.

Directed by Karl James and Andy Smith, with illustration by Rachana Jadhav.

“You should all have a book. Does everyone have a book? This book is part of the play. In a minute, we’ll all open this book and we’ll invite you to turn the pages.”

The writer manipulates a group of people to sit together and believe in something that isn’t true. The book he’s written predicts it all: the equations, the black hole and all the words we’ll speak until the end.

On this last day, at this last hour, a defector finds her voice and returns.

In this new play, presented through stage action and illustrated text, audience and actors turn the book’s pages together, they study the images and they sometimes share the words out loud.

Tim Crouch is an experimental theatre maker who invites audiences to be active in the worlds his plays create. He returns to the Royal Court following The Author (2009) and Adler & Gibb (2014). His other plays include My Arm, ENGLAND, An Oak Tree and Beginners.

Tim Crouch (Writer/Performer) For the Royal Court: The Author (& tour), John, Antonio & Nancy (Rough Cuts), Adler & Gibb (& tour). Other theatre includes: Peat (Ark, Dublin); The Complete Deaths (Spymonkey/Tour); Jeramee, Hartleby & Oooglemore (& tour), Beginners (Unicorn); what happens to the hope at the end of the evening (Almeida Festival/Tour); HOST (Brighton Fringe); King Lear, The Taming of the Shrew (RSC/First Encounter); I, Cinna (The Poet) (RSC/World Shakespeare Festival); Cadavre Exquis (Kassys, Netherlands/Nature Theater of Oklahoma, NYC/Nicole Beutler/Tour); I, Malvolio (Brighton Festival/Tour); May (Probe Projects); ENGLAND (Traverse/Fruitmarket Gallery/Whitechapel Gallery/Tour); An Oak Tree (& Soho), My Arm (Traverse/Tour); Fairymonsterghost (I, Banquo; I, Peaseblossom; I, Caliban) (Brighton Festival/ Unicorn/Tour); Kaspar the Wild (Theatre Royal, Plymouth/Theatre Royal, York/Polka); Shopping for Shoes (NT Education Department tour). Radio includes: My Arm, An Oak Tree, ENGLAND. Television includes: Don’t Forget the Driver. Awards include: Writers Guild of Great Britain, Best Play for Young Audiences (Beginners); John Whiting Award, Total Theatre Award (The Author); OBIE Award for Special Citations, Herald Angel (An Oak Tree); Scotsman Fringe First, Total Theatre & Herald Archangel Awards (ENGLAND); Brian Way Award (Shopping for Shoes); Prix Italia Award for Best Adaptation in Radio Drama (My Arm).

Karl James (Co-director) As co-director, for the Royal Court: The Author, Adler & Gibb. As co-director, other theatre includes: My Arm, An Oak Tree, ENGLAND (Traverse); what happens to the hope at the end of the evening (Almeida). Karl is director of The Dialogue Project, enabling people to have conversations when the stakes are high. His acclaimed podcast series 2+2=5 and his audio work has featured on BBC Radio 4’s Short Cuts, A Different Kind of Justice for BBC Radio 4, at

Latitude Festival and in Third Coast’s Filmless Festival in Chicago. Karl’s first book Say It and Solve It was published in 2013.

Andy Smith (Co-director) As co-director, for the Royal Court: The Author, Adler & Gibb. As co-director, other theatre includes: An Oak Tree, ENGLAND (Traverse); Transporter (Theatr Iolo, Cardiff); What Good is Looking Well When You’re Rotten on the Inside? (Galway Theatre Festival). As writer & co-director: SUMMIT (Brighton Festival/Fuel). As writer & performer: what happens to the hope at the end of the evening (Almeida); COMMONISM, all that is solid melts into air (BIT Teatergarasjen); The Preston Bill (Fuel); commonwealth (Gateshead International Festival of Theatre). Andy is a Lecturer in Theatre Practice at The University of Manchester.

A National Theatre of Scotland production in association with the Royal Court Theatre, Teatro do Bairro Alto, Lisbon and Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts (ACCA).

Listings Information:

A National Theatre of Scotland production in association with the Royal Court Theatre, Teatro do Bairro Alto, Lisbon and Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts Total Immediate Collective Imminent Terrestrial Salvation Written by Tim Crouch Directed by Karl James and Andy Smith Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS Tuesday 3 September 2019 – Saturday 21 September 2019 Monday – Saturday 7.45pm Thursday & Saturday matinees 3pm Captioned Performances Friday 13 & 20 September 2019 Relaxed Environment Performance Saturday 21 September 2019, 3pm Press Performance Thursday 5 September 2019, 7pm The Big Idea: In Conversation with Tim Crouch Wednesday 11 September post-show Standard Tickets £12-£25 (Mondays all seats £12 available from 9am online on the day of performance) Concessions* Under 26s** Access £15 (plus a companion at the same rate).

The Studio at Festival Theatre, Edinburgh Wednesday 7 August 2019 – Sunday 25 August 2019 https://www.nationaltheatrescotland.com/production/total-immediate-collective- imminent-terrestrial-salvation-2/

My Name is Why In Conversation with Lemn Sissay 40 minutes reading & 20 minutes Q&A Jerwood Theatre Downstairs Tuesday 3 September 2019, 7.30pm

After the successful and moving reading of The Report, Lemn Sissay returns to the Royal Court with a special one off event reading excerpts from his new memoir, My Name is Why (Canongate Books), in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs on Tuesday 3 September 2019, 7.30pm.

At the age of 17, after a childhood in a fostered family, followed by six years in care homes, Norman Greenwood was given his birth certificate. He learned that his real name was not Norman. It was Lemn Sissay. He was British and Ethiopian. And he learned that his mother had been pleading for his safe return to her since his birth.

Lemn Sissay’s memoir reflects on a childhood in care, self-expression and Britishness, and in doing so explores the institutional care system, race, family and the meaning of home.

Infused with all the lyricism and power you would expect from one of the nation’s best-loved poets, this moving, frank and timely event is the result of a life spent asking questions, and a celebration of the redemptive power of creativity.

The evening is a celebration of the publication of My Name is Why: A Memoir by Lemn Sissay. Published by Canongate Books.

Lemn Sissay (Writer/Performer) For the Royal Court: Road, The Report. Other theatre includes: Refugee Boy (Leeds Playhouse/UK tour); Something Dark (UK & International tour). Lemn Sissay MBE is the author of several books of poetry alongside articles, records, public art and plays. He was the official poet for the London 2012 Olympics & the FA Cup 2015. Lemn’s Landmark Poems are installed throughout Manchester & London in venues such as The Royal Festival Hall & the Olympic Park. His landmark poem Gilt of Cain was unveiled by Bishop Desmond Tutu. His Desert Island Discs was pick of the year for BBC Radio 4 2015. Lemn is Chancellor of the University of Manchester, Associate Artist at Southbank Centre and a Patron of both The Letterbox Club and The Reader Organisation. He is a regular contributor to radio and television.