TIME OUT CRITICS' CHOICE

Imagine returning to your parents' home after a 12-year absence to find waiting for you the same resentment, animosity and general family dysfunction that made you leave in the first place. Imagine having a Pandora's Box stuffed to the brim with family secrets and knowing that crossing that threshold is going to pry the box wide open. Imagine that those secrets deal with matters of sexual impropriety and betrayal of trust – and still your life would not be half as disturbing as the characters in Coyote Ugly. An immensely compelling unrequited love story tied up in one very high-strung family drama…

Coyote Ugly was originally presented in the US by Chicago’s acclaimed Steppenwolf Theatre Company in a production starring Laurie Metcalf, and directed by actor John Malkovich. Seen on the London fringe in 1992 and at the Manchester Royal Exchange, it now receives its first London revival in over ten years.

The Icarus Theatre Collective, founded in November 2003, is a collaboration of artists from varied multi-cultural backgrounds, combining their unique styles into a harmonious whole. Coyote Ugly features artists from America, Spain, The Czech Republic, Ireland, France, and across Europe. Our first production, The Lesson by Eugene Ionesco, featured a British and Australian cast and was directed by the French/American Artistic Director of the Collective. Time Out called it “entertaining”, “imaginative”, and “a fine production”, describing it as “90s ‘in-yer-face’ apocalypticism.”

The Press on Coyote Ugly
"A dazzling turn by Jade Magri as the untamed Scarlet . . . A beautifully restrained, delicately erotic performance by Annie Julian."
John Thaxter, What’s On in London

"If you fancy feeling the sand between your toes this week, Lynn Siefert’s Coyote Ugly (no relation to the film of the same name) may be just what you’re looking for. To reach your seat, you have to cross a sand-covered stage on which are strewn deck chairs, a sofa bed, a fridge and a small stove with a pan of water bubbling away on it. . . .In this elemental drama, the characters do real things like gut fish and wear dogs heads, and express themselves in a vivid, gritty, imagistic patois. It’s one of the great strengths of Max Lewendel’s production that, despite being up a flight of stairs over a pub in Earl’s Court, the meticulous stage design evokes the plays desert setting so powerfully. And the excellent cast certainly enter into the spirit of the scripts exotic form of domestic madness: part Sam Shepard, part sexed up Three Stooges, it makes for an intense and wittily uncivilised evenings entertainment."
Robert Shore, Time Out

"Before anyone gets too excited it is necessary to point out that this is not the stage version of the film of the same name. . . This play has something far more ambitious but also more shocking. . .It first saw the light of day in a production by the world renowned Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago in 1985, directed by their most famous son, John Malkovich. Its power and success can be seen from the Awards for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress that were received by Laurie Metcalf and Malkovich’s wife at the time, Glenne Headly. . . An overheated hormonal explosion that stretches to all five members of the Pusey clan, with deeply disturbing consequences. . . .Coyote Ugly is not a play for the weak stomached or callow. It delves into the taboo of incest without prurience but in considerable depth. This strand though is hardly more disconcerting than the humiliations that each of the characters endure as they battle through life. This intense slice of unseen American life is well worth a visit. American director Max Lewendel has collected a strong cast who thankfully all manage absolutely convincing accents. On the sand covered set and with the temperature in the auditorium at an appropriate level, this sexy, steamy drama really hits home, especially after delivering the scorpion sting in its tail."
Philip Fisher, British Theatre Guide

"Intimate and moving...The five-member cast fill the dim confines of the theatre like a desert storm"
Le Roux Schoeman, The Church of England Newspaper

"Sizzling bursts of desire . . . A tortured, quite fascinating journey"
Timothy Ramsden, Reviewsgate