November 2011 to January 2012 | New Writing Season
The World Premiere as part of The Papatango New Writing Festival 2011
"Everything they tell you is a lie. Babies aren't cute, the sixties didn't swing and there's no such thing as safe sex. Citizen Kane was not the best movie, so what the stupid ball rolls off the table. Santa Claus is a fat, boozy actor and that cafe that sells an 'all day' breakfast? It shuts at 5.30. My point being, they lied. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a liar."
Rob researched Crush by spending ten years in a catty office, full of growling sexual subtext. The play tells the story of Johnny and his doomed crush on Celia, the office bitch. The trouble is, she's shagging Nudds, a man whose voice is so smooth, he can wriggle his tongue between two coats of paint. And that is where the story ends. Until... click, click, click... in minces Laura, in killer heels. As Bitch 2.0, Laura makes Celia look like an amateur. What starts out as handbags at dawn, soon descends into a filthy labyrinth where life itself hangs in the balance, culminating in a victorian theatrical spectacle of literally breathtaking proportions. For Crush, think crisp white blouses, an office tango and a flirt to the death.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT ROB YOUNG
Playwright Rob Young's feature film, Miranda, starred John Hurt and Christina Ricci. It won the Audience Award at London's Raindance Film Festival and sold in twenty two countries. He has since been commissioned to write original screenplays for BBC Films, Filmfour and Working Title, as well as TV scripts for the BBC and Channel 4. Rob's musical, Ex, premieres on Soho Theatre's main stage in November 2011. His adaptation of Hemingway's Pulitzer Prize winning novella, The Old Man and the Sea, won the Award for Artistic Excellence at last year's Brighton Festival before transferring to a sell-out run at the Arcola Theatre and a five week run at the Riverside Studios in 2011. Rob has previously written three plays for the Finborough Theatre – Tango 'til You're Sore, Suicide and Manipulation and Surfing. His other theatre includes Obsession (Time Out Critics' Choice), The Shoe Shop of Desire (BAC and BBC2 documentary) and The Man with the Absurdly Large Penis (The Young Vic). Rob is the co-founder of the art group, The Curious Guide. www.robyoung.info
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR LAURA CASEY
Director Laura Casey works in both Germany and the UK. She is Artistic Director of Magpie Blue Productions and Associate Director for Upstart Theatre. Directing includes The Old Man and The Sea, adapted by Rob Young (Shorelines Festival, Riverside Studios, Arcola Theatre, Kaskelot, a pirate ship in Charlestown Harbour and Little Marlborough Theatre, Brighton), Rubies in The Attic (Jermyn Street Theatre and Riverside Studios), Mods and Rockers (Tristan Bates Theatre), Deep and Crisp and Even and The Christmas (Site Specific in SW6); England (The Karamel Club) and Urban Legends (Krudttonden, Copenhagen). Assisting includes Yerma (Hull Truck Theatre and Gate Theatre), Shakespeare on Edge which was nominated for Kölner Theaterpreis 2011 (Artheatre, Cologne), Oh Well Never Mind Bye (Union Theatre) and The Lover and The Dumb Waiter (Krudttonden, Copenhagen).
THE PRESS ON ROB YOUNG
"A fascinating playwright" The Times
"Young is such a compelling voyeur. He has an unnatural way with small, lethal details that tell entire stories. This is a beautifully choreographed piece of precision acting that dances on the razor's edge between loathing and love. Highly unsettling, perhaps because it is so bleakly funny and true." The Times on Obsession
"A broader view of Young's vivid imagination and his unique way with words. Speech is a slippery, evocative and three-dimensional thing, rife with knock-on alliteration and spot-on comic juxtaposition." Evening Standard on Obsession
Time Out Critics' Choice. "Lurid emotional intimacy combines with strong dramatic conceit. Young's language is alternatively sensual and surgical. Obsession ruthlessly exploits the relationship between actor and audience, a fine blend of art and matter. Rob Young's Obsession is a stand out in this celebration of a lonely art form." Time Out on Obsession
Time Out Critics' Choice. "Young evokes a strangely affecting world, part fantasy, part cry from the heart...Essential viewing." Time Out on Surfing
"Touchingly sad, the characters grow on you, almost imperceptibly, drawing you into their destitute, moving lives." The Guardian on Surfing "Young's sensitive handling...imbue a funny, sexy story with a real sense of wonder and romance." Evening Standard on Surfing
ABOUT THE CAST
Erin Richards
Trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Theatre includes The Bankrupt Bride (Greenwich Theatre), Women Beware Women (Sherman Cymru, Cardiff) and Cleansed (Drama Studio). Film includes Abrahams Point, Expiry Date and Creep Killers. Television includes Being Human, Crash, Torchwood and Jara.
Matt Roberts
Trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Theatre includes Christmas Reloaded (Old Red Lion Theatre), The Muse (Pleasance London and Tristan Bates Theatre), Popcorn, Blue Remembered Hills (Sherman Cymru, Cardiff) and Bianco (Elan in Florence). Film includes Scopia, Breaking Waves, Fourth Dimension and Philips Head. Television includes Grange Hill. Writing includes performances at the Soho Theatre, the Crucible Theatre Sheffield, Theatre 503 and Pleasance London. His new play Blackpool was long-listed for the Bruntwood Prize and he has been supported by the Peggy Ramsay Foundation.
Dolly Wells
Trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Theatre includes The Underpants (Old Red Lion Theatre), Aunt Dan and Lemon (Almeida Theatre), As You Like It (Riverside Studios). Film includes Franklyn, Magicians, Bridget Jones Diary, I Capture The Castle and Morvern Callar. Television includes Campus, Spy, Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy, Starlings, Star Stories, Peep Show, The IT Crowd, French and Saunders, The Mighty Boosh, Casualty, Doctors and Murphy’s Law.
TICKETS AND TIMES
Monday, 19 December - Friday, 23 December 2011
Evenings at 6.30pm. (8.30pm on Monday, 19 December)
Performance Length: Approximately 1 hour and a half without interval.
For an overview of the entire festival and for a full production schedule, please click here
Tickets £13, £9 concessions
PLEASE NOTE THAT LATECOMERS CANNOT BE ADMITTED AND TICKETS CANNOT BE EXCHANGED OR REFUNDED.
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PRODUCTION TEAM
Written by Rob Young
Directed by Laura Casey
Designed by Emily Howard
Lighting by Elliot Griggs
Presented the Papatango New Writing Festival in partnership with Neil McPherson for the Finborough Theatre.
CAST
ERIN RICHARDS
MATT ROBERTS
DOLLY WELLS
