|
(c) Helen Maybanks |
The Donmar Warehouse has announced Becoming: Part One, a series of workshop performances written and performed by Rosalie Craig and Michelle Terry. This unique project represents the first time a public performance has taken place in the Donmar’s rehearsal space on Dryden Street from Tuesday 27 June to Saturday 1 July.
We were all born.
‘And immediately like, immediately that was the time I thought “And I’m a Mum.”’
Writers and performers Rosalie Craig and Michelle Terry share their very personal experiences of giving birth six months ago, remembering now because they are already starting to forget.
Since they becoming mothers at the end of 2016, Michelle and Rosalie have been working with the Donmar to explore how the theatre might work in new and different ways to allow them to be both artists and new mothers. The pair wanted to reflect on this turbulent time of change, so the Donmar co-commissioned them to research and write about this first ‘golden year’ – a phrase used in child development studies to refer to the first twelve months of a child’s life.
Join them for a limited run of very relaxed, workshop performances at the Donmar's rehearsal space on Dryden Street. While the show is aimed at adults, babes in arms are also welcome. You are invited to stay on after the performance to continue the conversation.
The Donmar has been a consortium member of Parents in the Performing Arts (PIPA) since 2016. As a partner of PIPA's Best Practice Research project, we are trialling news ways of working to inform industry practice on working with parents and children. We will share the learning from the process of creating Becoming: Part One with PIPA.
A podcast of Becoming: Part One will be released later this year.
And the Bush Theatre has announced that this summer it will be hosting a run of The B*easts, written and performed by the pride of Middlesbrough herself Monica Dolan (W1A, Appropriate Adult, The Witness For The Prosecution). Three previews of the production will take place in Theatre’s
recently refurbished Attic on 26 – 28 July, before opening at the Edinburgh Festival
Fringe. Tickets for the Bush Theatre run are now on sale.
Referencing the modern obsession with putting your own child first against our
responsibility as a society towards our children as a whole, this dark tale - written by and
starring BAFTA award-winning actress Monica Dolan - explores how far one mum will go to
put what her child wants first.
Dolan’s first solo play, a searing ‘What If?’ story, explores the pornification of our culture
and the sexualisation of our children. In a society where sexuality and gender are such a
huge part of who we are, how we identify, and how we are defined,
The B*easts looks at
how soon is too soon to strive for perceived sexual ideals. Can the journey to reach that
supposed perfection start before we are even consciously aware of the journey we have
begun?
The B*easts follows the repercussions of an event which could plausibly present itself and
unfold within today’s culture. It invites us to examine our culture from an extreme
perspective, taking a circumstance that we see as abhorrent and abnormal and showing
how it can germinate in what we have come to regard as normality. As Tessa, the central
character says, ‘you only have the choices you can see’. So when, and how, do you start
noticing that your moral compass may be being directed by popular culture?