Description:
We don't actually drink coffee at my coffee morning. - What do you do, then? - We discuss the violent overthrow of the government. Also, there's flower arranging.
In this intensely imaginative and daringly brave-thinking play, award-winning playwright Rory Mullarkey imagines a wild road trip across Middle England. Together, Lady Catherine and her young protégé Leo enlist every tearoom, hot yoga class and Women's Institute group on a mission to change the country forever. This play was the 2014 Pinter Commission and the winner of the George Devine Award. It received its world premiere production at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs on 10 September 2014, starring Anna Chancellor as Lady Catherine and directed by James Macdonald.Brief description: Rory Mullarkey's original plays include Pity, The Wolf from the Door (Royal Court Theatre), Saint George and the Dragon (Royal National Theatre), Each Slow Dusk (Pentabus Theatre/UK Tour), Cannibals, Single Sex (Royal Exchange, Manchester), The Grandfathers (National Theatre Connections, then Bristol Old Vic/National Theatre) and On the Threshing Floor (Heat & Light Company, Hampstead Theatre). His adaptations/translations include The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov (Bristol Old Vic/Manchester Royal Exchange), The Oresteia by Aeschylus (Shakespeare's Globe) and Remembrance Day by Aleksey Scherbak (Royal Court). He has written the libretti for The Skating Rink by David Sawer (Garsington Opera), Coraline by Mark-Anthony Turnage (Royal Opera House) and The Way Back Home by Joanna Lee (ENO/Young Vic). He has won the Abraham Woursell Prize (co-winner 2017), the James Tait Black Prize for Drama (2014), the George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright (co-winner, 2014), the Harold Pinter Commission for the Royal Court (2014) and the Pearson Bursary for the Royal Exchange, Manchester (2011).
Review Quotes:
"Mullarkey has fun with the juxtaposition of quaint English custom and unadulterated savagery, and he offers some hilarious dialogue. . . . Mullarkey has considerable talent . . . exhilarating" --Daily Telegraph
"fervent and bracingly original . . . laced with exuberant absurdity and moments of twisted humour . . . there's a fierce freshness in his writing that suggests he's a young playwright to watch." --Evening Standard "rallying, angry and necessary" --The Stage "Rory Mullarkey's free-spirited daub of a nationwide road trip is a Poliakoff-style fantasia of violence and revolution . . . He's a promising new talent." --Whatsonstage "Funny, provocative and engagingly eccentric" --Time Out "Mullarkey certainly has an original voice" --Financial Times