PLAYING WITH GROWNUPS to Make World Premiere at Theatre503, May 14-June 8

KPS Productions and HP Productions in association with Pleasance and Theatre503, with the support of the Jersey Arts Trust, present the World Premiere of PLAYING WITH GROWNUPS by Hannah Patterson, directed by Hannah Eidinow, at Theatre503 in London, 14 May - 8 June 2013.

Acclaimed director Hannah Eidinow directs the new play by Hannah Patterson at Theatre503, the new writing powerhouse in London.

"That's the problem, isn't it. Now we can have it all, we're expected to bloody do it all. Or want to do it all... If I didn't have so much sodding expectation, I'd never know I'd settled for so much less."

Joanna's just had a baby and she's regretting it. But doting husband Robert Is pretending that everything's fine. The last thing either of them needs is a visit from their academic colleague Jake - Robert's boss and Joanna's ex - turning up with an uninvited guest. Or maybe it's exactly what they need.

Hannah Patterson's Playing With Grownups is a frank and funny exploration of relationships and what it means to be a woman. The play is set in an instantly recognisable urbane, career-driven world, where the characters are questioning the choices they have made.

This is Hannah Patterson's second play. Her first play, Much, was also directed by Hannah Eidinow. "Hannah Patterson's script is taut and perceptive" - The Stage. Playing With Grownups was longlisted for the 2011 Bruntwood Prize, and the script was developed during a residency with Paines Plough.

Multi-award-winning Hannah Eidinow is one of the UK's most prolific and most acclaimed directors. Current shows include the critical and box office success An Instinct for Kindness and the national tour of Maurice's Jubilee.

Producer Kat Portman-Smith's producing credits with Seabright Productions include Potted Potter in the West End and UK tour, Hardeep Sing Kohli's UK tours and An Instinct for Kindness. She is also producing the upcoming Desperately Seeking the Exit at Leicester Square Theatre this Spring.

'Playing With Grown Ups' is a play which aims to open up discourse about the role and representation of women today, specifically the issue faced by many women who have been brought up to judge their value as people by their work, faced with a societal and biological pressure to have children, and attempting to reconcile these contradictory ideologies. In doing so, it explores the legacy of feminism and whether women can indeed 'have it all', considering the ways in which they are represented in the media, and the psychological and practical effect.
Further to an early draft of the play being longlisted for the Bruntwood Prize 2011, Hannah used a Paines Plough residency to do a substantial re-write; and heeded excellent advice from the company's artistic director, James Grieve, who was on-hand to discuss the work. She then entered the play for the 2012 New Plays Project in Jersey and subsequently attended a workshop on the island with Jack Bradley, former Literary Manager of The National Theatre, who has since been integral in championing it. There was a successful reading at Rada in April 2012.

Hannah Patterson - Writer: Hannah Patterson is a writer for theatre and film. Her debut play MUCH premiered at The c*ckTavern in 2010. One-act plays The Editor and Self-Help have been performed at Hampstead and the Pleasance Theatre, in association with The Factory, Invincible Summer at The Union (MokitaGrit), and Charity Begins at Home at Waterloo Theatre East (Love Bites). The Weakness in Me and AID, were both winners of the one-act New Plays Project, run by the Jersey Arts Trust in association with Old Vic, New Voices. Having taken part in a Paines Plough residency, she has written and performed Résistantes as part of their 'Come to Where I'm From' series.

Her treatment for feature film script Resistance was shortlisted for The Script Factory's Serious Screenwriting competition, and the script itself has been selected as a semi-finalist in three competitions - the CineStory Screenwriting Award, The Creative World Awards and the Austin Screenplay Competition. Her short film script Dead End was a semi-finalist of the BlueCat Fellini Screenwriting Award, and a finalist for the Sundance Film Festival's 'Table Read My Screenplay', and she has had two shorts commissioned by RADA Films, Five Years On, which premiered at Rushes Soho Shorts Festival 2011, and Inside. She has been invited to take part in the Edinburgh International Film Festival Talent Lab, London Film Festival's Think-Shoot-Distribute and the CineStory LA Screenwriting Lab. She is also co-writer and producer of the documentary Shelter in Place, winner of the Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation's Pitch Prize, and has written for publications including Sight & Sound, The International Film Guide, Time Out guides and The Guardian.

Hannah Eidinow - Director: Hannah Eidinow's production of Maurice's Jubilee by Nichola McAuliffe, starring Julian Glover and SheiLA Reid, is currently on an ATG No.1 UK tour. Hannah is a multi-award winning director including five Scotsman Fringe First Awards at the Edinburgh Festival for An Instinct for Kindness (Edinburgh Festival 2011; UK Tour & Trafalgar Studios 2012; LitLive, the Mumbai LitFest; recipient of the Argus Angel Award 2012; nominated for Best Solo Performance Whatsonstage Awards 2012); Somewhere Beneath it All, A Small Fire Burns Still (Edinburgh Festival 2011); Lockerbie: Unfinished Business (Edinburgh Festival 2010; UK Tour); What I Heard About Iraq (Edinburgh Festival 2006; UK Tour & Arts Theatre, West End 2007); and Gone (Edinburgh Festival 2004; New Ambassadors 2004; Guardian Best Fringe Play). She was recipient of 2010 Vauxhall Collective Award for Theatre.

Further credits: Maurice's Jubilee by Nichola McAuliffe (ATG No. 1 UK Tour 2013; Edinburgh Festival 2012 - Best Actress Stage Award for Nichola McAuliffe); Hand Over Fist by Dave Florez (Edinburgh Festival 2012 - nomination for Stage Awards Best Solo Performance); A British Subject by Nichola McAuliffe (Arts Theatre 2011; Edinburgh Festival & Brits Off-Broadway Season NY 2009); The Lady From The Sea, a new version by Frank McGuinness starring Lia Williams (Arcola, Sunday Times and Guardian Top Theatre Pick; BBC Radio 3 with Hugh Bonneville); plays by Anthony Neilson, April De Angelis, Dave Florez, Lucy Kirkwood and Mike McShane in The Terror Season 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 (Southwark Playhouse and Soho Theatre); compiled, edited and directed text for Five Minutes to Midnight, a premiere conceived by Damon Albarn with Brian Eno (Greenpeace 2007); New Israeli Political Drama Platform Series (Royal National Theatre); Holding Hands at Paschendale, a premiere of a new play by Martin Lynch (Lyric Theatre Belfast and Northern Ireland tour 2006).

Kat Portman-Smith - Producer: Kat Portman-Smith has recently received the Stage One Bursary for new producers to develop KPS Productions. This Spring she is producing Desperately Seeking the Exit at Leicester Square Theatre and is Associate Producer for 'JustJones&'s Autumn tour of An Enemy of the People. As Associate Producer for Seabright Productions Kat has produced and general managed many shows in London, Edinburgh and on U.K. national tours. Whilst working with James Seabright she has worked on diverse shows including Potted Potter in the West End and UK tour, HarDeep Singh Kohli's touring shows, the UK tour of An Instinct for Kindness and The Showstoppers. As General Manager she has worked on Terror 2012 at Soho Theatre and continues to manage HarDeep Singh Kohli's UK touring. Kat is also a trustee of LOST Theatre in Stockwell.

PRESS NIGHT Thursday 16 May 2013 at 7.45pm
Venue: Theatre503, 503 Battersea Park Rd, London SW11 3BW
Dates: 14 May - 8 June
Times: Tuesdays to Saturdays at 7.45pm, Sundays at 5pm
Tickets: £15/£10
Box Office: 020 7978 7040 / www.theatre503.com