ROWLING IN IT Comes to King's Head Theatre in April

When award-winning actress Laura Kay Bailey (Crime 101 with Chris Hemsworth and Mark Ruffalo, TERF) auditioned to play the world's most famous children's author for an Edinburgh Fringe show, little did she know it would change her life. Just not in the ways she imagined.

Rowling In It is a bitingly funny, candid account of playing a contentious public figure in a production eclipsed by the media surrounding it - and finding unexpected clarity on the other side. Rooted in real-life events, the show lovingly skewers identity politics, the theatre industry, ageing and the messy process of finding your footing after epic failure. Pitting ambition against doing the right thing, Rowling In It explores what happens when performance and identity collide, and how it feels to be caught in the culture war crossfire.

A world premiere, Rowling In It is directed by one of the UK's brightest talents Dominic Shaw (The Devil Wears Prada, Pretty Woman The Musical, Kinky Boots, Becoming Nancy), with dramaturgy from award-winning Jordan S Daniel (National Theatre of Scotland, BBC Scotland, Traverse Theatre, Riot Games, Framework Theatre).

Laura Kay Bailey, writer and performer of Rowling In It, said, “Rowling In It is a wry backstage satire about the porous line between performer and role. I wanted to share my own experience because I stepped into playing J.K. Rowling somewhat blindly, insulated in my own Motherland-style parenthood bubble for a decade, where my head was full of Peppa Pig plotlines and free of internet discourse. Drawn in by the theatrical challenge rather than the politics, I found myself navigating a far more personal reckoning than I'd anticipated. ”

Director of Rowling In It, Dominic Shaw said, “Come and see Laura Bailey give a tour-de-force performance in this sharply written one woman play about her crazy experience (and nuanced learnings) playing JK Rowling”.

For two weeks only, join Laura Kay Bailey in the role of a lifetime at King's Head Theatre alongside a world-class team of creatives in this scathing satire which interrogates the notion of fear in a very public forum - fear of getting things wrong, fear of being misunderstood, and fear of losing your place in the room.

Performances run 6-18 April.