Full Cast Announced For The World Premiere Of Annie Jenkins' IN LIPSTICK

Up In Arms, in association with Pleasance and Ellie Keel, today announce the full cast for the world première of Annie Jenkins' In Lipstick. Alice Hamilton directs James Doherty (Dennis), Caroline Faber (Maud), and Alice Sykes (Cynthia). This marks the first collaboration of James Doherty and Alice Hamilton since their acclaimed multi-award-nominated work on Barney Norris' Eventide. In Lipstick opens at Pleasance, Islington on 11 January, with previews from 9 January, and runs until 26 January.

Things don't change no matter how much you want them to. You try, you run away, you make things new but they're not. Same old shit covered in lipstick.

Maud, a woman on the run from her damaged past; and Cynthia, a woman hibernating from the wilderness of the modern world. Cynthia loves Maud, and Maud loves Cynthia but now she's beginning to suffocate. After an encounter with Dennis, a security guard at her office, she wonders if she has finally glimpsed an escape.

While Cynthia hides among YouTube videos of Shirley Bassey, a dressing up box and the McDonald's saver menu, Maud is preparing for the greatest performance of her life. It is only a matter of time before reality shatter their cocoon of lipstick and fairy tales.

Annie Jenkins' savage, funny, deeply loving debut gives a heartfelt voice to the fractured life of the modern city. A play about sex, lies, damage, and the ceilings on our dreams from a writer who shows us both how powerful and how powerless it feels to be young, and trying to dream a future into being.

Annie Jenkins is a playwright who was shortlisted for The Old Vic 12 in 2017. Her theatre credits include A Tinder Trilogy (Hen and Chickens Theatre), Annie's 1000 Plays (Shakespeare in Shoreditch Festival), Lunch in My Car (Theatre N16), What about England? (Islington Mill), 50% Lesbian, 100% Scared (Park Theatre/ Bunker Theatre), Tinder471 (The Old Red Lion) and My Son is in the Kitchen Eating a Biscuit (HighTide Festival).

James Doherty plays Dennis. His theatre credits include Fatherland (Lyric Hammersmith), London Road, NT:50, Beyond Caring (National Theatre), Aladdin (Lyric Hammersmith), Eventide (Arcola Theatre), Chicago (Garrick Theatre), Marguerite (Theatre Royal Haymarket), Les Miserables (Palace Theatre), and Kiss Me Kate (Royal Albert Hall). For television, his credits include Him & Her, Ambassadors, The Jury, and Is Harry on The Boat; and for film London Road, The Forgotten, Inbred, Deviation and Verity's Summer.

Caroline Faber plays Maud. Her theatre credits include Network, The Heiress (National Theatre) My Mother Said I Never Should (St James Theatre), Romeo and Juliet, Paradise Lost (Headlong), King Lear (Young Vic), Keepers of the Flame (RSC/Live Theatre), The Taming of The Shrew, Edward III, The Malcontent, Here Lies Mary Spindler (RSC) and Dangerous Corner (Garrick Theatre). For television, her credits include Berlin Station and Merlin,

Alice Sykes plays Cynthia. Her theatre credits include A Small Family Business (National Theatre), Responsible Other (Hampstead Theatre), and Polar Bears (Donmar Warehouse). For television, her credits include Criminal Justice and Cradle to the Grave.

Alice Hamilton is a theatre director and dramaturg, and co-artistic director of Up In Arms. Her credits for the company include The March on Russia (Orange Tree Theatre), Visitors (Arcola Theatre/UK tour/Bush Theatre), German Skerries, Eventide and While We're Here (UK tour). Other theatre credits include Every Day I Make Greatness Happen (Hampstead Theatre), Echo's End (Salisbury Playhouse), Thirty Christmases (New Diorama Theatre) Anything That Flies (Jermyn Street Theatre), Orca and Orson's Shadow (Southwark Playhouse).