Theatre503 Launches New Writer with World Premiere of 'The Biting Point'

Situated above the Latchmere pub in Battersea, South London, Theatre503 has been in the last few years a training ground for such hugely successful playwrights as the Olivier-award winning writers Katori Hall (The Mountaintop) and Mike Bartlett (Cock, Earthquakes in London). Under Artistic Directors Paul Robinson and Tim Roseman, and without any regular government funding, Theatre503 has established a formidable reputation as a producer of fearless new writing to match any theatre of its size in the country.

The latest offering to hit Theatre503's stage is ShaRon Clark's The Biting Point (15 Feb - 12 March, press night 19 Feb), an incendiary new play which explores the lives of three young Britons amid the political turmoil of the late Seventies and early Eighties. Drawing direct parallels between modern Britain's growing social unrest, and the race riots which split the country in 1980, The Biting Point is an exploration of personal and politicAl Anger, and the repercussions of both.

The 1980s. A glittering new decade has dawned. Malc is trying to play father, Dennis is trying to control his demons and Ruth is trying to bring back the past. The march is coming; and something's going to break.

Written from experience, The Biting Point shows the intoxicating effects of politicisation and extremism on three friends, and the shades of grey behind their apparently black-and-white arguments.

The Biting Point is directed by Dan Coleman and designed by Mark Friend, with lighting by Will Reynolds and sound by Tom Hackley.

Full cast: Jessica Barker-Wren, Victoria Bavister, Sarah Hoare, Charlie Holloway, Lizzie Roper and Gyuri Sarossy.

The Biting Point is playwright ShaRon Clark's London debut. She has worked with Bristol Old Vic, The John Caird Company, The National Theatre Studio, Watford Palace Theatre, The Tobacco Factory, Cheltenham Everyman, Theatre West and Radio 3. She has been writer in residence at Welsh College of Music & Drama and is currently writer on attachment at Bristol University. Her latest projects are her first short film, The Face He Created and her new stage play, Brick. The Biting Point is the first part of a trilogy written about the dawn of the 1980's, of which Brick is the second part.

Dan Coleman's directing credits include Signs of Rust (Kings Head), All I Want For Christmas, Nowheresville and Don't Say The Words (Theatre503) Sick and Urban Scrawl (Latitude Festival), and Deir Yassin Remembered (Bloomsbury Theatre). Dan was previously the Resident Assistant Director at Sheffield Theatres, where credits include An Enemy of The People and True West, and the Literary and Programming Assistant at Theatre503. He trained at Birkbeck College and is a Visiting Lecturer at Middlesex University.

LISTINGS INFORMATION

The Biting Point
By ShaRon Clark
Directed by Dan Coleman
Cast: Jessica Barker-Wren, Victoria Bavister Sarah Hoare, Charlie Holloway, Lizzie Roper and Gyuri Sarossy

15 Feb - 12 Mar 2011
Tue-Sat 7.45pm; Sun 5pm
£14 / £9 concs.
Sundays: Pay what you can

Press Night Friday 19 Feb, 7.45pm

Theatre503
Above ‘The Latchmere' Pub
503 Battersea Park Road
London SW11 3BW

Box office 020 7978 7040 / www.theatre503.com
Overground: Clapham Junction (from Victoria/ Waterloo) then 10min walk or bus 49, 319, 344, 345
Tube: Sloane Square then bus 319 or South Kensington then bus 49 or 345

 

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