Royal Court's POSH Plays Duke of York's Theatre, Now thru Aug 4; JUMPY Opens Aug 16

The Royal Court Theatre returns to its previous West End home, the Duke of York's Theatre, with POSH and JUMPY - two of the biggest hits in its history. Ambassador Theatre Group joins forces with Royal Court Theatre Productions to present this 2012 West End season.

Following the recent Jerusalem and Clybourne Park, the Royal Court returns to the West End with these plays by two British writers: Posh by Laura Wade and Jumpy by April De Angelis. Taking on class, gender and age these contemporary productions, from female writer-director teams, investigate the world we're living in and are shockingly funny. POSH runs from tonight, 11th May to the 4th of August, 2012, and JUMPY from the 16th of August to the 3rd of November, 2012.

Ambassador Theatre Group's Duke of York's Theatre was home for the Royal Court for more than three years when its Sloane Square base closed for a major refurbishment project, a residency that led to the Olivier award winning extended West End run of The Weir. The Royal Court and ATG also presented a season of Royal Court Classics, celebrating some of the Court's best writing and talent the Duke of York's. Now ATG and the Court team up again to bring two plays from Artistic Director Dominic Cooke's tenure to the heart of the West End.

The Royal Court is a leading force in world theatre, finding and producing new plays that are original, contemporary and challenging. This summer the Royal Court will be simultaneously producing work at its home in Sloane Square, in the West End, New York with an off Broadway production of c*ckby Mike Bartlett as well as the next Theatre Local season. Posh played to 100% capacity at the Royal Court and remains one of the highest-grossing shows ever to play in the theatre. Jumpy sold-out within a record-breaking four days after opening night.

Artistic Director of the Royal Court Dominic Cooke said: "As the world focuses its attention on London for the Olympics, it's a great moment for the Royal Court to mark its groundbreaking contribution to British culture, and the leading role British playwrights take in theatre across the world, with a season in the West End. It's especially exciting for us to return to the Duke of York's which was the Royal Court's home in the West End while our Sloane Square base was being rebuilt in the late 90's. And we couldn't be happier to be working again with one of the country's most vibrant commercial theatre companies, ATG.2

"For over 50 years, the Royal Court has presented new plays that aim to break new ground artistically and challenge perceptions about the world we live in. Laura Wade's Posh and April De Angelis's Jumpy are two recent examples, plays that touched a real nerve with our audiences in Sloane Square. With wit, passion and originality, these plays ask searching questions about who we are in Britain today, about the relationship we have to our traditions and the forces that shape our lives. I'm especially pleased to be able to produce two women playwrights with new plays in the West End directed by two of this country's most exciting young female directors, also making their West End debut with this season. I hope these bold new plays will offer something fresh to the West End at this unique point in London's history."

Howard Panter Joint CEO and Creative Director of Ambassador Theatre Group added: "It is marvellous to join forces with the new writing powerhouse that is the Royal Court Theatre. With Dominic Cooke at the artistic helm the Royal Court has been responsible for some of the best theatre that has ever been produced in the UK, and under his inspired leadership the Court has enjoyed a golden period. As both productions completely sold out at the Court, we are thrilled to be able to present two of its biggest successes to the public this summer. Presenting a West End season allows these shows to reach a wider audience that they both richly deserve, and through our partnership we are able to celebrate the exciting work happening at the Court and support and encourage a fantastic up-and-coming generation of great theatre makers. What better way to celebrate Britain in 2012, the Olympic year, than with the best of British theatre back in its West End home."

POSH
By Laura Wade
Directed by Lyndsey Turner
Friday 11 May – Saturday 4 August 2012

In an oak-panelled room in Oxford, ten young bloods with cut-glass vowels and deep pockets are meeting, intent on restoring their right to rule. Members of an elite student dining society, the boys are bunkering down for a wild night of debauchery, decadence and bloody good wine. But this isn't just a jolly: they're planning a revolution.

Welcome to the Riot Club.

Writer Laura Wade is a graduate of the Royal Court Young Writers Programme. Her first play for the Royal Court, Breathing Corpses, played in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs in 2005 and won her the Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Most Promising Playwright, the Pearson Playwrights Best Play Award, the George Devine Award and an Olivier Award Nomination for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre. She is currently adapting Posh into a feature film for Blueprint Pictures. Her other recent work includes the Australian Chamber Orchestra's Kreutzer vs Kreutzer (Sydney Opera House and Australian national tour) and Alice, a new adaptation of Alice in Wonderland (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield) with Lyndsey Turner.

Director Lyndsey Turner's work at the Royal Court includes Contractions, A Miracleand Our Private Life. She has also worked at the Royal Court as Trainee Associate Director and International Associate. She is associate director at Sheffield Theatres where her work includes Alice and The Way of the World. Her other credits include Edgar And Annabel, There Is A War (National Theatre), Joseph K and Nocturnal (Gate); My Romantic History (Traverse, Bush, Sheffield Theatres) and The Lesson (Arcola).

JUMPY starring Tamsin Greig
By April De Angelis
Directed by Nina Raine
Thursday 16 August – Saturday 3 November 2012

'You're having some kind of crisis.'
'It's called being 50. You must be having it too.'
A mother, a wife, and fifty, Hilary once protested at Greenham. Now her protests tend to focus on persuading her teenage daughter to go out fully clothed.

A frank and funny family drama.

Tamsin Greig returns to the role for which she won critical acclaim. Her other recent theatre credits include The Little Dog Laughed, for which she was nominated for an Olivier Award, and The God of Carnage (both West End), and Gethsemane (National Theatre). She played Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing at the RSC for which she won Olivier and Critics' Circle Awards. Her TV credits include Episodes, White Heat, Friday Night Dinner, Black Books, Green Wing, The Diary of Anne Frank, Love Soup and the BBC adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma. She received a BIFA nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Tamara Drewe.

April De Angelis' work at the Royal Court includes Catch (a collaboration with four other female playwrights) and Wild East. Her credits elsewhere include A Gloriously Mucky Business (Lyric Hammersmith); Calais (Paines Plough/Oran Mor); Country (Terror Season, Southwark Playhouse); an adaptation of Wuthering Heights (Birmingham Rep Theatre); A Laughing Matter (Out of Joint Theatre Company, National Theatre); The Warwickshire Testimony (RSC, The Other Place); The Positive Hour (Out of Joint Theatre/National Tour) and Playhouse Creatures (Sphinx Theatre Company, later revived by Old Vic Theatre).

Nina Raine directs. Both a writer and a director, her last play at the Royal Court, Tribes was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Play and an Evening Standard Award for Best New Play. She also directed Alia Bano'sShades at the Royal Court in 2009, which went on to win Evening Standard and Critics' Circle awards. Her other credits include Tiger Country (Hampstead Theatre), which she both wrote and directed, and her debut play Rabbit (Old Red Lion, Trafalgar Studios, 59E59 New York) which won the Evening Standard and Critics' Circle Awards for Most Promising Playwright.

More information and tickets: http://royalcourttheatre.com/

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