Anya Reiss, named Most Promising Playwright by both the Critics’ Circle and Evening Standard Theatre Awards for her debut play last year, is to return to the stage of her triumph by presenting a new play at the Royal Court this spring.
The Acid Test, which runs in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs from 13 May to 11 June (press night 23 May), is an unruly new comedy about family and age which begins with three girls downing vodka shots on a Friday night. It will be directed by Simon Godwin, who previously directed Nick Payne’s Wanderlust at the Royal Court.
Reiss, a product of the Royal Court’s Young Writers Programme, has given herself a hard act to follow given the award-winning success of her debut play, Spur Of The Moment. Written when she was just 17, the drama premiered at the Royal Court in July 2010 and also won the Theatrical Management Association (TMA) Award for Best New Play.
Following The Acid Test, another graduate of the Royal Court’s writing schemes will return to the Sloane Square venue.
The Village Bike, which runs from 24 June to 23 July (press night 1 July), is a new play by Penelope Skinner. A provocative dark comedy about fantasy and romance, it tells the story of pregnant, frustrated Becky, who has a brief encounter which sends her speeding towards reckless abandon.
Skinner’s work includes climate change play Greenland, a collaboration with three other playwrights which is currently playing at the National Theatre, and Eigengrau, which ran at the Bush theatre last year.
The Village Bike is directed by Joe Hill-Gibbins, whose recent work includes The Glass Menagerie and The Beauty Queen Of Leenane at the Young Vic and The Girlfriend Experience at the Royal Court.
The two new plays follow Our Private Life, currently playing in the Royal Court’s Jerwood Theatre Upstairs to 12 March, and Remembrance Day, which runs from 18 March to 16 April.
CB