Enda Walsh’s Chatroom and Mark Ravenhill’s Citizenship, two plays for and about teenagers, return to the National Theatre this September for a short run prior to a national tour. The duo of plays ran last year – along with Deborah Gearing’s Burn – in the National’s Cottesloe theatre, where they take to the stage once more from 1 September.
Chatroom and Citizenship are short, sharp, provocative plays in which the drama of teenagers’ lives – with all its possibilities and pressures – takes centre stage. Chatroom is a chilling tale of manipulation and teenage rebellion, following six 15-year-olds who chat in cyberspace. Citizenship is a bittersweet comedy about growing up and one boy’s frank and messy search to discover his sexual identity.
Walsh’s plays include Disco Pigs, Bedbound – staged at the Royal Court in 2002 – and Small Things, which ran at the Menier Chocolate Factory in 2005. Ravenhill is the playwright of controversial works including The Cut, Mother Clap’s Molly House and Totally Over You. He made his first foray into pantomime last year, writing the Barbican’s production of Dick Whittington And His Cat.
Director Anna Mackmin (In Celebration, Mammals, Breathing Corpses) directs a cast which comprises Jamie Barbakoff, Sophie Benjamin, Calum Callaghan, Richard Dempsey, Simone James, Akemnji Ndifornyen, Anna Nightingale, George Rainsford, Joy Richardson, Ashley Rolfe, Michelle Tate, Steven Webb and Jade Williams.
The two plays are presented as a double bill in the Cottesloe from 1-17 September. A national tour kicks off on 25 September in Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Mold, before visiting Leeds, Salford, Coventry, Cardiff, Oxford, Brighton and Cambridge. The production is expected to return to the National following the tour.
CB