THE ROYAL COURT THEATRE BRINGS SEXUAL DESIRE TO PAINES PLOUGH’S EARLIER/LATER AT ROUNDABOUT @ SUMMERHALL, EDINBURGH

Wednesday 29 July 2015

The Royal Court Theatre will be joining Paines Plough’s EARLIER/LATER Edinburgh Festival Fringe programme at Roundabout @ Summerhall with Manwatching, an explicit insight into heterosexual female desire.

Manwatching is written by an anonymous female writer.

Commenting on the project the anonymous female writer states;

“I have been thinking about what it means to be objectified, and whether or not that is really tied to desire or power. Although men are objectified by other men, I was at a loss to think of many examples of men being objectified by women, and the examples I could think of were quite complicated – frequently involving the man’s profession rather than appearance (in Sex and the City, for example, men are usually referred to in shorthand by whatever job it is they do rather than how they look or act), or their dominance was the source of objectification. Even though many women desire men, the most basic elements of that desire seemed oddly unexplored. So I thought, who better to give the words of a woman desiring men to, than the voice of a man, as it’s so much more comfortable and familiar for us to hear about desire through the male perspective?”

Manwatching
Written by an anonymous woman
Performed by an unprepared man
EARLIER: 10am on 14 and 21 August
LATER: 10.30pm on 10, 15 and 19 August
Roundabout @ Summerhall, EH9 1PL
Tickets £10 summerhall.co.uk

So I think it’s fair to say that most women almost definitely do masturbate. We just wait to discuss it until we’re in an oddly anonymous but public situation like this one.

A funny, frank, and occasionally explicit insight into heterosexual female desire, read out loud by a man.

Each show begins with a male comedian being given a script they have never seen before. They then go onto read said script for the first time live in front of an audience which explores what one woman thinks about when she thinks about sex and men.

Performers will include comedians Nish Kumar (10 Aug), *Marcus Brigstocke (14 Aug), James Acaster (15 Aug), and Nick Helm (21 Aug). One more to be announced.

With direction and dramaturgy by Royal Court Theatre Associate Director Lucy Morrison, and dramaturgical input from Ryan Nobel, Lisa Heledd Jones, and Christopher Brett Bailey.

Manwatching is a work-in-progress being piloted at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. It is being developed by an anonymous female writer in collaboration with the Royal Court Theatre.

Anonymous female writer’s work includes a lot of stuff that can’t be disclosed as she chooses to remain anonymous.

Lucy Morrison is Associate Director at the Royal Court where her credits include Hidden (Live Lunch), Who Cares, Pests and Product (also at Traverse and European tour).

EARLIER/LATER is a series of early morning and late night one-off shows, featuring brand new theatre, poetry, comedy and music, programmed by Paines Plough in its Roundabout theatre at Summerhall.

Tickets can be purchased through the Summerhall Box Office.

ends

Notes to Editors:

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For more information please contact Anoushka Hay on 0207 565 5063 / AnoushkaHay@royalcourttheatre.com

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Listings Information:

Manwatching
Written by an anonymous woman
EARLIER: 10am on 14 and 21 August
LATER: 10.30pm on 10, 15 and 19 August
Roundabout @ Summerhall, EH9 1PL
Age Guidance 15+
Tickets £10 summerhall.co.uk
Running time 50 mins approx.

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The Royal Court Theatre is the writers’ theatre. It is a leading force in world theatre, finding writers and producing new plays that are original and contemporary. The Royal Court strives to be at the centre of civic, political, domestic and international life, giving writers a home to tackle big ideas and world events and tell great stories royalcourttheatre.com

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Paines Plough is the UK’s national theatre of new plays. We commission and produce the best playwrights and tour their plays far and wide. Since 1974 we have produced more than 150 new plays by seminal writers such as Abi Morgan, Sarah Kane, Mark Ravenhill, David Harrower, Enda Walsh, Simon Stephens and Mike Bartlett. We’ve toured those plays to hundreds of places – from Manchester to Moscow to Maidenhead – in spaces ranging from the 1,500 seat Barbican to a 100-seat arts centre in Luton; at music festivals, in nightclubs, Off-Broadway and in our very own award-winning pop-up theatre Roundabout. painesplough.com

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Roundabout is the world’s first pop-up, plug-and-play theatre. It flat packs into a lorry and pops up all over the country in theatres, school halls, warehouses, sports centres, car parks and fields. We created Roundabout because we’re passionate about new plays and we want as many people as possible to be able to see them. Roundabout means we can tour further and wider than ever before. For the next decade Roundabout will travel the length and breadth of the UK bringing the nation’s best playwrights and a thrilling theatrical experience to audiences everywhere. painesplough.com/roundabout

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Coutts is the Royal Court Theatre Innovation Partner

Coutts is the wealth division of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group. Coutts has a long history of supporting the arts going back 200 years, having looked after the financial affairs of many famous clients connected with the arts such as Bram Stoker, Charles Dickens and Chopin. In 1816, Thomas Coutts married Harriot Mellon, a popular actress of her day, and together they became partners of a number of London Theatres, including the Drury Lane and the Royal Opera House. Coutts has even featured in a number of artistic works including The Gondoliers by Gilbert and Sullivan, and Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic story Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. In the new millennium, this tradition has continued not only through Coutts managing the finances of many of today’s top writers, actors and musicians, but also through our arts sponsorship programme. We are delighted to support The Royal Court and its diverse range of ground-breaking performances. For further information please visit coutts.com