Royal Court Theatre
© Helen Maybanks

Royal Court Theatre

London's edgy new writing powerhouse
  • Theatre | West End
  • Sloane Square
  • Recommended
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Time Out says

London's premiere new writing theatre, the Royal Court made its name in the 1950s when it was synonymous with kitchen sink dramas and the Angry Young Men, and has scarcely looked back (in anger) since.

The commercially successful reign of Dominic Cooke was famously marked by his stated mission to acknowledge the nature of the Sloane Square theatre's audience and 'explore what it means to be middle class'. The quote probably came back to haunt him, coming to define a reign that was marked by lots of new writing from BAME playwrights, plus such towering West End transfer successes as 'Enron' and the peerless 'Jerusalem'.

Previous Royal Court artistic director Vicky Featherstone took the theatre down a much more experimental route that occasionally baffled but frequently thrilled, while still managing to score the odd transfer smash via older associates of the theatre: Jez Butterworth’s ‘The Ferryman’ was a monster of a hit. She has been succeeded by David Byrne, formerly of the New Diorama, whose tenure has only just begun at time of writing.

There are two venues, the tiny Upstairs and large Downstairs, plus a welcoming bar kitchen that's a fabulous place to visit for a gander at the cream of London's playwrights and creatives, who inexorably drift through throughout the day.

Details

Address
50-51
Sloane Square
London
SW1W 8AS
Transport:
Tube: Sloane Sq
Price:
Various
Opening hours:
Check website for tour times and show times
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What’s on

Cow | Deer

Katie Mitchell’s second play for the David Byrne-era Royal Court threatens makes last year’s non-linear poetry adaptation Bluets look positively commerical. A collaboration between the legendary avant-garde director, playwright Nina Segal and sound artist Melanie Wilson, Cow | Deer – apparently you’re not allowed to say it ‘Cow-slash-deer’ – it’s a wordless work about a dsy in the life of a cow and a deer that aims to further the eco-minded bent of Mitchell’s work by ‘decentring’ humans from a work. Truly, who can say what this will mean or look like, but presumaby it’s about as out-there a thing as you’ll see on a stage this year. Actors will apparently be involved, though it’s unclear precisely what they’ll be doing.
  • Experimental

The Unbelievers

David Byrne’s Royal Court seasons have proven almost aggressively eclectic so far, with surefire commercial smashes rubbing up against stuff that comes across as genuinely quite mad. Coming a year after West End transfer Giant made its debut, Nick Payne’s The Unbelievers certainly looks like another big hit: the great Marianne Elliott (War Horse, Curious Incident) will make her debut at the venerable new writing theatre, in Payne’s first Court play since his huge hit Constellations, with design by the legendary Bunnie Christie. The cherry on the cake is the marvellous Nicola Walker, who will star as a woman whose son disappeared seven years ago and for whom time has now fractured, causing her to experience every minute of every year gone by simultaneously. Okay, that’s a pretty mad concept, but if anyone can pull it off it’s this A-Team of theatrical talent.
  • Drama
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