Blog

Come behind the scenes for insights and interviews.

The Andrea Project

In late 2017, eight young women from Bolton and London worked with professional playwrights Laura Lomas and Rachel Delahay to make their own short plays for a performance at the Royal Court Theatre. This was The Andrea Project, a collaboration between Out of Joint, the Royal Court Theatre and the Bolton Octagon to coincide with our […]

Same As It Ever Was

“EVEN NOW, VOICES LIKE DUNBAR’S ARE LARGELY ABSENT FROM THE ARTS” Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett on Andrea Dunbar’s extraordinary portrait of teenage girls Rita, Sue and Bob Too, at the Royal Court Theatre from 9 January, then touring. To have a play produced for the Royal Court at the age of 19 is an astonishing achievement. For it […]

Taj Atwal: I wanted the ground to swallow me whole

Taj Atwal stars as Rita in our new production of Rita, Sue and Bob Too, Andrea Dunbar’s iconic play. Read about Taj’s first encounter with the work of a young woman who would come to be her favourite playwright. I was a loud, passionate 18 year old heading off to drama school in leafy Surrey. […]

Precocious Writers

Raised on a Bradford council estate, Andrea Dunbar was just 15 when she wrote her first play, The Arbor. A drama teacher encouraged her to send it to the Royal Court Theatre, where it was first staged as a one act play in the Young Writers Festival before being expanded into a full two-act show […]

See you in court

Consent, our new play by Nina Raine, revolves around a court case: two friends take opposing briefs in a rape trial. But the techniques they use to spin their side of events also crop up in their personal lives. The inherent theatricality of the courtroom can make for powerful drama. Here we look at some other great […]

How I write plays

“Keep on writing, even if it’s crap. You can always throw it away later”. Maybe all writing advice boils down this bit of practical wisdom from Alistair Beaton. We spoke to Alistair and other successful playwrights to ask them about the business of writing. Where does inspiration come from? When is the best time of […]

Back to the future: Max Stafford-Clark on three major Autumn revivals

Our artistic director MAX STAFFORD-CLARK introduces three plays which started life as Out of Joint commissions, and are now shining bright in new productions this autumn.  It’s always validating when a play you commission gets a further life and becomes part of the national repertoire. And strange, too, seeing someone else’s take on something I’m that close to. This […]

Corbyn & May in the spotlight: read short satirical plays by top writers

Exclusive: read short new plays by Alistair Beaton, Stella Feehily and David Hare. “Oh, I do love your centre ground. Sounds so reasonable, doesn’t it? The centre ground. But does the centre ground stay in the same place? I don’t think so.” – The Accidental Leader READ THE PLAYS: Alistair Beaton: The Accidental Leader Stella Feehily: […]

The Accidental Leader & Corbyn – how fiction became reality

The Chambers English Dictionary defines ‘plot’ variously as a conspiracy: a stratagem or secret contrivance and: the story or scheme of connected events running through a play, novel etc. Imagine my astonishment to find those two definitions of ‘plot’ suddenly merging. The dust had scarcely settled from David Cameron’s successful attempt to blow up Britain, […]

“You can be hated but you mustn’t be laughed at”

Is laughing at politics a catalyst for change – or a substitute? With A View From Islington North about to open in the West End, we asked three brilliant satirists about the relationship between comedy and politics. JONATHAN LYNN co-wrote Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister. He wrote and directed Clue and Nuns on the […]