Chatroom and Citizenship
Press Information…Press Information…
A NATIONAL THEATRE PRODUCTION CHATROOM AND CITIZENSHIP
By Enda Walsh and Mark Ravenhill
The Lowry, Tue 9 – Sat 13 October 2007
Press Night, Tue 9 October, 7pm
A tale of sinister manipulation and a comedy of sexual discovery are set to thrill audiences at The Lowry this October (Tue 9 – Sat 13), thanks to the skills of writers Mark Ravenhill and Enda Walsh and leading theatre director Anna Mackmin.
Chatroom and Citizenship, two short, sharp and provocative plays put the lives of teenagers at centre stage and are alive to the possibilities and pressures faced on the verge of adulthood.
Anna Mackmin (Director) commented: “They are very different plays from very different writers, but they are both for young actors. Everybody knows what it feels like to change, no matter what age you are. The plays are about that moment when people learn to articulate their ideas and how, as you begin to be defined as an adult, you start to make a community."
Chatroom, written by Enda Walsh, is set in cyberspace where six 15-year-olds type and chat. It is a chilling and powerful tale of manipulation and the ultimate act of teenage rebellion. The Harry Potter Chatroom, the Britney Spears Chatroom and the Teenage Suicide Chatroom are all neutral spaces where the audience, as well as the youngsters, find themselves manipulated. Citizenship, penned by Mark Ravenhill, is a bittersweet comedy about growing up, following a boy’s frank and messy search to discover his sexual identity.
Enda Walsh’s plays include Disco Pigs, which won the Best Fringe production in 1996, the 1997 Stewart Parker and George Devine Awards and played at the Traverse Theatre for the 1997 Edinburgh Festival. His other stage plays include Bedbound, which won a Fringe First at the 2001 Edinburgh Festival and was staged at the Royal Court in 2002 and Small Things, produced by Paines Plough at the Menier Chocolate Factory in 2005.
Mark Ravenhill’s first full-length play, Shopping and Fucking, produced by Out of Joint and the Royal Court, played in the West End, throughout the UK, in New York and internationally. His other plays include The Cut, Some Explicit Polaroids; Mother Clap’s Molly House (National Theatre/West End); Totally Over You, which was performed as part of the Shell Connections Festival in 2003; and Product which he performed at the 2005 Edinburgh Fringe.
The double-bill is another triumph for Anna Mackmin who picked up the Theatre Management Association Award for her work in 2004. Mackmin originally directed Burn/Chatroom/Citizenship in an acclaimed triple bill at the National Theatre in 2006. Mackmin’s other productions include In Celebration (currently in the West End), Mammals (The Bush & UK tour), Breathing Corpses and Food Chain (Royal Court), The Dark (Donmar), Auntie and Me (Edinburgh, Wyndham’s, Dublin) and In Flame (Bush & New Ambassador’s).
Posted on Wednesday, 31 October 2007 under Press Theatre Press