With only two seasons left before Ovalhouse move into their new home in Brixton, their 2019 summer season is packed full of extraordinary artists making bold new plays with three full length shows and four FiRST BiTES.
For the first time, Ovalhouse have programmed an incredible showcase of six new plays by their Young Associate Artists in dynamic double-bills for ‘The Untold Season’.
The summer season sees the much-anticipated return of Urbain Wolf’s hard-hitting production of Custody – which explores the police’s treatment of young black men. Ovalhouse also bring back two of the most successful FiRST BiTES from 2018 as full-length productions: Bella Heesom’s celebration of female sexuality Rejoicing At Her Wondrous Vulva The Young Woman Applauded Herself and GREY, Koko Brown’s exploration of mental health.
Ovalhouse’s FiRST BiTE programme goes into overdrive this season with a coming of age comedy by Eve Leigh in Salty Irina; Azara Meghie’s Just Another Day and Night which features live music and Rastafarian drumming to explore the struggle for identity and equality in the 21st century; The Performance Company’s dark, surrealist probe into loneliness with At Any One Time Other Than This and You Would Be My Friend; and Rough Cut, Little Soldier Productions’ work-inprogress show that promises to be more bonkers than Theresa May in a pig’s nose fighting the Dalai Lama.
With twice as many new artists, making twice as many new plays, The Untold Season brings together six artists over a three-week period to stage a range of challenging, and political work-in-progress plays that voice often silenced stories. At a crucial time when there is a universal zeitgeist for talking about mental health, gender and sexuality, underrepresented voices and regeneration, these six artists want to show a different perspective in how we often hear these stories. The Untold Season will be accompanied by a symposium to empower young creatives to make their own work and form new collectives of artists.
Owen Calvert-Lyons, Ovalhouse’s Head of Theatre & Artist Development, comments, “In recent weeks it has once again been highlighted that our industry continues to underrepresent women writers. Our summer season features 10 plays by women (77% of the programme). In the mainhouse 66% of plays are written by women. This is not a ‘festival of women’s work’ or a ‘season of plays by women’ it is just another season of great new plays by brilliant writers.”
