After a three and a half year run on Emmerdale came to a close with a fictional car crash, actress Louise Marwood started to design a real life car crash of her own – spiralling into addition. Now, inspired by her experiences, she has written Rita Lynn – a comic cautionary tale of addiction, toxic relationships and pretending to be someone you are not.
Ex-dancer and addict Imogen stumbles into the life of a wealthy, depressed housewife and assumes the alter ego of Rita Lynn – a super confident life coach with unorthodox methods.
Louise Marwood is best known for her years as Chrissie White in Emmerdale, but her television credits also include Coronation Street, The Bill, Hollyoaks: Let Loose, and Waking the Dead. She trained on a scholarship at the Oxford School of Drama, was a member of sketch show Comedy Bitch, as both a writer and performer, and has written a pilot for TV entitled Shovel.
Louise is joined by a selection of voice performances from the likes of Luke Barton (Busman’s Honeymoon Mill at Sonning, directed by Brian Blessed), Arabella Gibbins (Big Bad at Vault Festival), Tom Cottle (Comedy Bitch), Sophie Wright (My Mad Fat Diary Channel 4), Jonathan Broke (Comedy Bitch), Hannah Gittos (The Clown, T & Me), and the professional debut of five year old August Carolan-Dickens.
Imogen has the lot – toxic boyfriend, weekend overdoses, waning dance career. In a moment of drug-fuelled madness, she convinces a wealthy, depressed housewife that Rita Lynn, her recently invented alter ego, should be her life coach. Sounds like madness? It is, it was and it will be. Charting Imogen’s descent into addiction we encounter an eccentric entourage of characters, Dexter – her lover and enabler, Melian – drag queen, prescription drug addict, best friend and Buddy – Dexter’s son and the real love of Imogen’s life.
Although light on the surface, this show is about the real-life struggle of addiction and hidden underneath the comic facade is the dark soul of this show. A story of near misses, loss, grief and trauma. It captures the fearlessness of facing a problem straight on and plays the line between comedy and tragedy perfectly through the lightning-paced, challenging writing and performance of its creator Louise Marwood, a person who is brave enough to say she lost it all.
Rita Lynn is a universal story told through the lens of Louise’s personal experience, it holds a microscope up to the human condition, the affliction of addiction and weighs the real cost of becoming a drug addict at the age of thirty-eight. At its heart it has a wish, a hope and a prayer – if she can recover, anyone can.
Director Nick Bagnall’s recent productions include: Hansel and Gretel (The Globe), Our Lady of Blundellsands, Sweeney Todd, The Conquest of the South Pole, Romeo & Juliet, A Clockwork Orange and The Big I Am – a reimagining of Peer Gynt, all at the Liverpool Everyman; and Edward II at Shakespeare’s Globe. Previous work includes: The Odyssey: Missing Presumed Dead, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Electric Hills (Liverpool Everyman); I Am Not Myself These Days (Edinburgh & UK Tour); The Last Days of Troy, Britannia Waves the Rules (Royal Exchange, Manchester); Love Labour’s Lost, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Henry VI parts 1, 2 and 3, The Death of King Arthur, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Shakespeare’s Globe); A Christmas Fair, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Milton Rooms, Malton); Fragile (Belgrade Theatre); Betrayal (Crucible Theatre); A Separate Reality (Royal Court); By Jeeves (Landor); Billy Liar (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Guys and Dolls (Arts Theatre, Cambridge); Entertaining Mr Sloane (Trafalgar Studios); Burning Cars (Hampstead Theatre); Mongoose (Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh); Promises and Lies (Birmingham Rep); Bolthole, ‘Low Dat (The Door, Birmingham Rep); The Ruffian on The Stair (Old Red Lion). Nick trained at the Guildhall as an actor and has worked extensively in most major theatres in the country. He was formerly joint artistic director of The Milton Rooms. Nick was the Associate Director of the Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse between 2014 and 2019.
Rita Lynn is at the Turbine Theatre 23 – 27 January 2024.
