Antic Face and Nik Holttum Productions today announce the UK première of award-winning American Playwright Jen Silverman’s play Collective Rage: A Play in Five Betties. Following the critically acclaimed run of School Play last year, Antic Face and Nik Holttum Productions return to Southwark Playhouse with this joyously anarchic new show. Collective Rage opens on 29 January, with previews from 24 January and runs until 17 February.
Collective Rage: a Play in Five Betties; in essence, a queer and occasionally hazardous exploration; do you remember when you were in middle school and you read about shackleton and how he explored the antarctic?; imagine the antarctic as a pussy and it’s sort of like that
Betty is rich; Betty is lonely; Betty’s busy working on her truck; Betty wants to talk about love, but Betty needs to hit something. Meanwhile, Betty decides to stage a production of that play-within-a-play from…what’s it called again? Summer’s Midnight Dream?
In Collective Rage the lives of five very different New York women named Betty collide at the intersection of anger, sex and “theat-ah”. As they meet, fall in love, rehearse, revel and rage, they realise that they’ve been stuck reading the same scripts for far too long.
Hitting the ring with an electrifying soundtrack, looks to kill and spectacular routines, this outrageous comedy packs the punch to shatter lacquered femininity into a thousand glittering pieces. Strongly influenced by cabaret and female drag, this exquisite rejection of shame and stereotype will punch you in the gut, break your heart and then take you dancing.
Jen Silverman is a New York-based playwright and writer. Born in the U.S., she was raised across the U.S., Europe and Asia.
