After work-in-progress performances at the Landor Space and Plymouth Fringe, Lydia Rynne’s debut play, one-woman punk revolution HEAR ME HOWL, now receives its premiere at London’s Old Red Lion Theatre in a limited, two-week season from 18 to 29 September 2018, with a press night on 19 September.
Jess is turning 30 when she presses pause on the conventional life she’s been living and joins a punk band. Sure, some might argue that punk is dead, others could say she should really stick to the day job, but the resounding concern is: shouldn’t she be settling down by now?
From behind her drum kit, warming up for her very first gig, Jess lurches defiantly into an unknown future.
HEAR ME HOWL is written by Lydia Rynne, a Soho Theatre Sketch Lab Writer and BFI Funny Girl Finalist. The play also marks the debut for Lights Down Productions, a new theatre company dedicated to female voices. Alice Pitt-Carter stars as Jess.
The production is led by an all-female team with JMK Directors Award Finalist Kay Michael as director and, as musical consultant, Fay Milton, drummer of twice Mercury Award nominated, internationally renowned all-female punk band Savages.
The play is a moving but hilarious late coming-of-age story, of a woman suddenly questioning the social expectations of her prescribed gender, all whilst throwing herself defiantly into the noise and politics of post-punk, joining a band and playing an instrument for the first time.
The company says:
“While there have been many plays that have explored motherhood, pregnancy and the trouble women have to conceive, HEAR ME HOWL addresses the taboo issues of abortion and a woman’s choice to remain childless. We want to shed light on this, to encourage discussion and greater acceptance of women who make this unrepresented choice.”
HEAR ME HOWL is supported by the Arts Council and comes to the Old Red Lion after a sold-out work-in-progress performance at the Landor Space (previously the Landor Theatre) in March and at Barbican Theatre, Plymouth, as part of the Plymouth Fringe in May.
Hear Me Howl follows That Girl at the Old Red Lion Theatre this month
Bios
Alice Pitt-Carter
Alice Pitt-Carter (performer) trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts and was nominated for Best Lead Actress at the International Film Festival 2016 for Tea & Cake (KRR Productions). Theatre credits include: Wallis – A Certain Person (Upstairs at the Gatehouse); Cocoon (Mountview Mosaic Season); The Shadow (The Market Theatre); Sarah in Three Little Birds (New Diorama); Olives and Blood (Brixton East). Film credits include: Fantastic Beasts 2: The Crimes of Grindelwald (Warner Bros); Forever Tomorrow (Ben Rider Productions). Radio credits include: The Waterbabies; The Three Musketeers. Other credits include: the Secret Cinema productions of Back to the Future and The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Lydia Rynne (writer) is a Soho Theatre Writer Alumnus and current member of their Young Company and Comedy Sketch Lab. She writes for both stage and screen. Her first full-length play The Buzz came second place in the inaugural Bread and Roses Playwriting Award and performed a lauded three-week run earlier this year. One of ten screenwriters, and the Odeon Scholar, at the prestigious National Film and Television School, Lydia was a finalist in the BFI/Creative England Funny Girls’ scheme as well as the Sundance Ignite initiative. She is currently developing a feature with Horizons Films.
Kay Michael (director) trained at Drama Centre London, and was a founding member of award-winning curious directive. She has been a Trainee Director at Paines Plough and a JMK Award finalist for her production of Jon Fosse’s Winter. Kay has directed new plays at the Shakespeare in Shoreditch Festival, Arcola, New Diorama, Paines Plough Roundabout, Pleasance and Oval House. She developed and was Associate Director on the award-winning debut play Clarion at the Arcola, starring Greg Hicks and Clare Higgins. She is Artistic Director of Empty Deck, a Peter Brook Award nominated international theatre company. This production marks her return to London following her residency at Theatre Royal Plymouth.
Caley Powell (producer) set up Lights Down Productions in January 2018 to produce new writing, particularly female, writers. Hear Me Howl is the company’s debut. Powell has also produced Might Never Happen (The Kings Head Theatre), Never The Same (The Bridewell Theatre), Dubailand (Finborough Theatre), Wendy House (The Vaults Festival) and A Great Fear Of Shallow Living (Zoo Southside, Edinburgh Fringe 2017). Her next production, Shards, is at The Park Theatre for January 2019.
