You’d better act fast. The world premiere of Lydia Rynne’s one-woman punk play HEAR ME HOWL has had deafeningly positive reviews… but you only have a few more performances to catch it at the Old Red Lion Theatre, where it finishes this Saturday. We’ve rounded up review highlights. Book immediately… and pray for a transfer.
After development performances at the Landor and Brighton Fringe, Lydia Rynne‘s debut play HEAR ME HOWL receives its world premiere in a strictly limited season at London’s Old Red Lion Theatre 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 marks the debut of both playwright Lydia Rynne and Lights Down Productions, a new theatre company founded by Caley Powell and dedicated to female voices. Alice Pitt-Carter stars as Jess. The all-female production team is led by director Kay Michael with Fay Milton, drummer of twice Mercury Award nominated, all-female punk band Savages, as musical consultant.
The play is a moving but hilarious late coming-of-age story, of a woman suddenly questioning the social expectations of her prescribed gender, including motherhood, all whilst throwing herself into the noise and politics of post-punk, joining a band and playing an instrument for the first time.
HEAR ME HOWL runs 18 to 29 September 2018 at the Old Red Lion Theatre, 418 St John Street, London EC1V 4NJ. Performances (70 minutes) are Tuesdays to Saturdays at 7.30pm, with Saturday matinees at 3pm and a Wednesday matinee on 19 September at 2.30pm. Tickets are priced £16 (concessions £14). CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE!
Review highlights
Ava Davies: “In Lydia Rynne’s exhilarating and refreshing monologue, Alice Pitt-Carter gives a ferocious performance as Jess, a 29-year-old who accidentally gets pregnant and becomes the drummer of a post-punk band in a fugue of confusion and rage… It’s a refreshing take amid the many contemporary plays that continue to make motherhood women’s be-all and end-all.”
“Great to see a play challenging gender stereotypes but doing it in a way that is both fun and considered… It’s a play thatrefreshingly challenges sex-role stereotypes… I wanted to pick up drumsticks and join a post-punk band myself, instead, I left the theatre nodding along to some Pearl Jam on my iPod.”
Michael Davis: “For those of you who might be thinking the drum set is a visual gimmick for Hear Me Howl – it’s not. Just wait until the end of the show…”
Peter Brown: “An off-beat, well-executed monologue that provides a thought-provoking proposition that’s relevant to all, wrapped-up in a winning performance from Alice Pitt-Carter… The play has a clarity of purpose.”
Liz Dyer: “There’s plenty of humour in the one-woman show, which is beautifully performed with energy and unflinching conviction by Alice Pitt-Carter, , but we’re also very aware that what we’re watching is much more than simply a woman having a meltdown.”
Grace Patrick: ‘It’s always an interesting sign when you’re handed a pair of earplugs when entering a theatre… This is a one-woman show and, quite honestly, I can’t see anyone better for the job of carrying it than Alice Pitt-Carter.”
Ian Foster: “One woman, her drums and a whole lotta rage against the patriarchy, Hear Me Howl is a defiant roar… As she reclaims her voice, channeling her anger, Pitt-Carter makes sure we believe every single word.”
Keith Mckenna: “A lively, seventy-minute monologue that is often amusing but always sensitive to the issues… That is the positive, important point of the play: women should be supported in making a choice about what happens to their own bodies.”
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