Dead Woman Walking Productions, a new theatre company formed by a group of LAMDA graduates, is bringing Mark Ravenhill’s The Cut back to the London stage for the first time since it premiered at the Donmar Warehouse in 2006. The new production runs for three days only at the Lion And Unicorn Theatre from 29 November to 1 December 2018, so you’d better be quick booking your tickets!
The Cut is set in an unnamed Orwellian state on the brink of a regime change:
Government employee, Paul, is a cog in the bureaucratic machine. Day after day he administers an ancient, violent procedure in secret from his wife and daughter. But when he is faced with a young, passionate and entirely unique patient, it shatters his sense of purpose. The monotonous lives of Paul and his family are irreparably altered as they confront the limits of the values they hold dear. Who will pay the price after centuries of oppression? Do we heal through redemption or retribution?
Michael Grandage directed the original production of The Cut, which boasted a star-studded cast led by Sir Ian McKellen as Paul and also featuring Deborah Findlay, Jimmy Akingbola and Tom Burke. Writing in the New Statesman, Michale Portillo said of the show, “[the] visceral portrait of dystopia both grips and mystifies”.
Ian McKellen and Jimmy Akingbola in the Donmar Warehouse production of The Cut
Dead Woman Walking Productions’ version of The Cut has given the show a new twist for 2018. While the premiere featured male performers Akingbola and Burke as Paul’s patient and son, this version makes those characters women, layering the gender politics of today on top of the class dynamics of the original.
David Paulin leads this production as Paul, starring alongside Molly Wheaton, Chescy Ottley and Katie Warnusz-Steckel. Jorge Robinet directs the show.
This revival of The Cut arrives as the Royal Court prepares to debut Ravenhill’s latest play The Cane. The tale of a teacher whose home is under siege from a group of angry students opens on 6 December. Seeing The Cut would be a great way of refreshing your memory about the writer of Mother Clapp’s Molly House and Shopping And Fucking, before heading to the Court to see his new show.
