Six young theatre directors will present productions over just two weeks at the Everyman, as part of the Young Everyman Playhouse (YEP) Directors’ Festival.
Starting on Monday 3rd June, the free festival provides directors in their first year of the YEP Young Directors Programme, with the opportunity to showcase their work in front of a live audience.
Using the expertise of other YEP strands, including Technicians, Producers and Marketers, the festival encourages young theatre makers to work together to produce exciting theatre for the Everyman’s studio space, EV1.
Opening this year’s festival is Mr. Incredible (3rd and 4th June), written by Camilla Whitehill and directed by Caitlin Magnall-Kearns. The one-man dark comedy explores modern love, and old-fashioned entitlement, following the life of recently single man Adam, in a show that will leave audiences with a gut-punch feeling.
Elinor Cook’s tale of friendship, love and coming-of-age, Out of Love (4th and 5th June) is directed by Josephine Dalton. Lorna and Grace do everything together. But life catches up with them, and they’re forced apart by time and the changing world around them.
An intense, personal and powerful exploration of love, and how it can be used to damage people, Crave (7th and 8th June) by Sarah Kane is directed by Jack Southward and shows love at its most painful. The play follows four anonymous characters who share common stories of their attempts to make basic human connections.
Opening the second week of the festival, Daniel Jamieson’s The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk (10th and 11th June) is directed by Martyna Puciato. Abstract and intense, the story follows painter Marc and his muse Bella as their vibrant, but not always bright, love story unfolds across the bleak backdrop of the Russian Revolution.
Dark Vanilla Jungle (12th and 13th June) by Philip Ridley is directed by Melissa McLoughlin. A story of internalised misogyny in a deeply patriarchal society told through physical theatre, the production follows 15-year-old Andrea – stuck in a cycle of abuse. Determined not to be alone in the world, she uses and abuses others to her advantage in her search for family.
To close YEP Directors’ Festival 2019, Boys (14th and 15th June) by Ella Hickson is directed by Ben Rivers and explores the subject of male mental health. Four university leavers are preparing to make the leap from student to adult life, into a world that doesn’t want them. Keeping their feelings to themselves, can the four boys brush it all under the carpet to throw one last big party?
Tickets for YEP Directors’ Festival 2019 shows are available now and completely FREE. Tickets can be reserved online at: https://www.everymanplayhouse.com/yep-directors-festival-2019.