A Young Vic/Royal Court co-production with Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Sheffield Theatres and The Yard Theatre, it was produced through Jerwood New Playwrights at the Royal Court, and supported by the Jerwood Assistant Directors Programme at the Young Vic with Anastasia Osei-Kuffour taking the role of Assistant Director.
Charlene James also received the Charles Wintour Award for Most Promising Playwright at the Evening Standard Awards for Theatre in 2016 and a George Devine Award for the play. Charlene is a playwright and actor who trained at Birmingham School of Acting and The School at Steppenwolf, Chicago. In 2008, she participated in the Royal Court’s Young Writers Programme and in 2012 she was selected to be one of the 503 Five at Theatre 503. In 2013 Charlene became a writer in residence at the Birmingham Rep and wrote Jump! We’ll Catch You for their season focusing on mental health. Her play, Tweet Tweet, was commissioned by the Birmingham Rep as part of Young Theatre Makers and premiered there before touring. In 2014 she became a Jerwood New Playwright at the Royal Court.
The Awards were hosted on Tuesday 31st January 2017 by the Critics’ Circle Drama Section Chairman Mark Shenton, at the Prince of Wales Theatre, London. The ceremony was an informal gathering of award recipients, the drama critics, theatre practitioners and the media, convivially coming together to celebrate the critics’ personal choice of the best theatre from throughout the UK during the last calendar year.
