International Productions

Since 1997, many of the international plays developed as part of the Residency have been presented as full productions at the Royal Court.

Since 1993, the Royal Court has produced a series of international readings and short plays from the different countries where work takes place. This includes work from Brazil, Cuba, Mexico, France, Germany, Spain, Russia, the Nordic Countries, Syria and Nigeria, as well as I Come from There, a regional project with writers from across the Arab world. In autumn 2006, the Royal Court commissioned previous International Residency participants to write short plays about the impact of world events on their local societies. Five of these plays were presented in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs as part of Small Talk: Big Picture, a collaboration with BBC World Service Drama. Four of these plays were broadcast on the World Service to a potential audience of 40 million listeners. In 2004, we commissioned international playwrights to write short plays about violence in their countries, which were presented as State of Violence in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs as part of the 2004 International Season.

In autumn 2007, the Royal Court mounted its most ambitious International Season ever. Alongside revivals of two major modern international classics, Rhinoceros by Eugène Ionesco and The Arsonists by Max Frisch, the theatre presented a series of five new plays in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs: The Ugly One by Marius von Mayenburg (Germany), Kebab by Gianina Cărbunariu (Romania – a co-production with the Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival and Pentabus Theatre Company), Free Outgoing by Anupama Chandrasekhar (India) and a double-bill of The Good Family by Joakim Pirinen (Sweden) and The Khomenko Family Chronicles by Natalia Vorozhbit (Ukraine). In spring 2008, The Ugly One and Free Outgoing were revived in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs.

In addition, many of our senior British writers have been inspired by international themes.  The International Department sent David Hare on his first trip to Israel and Palestine in 1997 and this resulted in the hugely successful production of Via Dolorosa in the Theatre Downstairs in 1998, running on Broadway from March to June 1999 and returning to the Duchess Theatre in July 2002.
 
In September 2004, the International Department began working with Alan Rickman on a play based on the diaries of the US activist Rachel Corrie, who was killed while protesting against house demolitions in Gaza in March 2003. My Name is Rachel Corrie, taken from the writings of Rachel Corrie and edited by Alan Rickman and Katharine Viner, was produced in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs in March 2005.  Due its critical acclaim and sell-out run, it reopened in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs in October 2005 before transferring to the Playhouse Theatre in London’s West End. In October 2006, it opened at the Minetta Lane Theater, New York.