Rough Cuts

Rough Cuts is the Royal Court’s biannual season of work-in-progress, experimental pieces, readings and shorts. Rough Cuts emerges from the year-round activities of the Studio, providing an opportunity for emerging and established artists to develop ideas collaboratively, experimentally and informally.

“Without Rough Cuts, there would have been no Posh. Three years ago, Dominic Cooke matchmade Laura Wade and I and asked us to spend some time exploring the notion of privilege and power in modern Britain. As part of the Rough Cuts programme, we embarked upon a period of research and development, interviewing key political figures and gathering thoughts and responses to the stories we heard and the people we met. This material was then improvised by actors in a week-long workshop, before inspiring a short 30 minute play which was the starting point for the script as it existed in performance. Rough Cuts gives writers a chance to work in a completely new way, to collaborate with another artist on the inception of a piece, and to create bold and brave drama, knowing all the time that they are working within a safe and supportive environment. The spirit of the collaboration between myself and Laura Wade which we fostered during our Rough Cuts remained with us over the three years it took to develop the piece for performance at the Royal Court. POSH is a big play, both in terms of its theatrical scale and its ambition: it is a play which was made possible through the input of actors, the invaluable experience of that initial workshop and the dramaturgical support that the Rough Cuts programme provides.”

Lyndsey Turner, Director of Posh

We do not accept unsolicited scripts or proposals for Rough Cuts.

Rough Cuts is sponsored by Ecosse Films and Kudos Film and Television with additional support from the Royal Victoria Hall Foundation.