Director Simon Godwin & cast on If You Don't Let Us Dream, We Won't Let You Sleep
Director Simon Godwin, plus cast members Meera Syal, Lucien Msamati and Ferdy Roberts, report back from the rehearsal room.… Read more
by Anders Lustgarten
15 February - 9 March 2013
Jerwood Theatre Downstairs
Tickets: £28, £20, £12. Mondays all tickets £10
“I believe that open markets and free enterprise are the best imaginable force for improving human wealth and happiness. And I would go further: where they work properly, they can actually promote morality.” David Cameron, Jan 2012
Next Production: A Time to Reap
As the financial world issues its shock treatment, what happens when the City’s agenda is taken to its ultimate conclusion?
Anders Lustgarten’s passionately argued new play explodes the ethos of austerity and offers an alternative.
Age Guidance 14+
A production without décor
Anders Lustgarten’s commission was supported by the Harold Pinter Playwright’s Award which is given annually by his widow Lady Antonia Fraser for new work.
If You Don’t Let Us Dream, We Won’t Let You Sleep is part of the Royal Court’s Jerwood New Playwrights programme, which aims to discover and support the next generation of world class playwrights, supported by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation.
Running Time: Approx. 1 hour and 15 minutes without an interval
| Date | Time | Venue | Notes | Prices | Booking Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Available Performances |
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Dates in February |
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| Fri 15 Feb | 7:30pm | Jerwood Theatre Downstairs | £28, £20, £12 | ||
| Sat 16 Feb | 7:30pm | Jerwood Theatre Downstairs | £28, £20, £12 | ||
| Mon 18 Feb | 7:30pm | Jerwood Theatre Downstairs | £10 | ||
| Tue 19 Feb | 7:30pm | Jerwood Theatre Downstairs | £28, £20, £12 | ||
| Wed 20 Feb | 7:00pm | Press Night | Jerwood Theatre Downstairs | Press Night | |
| Thu 21 Feb | 7:30pm | Jerwood Theatre Downstairs | £28, £20, £12 | ||
| Fri 22 Feb | 7:30pm | Jerwood Theatre Downstairs | £28, £20, £12 | ||
| Sat 23 Feb | 2:30pm | Concessions Available, Saturday Matinees | Jerwood Theatre Downstairs | £28, £20, £12 | |
| Sat 23 Feb | 7:30pm | Jerwood Theatre Downstairs | £28, £20, £12 | ||
| Mon 25 Feb | 7:30pm | Jerwood Theatre Downstairs | £10 | ||
| Tue 26 Feb | 7:30pm | Jerwood Theatre Downstairs | £28, £20, £12 | ||
| Wed 27 Feb | 7:30pm | Jerwood Theatre Downstairs | £28, £20, £12 | ||
| Thu 28 Feb | 7:30pm | Jerwood Theatre Downstairs | £28, £20, £12 | ||
Dates in March |
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| Fri 1 Mar | 7:30pm | Jerwood Theatre Downstairs | £28, £20, £12 | ||
| Sat 2 Mar | 2:30pm | Concessions Available, Audio Described Performance, Saturday Matinees | Jerwood Theatre Downstairs | £28, £20, £12 | |
| Sat 2 Mar | 7:30pm | Jerwood Theatre Downstairs | £28, £20, £12 | ||
| Mon 4 Mar | 7:30pm | Jerwood Theatre Downstairs | £10 | ||
| Tue 5 Mar | 7:30pm | Post-Show Talk | Jerwood Theatre Downstairs | £28, £20, £12 | |
| Wed 6 Mar | 7:30pm | Captioned Performance | Jerwood Theatre Downstairs | £28, £20, £12 | |
| Thu 7 Mar | 2:30pm | Concessions Available, Mid-Week Matinee | Jerwood Theatre Downstairs | £28, £20, £12 | |
| Thu 7 Mar | 7:30pm | Jerwood Theatre Downstairs | £28, £20, £12 | ||
| Fri 8 Mar | 7:30pm | Jerwood Theatre Downstairs | £28, £20, £12 | ||
| Sat 9 Mar | 2:30pm | Concessions Available, Saturday Matinees | Jerwood Theatre Downstairs | £28, £20, £12 | |
| Sat 9 Mar | 7:30pm | Jerwood Theatre Downstairs | £28, £20, £12 | ||
Sold out Performances |
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Director
Writer
Design Consultant
Lighting Designer
Sound Designer
Andrzej Lukowski, Time Out, 21 February 2013
“It has the tang of the real stuff, and for its first half it rattles by in an exhilarating flood of bile and wit, as Lustgarten conjures a blackly comic near future in which the moneymen (and women) have trashed everything. It’s shouty and splenetic, but the short scenes keep things feisty, fiery and free of undue pontification.”
Michael Billington, The Guardian, 21 February 2013
“Anders Lustgarten’s polemical bombshell”
“Simon Godwin’s production whisks us through Lustgarten’s lightning tour of contemporary capitalism with great skill. There is good work from the cast, including Meera Syal as both a privatising zealot and a militant protester, Susan Brown as a pensioner driven to direct action and Lucian Msamati as a victim of racial assault who turns into a pawn of the establishment.“
Henry Hitchings, The Evening Standard, 21 February 2013
“It is important and Lustgarten, the Oxford-educated son of two American academics, is a fierce writer whose activism blends intellectual curiosity and idealism.”
“Whatever you make of Lustgarten’s ideas, there are some stinging lines.”
“Daniel Kendrick is strong as Ryan. Elsewhere, Ferdy Roberts exudes menace, and there’s vivid work from Lucian Msamati and Meera Syal”
Paul Taylor, The Independent, 21 February 2013
“Performed by a game, multi-tasking cast in Simon Godwin’s starkly stripped-back 75-minute production,”
“Lustgarten’s disgust is bracing as he begs to differ, big-time”
Kate Kellaway, The Observer, Sunday 24 February 2013
“A first-rate, multi-tasking cast, authoritatively directed by Simon Godwin, play bankers, businessmen, nurses, health and safety officers, agitators… They make you think, flinch and laugh. There is a wild-card humour here”
Michael Coveny, What’s On Stage, 21 February 2013
“The Occupy London encampment and the Tottenham riots are the cultural lodestones for this play, not the works of other playwrights, and this lends it freshness and a direct appeal that should contribute to a debate beyond the confines of the Court’s downstairs bar.”
“There’s lovely work by Laura Elphinstone in a variety of roles, and by Filter Theatre’s Ferdy Roberts as a banker in red braces called James Asset-Smith and the no less delightfully named activist, Zebedee.”
Philip Fisher, The British Theatre Guide, 21 February 2013
“The inaugural Harold Pinter Playwright’s Award would surely have made the man in whose memory it has been introduced proud. The new prize has unearthed an absolute gem, fizzing with political passion and ideas.”
“Under the direction of Simon Godwin, If You Don’t Let Us Dream, We Won’t Let You Sleep is perhaps the most powerful piece of political theatre that has appeared for some years.”
“It should confirm Anders Lustgarten as one of Britain’s hottest young writers”
Helen Babbs, The Londonist, 22 February 2013
“Punchy and polemical. The fast-paced script is laced with things that will make you shudder.”“In the current climate of swingeing cuts and stealth privatisation, and tax breaks for the rich, If You Don’t Let Us Dream, We Won’t Let You Sleep is political theatre that demands we open our eyes before it’s too late. It’s a piece of social commentary that you should invite your most right-wing friend too, and then debate for hours afterwards in the pub.”
Paul Mason, Economics Editor BBC Newsnight, 5 March 2013
“Like all dystopias, the power of this play is that it shows how mundane and casual a descent into the abyss might look, and with what familiar bureaucratic language. This is what makes it a signal play for its time: because it is this massive distrust of finance, and of the political influence of high finance, that has become real, pervasive, almost second nature to many people now”
“The significance of “If You Don’t Let Us Dream…” is that it’s the first high-impact play about the crisis, staged at a major theatre, where the action has moved decisively from men in suits to men in trackpants.”
Special Dates |
|
|---|---|
| Press Night |
Wed 20 Feb, 7:00pm |
| Concessions Available |
Sat 23 Feb, 2:30pm Sat 2 Mar, 2:30pm Thu 7 Mar, 2:30pm Sat 9 Mar, 2:30pm |
| Saturday Matinees |
Sat 23 Feb, 2:30pm Sat 2 Mar, 2:30pm Sat 9 Mar, 2:30pm |
| Audio Described Performance |
Sat 2 Mar, 2:30pm |
| Post-Show Talk |
Tue 5 Mar, 7:30pm |
| Captioned Performance |
Wed 6 Mar, 7:30pm |
| Mid-Week Matinee |
Thu 7 Mar, 2:30pm |
See the Dates & Tickets tab for all dates.
Director Simon Godwin, plus cast members Meera Syal, Lucien Msamati and Ferdy Roberts, report back from the rehearsal room.… Read more
Writer Anders Lustgarten talks to Royal Court Literary Manager Chris Campbell abut his new play, If You Don't Let Us Dream, We Won't Let You Sleep.… Read more
Box Office: 020 7565 5000
Administration: 020 7565 5050
Principal Sponsor: Coutts
