Press Information
[ NEW YEAR | NEW PLAYS SEASON ]
January to March 2010 at the Finborough Theatre
Grand Plan Productions in association with Neil McPherson for the Finborough Theatre
and by arrangement with Original Works Publishing presents
The European Premiere
You May Go Now
A Marriage Play
by Bekah Brunstetter
Directed by Ellie Browning. Designed by Joe Schermoly. Lighting by Jacob Mason-Dixon.
Sound Design by George Dennis. Costume Design by Katy Mills.
Cast includes: Michael Benz. Ryan Early. Florence Hall.Lucy Newman-Williams.
The European premiere of You May Go Now, winner of the New York Innovative Theatre Awards for Outstanding Full Length Script 2008, and written by multi-award-winning new American playwright – and Playwright-in-Residence at the Finborough Theatre, Bekah Brunstetter, opens at the Finborough Theatre on Sunday, 7 March 2010 (Press Night: Monday, 8 March 2010) for six Sunday and Monday performances, as part of the [ NEW YEAR | NEW PLAYS SEASON ], celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Finborough Theatre.
Dottie has trained Betty to be the perfect 1950s housewife: to cook, to clean and to warm her husband’s slippers. Now Betty turns eighteen and it’s time for her to be released into the big wide world, except the world is that of 2010 – vast, complex, dirty – and quick to throw up ghosts from their past. Now the biscuits are burning, there’s blood on the Linoleum, and the twisted reality beneath the sugar coating is just about to reveal itself.
Kitsch and comic, You May Go Now is a gingham-clad take on the more sinister side of marriage from one of America’s most exciting new playwrights.
“A fiendishly clever social satire” The Star-Ledger, New Jersey
PlaywrightBekah Brunstetteris a Playwright-in-Residence at the Finborough Theatre and received her UK debut at the Finborough Theatre in March 2009 with Oohrah! (which also recently received its US premiere at the Atlantic Theater, New York City) and was featured in Vibrant! – A Festival of Finborough Playwrights in October 2009 with Green. Bekah is also Resident Playwright of Ars Nova, New York and a member of the Women’s Project Writers Lab. She is the winner of the New York Innovative Theater Award for Best Original Full-Length Play and twice winner of the Samuel French Short Play Festival. Her work has received acclaim across the United States and has been produced at Boston Theatre Works, the Ohio Theater, The Alliance Theatre and many others. She is director of New Play Development for Working Man’s Clothes Productions, New York City, and works with groups at the Playwright’s Center and At Play Productions. Her other plays include To Ninevah (New York Innovative Theater Award for Best New Full Length Play 2006),Sick (Winner, Samuel French Short Play Festival 2006), Fucking Art (Winner, Samuel French Short Play Festival 2008) and Avocado (King’s Head Theatre).
Director Ellie Browning is a former Resident Assistant Director at the Finborough Theatre where she has worked on Untitled, The Killing of Mr Toad and Death of Long Pig.
Michael Benz’s credits include Quakeand Oohrah! (Finborough Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (Royal Shakespeare Company), A New World, As You Like It and The Winter’s Tale (Shakespeare’s Globe), and TV including Mike and Angelo and Little Lord Fauntleroy;Ryan Early’s credits includeThe Hounding of David Oluwale (Hackney Empire and National Tour), All Quiet On The Western Front (Nottingham Playhouse and National Tour), War and Peace (Royal Court Theatre and Latitude Festival), Starseeker (Royal and Derngate Theatres, Northampton), The Eleventh Capital, Some Voices, Teeth 'N' Smiles (Royal Court Theatre), The Knight of the Burning Pestle(Young Vic and Barbican), About Face (Almeida Studio), Oliver Twist (Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, and National Tour), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Shakespeare's Globe), The Servant (Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith), Spring And Port Wine (West Yorkshire Playhouse) andOne Life And Counting (Bush Theatre). Television and Film credits include Casualty, The Bill, Doctors, An Acre of Moon and Red Tails.Florence Hall’s credits include Middlemarch(Richmond Theatre), The Kitchen, In A Foreign Bed, As You Like It, The Second Mrs Tanqueray, You Can't Take It With You, The Changeling, The Prince of Homburg, Paradise Lost and Richard III (Drama
Centre). Television includes JonathanCreek.Lucy Newman-Williams’ credits include Macbeth, Hamlet andTwo Gentlemen of Verona (Folger Theatre, WashingtonDC). Television and Film credits include The Wire, Homicide: Life on the Streets, A Dirty Shame, Head of State and Deep Impact.
The Press on Bekah Brunstetter
“A lot of playwrights must hate Bekah Brunstetter. All of 26 years old, she’s had more than a dozen of her plays produced and is represented by the William Morris Agency…an exciting new talent."Daily Record
“I bet you’ll remember it and pay attention when Brunstetter writes another play."Daily Record
“Her unique rhythm and scattershot dialogue keeps you on your toes — even when you can predict what’s coming, you never know when or how." Daily Record
“In just a few short years, Bekah Brunstetter has emerged as a major voice in Off-Off-Broadway.” offoffline.com
“Thoughtful, hilarious and poignant.” Washington Square News
“Remarkable…the ground covered in this new play by Bekah Brunstetter goes way past the expected to rip through the gut while you're laughing…Marvellously perverse humor.” nytheatre.com
“Bekah Brunstetter's use of language is exquisite; her dialogue sings and expresses character with telling detail.”Broadway World
PRESS NIGHT: MONDAY, 8 MARCH 2010 AT 7.30PM
PHOTOCALL: By Arrangement. Please email
Finborough Theatre, The Finborough, 118 Finborough Road, LondonSW10 9ED
Box Office 0844 847 1652.
Sundays and Mondays, 7, 8, 14, 15, 21 and 22 March 2010
Evenings at 7.30pm. Tickets £13, £9 concessions
Performance Length: Approximately 2 hours.
For more information, interviews and images, please contact
Neil McPherson on e-mail or 07977 173135
Press releases and images to download are available at
118 Finborough Road, LondonSW10 9EDTelephone +44 (0)20 7244 7439 Fax +44 (0)20 7835 1853
e-mail Artistic Director Neil McPherson
The Finborough Theatre is managed by The Steam Industry. Registered in England and Wales as a company limited by guarantee, no. 3448268.
Registered Charity no. 1071304. Registered address: 118 Finborough Road, LondonSW10 9ED. A member of the Independent Theatre Council.