Rebecca Lenkiewicz

Play something kitty-cat-ish . . . sweet. Imagine I've died and you're galloping through fields. As their thirtieth wedding anniversary approaches, Alice and Edgar are locked in a bitter struggle. They've driven away their children and their friends. Their relationship is sustained by taunts and recriminations. When a newcomer breaks into the midst of the fray, their insular lives threaten to spin out of control. We're all just bodies and when we're dead we're worm food, but as long as your body keep going, flailing or thrashing about, we are duty bound to fight, to scratch and kick, until you're fucked. That's my philosophy. Laced with biting humour, The Dance of Death is August Strindberg's landmark drama about a marriage pushed to its limits, adapted in a thrilling new version by Rebecca Lenkiewicz. The Dance of Death opened at the Bath Theatre Royal's Ustinov Theatre in May 2022 before going on UK tour in an Arcola Theatre, Cambridge Arts Theatre, Royal & Derngate, Northampton, Oxford Playhouse and Theatre Royal Bath Productions co-production.

The Dance of Death

'An absorbing work, full of passion, pathos and sly humour, set in the hip art scene of London's East End.... There is a rare combination of pain, wit and originality in Lenkiewicz's writing that bodes exceptionally well for the future... This is a play that combines raw pain, frank sexuality and ribald comedy to potent and ultimately uplifting effect.' Daily Telegraph 'Lenkiewicz, whose characters speak with vicious and lyrical fluency, catches people in the grip of erotic-emotional trouble... in this rich comedy of crazy Eros.' Evening Standard'Fresh, self-confident and thoughtful... Lenkiewicz writes fine dialogue, and every word feels comfortable in the mouths of her actors. Their conversations are crisp, witty and sexy - her text repays reading....Shoreditch Madonna confirms the progress of an imaginative writer and a sensitive director.' New StatesmanShoreditch Madonna premiered at Soho Theatre, London, in July 2005.

Shoreditch Madonna

I cry in the daytime and in the night season am not silent. Psalm 22 Late at night, shoeless, in the rain, a film actor playing the poet Yeats turns up drunk at his appointed Sligo digs. He is met by the grandmother and they dance together to 'Lili Marlene'. In the morning they are discovered, sharing a blanket, by Patrick and his three daughters. Patrick craves tobacco, whiskey and a date with the local barmaid; the sisters yearn for sensation and escape. A funny, modern, intoxicated tale of love and loss, The Night Season premiered at the National Theatre, London, in 2004.

The Night Season

A new adaptation of Henry James's classic novella adapted for the stage by Rebecca Lenkiewicz. This adaptation was first staged at the Almeida Theatre, London, in January 2013.

adapted for the stage

The Turn of the Screw

Henrik Ibsen

It's Norway, 1881. Mrs. Alving is ecstatic when her son Osvald visits after many years abroad. He has returned to celebrate the heroic memory of his dead father. But within hours of Osvald's homecoming his mother is forced to unearth the past and reveal its terrifying ghosts. Rebecca Lenkiewicz's version of Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts, or Those Who Return, premiered at the Arcola Theatre, London, in a co-production with ATC in July 2009.

Ghosts, Or, Those who Return

Love is just fear I suppose. Masquerading as a fever. Then you explore each other and suddenly you have licence to become totally pedestrian. And ultimately abusive. Militancy in the Suffragette Movement is at its height. Thousands of women of all classes serve time in Holloway Prison in their fight to gain the vote. Amongst them is Lady Celia Cain who feels trapped by both the policies of the day and the shackles of a frustrating marriage. Inside, she meets a young seamstress, Eve Douglas, and her life spirals into an erotic but dangerous chaos. London 1913. A crucial moment when, with emancipation almost in sight, women refuse to let the establishment stand in their way. Rebecca Lenkiewicz's Her Naked Skin premiered at the National Theatre, London, in July 2008.

Her Naked Skin

Alice Birch

Winsome Pinnock

Sabrina Mahfouz

Bryony Lavery

Katherine Chandler

Suhayla El-Bushra

Sarah Daniels

Deborah Bruce

Natasha Marshall

Chinoyerem Odimba

Rena Owen

Rebecca Prichard

Chloe Moss

Ursula Rani Sarma

Shelley Silas

Sandrine Uwayo

Anna Reynolds

Somalia Seaton

Naomi Wallace

Lucy Kirkwood

Jacqueline Holborough

Morgan Lloyd-Malcolm

Daisy King

Vivienne Franzmann

Lin Coghlan

Annie Caulfield

Raina Dunne

Danni Brown

Laura Lomas

Theresa Ikoko

Katie Hims

Sonya Hale

Linda Brogan

Clean Break is a British theatre company set up in 1979 by two women in prison. It exists to tell the stories of women with experience of the criminal justice system and to transform women's lives through theatre. Over 40 years, Clean Break has commissioned some of the most progressive and brilliant women writers to write ground-breaking plays, alongside developing the writing skills of the women they work with in its London studios and in prisons. This is a collection of monologues from this canon. Rebel Voices: Monologues for Women by Women celebrates the opportunities inherent when women represent themselves. Offering female performers a diverse set of monologues reflecting a range of characters in age, ethnicity and lived experience, the material is drawn from a mix of published and unpublished works. This book is for any performer who does not see themselves represented in mainstream plays, for lovers of radical women's theatre and for rebels everywhere who believe that the act of speaking and being heard can create change.

Celebrating 40 Years of Clean Break Theatre Company

Rebel Voices: Monologues for Women by Women

Walkern, 1712. England has been free from witch-hunts for decades until Jane Wenham is blamed for a tragic death and charged with witchcraft. A terrifying ordeal begins, as the village is torn between those who want to save Jane's life and those who claim they want to save her soul. Inspired by events in a Hertfordshire village, the play explores sex and society's hunger to find and create witches. Rebecca Lenkiewicz's Jane Wenham: The Witch of Walkern premiered at Watford Palace Theatre before going on UK tour in September 2015, in an Out of Joint, Watford Palace Theatre and Arcola Theatre co-production, in association with Eastern Angles.

Jane Wenham: The Witch of Walkern

Rebecca Lenkiewicz

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