How to Hold Your Breath

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Starting with a seemingly innocent one night stand, this darkly witty and magical thriller by Zinnie Harris dives into our recent European history. In 2017, she adapted Ibsen's The Master Builder for the West Yorkshire Playhouse, the resultant play was called The Fall of the Master Builder and was directed by James Brining.

Drama Online - How to Hold Your Breath

Alongside her original plays, Zinnie Harris has adapted and reworked a number of plays from the western dramatic canon revising female characters from those plays for a more contemporary and sympathetic eye. [2] Zinnie Harris on Oresteia: This Restless House | 2017 International Festival , retrieved 2023-01-15

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Everything happens on the same junk-covered set, with no sense that Dana and Jasmin are actually travelling anywhere. Coupled with Dana’s hallucinogenic visitations from both Shaeffer’s increasingly agitated Jarron and Peter Forbes’s amusingly prissy, quasi-angelic librarian and Featherstone almost seems to be interpreting ‘How To Hold Your Breath’ as taking place in its protagonist’s head. But to what end? If none of it is really happening, the geopolitical stuff loses value, as does Jasmin, whose heartbreaking, ugly late monologue about her baby is one of the play’s stand-out moments. Clearly it is at least real on some level, but Featherstone muddies it enough to sap the play’s momentum, while the relentlessly dour tone squishes the considerable sparkle in Harris’s dialogue.

Zinnie Harris Drama Online - Zinnie Harris

Oresteia: This Restless House | Citizens Theatre". Citizens Theatre. 2017-08-15 . Retrieved 2018-10-15. Harris’ writing is driven by the need to challenge representations of women in theatre. To that end, her plays place women at the centre of the story – relatable women, who are not defined simply by their gender or romantic relationships. This has resulted in a new legacy of leading roles for women in British theatre. Among this canon is How to Hold Your Breath, a modern morality play that reflects the contemporary refugee crisis. The play acts as a response to Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Woman of Szechwan, in which the titular character invents an alter ego to escape from a life that, because of her gender, is entirely devoid of agency. Whereas Brecht suggests that women must deny their femininity to effect change, Harris updates the narrative to portray a woman who remains true to herself, and who represents all of humankind in her search for agency. Wilson, Tanya (2000-08-03). "Arts: Zinnie Harris, the prizewinning playwright talks to Tanya Wilson". The Guardian . Retrieved 2018-10-15.

A witty performance from Peter Forbes as a librarian with more than a passing interest in creatures of the underworld – no relation to Rupert Giles – and a helpful collection of books catered for every possible, niche eventuality; How To Look Like You’re Enjoying Yourself While Your Skin Is Repelled, How To Get To Sleep Despite The Extreme Heat etc etc. In a nutshell? Nothing ever really bad happens in Europe,” one sister tells another in Zinnie Harris’ nightmarish fantasy How To Hold Your Breath. In little more than a few explosive minutes, this is proved unequivocally false as the banks close their doors, hospitals demand cash in exchange for aid and former female lawyers and primary school teachers scout out territory for a whole new line of work.

How To Hold Your Breath - Official London Theatre How To Hold Your Breath - Official London Theatre

Valid from 14th February to 14th March 2015. Term and conditions apply. Offer is valid Tuesday - Saturday from 14th February to 14th March 2015. Subject to availability. Prize is as stated and cannot be transferred or exchanged.

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Peake plays Dana, a woman (probably German) who: 1) sleeps with and falls for Jarron (Michael Shaeffer), an uptight, neurotic man who purports to be a demon and starts freaking out when Dana refuses to accept money for sex; 2) has an apparently catastrophic interview for a research post in Alexandria – her specialised subject being the boundary between commercial transactions and human relations – but gets offered a final interview anyway; 3) decides to go on a roadtrip to Alexandria with her pregnant sister Jasmin (Christine Bottomley), over the course of which Europe suffers a total collapse – possibly at the behest of Jarron – turning the pair into two of many refugees attempting to flee into Africa. So what, you may well ask, is going on? I assume Jarron, whose attempt at paying Dana for sex is steadfastly refused, represents the reduction of all human relationships to a monetary transaction. The librarian, who pops up at regular intervals in Dana’s life with a succession of “how to” books, symbolises a consumerist belief in easy solutions to every problem. Dana herself, meanwhile, is a woman of principle half drawn to, and half repelled by, the glittering prizes offered by a corrupt society. What we see is how Dana would react if the normal roles were reversed and, as Europe collapses, she were turned into an economic migrant. Oresteia: This Restless House - International Festival | The Lyceum | Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh". lyceum.org.uk. 22 August 2017 . Retrieved 2018-10-12. Embark on an epic journey through Europe with sisters Dana ( Maxine Peake) and Jasmine as they discover the true cost of principles in this twisted exploration of how we live now. Harris has directed for a number of theatres, including the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Traverse Theatre, The Tron Theatre, 7:84 and the Royal Lyceum Theatre. In 2017 she directed Caryl Churchill's A Number for the Royal Lyceum Theatre and was awarded Best Director in the 2017 Scottish Critics CATS awards. [24] Recent directing work includes The Duchess of Malfi, Christmas Tales, Scent of Roses for the Royal Lyceum Theatre where she is currently directing her new version of Shakespeare's Macbeth with the title Macbeth (an undoing). [25]

Prof Zinnie Harris - School of English - University of St Andrews Prof Zinnie Harris - School of English - University of St Andrews

StephensSimon There are some plays which have moments in that, in a totally thrilling way, you wish you’d written. How To Hold Your Breath had handfuls. Thankfully, there is always Peake to watch. The strange thing is that, with her tightly trimmed blonde hair, she bears a passing resemblance to Sarah Kane and the play itself has strong echoes of Kane’s Blasted, currently being revived in Sheffield. But Peake also has the priceless ability to lend her character a much-needed internal tension. With her expressive features and unwavering gaze, Peake suggests at different times a chirpy, bright-eyed resilience or a terrified surrender to despair as she endures her travail-filled travels. Now in the realms of fantasy, the play appears to become a magical Faustian fable, yet still just about rooted in reality. However, Harris steers the play in another direction where reality fractures in a journey that increasingly becomes a nightmare. Society and the economy disintegrate around them as the women’s trip turns into a desperate bid to flee as illegal immigrants to safety in Africa. She was Associate Director at the Traverse Theatre from 2015 – 2018 and the current Associate Artistic Director at the Royal Lyceum Theatre. Zinnie Harris FRSE is a British playwright, screenwriter and director currently living in Edinburgh. [1] She has been commissioned and produced by the Royal Court Theatre, Royal National Theatre, the National Theatre of Scotland and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Her plays have been translated and performed in many countries across Europe and the globe.The Lyceum Leads with 15 CATS Award Nominations | The Lyceum | Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh". lyceum.org.uk . Retrieved 2018-10-15. In truth, this show won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. But that’s the brilliant thing about the Royal Court; its fearless programming takes risks and stages challenging, divisive pieces of work that will leave you reeling and full of questions. How To Hold Your Breath is no exception, and if you like your drama delivered with a creative, witty, intelligent and political punch – with the exceptional Peake as a bonus, of course – this show’s surreal, dark vision is likely to dazzle. Refusing to give in to his demands, she embarks on a (mis)adventure with her sister Jasmine across a collapsing Europe in an attempt to cross to safety and the promise of a job in Africa. Who’s in it?