Whilst most may know her from her performances as Anne Frank in the 2009 BBC mini-series and Meera Reed in HBO phenomenon Game of Thrones, Ellie Kendrick is a prolific young writer for stage and screen. Commissioned by the Royal Court Theatre and directed by RashDash physical theatre duo Helen Goalen and Abi Green, her second play Hole merges word, music and movement to examine how patriarchal power structures are formed and used.

English playwright Mark Ravenhill didn't so much emerge in the 90s as explode onto the UK theater scene with a career-defining debut that went on to become one of the decisive cultural events of the decade. Twenty two years after the trailblazing Shopping and F---ing, Ravenhill debuts his brand new work for the Royal Court Theatre, exploring identity, gender and the failure of modern liberalism with his trademark black humour and incisive wit.

Following its critically acclaimed West End Debut in 2016, and subsequent Off-Broadway transfer in 2018, David Ireland's subversive heavy-hitter Cypress Avenue returns to London for a strictly limited four week run at the Royal Court Theatre. Weaving together the darkest of black comedy with a poignant examination of extremism, prejudice and sectarian hatred, Ireland presents an unsettling and topical portrait of identity, nationalism and mental illness that shocks, provokes thoughts and elicits laughter in equal measure. Veteran Irish stage and film actor Stephen Rea reprises the role of Eric, a Belfast loyalist whose terrifying fanaticism escalates due to his rapidly worsening dementia, leading him to believe that his five-week old granddaughter is Irish republican politician and ex Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams. Lunacy and zealotry collide in a climax of murderous violence that reflects the dangers of living in the past and political divisions that still simmer today.

It may be a play about women in prison, but Orange Is The New Black this is not! Inside Bitch is a brand new dramedy devised by members of Clean Break, a theatre company dedicated to keeping the subject of women prisoners and the failures of the criminal justice system firmly in the spotlight by devising and producing theatre pieces reflecting the experiences of real women who've done time. There's no glossing over the dark truths that lurk beneath their stories as seen in most Hollywood glamorisations of the subject matter, but Clean Break's playful reclamation packs a very real punch and makes for thought-provoking viewing nonetheless.

Following the critically acclaimed run of The Djinns of Eidgah at the Royal Court in 2013, young Indian playwright Abhishek Majumdar returns to the Royal Court Theatre with a brand new thought provoking drama exploring culture, conflict and when the two collide. Based on the violent events of the 2008 Lhasa Riots in Tibet, Pah-La draws on the experiences of Tibetans Majumdar worked and conversed with in his home country of India and offers an eye-opening vision of the future of protest and non-violence.