skip navigation

West Yorkshire Playhouse, in association with Southbank Centre, presents "THE FRUIT TRILOGY" By Eve Ensler


3/2/2016

Media release

2 March 2016

West Yorkshire Playhouse, in association with Southbank Centre, presents

THE FRUIT TRILOGY

By Eve Ensler

Directed by Mark Rosenblatt

World premiere staging at Southbank Centre’s WOW - Women Of The World Festival 9-13 March and West Yorkshire Playhouse 2-9 April

A limited allocation of press night tickets are available for Southbank Centre (Thu 10 March) and West Yorkshire Playhouse (Mon 6 April) - please contact Amanda.Trickett(at)wyp.org.uk for information


The world premiere staging of Eve Ensler’s THE FRUIT TRILOGY is presented at Southbank’s WOW- Women Of The World Festival from 9-13 March and West Yorkshire Playhouse from 2-9 April. This trio of short plays by the Tony Award winning author of THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES and human rights activist comprises AVOCADO, POMEGRANATE and COCONUT and explores the female experience of human trafficking, sexual abuse, refugee life and body image. THE FRUIT TRILOGY is directed by Playhouse Associate Director Mark Rosenblatt who revisits AVOCADO, Eve’s commission for West Yorkshire Playhouse which premiered to critical acclaim in 2015, which forms a trilogy alongside her two new works.

Eve Ensler said

‘I am thrilled that The Fruit Trilogy will have its premiere at Southbank Centre's WOW - Women of the World festival and West Yorkshire Playhouse in March and April. Both organisations have given platform and voice to the pressing issues of women today: trafficking, war, violence, and commodification. They are the perfect venues for these new plays and monologues where women are struggling with bodies sold, enslaved, violated and reclaimed.’

THE FRUIT TRILOGY is performed by Amelia Donkor and Carla Harrison-Hodge.

POMEGRANATE takes place on a regular working day in the life of a brothel, as seen through the eyes of two women. AVOCADO follows a young woman’s funny, shocking, poetic journey towards freedom. COCONUT sees a survivor, a woman, begins to enjoy the one thing she has never fully owned… her body.

Mark Rosenblatt said

‘We’re honoured to be working with Eve Ensler and the Southbank Centre, to premiere The Fruit Trilogy in London and Leeds. Eve’s playwriting and activism are inextricably linked and this new work asks us to confront some of the darkest of situations facing women around the world today, but always with a playful theatricality, humanity and humour. We always enter the situation through an unexpected angle and that’s really exciting to put on stage.’

Eve is appearing at Southbank Centre on Saturday 12 March and West Yorkshire Playhouse on Saturday 4 April. For WOW - Women Of The World Festival in partnership with One Billion Rising she leads panel discussion BODIES OF REVOLUTION. Eve opens the session on why and how women experience violence, militarization and war at the hands of the state and how they are rising collectively against it. Speakers include Christine Schuler Deschryver Director of Congo City of Joy, a revolutionary centre for survivors of rape and torture, Rada Boric from the Center for Women's Studies in Zagreb, and Monique Wilson, Director of One Billion Rising and one of the Philippine’s veteran theatre and film actresses and founder of the New Voice Company (NVC) theatre group - one of Asia’s leading theatre companies known for radical work. IN CONVERSATION WITH EVE ENSLER takes place at West Yorkshire Playhouse prior to the first preview of The Fruit Trilogy in Leeds.

Eve Ensler is the Tony Award winning playwright, activist and author of the theatrical phenomenon, THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES, which has been published in 48 languages and performed in over 140 countries. Eve’s plays include NECESSARY TARGETS, THE TREATMENT, THE GOOD BODY, and EMOTIONAL CREATURE. Her books include INSECURE AT LAST: A POLITICAL MEMOIR; the New York Times bestseller I AM AN EMOTIONAL CREATURE, and her latest critically acclaimed memoir IN THE BODY OF THE WORLD. She is founder of V-Day, the global activist movement to end violence against women and girls which has raised over 100 million dollars to end violence and One Billion Rising, a global mass action campaign in over 200 countries. Her play O.P.C. recently had its world premiere at American Repertory Theater where she will also debut and perform In IN THE BODY OF THE WORLD, based on her memoir in Spring of 2016, directed by Diane Paulus. AVOCADO opened to rave reviews at West Yorkshire Playhouse and Latitude festival in 2015. She has written numerous articles for The Guardian, Time Magazine, Washington Post and the International Herald Tribune. She was named one of Newsweek’s “150 Women Who Changed the World” and The Guardian’s “100 Most Influential Women.”

Mark Rosenblatt directed AVOCADO to critical acclaim when it premiered in 2015 as part of the Playhouse’s A PLAY, A PIE AND A PINT commissions of new plays and was performed at the Latitude Festival. His productions for West Yorkshire Playhouse include RICHARD III,

OF MICE AND MEN, the regional premiere of Alan Bennett’s UNTOLD STORIES and Samuel Adamson’s contemporary version of UNCLE VANYA. Before joining the Playhouse he was Studio Associate at the National Theatre (2011-13) and has run Dumbfounded Theatre since 2001. Other directing work includes Jack Thorne’s STUART: A LIFE BACKWARDS for Hightide Festival Theatre, Watford Palace & Sheffield Theatres (nominated for Carol Tambor Award Best Production of Edinburgh Festival 2013); WILD OATS, which reopened Bristol Old Vic in 2012; Shakespeare & Fletcher’s HENRY VIII and the world premiere of Jack Shepherd's HOLDING FIRE!, both at Shakespeare’s Globe. In 2010, he directed the premiere of Eve Ensler’s short play MANGO at the Tricycle Theatre. He won the JMK Young Directors Award in 1999.

-ends-

For more information, to arrange interviews or for images please contact Amanda Trickett on amanda.trickett(at)wyp.org.uk 0113 213 7273 or Naomi French Naomi.French(at)southbankcentre.co.uk 0207 921 0678

EDITORS’ NOTES

Southbank Centre
The Fruit Trilogy
Wednesday 9 - Sunday 13 March
Performances: Wed - Fri 7.30pm; Sat & Sun 7pm
Tickets £15
Bodies Of Revolution
Saturday 12 March 2.15pm
Included in WOW Festival Saturday Pass £20 and Weekend Pass £45
To book tickets call 0844 875 0073 or visit wow.southbankcentre.co.uk
West Yorkshire Playhouse
The Fruit Trilogy
Saturday 4 - Saturday 9 April
Performances: 8pm
Tickets £15-£12.50
In Conversation with Eve Ensler
Saturday 4 April
Performances: 5pm
Tickets: £8 or £4 if purchased with a ticket for The Fruit Trilogy
To book tickets call 0113 213 7700 or visit www.wyp.org.uk

West Yorkshire Playhouse has a reputation both nationally and internationally as a leading UK producing theatre. The theatre is a cultural hub, a place where people gather to tell and share stories and to engage in world class theatre. From large scale spectacle to intimate performance the Playhouse develops and makes work for the stage, for found spaces, for touring, for schools and community venues. Alongside work for the stage the Playhouse is dedicated to providing creative engagement opportunities, building and running sustainable projects that reach out to a diverse range of communities. Supporting new and emerging artists is key and the theatre provides creative space for new writers, directors, companies and individual theatre makers to refine their practice.

For Spring Summer 2016 West Yorkshire Playhouse presents a new adaptation of GREAT EXPECTATIONS directed by Lucy Bailey; the world premiere staging of THE DAMNED UNITED adapted from David Peace's novel, in a co-production with Red Ladder Theatre Company; Eve Ensler's THE FRUIT TRILOGY in association with the Southbank Centre; OPENING SKINNER'S BOX, a co-production with Improbable and Northern Stage; a new production of KES which visits community venues across Leeds following its Playhouse staging; James Brining directs INTO THE WOODS, a co-production with Opera North and Alice Nutter writes BARNBOW CANARIES. The Playhouse’s critically acclaimed production of Maxine Peake’s debut play BERYL premieres in London and West Yorkshire Playhouse and Music & Lyrics co-production CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG tours to 18 UK venues on a year-long tour.

Southbank Centre is the UK’s largest arts centre, occupying a 21-acre site that sits in the midst of London’s most vibrant cultural quarter on the South Bank of the Thames. The site has an extraordinary creative and architectural history stretching back to the 1951 Festival of Britain. Southbank Centre is home to the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and the Hayward Gallery as well as The Saison Poetry Library and the Arts Council Collection. For further information please visit www.southbankcentre.co.uk. We are carrying out vital restoration work on the Hayward Gallery, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room to make the buildings fit for future generations to enjoy, more information can be found here: letthelightin.southbankcentre.co.uk.

WOW - Women of the World Festival was launched by Southbank Centre Artistic Director Jude Kelly CBE in 2011, the centenary of International Women's Day. It has since grown into the largest women's festival network in the world, involving over a million people across five continents. Over the last five years, WOW has presented among many others, Nobel Peace Prize-winning Malala Yousafzai, Salma Hayek-Pinault, Alice Walker, Vivienne Westwood, Christine Lagarde, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown MP, Annie Lennox, Ruby Wax, Patrick Stewart, Sinead O'Connor, Jessye Norman, Julie Walters, Naomi Wolf, Nawal El Sadaawi, Cherie Blair, Kiran Bedi, Baroness Helena Kennedy QC and many women who don’t have public profiles but have done extraordinary things. Opening on International Women's Day, the 6th London WOW festival will take place at Southbank Centre from 8th - 13th of March 2016. The festival will again feature a varied programme of concerts, performances, workshops and talks and debates, bringing together thousands of women and girls alongside activists, politicians, business leaders and artists to discuss gender equality and how women and men can drive solutions to close the gender gap. For more information please visit wow.southbankcentre.co.uk

One Billion Rising is the biggest mass action to end violence against women in human history. The campaign, launched on Valentine’s Day 2012, began as a call to action based on the staggering statistic that 1 in 3 women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. With the world population at 7 billion, this adds up to more than ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS. On 14 February 2013, people across the world came together to express their outrage, strike, dance, and RISE in defiance of the injustices women suffer, demanding an end at last to violence against women. On 14 February 2014, One Billion Rising for Justice focused on the issue of justice for all survivors of gender violence, and highlighted the impunity that lives at the intersection of poverty, racism, war, the plunder of the environment, capitalism, imperialism, and patriarchy. This year, One Billion Rising’s global coordinators chose the theme of “Revolution” as an escalation of the demand for justice, and to build upon the massive efforts of communities worldwide that also looked at the roots and causes of violence as part of their call for justice. On (or around) 14 February 2015, millions of activists in over 200 countries gathered to Rise for REVOLUTION, to change the paradigm, demand accountability, justice and systemic CHANGE. The campaign was covered widely by media in all corners of world. Visit www.onebillionrising.org