YO TW U S O
H C E AM LI P S A T AT EA KI D N D PR OW ES N EN S T T A
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18 january 24 FEBRUARY By GEORGIA CHRISTOU Directed by CHELSEA WALKER
#HTYousTwo
WELCOME Georgia Christou’s first play, Yous Two, is the fiftieth World Premiere we have presented Downstairs since we created the programme in 2010. It is the first of a series of three plays by talented women writers at the beginning of their careers which we will be opening to the Press. It is exciting to be broadening the public reach of Downstairs as we re-orientate Hampstead to deal with the recent 14% cut in our Arts Council grant – the “celebration of success” in their words. One of the other surprising justifications for the cut offered by the Arts Council was a desire to bring our funding into line with other London producing theatres, and they openly compared us with single auditorium institutions producing about six productions a year to Hampstead’s fifteen. We then realised that, prior to the cut, nobody employed by or associated with the Arts Council – not even our Relationship Manager – had ever seen any of the work Downstairs. It was as if, being unaware we had a second space, they thought us overfunded. Or perhaps, granted we had opened Hampstead Downstairs in 2010 without any additional funding from them, they thought it could run with even less than no support. In fact, running Downstairs costs Hampstead, even after taking into account the philanthropy we raise to support it, about £100,000 each year. With the cut of £122,000 to the institution this obviously becomes untenable and we are having to cut back on resources, rates of pay, and the scale of the work just to try and keep it going. It faces an uncertain future, but formal Press Nights might, as well as professionalising the debate, raise the programme’s profile and help us identify more philanthropy. And they might, at the very least, remind the Arts Council that Downstairs exists.
EDWARD HALL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
CAST IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER FUDGE RACHEL BILLIE JONNY
ALI BAROUTI LEAH HARVEY SHANNON TARBET JOSEPH THOMPSON
CREATIVE TEAM WRITER DIRECTOR DESIGNER LIGHTING DESIGNER SOUND DESIGNER FIGHT DIRECTOR ASSOCIATE DESIGNER PRODUCTION MANAGER STAGE MANAGER REHEARSAL PHOTOGRAPHER PRODUCTION PHOTOGRAPHER
GEORGIA CHRISTOU CHELSEA WALKER ROSANNA VIZE JAMIE PLATT GEORGE DENNIS KEVIN MCCURDY FIONA RIGLER TAMMY ROSE BESSIE HITCHIN BECKY PARIS ROBERT DAY