Clean Break's 40th Anniversary To Include Royal Court, Arcola, Cardboard Citizens + Anthology Of Monologues

Clean Break celebrates four decades of making inspiring theatre with its 40th anniversary in 2019.

The year opens with the company's first season under its new Artistic Directors, Anna Herrmann and Róisín McBrinn - featuring bold new plays, performances and projects created by ground-breaking artists, high profile partners and collaborators, and Clean Break Members (women with experience of, or on the fringes of the criminal justice system).

Highlights of the 40th Anniversary Spring Season includes:

· INSIDE BITCH - a unique co-production with The Royal Court Theatre, subverting media images of women in prison. Conceived by innovative theatre-makers Stacey Gregg and Deborah Pearson, devised and performed by Clean Break Members Lucy Edkins, Jennifer Joseph, Terri Ann Oudjar and Jade Small

· BELONG - a new play exploring what it means to belong, created by Brazen - Clean Break Young Artists - at the Arcola Theatre as part of Arcola Creative/Disruption Festival

· Clean Break's first ever partnership with CARDBOARD CITIZENS, in collaboration with performance and video artist Paula Varjack and women from both theatre companies

· The launch of CLEAN BREAK'S REBEL VOICES, an anthology of forty monologues from Clean Break's incredible canon of plays and writing over forty years

· Projects with leading theatremakers and women in prisons

· Further 2019 highlights to be announced

Anna Herrmann and Róisín McBrinn, Joint Artistic Directors: 'Forty years ago two incredible women in prison set up Clean Break, believing theatre could bring the hidden stories of women to a wider audience. Over the last four decades, the company has remained true to this vision, changing women's lives by providing opportunities, provoking conversation, and creating theatre of the highest calibre with the leading women theatre artists of the day. We are immensely proud to lead the company into its next chapter with a programme to launch our tenure that celebrates our legacy and signals a bold new future, with invaluable new relationships being forged and our Members at the heart of everything we do.'

CLEAN BREAK 40TH ANNIVERSARY SPRING SEASON 2019

Clean Break and The Royal Court Theatre

Inside Bitch

at Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court

27 February - 23 March 2019 Press performance: Monday 4 March at 7pm

Conceived by Stacey Gregg and Deborah Pearson

Devised by Lucy Edkins, Jennifer Joseph, Terri Ann Oudjar and Jade Small

"You've seen Orange is the New Black. You've seen Locked Up. You've seen Bad Girls. So, what have we got that's different? Well, for one, we've been to prison."

Created by women who aren't second-guessing, Inside Bitch is a devised ensemble performance from Clean Break's Members, a playful subversion of the representation of women in prison and how things aren't quite as seen on TV.

Clean Break presents

Belong

24 - 25 February 2019

Arcola Creative/Disruption Festival

By Brazen, Clean Break Young Artists

Belong, a new play by Brazen, Clean Break Young Artists, as part of Arcola Creative/Disruption Festival. Examining how loneliness impacts on young women, their wellbeing, behaviours and choices, Belong is ultimately filled with hope about the power of community and connections to overcome difference. Created as part of Co-op Foundation funded youth loneliness project.

Clean Break and Cardboard Citizens

15 March 2019

at Clean Break studios

Cardboard Citizens and Clean Break join forces for the first time to explore the intersection between women's experience of homelessness and the criminal justice system. Performance and video artist Paula Varjack and women Members from both theatre companies present a multi-media provocation asking what needs to change to improve the lives of women today.

Clean Break's Rebel Voices

May 2019

Clean Break celebrates 40 years of producing ground-breaking women writers and writing by our Members with this anthology of 40 monologues from 40 Clean Break voices. Including monologues by Alice Birch, Theresa Ikoko, Lucy Kirkwood, Bryony Lavery and Winsome Pinnock this anthology, goes some way to embodying Clean Break's extraordinary canon and offers an exceptional resource for women actors of all ages.