COTTON FINGERS TOUR PRESS RELEASE
Press Release
Release date: 9.30am Tuesday 2 April 2019
COTTON FINGERS TOUR HEADS TO NORTHERN IRELAND, REP. OF IRELAND & CARDIFF
WELSH WRITER RACHEL TREZISE’S COMING OF AGE STORY TAKES ITS AUDIENCE ON A LIFE-CHANGING JOURNEY FROM BELFAST TO WEST WALES
National Theatre Wales’ Cotton Fingers, written by award-winning writer Rachel Trezise at the time of the historic referendum of the 8th amendment in Ireland, will be performed at venues in Belfast, Derry, Dublin, Bray and Cardiff, May-June 2019.
Amy Molloy will perform in this bold, one-woman show about cycles of secrecy and the power young women hold over their futures, directed by Julia Thomas.
Aoife is hungry and in need of something to do.
Cillian makes a mean cheese toastie.
As Aoife’s boredom and hunger are satisfied by half an hour in Cillian’s bed, her life changes forever.
Smart and funny, Aoife knows there’s more out there for her. She just doesn’t know what it is yet.
As social and political upheaval grips the country she loves, can Aoife regain control over her future?
Cotton Fingers was originally performed in west Wales in July 2018; one of five monologues or Love Letters to the National Health Service that formed part of NTW’s NHS70 Festival, celebrating the Service’s 70th birthday.
Tickets are now on sale for this timely, politically charged and vividly written show made by an exceptionally talented, all-female creative team.
Listings Information
National Theatre Wales present
COTTON FINGERS
Written by Rachel Trezise
Directed by Julia Thomas
Performed by Amy Molloy
Designer: Carl Davies
Lighting Designer: Joe Fletcher
Sound Designer: Tasha Taylor Johnson
Dates: Wednesday 22 & Thursday 23 May 2019
Time: 8pm
Venue: The MAC, 10 Exchange St West, Belfast, BT1 2NJ, NI
Box Office: themaclive.com
Tel: 028 9023 5053
Dates: Friday 24 & Saturday 25 May 2019
Time: 8pm
Venue: The Playhouse Theatre and Arts Centre, 5-7 Artillery Street, Derry-Londonderry, BT48 6RG, NI
Box Office: www.derryplayhouse.co.uk
Tel: 028 7126 8027
Dates: Wednesday 29-Saturday 31 May 2019
Time: 7.30pm
Venue: Samuel Beckett Theatre, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, College Green, Dublin 2, D02 PN40, RoI
Box Office: beckett-theatre.ticketsolve.com
Dates: Saturday 1 June 2019
Time: 8pm
Venue: Mermaid Arts Centre, Main Street, Bray, County Wicklow, RoI
Box Office: www.mermaidartscentre.ie
Tel: 01 272 4030
Dates: Wednesday 5-Saturday 8 June 2019
Time: 7.30pm
Venue: Sherman Theatre, Senghennydd Road, Cardiff CF24 4YE
Box Office: www.shermantheatre.co.uk
Tel: 029 2064 6900
Age guidance: 14+
Notes for Editors
Follow Cotton Fingers on Twitter:
#ntwcotton
@ntwtweets
Writer Rachel Trezise was born in Rhondda in south Wales, where she still lives. She studied at Glamorgan and Limerick Universities. Her novel In and Out of the Goldfish Bowl won a place on the Orange Futures List in 2002. Harpers & Queen magazine voted her New Face of Literature, 2003. In 2006, her first short fiction collection Fresh Apples won the Dylan Thomas Prize. She was writer in residence at the University of Texas, Austin in 2007. Her most recent novel is Sixteen Shades of Crazy. Her second collection of stories, Cosmic Latte, won the Edge Hill Readers’ Award in 2014. This is the third of her plays to be produced by National Theatre Wales; the first two were Tonypandemonium, performed at Treorchy’s Park & Dare Theatre in 2013, and We’re Still Here, co-produced by Common Wealth and performed in a warehouse in Port Talbot in 2017.
Director Julia Thomas was the RTYDS director at Curve, Leicester and prior to this and was Resident Director at the National Theatre Studio in partnership with National Theatre Wales. Julia is Associate Director at National Theatre Wales. She is also a member of the Directors Lab at the Lincoln Center Theater New York participating in an international lab on Making Theater in a Time of Change. Julia is an experienced dramaturg and specialises in working with writers and has developed the WritersLab initiative at Curve. Julia was a gatherer for Leicester on the My Country, a Work In Progress for the National Theatre and is also a Director for National Theatre Connections. Her credits as director include: Two by Jim Cartwright (Derby Theatre), George’s Marvellous Medicine by Roald Dahl/David Wood and Burning Books by Jess Green (Curve), Our Day Out by Willy Russell, A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (Curve/DMU), Jason and the Argonauts by Mark Williams (Blackwood and RCT Theatres), This Incredible Life by Alan Harris (Canoe/Ffwrnes), blue/orange by Joe Penhall (Canoe/Sherman Theatre), Marsha by Alan Harris (Capital Fringe Washington DC), Sonata by Iestyn Arwel and Fun Palaces (Wales Millennium Centre). As Associate/Resident Director: The Witches (Curve/West Yorkshire Playhouse- Dir- Nikolai Foster), Say it with Flowers (Sherman Theatre tour- Dir. Pia Furtado). As Assistant Director: What the Butler Saw, The Witches, A Streetcar Named Desire, Legally Blonde (Curve- Dir.Nikolai Foster), Iliad (National Theatre Wales- Dir. Mike Pearson and Mike Brookes), High Society (National Tour- Dir. Anna Linstrum), A Provincial Life (NTW/Sherman- Dir. Peter Gill) and Diary of a Madman (Living Pictures- Dir. Sinead Rushe).
Amy Molloy is a stage and screen actor from Belfast. Recent stage credits include the critically acclaimed Abbey Theatre and Royal Court production of Cyprus Avenue, starring alongside Stephen Rea in Dublin, London, Belfast and New York (2016-2019), ELIZA’s Adventures in the Uncanny Valley by Pan Pan Theatre at Dublin Theatre Festival (2018) and the UK & Irish tour of the 20th Anniversary of Enda Walsh’s breakthrough, multi-award-winning play, Disco Pigs (2015-2016). Screen credits include the hugely popular TV BBC dramas The Fall and Call the Midwife (BBC) and the critically acclaimed, Troubles-set thriller ’71 (Warp Films).
High res, colour publicity images are available on request.
For more information about the Cotton Fingers tour, go to:
nationaltheatrewales.org/ntw_shows/cotton-fingers-tour/
National Theatre Wales has been making English-language productions in locations all over Wales, the UK, internationally and online since March 2010. It operates from a small base in Cardiff’s city centre, but works all over the country and beyond, using Wales’ rich and diverse landscape, its towns, cities and villages, its incredible stories and rich talent as its inspiration. National Theatre Wales is supported by the Welsh Government and the Arts Council of Wales.