LIT by Sophie Ellerby announced for 2019

Today, we’re thrilled to announce that we’ll be bringing LIT by Sophie Ellerby, created through First Commissions, to production as part of Steven Atkinson’s final season as HighTide’s Artistic Director.

Sophie is from Nottingham and has set LIT, her first full-length play, in her hometown. We are delighted to be collaborating with Nottingham Playhouse to co-produce LIT and to share the creation of Sophie’s play with her local community.

HighTide and Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company present

LIT

By Sophie Ellerby

Directed by Stef O’Driscoll

Headlining (along with Rust) HighTide Festival Aldeburgh (September 10-15th 2019) and Nottingham Playhouse (dates TBC).

“I’m making him work for it. Got him to buy me a pack of Tangfastics and a can of Lilt before I showed him my tits.”

The problem with love is that it’s different for everyone. For Bex, love is a handjob in detention and the promise of a date at a Chinese buffet. She doesn’t even like Chinese.

LIT explores the turbulent teenage years of a girl looking for love in all the wrong places.

Sophie Ellerby’s writing revives a proud British tradition of placing complex working class people at the heart of her work. Sophie is an actor and a writer, and the spark of LIT came from her experience studying young women and mothers in the prison system.

Sophie Ellerby was awarded a place on HighTide’s First Commission scheme in 2016 and wrote her debut play LIT, which will be produced by HighTide and Nottingham Playhouse. Other work includes THREE, performed at the Arcola Theatre in 2017 and both Function and crabs for the National Youth Theatre. She is currently under commission to the National Youth Theatre and Fifth Word Theatre and is this year’s Writer in Residence at Pentabus Theatre. Sophie is dedicated to working on projects that challenge social norms and ignite community imagination. Her plays aim to tackle provocative societal questions in an accessible and human way.

Stef O’Driscoll is the Artistic Director of nabokov and previously the Associate Director at Paines Plough and at the Lyric Hammersmith. For Paines Plough: Sticks and Stones, Island Town, With A Little Bit Of Luck, Hopelessly Devoted, Blister. For nabokov: Last Night (Roundhouse/Latitude), Box Clever (Marlowe Theatre/Roundabout), Storytelling Army (Brighton Festival) and Slug. Other credits: Yard Gal– winner Fringe Report Awards for Best Fringe Production 2009 (Oval House); A Tale From The Bedsit (Roundhouse/Bestival), Finding Home (Roundhouse) and as Assistant Director: Henry IV (Donmar/St Ann’s Warehouse).