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You & Me

Contemporary two hander about male/female relationships, with a twist. The man plays the woman and vice versa in sharp new drama from Dan Rebellato.

An intense, emotionally charged two-hander tackling a key issue of our time - predatory behaviour of men.

This isn’t a story about powerful rich old men and film stars, it’s a story about you and me, about ordinary people, everyday sexism, and the pain of living in an unequal world. It's a play for the #metoo and #timesup generation, confronting the spaces between us and the lies we tell ourselves.

The material is not unfamiliar – marital infidelity exposing more and more lies - but there is a twist: actor Robert Lonsdale plays the woman and Racheal Ofori plays the man. It's no drag show - the woman plays in her own voice, the man in his voice. This role reversal challenges preconceptions and sheds new light on the essential question - can men and women understand each other?

The swapping of the genders starts as a kind of actor’s revolt.The drama begins at the actual recording, when the actors stop proceedings and decide they want to swap - they are bored of playing these familiar kinds of roles. The motif of role playing continues throughout, offering a subtle, sometimes comic, always provocative and illuminating approach to a familiar, often cliché-ridden issue.

The writer, Dan Rebellato, is a leading British radio dramatist, as well as a Professor of Contemporary Theatre at Royal Holloway London. He has written extensively for ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 3 and 4, as well as theatres such as Plymouth Drum, Suspect Culture and Graeae, and Pitlochry Festival Theatre. He has won Sony's and ´óÏó´«Ã½ Audio Awards for his radio dramas. He was lead writer on the blockbuster ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4 Series, Emile Zola; Blood Sex and Money starring Glenda Jackson. Dan has published several books, most recently co-editing Contemporary European Playwrights in 2020, and is currently writing a practical play-writing guide for the National Theatre, due out in 2021/22.

Cast:
Naomi…………………..Racheal Ofori
Tom…………………………Robert Lonsdale
Nick ……………………….Chris Jack
Polly…………………………Polly Thomas
Dan…………………………Dan Rebellato

Director/Producer…………………… . Polly Thomas
Recording engineer……………..Louis Blatherwick
Sound design/Producer….Eloise Whitmore
Executive Producer…………..Joby Waldman

A Naked production for ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4

Available now

57 minutes

Last on

Mon 4 Jan 2021 14:00

Broadcast

  • Mon 4 Jan 2021 14:00

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