Her Naked Skin - National Theatre, Olivier

SYNOPSIS

Her Naked Skin

The National Theatre at South Bank next to Waterloo Bridge in London is the venue for a new play by the talented playwright Rebecca Lenkiewicz. The play, entitled 'Her Naked Skin', is an emotionally charged piece of theatre that documents the struggle of the suffragette movement in London at its fevered height in 1913. The story unfolds through the eyes, emotions and actions of Lady Celia Cain - a character who feels trapped in her life by her marriage and by the restrictive policies of the day. A tale of breaking free from the shackles of a life lived to the expectation of others, Her Naked Skin runs at the Oliver Theatre - the largest of the three auditoriums at the National Theatre - from 24 July to 24 September 2008.

Lady Celia Cain and the Suffragette Movement

The Suffragette Movement established itself in the UK during the early twentieth century. It was born out of the frustration of women across the classes who were being denied the right to vote - denied a voice - but yet had to suffer the hardship and injustices of a political and economic landscape shaped solely by men. They caught the public's imagination, and that of policymakers, through their campaigns of direct action - chaining themselves to railings and frequently coming into confrontation with the police.

Her Naked Skin follows the plight of the Suffragette Movement through the central character of Lady Celia Cain. The need to overcome repression strikes a chord with her fettered existence - and she joins the Movement in their cry for freedom. At a demonstration she is arrested and jailed at Holloway Prison. Inside prison she meets a seamstress, Eve Douglas, with whom she begins a dangerous and erotic love affair - an affair that sends her life spinning out of control.

Rebecca Lenkiewicz

Plymouth-born playwright, Rebecca Lenkiewicz, is the inspiration behind Her Naked Skin. Lenkiewicz first came to prominence at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2000 when she won acclaim for her first play Soho: A Tale of Table Dancers. This was followed in 2004 by a Critics' Circle award for her second play - The Night Season - an accolade that bestowed upon her the title of most promising playwright.

2005 saw her third play - Shoreditch Madonna - take to the stage at the Soho Theatre in London. The following year saw two more of Rebecca Lenkiewicz's works produced. The Soldier's Tale - a recreation of Igor Stravinsky and Charles Ferdinand Ramuz's musical tale - set now in modern day Iraq was the first. Then, in August 2006, Rebecca Lenkiewicz's Blue Moon Over Poplar was staged by the National Youth Theatre.

Her Naked Skin is Lenkiewicz's seventh production. It was originally written with the smaller Cottesloe Theatre stage in mind at the National. However, it was later re-worked for the Olivier Theatre - and, remarkably, becomes the first original piece written by a woman to be staged at the Olivier Theatre.