Tag: The Misandrist

Elf Lyons, Nicholas Armfield sign up for Arcola’s The Misandrist

Elf Lyons and Nicholas Armfield will take the lead in Arcola Theatre’s The Misandrist.

Lyons (Swan) and Armfield (Camberwell Green) will play “intimidating” Rachel and “nice guy” Nick in the play, which sees them meet at a stick-floored bar in Piccadilly and what was meant to be a one-night stand becomes a sexual odyssey of self-discovery – and mutual destruction.

Prickly freelancer Rachel is at the beginning of an existential crisis. Trapped in endless short-term contracts for a faceless government department as the economy continues its slow decline, jobs are being squeezed. Nothing feels safe or secure. Nothing feels like it’s progressing. Maybe this existential limbo is Rachel’s punishment for stealing Tupperware at the office Christmas party. But that wasn’t her fault. It was the really good kind “The boxes fit into each other! They just stack so perfectly. You know what, there’s structure, that’s what it is”. And we all know that’s just too tempting.

Adrift, isolated, and insecure, they scramble for new ways to connect. Somewhere along the line, they decide to explore flipping the narrative. Metaphorically, and very, very literally.  As they navigate their “situationship,” Rachel decides it’s time to TAKE BACK CONTROL. Can some playful, passionate pegging provide a pathway of discovery to new parts of themselves, and each other?

Bethany Pitts (The Beach House) directs the latest work from writer Lisa Carroll (Cuckoo). The designer is Cara Evans and the lighting designer is Peter Small.

The Misandrist is at the Arcola from May 11-June 10, 2023.

Carroll’s The Misandrist plays to the Arcola

The Arcola Theatre will host the debut run of Lisa Carroll’s The Misandrist.

Prickly freelancer Rachel is at the beginning of an existential crisis. It’s 2018, Brexit looms large yet never “gets done”. Rachel prays for a second referendum that will never come. The economy continues its slow decline, jobs are being squeezed. Nothing feels safe or secure. Nothing feels like it’s progressing. Maybe this existential limbo is Rachel’s punishment for stealing Tupperware at the office Christmas party. But that wasn’t her fault. It was the really good kind. 

Then Rachel meets engaging go-getter Sule. Two second-generation immigrants, who meet at a sticky-floored bar in Piccadilly and share an Uber home. Sule intrigues Rachel, and she hasn’t had sex in two years, so when one thing leads to another, she sleeps with him. A few late nights and a few “what u doin?’’ messages later, they’ve fallen into a causal relationship. Over the next few months, around the contract extension and Brexit negotiations, they realise they’ve begun to offer each other something that neither can find elsewhere; in the middle of a lot of meaninglessness, they’ve found a genuine connection.

Adrift, isolated, and insecure, they scramble for new ways to connect. Somewhere along the line, they decide to explore flipping the narrative. Metaphorically, and very, very literally.  Can some playful, passionate pegging provide a pathway through the pitfalls of modern relationships and present the possibility of a deeper bond?

Rachel starts to really like Sule. Sule starts to really like Rachel. And Rachel doesn’t know how to be liked. So self-sabotage seems like the best plan. Memories get twisted, who did what to whom, who f*cked who, literally and metaphorically, gets muddled. And somehow Brexit is still happening. There are two very different sides to this story, yet somehow, you’re rooting for everyone to come out OK. But of course, nobody ever wins.

The Misandrist was longlisted for the Womens’ Playwriting Prize and reached the final 40 scripts in the Verity Bargate Award . It also reached the final 40 for the BBC Writers Academy and final 30 scripts of the BBC Comedy Room among nearly 3,500 applications. This is its debut run.

The play will run at the Arcola Theatre from May 10–June 10, 2023.