How to Hold Your Breath

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Zinnie Harris on Oresteia: This Restless House | 2017 International Festival , retrieved 2023-01-15

Prof Zinnie Harris - School of English - University of St Andrews Prof Zinnie Harris - School of English - University of St Andrews

Oresteia: This Restless House - National Theatre Scotland". National Theatre Scotland . Retrieved 2018-10-15. Zinnie Harris had three major new pieces of work presented at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2017. This Restless House was presented again, alongside two other of her plays, putting Harris's work in the centre of Festival Drama programme that year. [18] Oresteia: This Restless House | Citizens Theatre". Citizens Theatre. 2017-08-15 . Retrieved 2018-10-15.In 2020, she adapted The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith for a new musical, to premiere in 2021 at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. The production was directed by Timothy Sheader, choreographed by Liam Steel, set and costumes designed by Katrina Linsdsay with puppetry designed and direction by Toby Olié. [21] Angels reach out across Edinburgh and Europe". HeraldScotland. 28 August 2017 . Retrieved 2018-10-15.

How To Hold Your Breath, Royal Court Theatre - The Arts Desk How To Hold Your Breath, Royal Court Theatre - The Arts Desk

Harris’ writing is driven by the need to challenge representations of women in theatre. To that end, her plays place women at the centre of the story – relatable women, who are not defined simply by their gender or romantic relationships. This has resulted in a new legacy of leading roles for women in British theatre. Among this canon is How to Hold Your Breath, a modern morality play that reflects the contemporary refugee crisis. The play acts as a response to Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Woman of Szechwan, in which the titular character invents an alter ego to escape from a life that, because of her gender, is entirely devoid of agency. Whereas Brecht suggests that women must deny their femininity to effect change, Harris updates the narrative to portray a woman who remains true to herself, and who represents all of humankind in her search for agency.Peake slices across the stage like a laser beam. She is an actor worth crossing the country to see. But the characterisation on which she has to work is slight. She is 1) an insulted woman; 2) an all-too-plausible specialist in “customer dynamics”; 3) a victim of European meltdown, desperately trying to reach the new economic beacon of Africa. In the most dynamic scene she is perched at the top of a vertiginous slope, trying not to slide down towards the outstretched arms of a drowning crowd. Harris’ original play, The Scent of Roses, had its world premiere at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in 2022, [22] followed by a revival of Further than the Furthest Thing at the Young Vic in London the following year. [23] Directing work [ edit ]