SKIN A CAT by Isley Lynn
Every teenager thinks they're the only one not having sex. But for Alana, it may well be true. She's not frigid. She really isn't. But every time she gets close to doing it something just seems to get in the way... Soon she can't help wondering: Is it this tricky for everyone else? Because no one ever said it was going to be this complicated.
With a kaleidoscope of off-kilter characters, Skin A Cat follows Alana on an awkward sexual odyssey: from getting her first period at nine years old and freaking out her frantic mother, to watching bad porn at a house party with her best friend's boyfriend, to a painful examination by an overly cheery gynaecologist - all in the pursuit of losing her virginity and finally becoming a woman. Whatever that means...
PRESS
The piece has an endearing unfettered honesty and it benefits enormously from a brilliantly judged, personable central performance from Lydia Larson, who ensures that Alana’s sexual odyssey always keeps the attention The Guardian, Lyn Gardner
Blythe Stewart’s production is a stylish, sympathetic staging of some seriously important new writing A Younger Theatre
Director Blythe Stewart knows how to breathe warmth and humanity into an uncomfortable subject matter…Simulated sex scenes are fully clothed and amusingly abstracted in a clever directorial flourish that keeps the focus on the ideas in play rather than the acts depicted Exeunt
A witty, tender play ★★★★ Financial Times
Beyond its silly and plentiful humour is a genuinely moving and effortlessly charming production … Lynn deliberately blurs the line between the clinical and the erotic. It’s born out in Blythe Stewart's intelligent direction too ★★★★ TimeOut
As well as intense, purposeful and poignant, Lynn’s writing is also very, very funny. It’s that precisely balanced…A pivotal piece of contemporary theatre ★★★★★ Miro Magazine
Masterfully done…Skin a Cat is a quiet revelation…a glorious, hopeful and eye-opening experience ★★★★ The List
This young woman's coming-of-age story is both heartfelt and excruciatingly funny…Skin a Cat still feels absolutely vital, the type of play I needed to see when I was 15 ★★★★ Fest Mag Review
CREATIVES
Writer Isley Lynn
Producer Zoe Robinson / RIVE Productions
Designer Holly Piggot
Lighting Designer Harrison Routledge / Lucy Adams
Photography Richard Lakos for The Other Richard / David Monteith-Hodge
CAST
Alana Lydia Larson
Man Jassa Alhuwalia / Joe Eyre
Woman Jessica Clark / Libby Rodliffe