The Astronaut's Chair (NHB Modern Plays)
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A thrilling play about the race to be the first woman in space.
Renee Coburg is a gritty, glamorous aviator, the fastest, highest, bravest woman in the world. Jo Green is a determined, brilliant and much younger pilot with her eye on all Renee's records. They both want to be the first woman in space but there's only one chair at the top of the rocket.
The Astronaut's Chair is Rona Munro’s second ‘space’ play following Little Eagles, which is about the space race in Russia.
'a beautifully written and sensitively executed docudrama' - Whatsonstage.com
'the play shows the impact global politics and the whims of leaders can have on individual lives. It doesn't shirk from examining how personal rivalries are exacerbated when women have to compete for a single chair at a table where every other seat is occupied by men' - The Guardian
'the dialogue is so elegant, so perfectly crafted and authentic... it's rare to see female power dynamics handled as subtly as they are here' - Exeunt Magazine
Rona Munro
Rona Munro has written extensively for stage, radio, film and television including the award winning plays Iron, Bold Girls and The Maiden Stone. Other plays include Long Time Dead produced by Paines Plough Theatre Company and The Indian Boy produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company and adaptations Mary Barton and Watership Down which were produced by Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre and the Lyric Hammersmith. Film and television work includes the Ken Loach film Ladybird Ladybird, Aimee and Jaguar and television dramas Rehab and BAFTA nominated Bumping The Odds for the BBC. She has also written many other single plays for radio and television and contributed to series such as Casualty and Dr Who. Rona Munro is one of Scotland's leading writers. Her play The Last Witch premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival 2009 while her translation of Federico García Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba was first presented at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, on 17 September 2009, by the National Theatre of Scotland, and subsequently toured to the Dundee Rep Theatre, the Alhambra Theatre, Dunfermline, and the King's Theatre, Edinburgh.
More by Rona Munro
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