From Medea to Mumsnet

Proagon: Discussion & Debate

Tickets £7 (£5 concessions)

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"They f**k you up, your mum and dad." - Philip Larkin

Which is more inviolable — the love between the makers of children or their love for those children? Can you love too much? Do women and men love differently? Is becoming a parent the beginning or end of bravery?

As Rachel Cusk reimagines Medea for our stage, she joins this Almeida Questions panel to examine why Medea is such an incendiary figure and what her story asks of contemporary feminism. She is joined by interviewer, broadcaster and author of Hot Feminist, Polly Vernon and the editor of Mumsnet, Sarah Crown. This discussion will be chaired by the Almeida's Director of Participation, Dani Parr.

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Dates & Tickets

Thu 15 Oct 6pm

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Listen: From Medea to Mumsnet

Rachel Cusk

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In 2003, Rachel Cusk was selected by Granta as one of their Best Young British Novelists. The author of seven novels and three works of nonfiction, Cusk won the Whitbread First Novel Award for Saving Agnes, a Somerset Maugham Award for The Country Life, and was shortlisted for the 2007 Orange Prize for Arlington Park. Her latest novel, Outline, was shortlisted for the Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction, the Folio Prize and the Goldsmiths Prize. "Spend much time with this novel and you'll become convinced [Cusk] is one of the smartest writers alive" writes The New York Times Book Review.

Photo: Siemon Scammell-Katz

Polly Vernon

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Polly Vernon is a columnist, interviewer, and feature writer, and the author of 2015's Hot Feminist. She's written for everything from Vogue to The Guardian, and interviewed everyone from David Cameron to One Direction, via Donald Trump. She'll tell you who she liked best, if you ask (though thinks you should be able to guess). Her first book, Hot Feminist, was published this May to reviews so extreme and polarized, she has no idea if it was any good or not. And that was before Twitter kicked off.

She now writes predominantly for The Times and Grazia. She is working on her first novel.

Dani Parr

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Dani Parr is a theatre director specialising in creating work for children and young people. She is Director of Participation and work for Young People at the Almeida Theatre.

She was Associate Director at Royal & Derngate Theatres, Northampton for 11 years, where she directed over 30 plays, and led a programme of innovative creative projects for all ages.

Dani recently directed I Believe in Unicorns for Wizard Presents, which has just finished a successful run at the Vaudeville Theatre in the West End, won an Argus Angel award at Brighton Festival and is now touring nationally. She also recently co-directed Moominsummer Madness, a co-production between Polka Theatre, Royal & Derngate and Little Angel Theatre. She won two awards for Flathampton at Brighton Festival last year: the Argus Angel award for artistic innovation; and the Latest award for Best Children’s Event.

She programmed the Take Off Festival 2013 for Theatre Hullabaloo, an international festival of theatre work for children and young people, and she directed Dream Space for Shakespeare’s Globe, a family version of Midsummer Night’s Dream.