Shopping and F***ing Revival at the Lyric

Sean Holmes directs a new production of Mark Ravenhill's play 20 years after its original production.

The Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith, west London, have announced that they will stage a new production of Mark Ravenhill's play Shopping and F***ing, directed by Sean Holmes which will run in their main house venue from 7 October to 5 November 2016, with an official opening on 12 October 2016.

With a raw mixture of black humour and bleak philosophy, the play follows three disconnected young adults whose lives have been reduced to a series of transactions in an emotionally shrink wrapped world. A place where Shopping is sexy and Fucking is a job.

"It's summer. I'm in a supermarket. It's hot and I'm sweaty. Damp. And I'm watching this couple shopping. I'm watching you. And you're both smiling. You see me and you know sort of straight away that I'm going to have you."

Ravenhill's provocative first play was originally staged at the Royal Court Theatre in 1996, located temporarily at the Ambassadors Theatre in the West End. The play opened to mixed reviews with some critics shocked at the sexually violent nature of the play and its black humour. The text has become a modern classic, and is a prime example of 'in-yer-face theatre in 90s Britain.

The Lyric have announced that their main stage space will be reconfigured for the production, featuring audience sat on the stage itself.

Ravenhill, whose credits include 'Faust is Dead', 'Handbag' and 'Pool', said of the announcement: "It's very exciting that they are reviving my first play twenty years after it premiered. I'm looking forward to seeing what a new generation of theatre audiences make of the play".

Directed by Sean Holmes, the production will be designed by Jon Bausor and Tal Rosner with costume design by Grace Smart and lighting design by Anna Watson.