Zoë Simon - Skin And Bone Theatre



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Zoë set up Skin and Bone Theatre in spring 2005 in order to deliver challenging, visceral theatre. Skin and Bone Theatre produce provocative new writing and Lost Classics from the Jacobean and Elizabethan eras. Their first production was a rare-staging of Beaumont & Fletcher’s The Maid’s Tragedy. The show was a co-production between playwright / producer / director Michael Kingsbury (Seduced, All Manner of Means, Ying Tong and Round the Horne Revisited) at The White Bear Theatre Company and Skin and Bone Theatre. The show played in June 2005 at The White Bear Theatre Club, which was founded in 1988 and is one of London’s best known Fringe Venues.

New Projects:

Past Projects:

'Saturday Night' a new play by Zoë Simon

‘I didn't know that they advertised jobs like this - at The Jobcentre. My personal adviser typed actress into the computer and this came up. I was a bit surprised to be honest.You don't have to sleep with them if you're an escort, do you?’

3rd – 22nd June 2008 at The White Bear Theatre Club
Directed by Vicky Jones

Produced by The White Bear Theatre Company, Vicky Jones and Skin and Bone Theatre

Set in the summer of 2006 'Saturday Night' follows the fortunes of Tania, a struggling actress who is signing on. She goes to her local Jobcentre where she is offered work as a 'naughty nurse'. Tania is worried where this will lead, but succumbs to financial pressure and pressure from her sister. As Jerusalem explodes with the kidnap of Gilad Shalit and London ignites with World Cup fever we watch as Tania's life unravels over a long, hot Saturday Night... This explosive play asks what it really means to be a woman in the 21st century, and is based on Zoë Simon's own experiences working as an actress and model in London, including being offered escort work at her local jobcentre, and witnessing the strange juxtaposition of the World Cup and Operation Summer Rains in Israel. 'Saturday Night' was directed by up and coming director Vicky Jones, Artistic Director of DryWrite, whose credits include 'The Freedom of the City' at The Finborough and Shuffle for The Royal Court at Latitude. 'Saturday Night' was shortlisted for Off West End's 2008 'Adopt a Playwright' award.

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'Arden of Faversham' by Anonymous

'Love is a God and marriage is but words'

8th-27th August 2006 at The White Bear Theatre Club
Produced by The White Bear Theatre Company & Skin and Bone Theatre
Directed by Samantha Potter

Following the success of The Maid’s Tragedy in 2005 Skin and Bone Theatre once again teamed up with Michael Kingsbury at The White Bear Theatre Company to produce this rarely-performed Elizabethan Tragedy. One of the first true crime dramas, it looks at the murder of Thomas Arden by his wife Alice out of love for her servant Mosby. Zoë played the role of Alice and Chris New, who appeared in the West End production of Bent opposite Alan Cumming at The Trafalgar Studios, played Mosby. Alistair Coomer at The National Theatre assisted with casting and the show received a lot of attention from the Industry with The National’s Artistic Director Nicholas Hytner attending as well as The RSC and Alan Cumming. The show received positive reviews, including this from JC Extra’s Mary Couzens:

‘Zoë Simon as always turns in an astoundingly convincing performance’

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'Scratch' a new play by Zoë Simon

'You do not take some suicidal, schizophrenic, cancerous, Aids-ridden, grief-stricken, abused, abusing, fucked up, used up, cutting, cut up, aborted, refugee, whore, asylum seeker, famine victim, junkie, tramp, forced, split, gang-banged cunt out for a Sunday stroll, you talk to her in the only language she understands: pain.'

23rd May-11th June 2006 at The White Bear Theatre Club
Produced by Skin and Bone Theatre & Directed by Peter Craze

Zoë wrote Scratch in the weeks proceeding the 7/7 bombings and in response to the terrible and shocking events that took place. Scratchis set in a betting shop in Kennington and looks at the aftermath of a terrorist attack on Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre. The play also looks at sexual violence. The cast included Adam Napier (I’m Sorry I Must Be Getting Off… and The Maid’s Tragedy) and Brad Shaw. Scratchenjoyed a successful run at The White Bear and received excellent press. Lucy Powell wrote in Time Out:

‘Simon reveals herself here as a writer of rare audacity and ambition’

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'The Maid's Tragedy' by Beaumont & Fletcher

'Those have most power to hurt us that we love; we lay our sleeping lives within their arms'

21st June - 10th July 2005
Produced by The White Bear Theatre Company & Skin and Bone Theatre
Directed by Claire Lovett

The King (Gerry Canning) and Evadne (Zoë Simon) in The Maid's Tragedy

Michael Kingsbury at The White Bear Theatre Company and Skin and Bone Theatre teamed up to stage this now legendary Fringe production. Directed by Claire Lovett (The Gate Theatre’s Pinter Season) and with a cast including Zoë Simon as Evadne, Patrick Ross as Melantius, Gerard Canning as The King, Richard Galazka as Lysippus and Will Tosh as Amintor, it received excellent reviews from Michael Billington in The Guardian, Emma John in Time Out and was attended by internationally renowned scholars of the play. The Maid’s Tragedy is a much neglected gem of Jacobean Theatre, prior to Skin and Bone’s production the play had not been staged in London for well over a decade and not by the RSC since the 1980’s. A seriously exciting piece of drama, it explodes traditional seventeenth century values towards Monarchy and female sexuality. It questions not only the absolute power of The Monarch – in this case the King – but also whether women should be sexually autonomous as The King’s mistress, Evadne enters into a sham marriage in order to continue her relationship with the King.

What the critics said:
Reviews:
The Guardian (***)
'Fringe theatre at its best: rediscovering a little-known play and giving it loads of welly'
- Michael Billington

Time Out
'Director Claire Lovett's decision to set this tale of lust and corruption in the hedonistic 20s brilliantly captures the atmosphere of louche abandon at court. The cast from king to chambermaid hold your attention tightly and handle the prose with dexterity.but It's Zoë Simon as Evadne who steals the show with her poise and sexual authority'.
- Emma John

click here to contact Skin and Bone Theatre