Leanne Rowe's theatre credits include Dirty Dancing (West End), Talent ( Menier Chocolate Factory) and Mysterious Skin (Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh). Her film credits include Jane Eyre (dir. Franco Zeffirelli) and Oliver Twist (dir. Roman Polanski. The Mistress Contract at The Royal Court Theatre". The Royal Court Theatre. Archived from the original on 15 September 2013 . Retrieved 13 September 2013. Leading playwrights create Brexit dramas for The Guardian". The Guardian. 19 June 2017. Archived from the original on 13 April 2021 . Retrieved 13 April 2021.

Abi Morgan's writing for the screen includes The Invisible Woman, the Margaret Thatcher film Iron Lady, starring Meryl Streep, the flagship BBC TV drama The Hour and the BAFTA award-winning drama Sex Traffic (Channel 4). She has recently collaborated with Steve McQueen and Michael Fassbender on the upcoming feature film Shame. She previously worked with Frantic Assembly on the much praised Tiny Dynamite, and her other previous writing for the stage includes The Night Is Darkest Before The Dawn (part of the Tricycle Theatre's Great Game season), Fugee (NT New Connections), Tender (Hampstead) and Splendour (Paines Plough). This contemporary piece interweaves the older and younger characters, exploring and replaying memories together – almost like a dance. Lovesong Programme Follow Link to Photos by Mike Watling Press Releases Having not dared to show any of her writing "to anyone for five years", her first professional stage credit was in 1998 with Skinned at the Nuffield Theatre, Southampton. She has written plays for the Royal Exchange Studio Theatre Manchester, the Royal Lyceum Theatre, the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, the National Theatre of Scotland and the Royal Court, London. [6] Her 2001 play Tender commissioned by Birmingham Rep Theatre and co-produced with the Hampstead Theatre gained her a nomination as "most promising playwright" at the 2002 Laurence Olivier Theatre Awards. A playful, heart-warmingly funny and tragic drama, LOVESONG speaks to all ages with its exploration of ageing, falling in love, and the fragility of life.What's going on between Abi Morgan and Kristin Scott Thomas?". www.standard.co.uk. 7 February 2014. Archived from the original on 13 April 2021 . Retrieved 13 April 2021. Time is fluid as their past and present selves collide in this emotional drama. Love is a leap of faith, and the optimism of youth becomes the wisdom of experience. Frantic Assembly today announced the full cast for their touring production of Abi Morgan's new play LOVESONG. Renowned actress Siân Phillips will be joined by Sam Cox, who will play her husband, and Leanne Rowe and Edward Bennett, who will play the same couple as their younger selves. After initial ambitions to become an actress herself, she decided to become a writer while reading drama and literature at Exeter University. [5] She then took a postgraduate writing course at the Central School of Speech and Drama. [4] Writing career [ edit ] Theatre [ edit ]

It’s an incredibly well-cast production. The actors are well-matched in their respective incarnations of the couple. The play is directed by Frantic Assembly’s Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett, and the physical elements, the use of choreography, is superb throughout; the use of movement allows these two versions of the same couple to express themselves. Sian Phillips and Sam Cox in particular show their versatility as performers, undertaking a series of energetic moves that belie their maturity. The use of dance is well judged and works with the text, never overstaying its welcome or distracting from the overall work. Bloomfield, Ruth (13 May 2015). "A Victorian Home in London's Stroud Green Gets a Modern Basement". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on 17 April 2021 . Retrieved 17 April 2021.Bafta Film Awards 2012: Nominations". BBC News. 27 March 2012. Archived from the original on 18 January 2012 . Retrieved 17 January 2012. A staunch opponent of Brexit, Morgan was one of nine leading playwrights to contribute to a series of online dramas in 2017 responding to the causes and consequences of the EU referendum result. Entitled Brexit Shorts, Morgan's monologue, The End, starred Penelope Wilton as a woman on the brink as she faces the consequences of the end of her 43-year-old marriage. [11] Non Fiction [ edit ] In January 2020, Morgan said that she was recovering from breast cancer. [15] She had chemotherapy and a mastectomy. [16] The title of this piece is interesting. Love songs so often focus on one element – passion, euphoria, loss – but Abi Morgan’s play, developed together with choreography from Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett of Frantic Assembly, considers love over the long haul … I would have welcomed more astringency and less tugging at the heartstrings. But the sympathy of the piece and the candour of the four performances gradually lift it into a tender meditation on time and our place in it … The drama is at its best when at its most wry, specific or frank: when the older Billy expresses his terror and grief at his wife’s impending death by launching into a tirade, for example. And the physical detail can be very touching: as when Bennett lifts Phillips in a loving duet. It is a gentle, compassionate piece, but would be more moving still if it strove less hard to be so.” Though widely performed in the south of England over the last decade, we’re delighted to bring this beautiful and haunting drama to the North East.