Produced by Theatre503
It’s election night 2016. An entire country holds its breath. Except for Vera, who has to focus on breathing. That’s what everyone keeps telling her: breathe, breathe, breathe. She’s in the hospital, giving birth to a baby boy – and she has no idea that America just lost its mind.
Over the course of one seemingly unending year, the personal and the political collide to push Vera to the point of exhaustion, as tensions mount between Vera and her husband, her second-wave feminist mother, her Alexa, and her Syrian-American best friend.
In her debut play, 2018 Theatre503 International Playwriting Award finalist Mathilde Dratwa exposes the messy reality of new motherhood in the shadow of one of the most divisive moments in modern American history. Directed by Artistic Director Lisa Spirling (Wolfie), Milk and Gall is a theatrically dazzling, surreal and funny new play about the overnight birth of two screaming tyrants, and the shattered identity left in their wake.
Saturday matinee performances are Pay What You Choose, and there are five £5 tickets on offer for every show after Previews.
To view our Milk and Gall Care Pack with a list of trigger and content warnings, relevant charities and a synopsis highlighting where the triggers appear in the play please click here.
3 Nov 7.30pm WRITERS NIGHT: A chance for writers to enjoy a discounted ticket and meet our literary department and the writer of the show. Attendees to Writers Night are invited to submit for our Rapid Write Response initiative. To unlock the £5 tickets, phone our box office 020 7978 7040 to be digitally tagged as a writer. If you are unable to attend our Writers Night, the £5 tickets will also be available for the following performance.
12 November 7.30pm SOCIALLY DISTANCED PERFORMANCE: For those who may not feel comfortable returning to theatres, this performance will have a limited capacity and social distancing in place between bookings.
17 November 12pm PARENT & BABY: Similar to our Relaxed Performance in terms of technical alterations, but provided as an opportunity for parents and/or guardians to enjoy a spot of theatre without the need to hire a babysitter. Please note, we do not exclude other audience members from booking to see this performance.
17 November 7.30pm RELAXED: For anyone who benefits from a more relaxed performance environment. House lights are left up with audience free to exit and reenter as required. Sound levels are reduced and any strobe / ‘flashing light’ effects will be omitted also.
24 November 7.30pm CAPTIONED: We’re offering captioning to mobile phones via the Difference Engine app, from Talking Birds. Download the free app from the App Store or Google Play, or find more info via the Difference Engine website.
Mathilde Dratwa
Originally from Belgium, Mathilde lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Her plays, which include Milk and Gall, Dirty Laundry and A Play about David Mamet Writing a Play about Harvey Weinstein, have been developed and/or presented by the Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, Rattlestick, LAByrinth Theater Company, the Great Plains Theater Conference, the Playwrights' Center, and in London at the Young Vic.
Mathilde is a member of Dorset Theater Festival's Women Artists Writing Group, a member of the Orchard Project's Greenhouse and a two-time Pulitzer Center grant recipient. Recently, she was a Dramatist Guild Foundation Playwriting Fellow, a member of New York Foundation for the Arts' Immigrant Artist Program and a co-leader of the FilmShop collective. A seasoned educator, Mathilde is a Master Teaching Artist for the New Victory and Roundabout Theatre Company. She is also the co-founder of Moms-in-Film, which, among other things, provided free childcare to filmmaker-parents at SXSW and Sundance. She is a graduate of Cambridge University and Drama Centre London.
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