Swive [Elizabeth] (NHB Modern Plays)

'My mother seduced a man so successfully that he altered the constitutional history of this country.' Elizabeth I is the only unmarried woman to have ever ruled England. And she reigned for forty-four years. Mastermind. Seductress. Survivor. Created by award-winning writer Ella Hickson and director Natalie Abrahami, Swive [Elizabeth] shines a light on the ways and means by which women in power negotiate patriarchal pressure in order to get their way. It premiered in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare's Globe, London, in December 2019.

Ella Hickson is an award-winning writer whose work has been performed throughout the UK and abroad. Her work includes: Swive [Elizabeth] (Shakespeare's Globe, 2019); ANNA (National Theatre, 2019); The Writer (Almeida Theatre, 2018); Oil (Almeida Theatre, London, 2016); Wendy and Peter Pan (Royal Shakespeare Company, 2013 and 2015); Riot Girls (Radio 4); Boys (Nuffield Theatre, Southampton/Headlong Theatre/HighTide Festival Theatre, 2012); The Authorised Kate Bane (Grid Iron/Traverse Theatre, 2012); Rightfully Mine (Radio 4); Precious Little Talent (Trafalgar Studios/Tantrums Productions, 2011), Hot Mess (Arcola Tent/ Tantrums Productions, 2010) and Eight (Trafalgar Studios/Bedlam Theatre, Edinburgh, 2008/9).