IN LIPSTICK
“You try, you run away, you make things new but they're not. It's just the same old shit covered in lipstick.”
Maud, a woman on the run from her damaged past, has sheltered Cynthia from the outside world for the last few years. But while Cynthia is a recluse, living for their dressing-up box, their fairy tales and Shirley Bassey on YouTube, Maud meets Dennis, a security guard at her office. As Cynthia clings, Maud begins to dream of escaping their isolated and claustrophobic world. In Lipstick gives savage, funny and heartfelt voice to two women trapped in a fractured city, not quite knowing how to love each other.
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In 2016 In Lipstick received rehearsed readings at the Arcola, with Druid Theatre as part of ‘Druid Debuts’ at the Galway International Arts Festival and was a finalist in the Theatre503 Award. It received a full production on the Main Stage at The Pleasance in January 2019 in a co-production between The Pleasance, Up in Arms and Ellie Keel, directed by Alice Hamilton. It is published by Faber.
Caroline Faber, Alice Sykes and James Doherty in In Lipstick. Photo: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian
“Isolation is gilded in glitter in Annie Jenkins’ tender debut. Jenkins has an ability for writing care within her characters, and we feel the ache of the effort they invest. Under the comedy bravado, each long for an intimacy that isn’t laced with fear.” – The Guardian
“Moments of pure invention and theatrical brilliance Jenkins keeps such a tight grip on her audience that you can barely believe this is her debut play. It’s the sheer bombastic weirdness of In Lipstick that will linger in the mind… a memorable and entertaining debut play from a writer full of promise.” - Exeunt
“A hugely ambitious debut play from Annie Jenkins about two women locked in a suffocating friendship. The manic, possessive, motor-mouthed Cynthia sparkles and crackles.’” – Time Out
Photos by Ali Wright