Ivy Tiller: Vicar’s Daughter, Squirrel Killer

The Royal Shakespeare Company’s 2022 Mischief Festival featured two provocative new plays exploring Britain  O, Island! by Nina Segal and Ivy Tiller: Vicar’s Daughter, Squirrel Killer  which ran in The Other Place from 30 September–5 November 2022.

Entrenched in her picturesque Devonshire village, Ivy Tiller is preparing to wage a war.  Her target: the invasive grey squirrel. Her goal: to oust the invaders and restore the native red squirrels as the ‘rightful’ inhabitants. Galvanised by her important mission, Ivy’s determination swells to uncomfortable heights. 

This darkly comic new play from Bea Roberts challenges who belongs and who thrives.

‘Snappy and subversive… horribly plausible… The writing is brisk and lively, and Roberts slips a few moments of real pathos in among a barrage of daft, sometimes pleasingly dark punchlines… challenging, and often very funny’

The Stage

‘Echoes of Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem and Simon Stephens’ Herons… lands right in the heart of the Zeitgeist’

Broadway World

‘Clever, pointed writing…Roberts has a sharp comic sensibility’

The Times

Director Caitlin McLeod | Designer Milla Clarke | Lighting Elliot Griggs | Sound Oli Soames

Starring Jenny Rainsford (Fleabag) as Ivy Tiller, Tim Treloar (Maleficent, Doctor Who), Anna Andresen (Emilia, Vaudeville Theatre/The Globe Theatre), Alex Bhat (Henry V, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), Nathan McMullen (Hushabye Mountain, Hope Mill Theatre) and Jade Ogugua (Solaris (Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne/Edinburgh Lyceum/ Lyric Hammersmith)

The published play text is available from Nick Hern books. 

All production images by The Other Richard (c) RSC