In a statement when her tenure as the new artistic director of the Royal Court Theatre, succeeding Dominic Cooke, was announced, Vicky Featherstone observed: ‘[t]hese are challenging times. Now more than ever we need places where reflection, question and visceral experience can elevate the daily and the private and remind us of our humanity and universality’.1 She added: ‘[t]he fearlessness and skill of our playwrights, [… along] with our complex and thrilling contemporary culture is a powerful combination’.2 Further to the key staples of the perspective she brings to a seminal new writing venue within the United Kingdom but also further afield, responsible for fostering the careers of many major playwrights of the recent and contemporary period, Featherstone used her early statement to reinforce the very significance of the playwright. At a time when debates relating to heavily mediatized performance and presumed tensions between playwright and director auteur are raging on, Featherstone allowed no ambiguity as to where she positions herself artistically. Through her words she emphasized that the Royal Court is not scared to advocate and support the primacy of the author. ‘It is the playwrights who find a story, form and structure […] and who breathe the life into ideas, thus demanding their urgent work be realized for an audience’, Featherstone continued.