Donmar Warehouse announce new season featuring Rory Kinnear and Kit Harington
The Donmar Warehouse are back with another season full of interesting new pieces, classics and some star casting to boot. Read all about it here:
Speaking about the reopening season, Artistic Director Michael Longhurst said: “I’m thrilled we’ve managed to expose the Donmar’s warehouse bones during our essential building works; stripping out the cramped bars and improving accessibility to make a welcoming space for artists and audiences to return to.
We’re back with a season that mines history to examine our present; that holds society to account through personal stories; that is laced with comedy and poetry and packed full of talent for our shared entertainment. I’m delighted that the Donmar is also mounting its first local comprehensive schools tour, giving young people and young actors opportunities they’ve been denied during the pandemic. We can’t wait to see you in person again!”
Speaking about supporting the Donmar to offer 500 free tickets to NHS workers, Tom Corbett, Barclays’ Group Head of Sponsorship said:
“The arts have been hugely affected by Covid with no live theatre for well over a year. Small venues such as the Donmar have been working hard to make their venues safe and we are delighted that they have announced a complete new season to welcome back theatre-goers. Together we also wanted to recognise the work and sacrifice of those in the NHS to keep us all safe, and are delighted that the Donmar will offer this free ticket scheme for NHS workers for the new season.”
Members Priority Booking:
Director’s Forum members can book from Wednesday 30 June.
Steel members from 9am (online) and 12pm (phones) on Friday 2 July.
Copper members from 9am (online) and 12pm (phones) on Monday 5 July.
Friends from 9am (online) and 12pm (phones) on Tuesday 6 July.
Public Booking:
From 9am (online) and 12pm (phones) on Thursday 8 July.
DONMAR WAREHOUSE SEASON September 2021 – June 2022
SEARCH PARTY
Written and performed by Inua Ellams
21 – 25 September 2021
Award-winning poet and playwright Inua Ellams (Barber Shop Chronicles, The Half-God of Rainfall) brings his audience-led poetry event to the Donmar Warehouse.
Pick a word, any word. Prompted by audience suggestions, Inua Ellams will search through his extensive archive of work and perform a reactive and spontaneous selection. Each show is unique and special.
Inua Ellams’ first play, The 14th Tale, debuted at Arcola in 2010 and later transferred to the National Theatre; his KnightWatch: SouthS’tory was also produced here in 2012. Barber Shop Chronicles has played two sell-out runs at the National Theatre and a world tour. Across his work, Inua mixes the old with the new: traditional African storytelling with contemporary poetry, pencil with pixel, texture with vector images, with an emphasis on themes of identity, displacement and destiny.
Inua Ellams (Writer and Performer)
Born in Nigeria, Inua Ellams is a poet, playwright & performer, graphic artist & designer. He is a Complete Works poet alumni and facilitates workshops in creative writing where he explores reoccurring themes in his work – Identity, Displacement and Destiny – in accessible, enjoyable ways for participants of all ages and backgrounds.
His awards include Edinburgh Fringe First Award 2009, The Liberty Human Rights Award, The Live Canon International Poetry Prize, The Kent & Sussex Poetry Competition, Magma Poetry Competition, Winchester Poetry Prize, A Black British Theatre Award and The Hay Festival Medal for Poetry.
He has been commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company, National Theatre, Tate Modern, Louis Vuitton, BBC Radio & Television. His poetry books include Candy Coated Unicorn and Converse All Stars published by Flipped Eye, The Wire-Headed Heathen by Akashic Books, The Half God of Rainfall by 4th Estate and The Actual by Penned in The Margins. His plays include Black T-shirt Collection, The 14th Tale, Barber Shop Chronicles and Three Sisters published by Oberon. He founded The Midnight Run (an arts-filled, night-time, urban walking experience) The Rhythm and Poetry Party (The R.A.P Party) which celebrates poetry & hip hop, and Poetry + Film / Hack (P+F/H) which celebrates Poetry & Film.
LOVE AND OTHER ACTS OF VIOLENCE
By Cordelia Lynn
Directed by Elayce Ismail
Designer Basia Bińkowska
Lighting Designer Joshua Pharo
Sound Designer Richard Hammarton
Movement Director Yarit Dor
Casting Director Anna Cooper CDG
7 October – 27 November 2021
Press Night: 14 October 2021
Cast includes: Abigail Weinstock, Richard Katz
“There is a war coming…. A war that will last for a hundred years….
I think it is already here. I think we’ve been fighting it a long time”
A young Jewish physicist and a left-wing poet meet at a party and fall in love. As society splinters around them, the couple’s struggle to survive erupts into violence.
Cordelia Lynn’s new play is a subversive and intimate love story about inheritance and the cycles of politics and history. Elayce Ismail directs a cast including Abigail Weinstock and Richard Katz.
Cordelia Lynn (Writer)
Cordelia was commissioned by the Donmar Warehouse to write Love and Other Acts of Violence as the recipient of the 2020 Berwin Lee Award. In 2017, she received the prestigious Harold Pinter Commission to write One for Sorrow for the Royal Court, where her first play Lela & Co premiered in 2015, having won the Jerwood New Playwright commission.
Cordelia’s other plays include Fragments, a short play for Five Plays (Young Vic), Hedda Tesman, after Henrik Ibsen (Headlong/Chichester/Lowry, Manchester), Three Sisters, adapted from Anton Chekhov (Almeida), Confessions, a short play for Power Plays (Theatre Uncut/Traverse, Edinburgh/Bristol Old Vic), Best Served Cold (VAULT Festival) and Believers Anonymous (Rosemary Branch Theatre). Cordelia’s opera and vocal work includes A Photograph (Oxford Lieder Festival), Heave (IRCAM/Festival de Royaumont), Miranda (Opera Comique, Paris) and You’ll Drown Dear (IRCAM/Manifeste, Paris). Cordelia’s work as dramaturg includes Lucia Di Lammermoor (ROH).
Elayce Ismail (Director)
Elayce Ismail is a director and dramaturg, working in the UK and internationally across theatre, opera and film. She is the Artistic Associate at Music Theatre Wales and has previously been the Head of New Work (maternity cover) at the Donmar Warehouse, the inaugural RTYDS Associate Director at Northern Stage, and a Resident Director at the National Theatre as the recipient of the JP Morgan Award for Emerging Directors.
Elayce’s work as a theatre director includes Shedding a Skin (Soho Theatre), Nanjing (Shakespeare’s Globe), If Not Now, When? (NT), Under Milk Wood and The War of the Worlds (Northern Stage); Girls (Soho Theatre/HighTide Festival/British Council Edinburgh Showcase), The Rise and Shine of Comrade Fiasco, Chorus and Spooky Action at a Distance (Gate), The Lost Ring (Deutsches Theater, Berlin) and Stay Another Song (Young Vic).
Elayce’s opera credits include, as creator and librettist, Our Dark Side and The Moon (ROH). As director, They Whisper Don’t Gaze at the Stars…(ENO). As revival director, 4:48 Psychosis (Opéra national du Rhin/ROH). As associate director, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Opéra Orchestre national Montpellier) and as assistant director, The Virtues of Things (ROH).
Elayce’s film credits include, as creator and writer, AMAZON (MTW/London Sinfonietta). As director, Nanjing (Theatertreffen Stückemarkt); Simone (Young Vic).
Abigail Weinstock (Her)
Makes her professional debut in Love and Other Acts of Violence at the Donmar Warehouse. Abigail has recently graduated from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. She was recently longlisted for the Screenshot Comedy Writer/Performer Competition run by Sister Global and Olivia Colman. Abigail was also runner up at the UK Jewish Comedian of the Year in 2017 and has performed her own comedy at the Edinburgh Festival, Soho Theatre and the Pleasance, amongst other venues.
Richard Katz (Tatte)
Makes his Donmar Warehouse debut in Love and Other Acts of Violence. Richard’s recent theatre credits include The Soldier’s Tale (Hallé Orchestra), Blindness and Seeing, Peer Gynt, Romeo and Juliet, As You Like it, The Comedy of Errors, The Drunks, Silence, Winter’s Tale and Pericles (RSC), Bartholomew Fair, The Merry Wives of Windsor, As You Like It, Hamlet, Nell Gwynn and The Golden Ass (Shakespeare’s Globe), The Divide and The Lorax (Old Vic), The Encounter (Complicité World Tour/Broadway), Mnemonic, The Noise of Time, Measure For Measure and Master & Margarita (Complicité), 1984 (West End), War Horse (NT/West End), Spyski (Peepolykus) and An Oak Tree (Birmingham Rep).
His film credits include The Infiltrator, Guardians of the Galaxy, Measure For Measure Sixty Six and Enigma. Television credits include The Crown, MotherFatherSon, A Discovery of Witches, Taboo, Ambassadors, Crossing Lines, The Honourable Woman, Poirot, Privates, M.I. High, Thank God You’re Here, The Omid Djalili Show, The Hogfather, Blessed, Green Wing, Hustle, Hyperdrive, Absolute Power, Rome, Black Books, People Like Us and Nicholas Nickleby.
Richard’s Radio includes The Trespasser’s Guide to The Classics as writer and performer.
FORCE MAJEURE
From the film by Ruben Östlund
Adapted for the stage by Tim Price
Directed by Michael Longhurst
Designer Jon Bausor
Lighting Designer Lucy Carter
Sound Designer Donato Wharton
Casting Director Anna Cooper CDG
10 December 2021 – 5 February 2022
Press Night: Thursday 16 December 2021
Cast includes: Rory Kinnear
“Stop it. Stop it! Everyone! We’re on holiday, we’re meant to be having a nice time. What the hell is wrong with you? “
Tomas and Ebba are determined to have quality family time with their children, so they head to the Alps on a skiing trip.
But when disaster strikes, their family unit is tested to breaking point with hilarious and tragic consequences.
Ruben Östlund’s award-winning comedy about a family falling apart is adapted for the Donmar stage by Tim Price, directed by Donmar Warehouse Artistic Director Michael Longhurst. Cast includes double Olivier Award-winner Rory Kinnear.
Tim Price (Writer)
Tim returns to the Donmar Warehouse after the premiere of his play Salt Root and Roe in 2011. Plays include Isla (Royal Court/Theatr Clwyd), How To Ruin Someone’s Life From The Comfort of Your Own Beanbag and Demos (Traverse Theatre), I’m With the Band (Traverse Theatre/Wales Millennium Centre), Elevenses (Somerset House), The Insatiable and Inflatable Candylion (National Theatre Wales), Teh Internet is Serious Business (Royal Court), Protest Song (National Theatre), Praxis Makes Perfect (National Theatre Wales/Barbican tour), The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning – winner of the James Tait Black Prize (National Theatre Wales) and For Once (Pentabus Theatre/Hampstead Theatre).
Michael Longhurst (Director)
Michael became Artistic Director of the Donmar in 2019, launching his tenure with a revival of David Greig’s early play Europe. He is currently directing the Donmar Warehouse revival of the Royal Court production of Constellations by Nick Payne at the West End’s Vaudeville Theatre starring a rotating cast of Sheila Atim and Ivanno Jeremiah, Peter Capaldi and Zoë Wanamaker, Russell Tovey and Omari Douglas, and Anna Maxwell Martin and Chris O’Dowd. Previously, his production transferred to the West End (starring Sally Hawkins and Rafe Spall), Broadway (starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Ruth Wilson) and toured the UK (starring Louise Brealey and Joe Armstrong) garnering Olivier and Tony nominations for its actors, winning the Evening Standard Award for Best Play, the WhatsOnStage Award for Best Design and the Manchester Theatre Award for Best Visiting Production. Michael also directed Gyllenhaal in his American stage debut at the Roundabout Theatre in Nick Payne’s If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet. Shuttered by the pandemic, his celebrated Chichester Festival Theatre revival of Caroline, or Change by Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori will run on Broadway at Studio54 when theatres reopen, with Sharon D. Clarke reprising her Olivier Award-winning performance.
Other theatre includes: Midnight Your Time, Teenage Dick, Belleville (Donmar), Amadeus with orchestral accompaniment from the Southbank Sinfonia (National Theatre Olivier/NT at Home), The Son (Kiln/West End), Gloria (Hampstead Theatre), Bad Jews (West End/ Theatre Royal Bath/UK tour), They Drink It In The Congo and Carmen Disruption (Almeida Theatre), ‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore and The Winter’s Tale (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Shakespeare’s Globe), Linda, The Art of Dying, Remembrance Day (Royal Court), A Number (Nuffield/Young Vic), Cannibals (Royal Exchange, Manchester), The History Boys (Sheffield Crucible), Dealer’s Choice (Royal & Derngate, Northampton), The World Of Extreme Happiness (NT Shed), Stovepipe – one of the Sunday Times’ Top Ten Theatre Events of the Decade (site-specific promenade with the National Theatre, HighTide & Bush Theatre), Midnight Your Time (HighTide), On The Beach (Bush), On The Record and Gaudeamus (Arcola), dirty butterfly – winner of the Jerwood Directors Award (Young Vic), Guardians – Fringe First Award (Pleasance/Theatre503). Michael trained in directing at Mountview after reading Philosophy at Nottingham University.
Rory Kinnear (Tomas)
Rory is a multi award-winning actor of stage and screen. Rory previously appeared at the Donmar Warehouse in Mary Stuart. Other theatre includes Macbeth, Threepenny Opera, Othello – Olivier Award for Best Actor and Evening Standard Award for Best Actor, The Last of the Hausmans, Hamlet – Evening Standard Award for Best Actor, Burnt By The Sun, The Revenger’s Tragedy, Philistines – Ian Charleson Award, The Man of Mode – Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor and Southwark Fair (National Theatre), Young Marx (Bridge Theatre), Measure For Measure – Evening Standard Award for Best Actor (Almeida Theatre), Hamlet (Old Vic); Cymbeline and The Taming of the Shrew (RSC), The Tempest (Theatre Royal, Plymouth) and The Seagull (Theatre Royal, Northampton).
Film includes Peterloo, iBoy, Spectre,Trespass Against Us, Man Up, The Imitation Game, Cuban Fury, Skyfall, Broken – BIFA for Best Supporting Actor, Wild Target and Quantum of Solace.
Television includes Penny Dreadful: City of Angels, Years and Years, Catherine the Great, Brexit, Watership Down, Inside No.9, Guerilla, Quacks, The Casual Vacancy, Penny Dreadful, Lucan, Count Arthur Strong, Southcliffe, The Hollow Crown, Loving Miss Hato, Richard II, Black Mirror: National Anthem, Edwin Drood, Lennon Naked, First Men, Vexed, Cranford, Beautiful People, The Thick of It, Waking the Dead, Ashes to Ashes, Minder, Steptoe & Son, Messiah V, The Long Walk to Finchley, Mansfield Park, Five Days, Secret Smile, Silent Witness, Second Coming, Ultimate Force, Menace; Judge John Deed and Judas.
Rory’s future projects include Ridley Road, No Time to Die and Men.
Force Majeure is generously supported by Cockayne Grants for the Arts, a donor advised fund at London Community Foundation, Adam Kenwright and Ian & Beth Mill.
HENRY V
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Max Webster
Designer Fly Davis
Lighting Designer Lee Curran
Sound Designer Carolyn Downing
Casting Director Anna Cooper CDG
11 February – 9 April 2022
Press Night: Tuesday 22 February 2022
Cast includes: Kit Harington
“No King of England if not King of France!”
Shakespeare’s ever popular play is a thrilling study of nationalism, war and the psychology of power.
Kit Harington leads the cast in an exciting modern production directed by Donmar Associate Director Max Webster, exploring what it means to be English and our relationship to Europe, asking: do we ever get the leaders we deserve?
Max Webster (Director)
Max is an Associate Director at the Donmar Warehouse. Max’s work as a theatre director includes Life of Pi (Sheffield Crucible/West End), The Lorax (Old Vic/Children’s Theatre, Minneapolis/Old Globe, San Diego), Fanny and Alexander and Cover My Tracks (Old Vic), As You Like It and Twelfth Night (Regent’s Park Open Air), The Sea of Fertility and Mary Stuart (Parco, Japan), The Jungle Book and King Lear (Royal & Derngate, Northampton/UK Tour), The Winter’s Tale (Lyceum, Edinburgh), The Twits (Royal & Derngate, Northampton), Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare’s Globe/World Tour), James and the Giant Peach and My Generation (WYP), Orlando, To Kill a Mockingbird and My Young and Foolish Heart (Royal Exchange, Manchester), The Chalk Circle (Aarohan Theatre, Kathmandu) and Carnival Under the Rainbow and Feast Kakulu (Hilton Arts Festival, South Africa). Film Credits include The Lorax: In Camera (Old Vic) and How the Grinch Stole Christmas: The Musical (Sky Arts/NBC). Opera credits include La Bohème (Goteborg Opera, Sweden), The Merry Widow (ENO) and Shostakovich’s Hamlet (City of London Sinfonia).
Kit Harington (Henry V)
Kit previously appeared in The Vote at the Donmar Warehouse. His theatre credits include True West (West End), Doctor Faustus (West End), Posh (Royal Court) and War Horse (NT/West End). Film includes Eternals, The Death and Life of John F. Donovan, Brimstone, Spooks: The Greater Good and Testament of Youth. Kit’s Television credits include Criminal, Game of Thrones seasons 1 to 8, Gunpowder, 7 Days in Hell and Modern Love.
MARYS SEACOLE
By Jackie Sibblies Drury
Directed by Nadia Latif
Designer Tom Scutt
Lighting Designer Jessica Hung Han Yun
Sound Designer and Composer Xana
Casting Director Anna Cooper CDG
15 April – 4 June 2022
Press Night: Thursday 21 April 2022
“Scene One:
Mary Seacole stands before us.
If you don’t know who she is, well,
look her the f**k up.”
Mary Seacole was the pioneering Jamaican nurse who bravely voyaged to heal soldiers in the Crimean War. She was a traveller, a hotelier and a businesswoman. She was the most impressive woman you’ve ever met.
Putting the concept of a biopic through a kaleidoscope, MARYS SEACOLE is a dazzling exploration across oceans and eras of what it means to be a woman who is paid to care, and how, ultimately, no one is in charge of their own story.
Directed by Nadia Latif, the UK premiere of Pulitzer Prize winner Jackie Sibblies Drury’s celebrated new play reunites the team behind her critically-acclaimed Fairview in 2019.
Jackie Sibblies Drury (Writer)
Jackie’s plays include Marys Seacole – OBIE Award, Fairview – 2019 Pulitzer Prize, Really, Social Creatures, and We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as South West Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915. The presenters of her plays include the Young Vic, Lincoln Center Theatre, Soho Rep, Berkeley Rep, New York City Players & Abrons Arts Center, Victory Gardens, Trinity Rep, Woolly Mammoth, Undermain Theatre, InterAct Theatre, Actors Theater of Louisville, Company One, and the Bush Theatre.
Jackie has developed her work at Sundance, Bellagio Center, Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, Soho Rep. Writer/Director Lab, New York Theatre Workshop, Bushwick Starr, LARK, and MacDowell Colony, among others. She has received the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, a Jerome Fellowship at The LARK, a United States Artists Fellowship, a Helen Merrill Playwriting Award, and a Windham-Campbell Literary Prize in Drama.
Nadia Latif (Director)
Nadia is a theatre maker, screenwriter and director and trained at RADA. From 2018 – 2020, she was Genesis Director at the Young Vic, where she directed the acclaimed UK premiere of Jackie Sibblies Drury’s Fairview in 2019.
Nadia’s other theatre credits include Nightclubbing (Lowry/Camden People’s Theatre/Tour), Fall of the Kingdom and Rise of the Footsoldier (RSC), Octagon and But I Cd Only Whisper and The Ballad of Crazy Paola (Arcola), Homegrown (NYT), Even Stillness Breathes Slowly Against a Brick Wall (Soho), Carrot (Latitude/Theatre503), Coalition, Wild Horses and Slaves (Theatre503).
Nadia’s film credits include They Heard Him Shout Allahu Akbar (Film4), My England (Young Vic) and White Girl (BFI).
JOAN IYIOLA – ASSOCIATE ARTIST
Joan Iyiola is an artist, working as an actress, writer and producer. As an actress, Joan’s credits span film, television and theatre, most recently including Changing Destiny (Young Vic), The Duchess of Malfi (RSC), Tree (Young Vic), Too Close (ITV), Enterprice (BBC/Netflix) and Black Earth Rising (BBC/Netflix). Joan is co-founder of The Mono Box, a non-profit arts organisation that supports and nurtures the development of emerging and professional talent with workshops and courses, digital resources and new writing opportunities most notably, RESET THE STAGE and PLAYSTART. Joan is also co-founder of Apatan Productions, under which she co-wrote, produced and acted in Dọlápộ is Fine. The film was longlisted for a BAFTA in 2021, awarded the HBO Short Film Award in 2020 and has been acquired by Netflix and HBO. Apatan Productions currently has a number of commissioned TV projects in development. Joan was recently named as one of Digital Spy’s 30 Black British Stars of Tomorrow, and was selected for BFI Network x BAFTA’s Crew for 2021.
ZOË SVENDSEN – ASSOCIATE ARTIST
Zoë Svendsen is a theatre director/dramaturg/designer, whomakes participatory theatre performances and installations exploring ecological crisis and capitalism, including the sonic landscape work Ness, based on Robert Macfarlane’s prose poem (Estuary Festival 2021); Factory of the Future (Oslo Architecture Triennale 2019); the Artsadmin Green Commission, We Know Not What We May Be (Barbican, 2018) and World Factory (NWT/Young Vic/tour). Zoë is also an associate artist at Cambridge Junction and the New Wolsey Theatre, has worked as dramaturg at the Young Vic, the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, and lectures on dramaturgy at the University of Cambridge, undertaking practice-led research.
Camden and Westminster Schools Touring Production of
TEENAGE DICK
Written by Mike Lew
Schools Tour supported by Camden Council & Westminster City Council
Director Blythe Stewart
Originally directed by Michael Longhurst
Designer Chloe Lamford
Associate Designer Cara Evans
Lighting Designer Zia Bergin-Holly
Associate Lighting Designer Danny Cunningham
Original lighting design by Sinéad McKenna
Sound Designers Ben and Max Ringham
Choreographer Claira Vaughan
Dialect Coach Martin McKellan
Associate Dialect Coach Alex Bingley
Fight Director Bret Yount
Costume Assistant Jessica Hughes
Casting Director Anna Cooper CDG
Cast: Jack Hunter, Alfie Jones, Jan Le, Nicola May-Taylor, Talia Palamathanan, Elena Pitsiaeli
As winter formal gives way to glorious spring fling, Richard – the class loser – lusts for power at Roseland High.
After years of torment due to his cerebral palsy, Richard plots the ultimate rise in power: to become president of his senior class. But like all teenagers, and all despots, he is faced with the hardest question of all: is it better to be loved, or feared?
Originally staged at the Donmar in 2019, Michael Longhurst’s production of Teenage Dick now tours to schools across the Donmar’s home boroughs of Camden and Westminster.
The Teenage Dick Schools Tour is supported by Camden and Westminster City Councils. The original production was supported by Adam Kenwright.
Jack Hunter (Richard)
Jack’s theatre credits include Swimming for Beginners (Graeae/British Council/Owlspot, Japan), Cost of Living (Hampstead), All You Need Is LSD (Told By An Idiot/Birmingham Rep) and Let Me Play the Lion Too (Told By An Idiot/Barbican). Television includes Annika. Radio includes Bartholomew Abominations.
Jack is currently enrolled on the Birds of Paradise and Playwright Studio Mentorship Award. Jack has also performed his own comedic and poetical works at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and BBC Social.
Alfie Jones (Eddie)
Alfie’s theatre credits include The Winter’s Tale and Richard III (RSC), Red Velvet, King Richard II, Punk Rock and Violence and Son (LAMDA).
Jan Le (Clarissa)
Jan’s theatre credits include Germline (Arcola), Numbers (Bunker without Borders) and Amongst the Reeds (Clean Break). Film includes Unseen and Kowloon Killers. Television credits include Atlanta, Queens of Mystery and Doctor Who series 11.
Nicola May-Taylor (Elizabeth York)
Nicola trained at Drama Centre. Theatre credits include Macbeth (Royal Exchange, Manchester), Rutherford And Son (NT), The Hoes (Hampstead), Birth Right and Might Never Happen (Doll’s Eye Theatre), Storylab, Dissidents and Kilburn Passion (Kiln), Takeaway (Re:Adapt/Theatre 503). Attempts On Her Life (In Tandem), Chicken Palace (Theatre Royal Stratford East) and In His Hands (Hackney Empire).
Talia Palamathanan (Anne Margaret)
Talia trained at the Brit School and part-time at the Laura Bruce Dance Academy and Flawless Dance School. Theatre includes West End Musical Celebration Live (Palace), Matilda the Musical (Cambridge Theatre) and Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (UK Tour). Film includes Everybody’s Talking About Jamie: The Film. Television includes Hank Zipzer and Matilda the Musical performance for Children in Need. Talia also performed at the 2019 Evening Standard Theatre Awards with Cush Jumbo and in the music video for Michael Buble and Idina Menzel’s version of Baby It’s Cold Outside.
Elena Pitsiaeli (Buck)
Elena attended the Maggie May Drama School and completed LAMDA exams. Elena was the only disabled student at her school, which initially challenged her courage as a performer. On leaving Maggie May, Elena completed a degree in Stage and Costume Management at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Elena has worked as a creative team member on productions in the West End and twice with Sir Trevor Nun and has now returned to performing.Theatre includes Dennis and Gnasher Unleashed: The Musical (workshop).Film includes La Merde, screened on Zoom during lockdown.
Mike Lew (Writer)
Mike’s plays include Teenage Dick (Ma-Yi at the Public and Artists Rep productions; Public Studio, O’Neill, OSF workshops), Tiger Style! (Olney, Huntington, La Jolla Playhouse, and Alliance productions; O’Neill and CTG workshops), Bike America (Ma-Yi and Alliance productions), microcrisis (Ma-Yi, InterAct and Next Act productions), Moustache Guys, and the book to the musical Bhangin’ It (Richard Rodgers Award; La Jolla Playhouse, Project Springboard, and Rhinebeck Writers Retreat workshops). He is a Tony voter, Dramatists Guild Council member, and a resident of New Dramatists. Mike’s honours include a Mellon National Playwrights Residency at Ma-Yi and La Jolla Playhouse Artist-in-Residence, both with Rehana Lew Mirza; Lark Venturous and NYFA fellowships; and the PEN Emerging Playwright, Lanford Wilson, Helen Merrill, Heideman, and Kendeda awards. Education: Juilliard, Yale.
Blythe Stewart (Director)
Blythe was the Donmar Resident Assistant Director in 2019, assisting on productions including Teenage Dick, [BLANK] and Appropriate. As a freelance director, Blythe has worked for a range of companies including the National Theatre, House Productions, Soho Theatre, and HighTide Festival, as well as drama schools including LAMDA, ArtsEd, Guildhall and Oxford School Of Drama. Blythe has been nominated twice for Best Director at the Off-WestEnd Awards and in 2016, she was the Hospital Club Foundation’s Emerging Creative for Theatre and Performance. Recent directing credits include Wonder Winterland by Sami Ibrahim (Soho), Work Bitch by Jessica Siân (VAULT), Skin A Cat by Isley Lynn (UK Tour), Finding Fassbender by Lydia Larson (Pleasance, Edinburgh) and Conditionally by Danusia Samal (Soho). Blythe studied directing at East 15 and the National Academy of Dramatic Arts (GITIS) in Moscow, Russia.
