Against the Tide
Created with and performed by the Almeida Young Company
Event details
Sun 25 May, Fri 30 May & Sun 1 Jun 2025
What happens in the space between monarchies and the working class, between governments and the checkout girls, between state-sanctioned power there and the power claimed here?
In dialogue with Ava Pickett‘s 1536, five new stories explore the parallels between historical events and ordinary lives, featuring Eloise Pennycott’s 1838, Guleraana Mir’s The Cosmic Ocean, Anne Odeke’s Don’t Drink the Water, Hannah Khalil’s Blood Fruit, and Sebastian Gardner’s The Book of Mawther.
On the eve of Queen Victoria’s coronation, a group of friends contemplate their (limited) choices in the yard of a workhouse. By the shore, nothing escapes the eyes of the fisher-people, who wryly observe from afar as the King attempts to command the tide of the ocean. In Essex, three girls begin a ritual at midnight to rid themselves of thinking and talking too much, and in protest in Dublin 1984, Dunnes Stores workers refuse to handle a grapefruit. Pacing a field in Norfolk, back and forth, page by page, a runaway girl dictates a book that is to be a mark of her existence in history.
All performances include 1838, The Cosmic Ocean, Don’t Drink the Water, Blood Fruit, and The Book of Mawther.
Evenings 7pm
Matinees 2pm
Running Time
Approx. 1 hour and 30 mins
Tickets
£5
Content Warnings
Read more about our production guidance and warnings>
CREATIVES
1838
…if we’re going to have a woman as Queen, why should I then have to put up with men like him?
Writer Eloise Pennycott
Director Dubheasa Lanipekun
Assistant Director Takiyah Kamaria
Producing Assistant Olivia Collins
The Cosmic Ocean
I am the heartbeat of the cosmos, the pulse of the earth, and I do not answer to kings.
Writer Guleraana Mir
Director Yolanda Mercy
Assistant Director Takiyah Kamaria
Producing Assistant Jade Hassan
Don’t Drink the Water
Hear us oh fire women! Hear our plea. Help us, girls of Essex, to stop talking so much, and ‘aving big foughts.
Writer Anne Odeke
Director Nicola Chambers
Assistant Director Deepali Foster
Producing Assistant Fleur Simpson
Blood Fruit
You can’t change things, you are just ordinary people. It’s governments who make change. The people in power who run things. Not checkout girls.
Writer Hannah Khalil
Director Georgia Murphy
Assistant Director Deepali Foster
Producing Assistant Savanna Patel
The Book of Mawther
Is it really worth your life? All because, what? Because you want to feel magnificent and be remembered? Because you want people to think of you as having some sort of importance?
Writer Sebastian Gardner
Director Beth Bowden
Assistant Director Zoë Carvalho Morris
Producing Assistant Emma Ma
Against the Tide
Dramaturg Sarvat Hasin
Dramaturg Support Hana Pascal Keegan and Emma Ma
Lighting Designer Fraser Craig
Sound Designer Bryony Blackler
Costume Designer Bolu Dairo
almeida young company 18-25
Kezia Adewale
Zoe Agbon
Gabrielle Ashford
Aria Baker
Lolia Clinton-Ogbonda
Leon Day
Megan Diby
Alex Dunn
Scarlet-Rose Elise
Ebada Hassan
Alex Hutchings
Lula Jahangiri
Nicole Kilama
Mio Lobban
Sam Loveridge
Fiona Lynch
Lucia Neophytou-Weir
Jimmy O’Brien
Jack O’Shaughnessy
Samad Olukunle
Rosie Pierce
Sam Rattue
Emily Rodrigues
Jess Senanayake
Lawrence Ssonko
Maryam Tuggar
Laura Wilson
Ariana Xeno
access performances
BSL Interpreted Fri 30 May 2pm
Captioned Sun 1 Jun 2pm and 7pm
Relaxed Environment Fri 30 May 2pm, Sun 1 Jun 2pm and 7pm
Supporters
The Almeida Young Company is generously supported by Adam and Victoria Freudenheim and the Chapman Charitable Trust.
Young Artists
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