Almeida For Free
By Beth Steel
Directed By Blanche McIntyre
This free performance is exclusively for those aged 25 and under as part of Almeida For Free.
The Webster House.
1965. 1979. 1985. 1996. 2019.
Death silences no one, least of all the dead.
Blanche McIntyre (Hymn) directs the world premiere of Beth Steel’s revelatory new play which spans five decades of the lives, and deaths, of the Webster family.
Inside their home, set against the ever-changing industrial landscape of working-class Britain, some chase dreams of a brighter future and others are haunted by the nightmares of the past.
BAFTA and Olivier Award-nominated actor Anne-Marie Duff (His Dark Materials, Sex Education) returns to the Almeida to lead the cast as the Webster family matriarch.
Beth Steel won Most Promising Playwright at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards. Both The House of Shades and Wonderland were shortlisted for The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.
Tue 31 May 7pm
Tickets are free and exclusive to those aged 25 and under, limited to 2 per person. All attendees must be present at the time of ticket collection and proof of age must be brought to the performance for each ticketholder.
Captioned & Audio Described
This performance will be Captioned and Audio Described. To book and for further information please contact the Box Office on 020 7359 4404 or email boxoffice@almeida.co.uk.
Playwriting Masterclass with Beth Steel
Tue 31 May 10.30am and 1.30pm
Join writer of The House of Shades Beth Steel for a masterclass focused on her approach to playwriting. More info>
Directing Masterclass with Emily Ling Williams
Tue 31 May 2pm
Explore approaches to directing and the text of The House of Shades with Assistant Director of the production Emily Ling Williams. More info>
Teenage Jack
Theatre includes: To Kill A Mockingbird (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre).
Television includes: War of the Worlds; Shakespeare and Hathaway; Almost Never; In The Long Run; Hetty Feather (BAFTA Nominated); Wolf Hall; Penny Dreadful; The Escape Artist.
Film includes: Black Sea; Deadly Intent; Judy; Picture Perfect.
Constance
For the Almeida: Oil; Vassa (1999).
Theatre includes: Sweet Charity; Berenice; Days of Wine and Roses (Donmar Warehouse); Macbeth; Common; Husbands and Sons; Strange Interlude; Saint Joan; King Lear; War and Peace; La Grande Magia (National Theatre); Macbeth (Broadway); Heisenberg: The Uncertainty Principle (West End); Cause Célèbre (Old Vic); The Soldier’s Fortune; The Daughter in Law; (Young Vic); Playboy of the Western World (Druid Theatre Company); A Doll’s House; Mill on the Floss (Shared Experience Theatre Comp); Collected Stories (Haymarket Theatre Royal).
Television includes: Bad Sisters; Suspect; The Salisbury Poisonings; Sex Education; His Dark Materials; Watership Down; From Darkness; Murder; The Accused Mo’s Story; Parade’s End; Margot; The History of Mr Polly; The Virgin Queen; Shameless; Doctor Zhivago; Sinners; Wild West; The Way We Live Now; Aristocrats; Amongst Women.
Film includes: On Chesil Beach; Suffragette; Before I Go to Sleep; Molly Moon; Sanctuary; Closed Circuit; Nowhere Boy; The Last Station; Is Anybody There?; French Film; Born Equal; Garage; The Waiting Room; The Magdalene Sisters; Enigma.
Neighbour
Theatre includes: Small Island (National Theatre); The Empress (RSC); The Madness of George III (Theatre Royal Bath/ West End/ tour); Taken/That Almost Unnameable Lust (Clean Break/ Soho Theatre); Alice (Crucible Theatre); The Girlfriend Experience (The Young Vic/ Royal Court Theatre); Memory of Water (National tour); Summer Begins (Donmar Warehouse); Nabakov's Gloves (Hampstead Theatre); Dead Funny (Hampstead Theatre/ West End); Walpurgis Night (Gate Theatre); Tango at the End of Winter (Edinburgh Festival/ West End); Abiding Passions (Watford Palace Theatre); Importance of Being Earnest (Nottingham Playhouse); Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Birmingham Repertory Theatre); Glass Menagerie (Swan Theatre); Les Liaisons Dangereuses (RSC/ West End/ Broadway); In Nomine Patris (Kings Head Theatre).
Film includes: Save the Cinema; Highlander: Endgame; Mesmer; In the Name of the Father; Mister Johnson; Trouble in Paradise; A Handful of Dust; Dagboek Van Een Oude Dwaas; Highlander; A Day at the Beach.
Television includes: Am I Being Unreasonable?; Van Der Valk; Year of The Rabbit; Poldark; The Coroner; Lewis: Down Among The Fearful; Law and Order UK; Agatha Christie: Poirot - The Clocks; New Tricks; Wallander - The Fifth Woman; Hotel Babylon; Kenneth Williams Fantabulosa; My Uncle Silas; The Biographer; Murder Rooms: Mysteries of the Real Sherlock Holmes; Dressing For Breakfast; The Tenant of Wildfell Hall; The Affair; Prime Suspect IV; Thief Takers; Hard Times; Agatha Christie: Poirot - The Mysterious Affair at Styles; The Lilac Bus; Inspector Morse; Just Another Secret; The Dark Angel; Wild Flowers; Onassis: The Richest Man in the World; Lost Empires.
Agnes
Kelly graduated from the Bachelor of Acting Studies at the Samuel Beckett Centre, Trinity College Dublin in May 2007.
Theatre includes: Harm (The Bush Theatre, one-woman show); A Streetcar Named Desire (English Touring Theatre); Don Carlos (ARA); Macbeth (Second Age); All In The Timing (Iris Theatre); Big Love (Abbey Theatre); Falling Out of Love (Yew Tree Theatre); Macbecks (Long Road Productions); Pilgrims of the Night (Rough Magic); Playboy of the Western World (Druid Theatre); Phaedra; Vinegar Tom; Terrorism; Three Sisters; Twelfth Night; Yeats Trilogy (Samuel Beckett Theatre).
Film includes: Tarrac; Out of Innocence; Kill Command; Jump; Belonging to Laura; Bad Boy Buck; In PurSUEt; Taking Stock; Cry Rosa.
Television includes: Grace; Marcella; Shadow and Bone; Call the Midwife; Strike Back; Broadchurch; Class; The Fall; Country Woman; Vera; Casualty; Law & Order; Raw; Scup; This Is Night Live; An Crisis; The Clinic.
Kelly speaks fluent Irish and was nominated for Richard Harris Actor of the year at the Oireachtas Irish language media awards in 2014 for her portrayal of Alix in BBC NI drama Scup.
Jack
Michael trained at RADA.
Theatre includes: Venice Preserved; Imperium I & II; Oppenheimer; The Shoemakers Holiday; As You Like It; Hamlet; All's Well That Ends Well; Midsummer Night’s Dream; Cardenio; The City Madam (RSC); Damned by Despair; Antigone; The White Guard; Burnt by the Sun (National Theatre); Othello (ETT Dubai); Julie (Northern Stage); Minotaur (Polka Theatre/ Theatre Clwyd); Thyestes (Arcola Theatre); Romeo and Juliet (Theatre of Memory); Later Showers; Play On Words (Three's Company/ Edinburgh Fringe).
Film includes: Clash of the Titans; Venus and the Sun; Ruth; Silent Night; How Was Your Week?; Through the Larkin Glass.
Television includes: Jack Ryan; Casualty; Doctors; Doctor Thorne; Missing Something.
Voice work includes: Three’s Company’s Adventure Department.
Michael is co-founder of Three's Company and Smooth Faced Gentlemen.
Helen / Neighbour 2 / Sarah
Theatre includes: Richard Pictures (Edinburgh Fringe/ Soho Theatre); Shiv (Curve Theatre) The Kindness of Strangers (Southwark Playhouse/ Norwich Arts Festival); Pioneer (Watford Palace Theatre/ Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Winner of a Fringe First award); Attempts on Her Life (Hampstead Theatre); A Midsummer Night's Dream (Blenheim Palace); Ricky Whittington and His Cat (New Diorama Theatre).
Film includes: The People We Hate at the Wedding.
TV includes: Code 404; Catastrophe; Motherland; Horrible Histories; Tell Me Everything; Stath lets Flats; Back; Doomed; Flowers; Ladhood; Red Flag.
Emily also makes up one half of sketch double act EGG, who as well as performing regularly across London, have had TV appearances on C4’s Harry Hill’s Clubnite. The duo also host the Still Legit Podcast. Emily is also a member of highly acclaimed improv troupe BattleActs and has appeared as a Stand-Up comedian on Rob Delaney’s Stand Up Central, BBC Asian Network's Big Comedy Night and Mock The Week.
Edith
For the Almeida: School For Wives.
Theatre includes: Present Laughter (Chichester Festival Theatre); Uncle Vanya (HOME Manchester); Outside Mullingar (Theatre Royal Bath); Sunburst (Langham Hotel); Ladies In Lavender; Eden End (Royal and Derngate Northampton/ tour); Sunburst (Grange Holborn Hotel); Enjoy (Theatre Royal Bath/ West End/ UK Tour); In The Club (National tour/ Hampstead Theatre); School for Scandal (Salisbury Playhouse); The Comedy of Errors (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield); The Turn of The Screw (Bristol Old Vic); The Mandate; Edmond; Tales from the Vienna Woods (National Theatre);The Rivals (Compass); Romeo and Juliet (New Shakespeare Company); Jubilee; Love in a Wood; Bartholemew Fair (RSC); A Busy Day (Bristol Old Vic/Lyric Theatre).
Television includes: Strike: Troubled Blood; This is Going to Hurt; Gentleman Jack; Don't Forget the Driver; Scarborough; The Royals; Marley's Ghosts; Casualty; Doctors; Doc Martin; Holby City; Heartbeat; My Family; Poirot: Cat Amongst the Pigeons; Midsomer Murders; Coronation Street; Trial and Retribution IV; Dangerfield; The Vicar of Dibley; The Royals.
Film includes: A Boy Called Christmas; Walk Like a Panther; Where Hands Touch; Dead in a Week (Or Your Money Back); 102 Dalmatians; Quills; Seasons Greetings; Wondrous Oblivion.
Alistair
For the Almeida: The Government Inspector.
Theatre includes: The Antipodes; Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom; Here We Go; Emil And The Detectives; Detroit; Happy Now?; Ivanov (National Theatre); Sweat (Donmar Warehouse/ West End); In The Republic Of Happiness; Wanderlust; Relocated (Royal Court); Clybourne Park (West End); Realism (National Theatre of Scotland, Nominated For Critics Awards For Theatre In Scotland 2006-2007, Best Male Performance); The God Of Hell; The Dark (Donmar Warehouse); The Taming Of The Shrew (RSC); Cleansed (Royal Court/ English Theatre Co); Shining Souls; The Life of Stuff (Traverse Theatre); The Slab Boys Trilogy (Young Vic).
Television includes: Shetland; The Rig; Foundation; Elizabeth Is Missing; The Crown; The Singapore Grip; White Dragon; Outlander; Ordeal By Innocence; Harlots; Dickensian; Virtuoso; The Hollow Crown; Babylon; Hustle; Any Human Heart; Extras Christmas Special; Whistleblowers; Peep Show; Golden Hour; The Way We Live Now; Four Fathers; The Echo; The Peter Principle; Doctor Finlay; Taggart; Hamish Macbeth.
Film includes: White Bird; The Nest; Mr. Turner; Coach (Winner Of The Special Prize For Best Short Film, 65th Berlin International Film Festival, 2015); Blood; Isle Of Dogs; Another Year; House In Berlin; Franklyn; Hush; 28 Days Later; Trainspotting.
Aneurin Bevan / The Entertainer / Corpse
Theatre includes: The Magician’s Elephant (RSC); Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Tobacco Factory); A Woman of No Importance (UK tour); Orpheus Descending (Menier Chocolate Factory); Tartuffe (Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory); Flowers for Mrs Harris (Sheffield Crucible/ Chichester Festival Theatre); Quiz (Minerva Theatre/ Chichester Festival Theatre/ West End); 5/11 (Chichester Festival Theatre); King Lear; Six Pictures of Lee Miller (Minerva Theatre/ Chichester Festival Theatre); King John (Shakespeare’s Globe); Urinetown (St James’s Theatre/ West End); Betty Blue Eyes; Mary Poppins (West End); Macbeth; A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); The Tempest (Theatre Royal Bath); Look Back in Anger; A Street Car Named Desire; Up The Feeder, Down the ‘Mouth; Aeroplane Bones (Bristol Old Vic); High Society (Sheffield Crucible); A Man of No Importance; The Spire; The Herbal Bed; The Magna Carta Plays; Epsom Downs (Salisbury Playhouse); Goodbye Barcelona (Arcola Theatre); The Three Musketeers (Rose Theatre Kingston); The Giant (Hampstead Theatre); Longitude (Greenwich Theatre); The Thrill of Love (Scarborough); Wonderful Town (Grange Park Opera).
Film includes: Nicholas Nickleby; High Heels & Lowlifes; Letters from Baghdad.
Television includes: McDonald and Dodds; Kiri; EastEnders; Casualty; Doctors.
Eddie / Neil
Theatre includes: Measure For Measure (Shakespeare’s Globe); King Lear, Edward II, Frankenstein, The White Guard, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (National Theatre); The Play That Goes Wrong (West End); The Winter’s Tale (RSC); There Is A Light That Never Goes Out (Royal Exchange Theatre); Against Captain’s Orders, The Crash of the Elysium, The Black Diamond, The Night Chauffeur, The Drowned Man (Punchdrunk); Return to Elm House, Romeo and Juliet (Battersea Arts Centre); The Grift (Town Hall Hotel); Prom Kween (Underbelly Edinburgh); Goosebumps Alive (The Vaults); The Oresteia (HOME Manchester); Stink Foot (The Yard); Accomplice (Menier Chocolate Factory); Intrigue/Love (Southwark Playhouse); Ker-Ching! (Frantic Assembly); Sorted (Theatre503); Something I Wrote in a Hurry (Lost Theatre Company); The Unspeakable (ETT); Twelfth Night, Richard III, Macbeth (The Faction); Hamlet, Twelfth Night (Winchester Theatre Royal/ Edinburgh Fringe).
Television includes: London Kills; Britannia; Warren; Doctors; Trying Again; Beautiful Day; Psychoville; EastEnders; Grownups; Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps; Holby City; Vincent; Instinct.
Film includes: Downton Abbey; The Current War.
Teenage Agnes / Teenage Natalie
Issie trained in Acting and Musical Theatre at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, graduating in 2020.
Voice work includes: Voltaire High; The Mad Woman's Ball (Amazon Prime); AlRawabi School for girls; Gloria (Netflix).
Theatre while training includes: Urinetown; Macbeth; Anyone Can Whistle.
Issie makes her professional theatre Debut at the Almeida in The House of Shades.
Laura / Lena Nowak
Emma is currently in her final year at LAMDA and makes her professional stage debut in The House of Shades.
Writer
Theatre includes: Labyrinth; Wonderland (Hampstead Theatre); Ditch (Old Vic Tunnels).
Beth was awarded the Charles Wintour Award for Most Promising Playwright at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2014.
Director
For the Almeida: Hymn; The Writer.
Theatre includes: Botticelli in the Fire (Hampstead Theatre); Tartuffe (National Theatre); The Norman Conquests (Chichester Festival Theatre); Titus Andronicus; The Two Noble Kinsmen (RSC); Noises Off (Nottingham Playhouse); Welcome Home, Captain Fox! (Donmar Warehouse); The Oresteia (HOME, Manchester); Measure For Measure; Bartholomew Fair; The Winter’s Tale; As You Like It; The Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare’s Globe); Arcadia (English Touring Theatre); Accolade; Foxfinder (Finborough Theatre); Women in Power; Tonight at 8:30; The Nutcracker (Nuffield Southampton Theatres); Ciphers (Out of Joint/ Bush Theatre/ Exeter Northcott) The Birthday Party (Royal Exchange Theatre); The Seagull (Headlong/ Nuffield Southampton Theatres/ Derby Theatre.
Opera includes: Tosca; The Marriage of Figaro.
Blanche was the winner of the 2011 Critics’ Circle Most Promising Newcomer Award, and in 2013 was winner of Best Director at the UK Theatre Awards for The Seagull.
Set Designer
Anna Fleischle is an award–winning production set and costume designer.
For the Almeida: The Writer; Before the Party.
Theatre includes: Hangmen (Broadway/ Royal Court/ West End, 2016 Olivier Award Winner For Best Set Design, Critic’s Circle Award ‘Best Designer’, Evening Standard Award ‘Best Design’); The Collaboration; Hamlet (Young Vic); The Forest (Hampstead Theatre); 2:22 A Ghost Story; Don Juan In Soho; The End Of Longing (West End); Once Upon A One More Time (Nederlander); A Kind Of People; The Kid Stays In The Picture (Complicité); Liberian Girl (Royal Court); Death Of A Salesman (Young Vic/ West End); Two Ladies; A German Life; A Very Very Very Dark Matter (Bridge Theatre); Home I’m Darling (Theatr Clwyd/ National Theatre/ West End, 2019 Olivier Award Nominee For Best Set Design And Best Costume Design); The Way Of The World (Donmar Warehouse); Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (Crucible/ Sheffield/ West End/ UK tour/ LA/ Korea); Much Ado About Nothing; Troilus and Cressida (Shakespeare’s Globe); Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (Old Vic); Beware Of Pity (Schaubühne, Berlin/ Complicité); The Two Noble Kinsmen; Cymbeline; Love’s Sacrifice (RSC); Can We Talk About This? (National Theatre/ DV8/ International tour/ Sydney Opera House); You Can See The Hills; Love and Money (Manchester Royal Exchange /Young Vic).
Opera includes: Orfeo (Vienna Staatsoper); Weimar Nightfall: Seven Deadly Sins (LA Philharmonic).
Dance includes: Message In A Bottle (Sadler’s Wells); Second Coming (Scottish Dance Theatre); John; Can We Talk About This? (National/ DV8/ International tour/ Sydney Opera House)
Fellowships include: Founding Member of Scene/Change, Associate Artist, Young Vic, Board Member, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, Ambassador for PiPA.
Costume Designer and Associate Set Designer
Liam is a London based Set and Costume Designer working in theatre, opera and film. Originally training as an Architect, he has since completed a postgraduate degree in Set and Costume Design at RADA and was recently resident Associate Designer at the RSC. Liam received a Stage Debut Award nomination in 2020 for his work on The Taming of the Shrew for the Sam Wannamaker Playhouse.
Theatre includes:
As Set and Costume Designer: The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare’s Globe); Small Change (Omnibus Theatre); Twist (Staatstheater Mainz); Road; Intimate Apparel (GSMD); Flare Path (RCSSD); Lady Macwata (Applecart Arts); Macbeth - Playmaking Festival; Twelfth Night; Dead or Alive (RSC); Yokes Night (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Der Freischütz (Blackheath Halls); Veterans Day (Finborough Theatre); Match and Fuse Festival 2016 (East River Studios/ Cafe Oto); Bard on Board (Royal Court); L'elisir d'Amore (Westminster Opera Company); After Miss Julie; The Beggar’s Opera (RADA)
As Associate Designer: 2:22; Don Juan in Soho (West End); Hamlet (Young Vic); L’Orfeo (Vienna State Opera); Geheimnis einer Unbekannten (A Visit from an Unknown Woman) (Josefstadt Theatre); A Kind of People (Royal Court); Death of a Salesman (Young Vic/ West End); Two Ladies; A German Life; A Very, Very, Very Dark Matter (Bridge Theatre); The Exorcist (Birmingham Repertory Theatre/ West End/ UK tour); Hedda Tesman (Chichester Festival Theatre); West Side Story (Royal Exchange Theatre); Troilus and Cressida; Romeo and Juliet; The Fantastic Follies of Mrs Rich; A Christmas Carol (RSC); Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare's Globe); Rosencratz and Guildenstern are Dead (The Old Vic).
Film includes: GRID Legends; The Snatcher.
Lighting Designer
For the Almeida: The Writer.
Theatre includes: Tartuffe; Coriolanus (RSC); Aristocrats; Privacy (Donmar Warehouse); I See You (Royal Court); All My Sons; Jekyll And Hyde (Old Vic); Pinter 5 & 6; Glengarry Glen Ross; Bad Jews; Killer Joe; The Homecoming; East Is East (West End); Habeas Corpus; The Watsons (Menier Chocolate Factory); Black Love; NW Trilogy (Kiln); Breaking The Code; A Doll's House; Little Shop Of Horrors; Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (Royal Exchange Theatre); Labyrinth (Hampstead Theatre); The Country Wife (Chichester Festival Theatre, Minerva); The Wild Party (The Other Palace); Faustus; The Glass Menagerie (Headlong, UK tour); A Midsummer Night’s Dream; The Wizard Of Oz; Playing For Time (Sheffield Crucible); Semmelweis; The Grinning Man; The Crucible; The Life And Times Of Fanny Hill (Bristol Old Vic); The Madness Of George III (Nottingham Playhouse); Project Polunin (Sadler’s Wells);
Opera includes: Cabaret (Gothenburg Opera); Breaking The Waves; Flight (Scottish Opera); Il Trittico; Madame Butterfly; La fanciulla del West (Opera Holland Park); Madame Butterfly (Danish National Opera).
Sound Designer
For the Almeida: Hymn; Albion; Against; The Merchant of Venice; Cloud Nine.
Gregory has designed the sound for over 250 shows including musicals and plays in the West End, at the RSC and National Theatre, and on Broadway.
Theatre includes: Medea; The Doctor’s Dilemma; Misterman; Tristan & Yseult; No Man’s Land (National Theatre); The Merry Wives of Windsor; The Two Noble Kinsmen; The Alchemist; All’s Well That Ends Well; Coriolanus; Tantalus; Cymbeline; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Great Expectations (RSC); The Color Purple; Equus (Tony Award for Best Sound Design of a Play); Journey’s End (Drama Desk award for Outstanding Sound Design); The Philanthropist; Pygmalion (Broadway); Rosmersholm; Fiddler On the Roof; The Vortex; And Then There Were None; Some Girls; The Truth; Waiting for Godot; What the Butler Saw; The Goat Or Who Is Sylvia (West End); Welcome Home Captain Fox!; My Night With Reg; Versailles; The Night Alive; A Voyage Around My Father (Donmar Warehouse); The Watsons; A Month in the Country; Mrs Pat; The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas; The Midnight Gang (Chichester Festival Theatre); The Boy Friend; Orpheus Descending; Barnum; The Lie; Love In Idleness; She Loves Me; The Truth; Assassins; Travels With My Aunt; Proof (Menier Chocolate Factory).
Video Designer
Theatre includes: Leopoldstadt (as Projection Supervisor, West End); All About Eve (as Camera Operator, West End); Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads (Video Design, Chichester Festival Theatre); Caroline, or Change (as AV Content Editor, Chichester Festival Theatre/ Hampstead Theatre/ West End); Top Girls (as Projectionist, National Theatre); Hansard (as Video Content, National Theatre); My Brilliant Friend; Peter Gynt; The Tell-Tale Heart; The Lehman Trilogy; I'm Not Running; Anthony & Cleopatra (National Theatre); Quiz (Chichester Festival Theatre/ West End).
Movement and Intimacy Director
Polly Bennett is a movement director, choreographer and director working across the broadest applications of movement. From professional theatre to Academy Award-winning films, Polly creates physical worlds for theatre, dance, live performance and film, as well as doing extensive work as a performance coach, workshop facilitator and mentor. She is an Associate Artist of Bush Theatre and National Youth Theatre, and co-founder of The Mono Box.
Theatre includes: People Places and Things (National Theatre/ West End/ St Ann’s Warehouse); The Lehman Trilogy (National Theatre/ West End/ Broadway); SWEAT (Donmar Warehouse/ West End); Pomona (National Theatre).
Film includes: I Wanna Dance with Somebody; Chevalier; Elvis; Bohemian Rhapsody; No Time to Die.
Television includes: The Crown; The Great.
Casting Director
Annelie is a Casting Director working in theatre, tv, and film.
For the Almeida: Vassa.
Theatre includes: Coming To England; What’s New Pussycat? (Birmingham Rep); Wendy and Peter Pan (Leeds Playhouse); For Nuffield Southampton Theatres: The Audience; Billionaire Boy; The Shadow Factory; Don Carlos; Fantastic Mr Fox; A Streetcar Named Desire (Nuffield Southampton Theatres/ Theatr Clwyd/ English Touring Theatre); For the Royal Shakespeare Company: Hamlet; King Lear; Imperium; Myth; The Rover; Seven Acts of Mercy; Two Noble Kinsmen; Wendy and Peter Pan; Oppenheimer (RSC/ West End, Co-casting).
Other work includes productions for Hampstead Theatre, Hull Truck Theatres, Hoxton Hall, Headlong, Royal and Derngate Northampton, English Touring Theatre and the Bush Theatre amongst others.
Annelie’s television work includes projects with Netflix, Apple, Warner Brothers, BBC, ITV and Nickelodeon alongside her work on Independent Feature Films and Adverts.
Dialect Coach
Theatre includes: Moreno (Theatre503); The High Table; Lava (Bush Theatre); Punk Rock (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Beneatha’s Place; Start (Mountview); Desert Boy; Love and Money (LAMDA); Pigeon English (Bristol School of Acting); Stop Kiss (RADA).
Television includes: Sex Education.
Esi is a voice, accents and dialects coach. Her singing experiences include an exciting ten-year world tour (2010-2019 inclusive) with Cirque du Soleil's show - Totem, in which she was the lead female singer and original cast member. This was preceded by two years as Rafiki in Disney's The Lion King at Disneyland Resort, Paris. Some timely experiences that added to the portfolio include work with the likes of Luther Vandross, classical singer Jessye Norman, Michael Ball, Mariah Carey and Sir Tom Jones and UK's London Community Gospel Choir.
Fight Director
Kev is an Equity registered fight director / choreographer, director, actor and an action performer. Kev is also co-founder and Chairman of The Academy of Performance Combat. Kev’s been stage combat teaching for 29 years and professionally fight choreographing across all fields for 22 years. Kev is also an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and Associate Artist with Theatr na nÓg and Bristol School of Theatre.
Theatre includes: Welcome Home Captain Fox; Rent; In The Blood; Marys Seacole (Donmar Warehouse); The Wife of Willesden (Kiln Theatre); Macbeth (Shakespeare’s Globe); The Burnt City (Punchdrunk); Indecent; Days of Significance; Red Velvet (Richard Burton Company); Les Misérables (West End/ National tour); Red Pitch (Bush Theatre); Moreno (Theatre 503); The Wicker Musical (Watermill Theatre); Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em (National tour); Traplord (Sadler’s Wells); Gunpowder Immersive Show (Layered Reality); Guardians of The Galaxy: The Live Immersive Experience (Secret Cinema / Disney).
Opera includes: Rigoletto; Bajazet (ROH); Don Giovanni; Jenufa (WNO).
Television includes: The Pact; The A List; Y Golau / The Light; Keeping Faith.
Costume Supervisor
For the Almeida: The Writer; Before the Party.
Theatre includes: SIX (UK tour 2022); 2:22 A Ghost Story; Noises Off (West End); Hamlet (Young Vic); Hedda Tesman; Plenty (Chichester Festival Theatre); EQUUS (English Touring Theatre); SWEAT (Donmar Warehouse); The Village (Stratford East); All of us; Home, I’m Darling; DV8 (National Theatre); The Exorcist (Birmingham Rep/ The Phoenix); The Lie (Menier Chocolate Factory); The Taming of the Shrew; As You Like It; Much Ado About Nothing; Imogen; The Lightning Child (Shakespeare’s Globe); Tiger Bay (Cape Town Opera/ Wales Millennium Centre); Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (Old Vic); Wondrous Strange (RSC); Around the World in 80 Days; Uncle Vanya (St. James’s Theatre); Liberian Girl (Royal Court); Exit the King (Ustinov Studio, Bath/ Theatre Royal Bath); The Love Girl and the Innocent (Southwark Playhouse).
Opera includes: Rigoletto (Nevill Holt Opera); Pia De’Tolomei (English Touring Opera); Poliuto (Glyndebourne); Paul Bunyan; King Priam (ROH); Candide (Opera National de Lorraine).
Assistant Director
Emily was previously a Resident Director at the Almeida Theatre, Jerwood Assistant Director at the Young Vic and Trainee Director at Paines Plough.
For the Almeida: The Full Works: The Funeral Directors’ Play, The Key Workers Cycle.
Theatre includes:
As Director: text me when you’re home, 5 Plays (Young Vic); Swallow and 16 (Lemon House Theatre); Lucky Cigarette (New Earth Theatre); GYSB; Tuesday at the Library; A Perpetual State of Happiness; Good Trouble (Moongate Productions); Before You Go (NT Studio - rehearsed reading); Appropriate (RWCMD); Miss Julie (LAMDA); Buried Kingdom (New Earth Theatre - rehearsed reading); Preach (Rose Bruford); Turbines (Paines Plough/ RWCMD/ Gate Theatre).
As Assistant Director: Blood Wedding (Young Vic); The Meeting; The Chalk Garden (Chichester Festival Theatre); Black Mountain; Out Of Love; How To Be A Kid (Paines Plough/ Theatr Clwyd/ Orange Tree Theatre); The Island Nation (Arcola Theatre).
Running time is approximately 2 hours and 45 minutes, including an interval. Find out more about our running times here.
CONTENT WARNING
This production contains the graphic depiction of an abortion that involves blood, depiction of a heart attack, references to domestic violence, the smoking of herbal cigarettes, latex balloons, strobe and flashing lights. Recommended for ages 14+
Read more about our production guidance and warnings, or contact Box Office if you have specific concerns.
The House of Shades is a recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New Play Award.
Writer Beth Steel
Director Blanche McIntyre
Set Designer Anna Fleischle
Costume Designer Liam Bunster
Lighting Designer Richard Howell
Sound Designer Gregory Clarke
Video Designer Isaac Madge
Movement and Intimacy Director Polly Bennett
Casting Director Annelie Powell
Associate Set Designer Liam Bunster
Dialect Coach Esi Acquaah-Harrison
Fight Director Kevin McCurdy
Costume Supervisor Natasha Prynne
Associate Fight Director Sam Behan
Assistant Director Emily Ling Williams
Cast
Gus Barry
Anne-Marie Duff
Beatie Edney
Kelly Gough
Michael Grady-Hall
Emily Lloyd-Saini
Carol Macready
Stuart McQuarrie
Mark Meadows
Daniel Millar
Issie Riley
Emma Shipp
Artwork photography by Jonė Reed. Concept by Émilie Chen.