Principal Partner
World Premiere
By Adam Brace
Directed By Michael Longhurst
Tickets £10 - £38
What can we do for the worst thing in the world?
The Democratic Republic of Congo. Home to the deadliest conflict since World War II.
London. Home to a festival to raise awareness of the Congo. (That is, if Stef can get the festival off the ground).
Featuring an ensemble cast and a live band performing original music inspired by the Congo, Adam Brace's hilarious and anarchic new play unpacks the problems of doing something good about something bad. Following their collaboration on Stovepipe, (Sunday Times' 10 Best Theatre Events of the Decade) Michael Longhurst (Carmen Disruption) returns to the Almeida to direct.
Photographed by Miles Aldridge, Production by Lucy Watson Productions, Set Design by Vincent Olivier @ Magnet, Styling by Nicholas Royal, Hair by Joseph Pujalte @ Art List Paris, Make up by Janeen Witherspoon, Nails by Ami Streets @ LMC Worldwide. Special thanks to Spring Studios and Sola Lighting
Rehearsal photography by Miles Aldridge.
Production photography by Marc Brenner.
The running time is approximately 2 hours and 40 minutes including one interval of 20 minutes.
Previews Fri 12 - Thurs 18 Aug
Press Night Tue 23 Aug 7.00pm
Evenings 7.30pm
Sat matinees 2.30pm from 27 Aug
Wed matinees 2.30pm 24, 31 Aug, 7, 14 Sep
Day seats are available from 24 Aug
Talkback
Mon 19 Sep
Post-show discussion with members of the They Drink It In The Congo company.
Supporters' Evening
Mon 22 Aug
Pre-show talk at 6.30pm. Please note that this will take place in the rehearsal room in our administration offices at 108 Upper Street, N1 QN not in the auditorium.
Audio Described Performances
Sat 10 Sep 2.30pm
(Touch Tour 12.45pm)
Tue 20 Sep 7.30pm
(Touch Tour 6pm)
Captioned Performance
Thurs 15 Sep 7.30pm
Relaxed Performance
Wed 21 Sep 1.30pm
A Relaxed Performance is specifically designed to welcome people who will benefit from a more relaxed performance environment, including people with an Autism Spectrum Condition, sensory and communication disorders, or a learning disability. People have the freedom to come and go as necessary and a chill-out area is provided for those who need a quiet space. There is a relaxed attitude to noise and movement and some small changes made to light and sound effects. For more information please contact access@almeida.co.uk or call the Box Office on 020 7359 4404.
TodayTix Lottery
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Islington First
Fri 12 - Sat 20 Aug
If you live or work in the Islington area you can book best available seats for £23 for the opening performances* of each production
Under 25s
Mon 29 Aug, Mon 5 & Mon 26 Sep
£5 Mondays for Under 25s. Proof of age ID will be required on collecting the tickets. Tickets are limited and subject to availability.
Click here for more information about concessions.
*subject to availability
Listen to our Congo-inspired playlist.
Jenny/ Intern/ Carmen/ Meredith
Theatre includes: Tipping the Velvet (Lyric Hammersmith); Arcadia; Tonight at 8.30 (English Touring Theatre); Separate Tables; Dangerous Corner (Salisbury Playhouse); Private Lives (Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh); Playhouse Creatures (Chichester Theatre); Foxfinder; The Precariat (The Finborough); The Importance of Being Earnest (Rose Theatre, Kingston) The Great Gatsby; Edmond (Wilton’s Music Hall); Twelfth Night (Ludlow Festival) Amy's View (Nottingham Playhouse); Liberty; Much Ado about Nothing; The Merchant of Venice; Holding Fire (Shakespeare's Globe); The School for Scandal (Park Theatre); The Rivals (Theatre Royal, Bath) Plunder (Watermill); Othello (Cheek by Jowl); King Lear (RSC)
Television includes: Father Brown; Foyles War; Silent Witness.
Film includes: Chicken.
Stef
Theatre includes: Wendy and Peter Pan (RSC); ‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore (Shakespeare's Globe); King Lear (Theatre Royal, Bath); Heartbreak House (Chichester Festival Theatre); An Ideal Husband (Vaudeville Theatre); Posh (Royal Court); Vanya (Gate Theatre); Madame De Sade (Donmar @ Wyndham’s); Hay Fever (Manchester Royal Exchange); Ring Round The Moon (Playhouse Theatre); Rock ‘n’ Roll (Duke of York’s Theatre); The Lesson (Arcola Theatre).
Television includes: My Mother And Other Strangers; Grantchester;You, Me and the Apocalypse; Bugsplat; Medics; Foyle’s War; Pramface; Broke; The Cardinal Burns Show; We’ll Take Manhattan; How Not To Live Your Life; Outcasts; Lip Service; The Palace.
Luis
Theatre includes: To Kill A Mockingbird (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Truth and Reconciliation (Royal Court Theatre Upstairs); Lower Ninth (Donmar Warehouse); The Ones That Flutter (Theatre 503); Monster Under the Bed (Polka Theatre); dirty butterfly (Young Vic); How To Steal a Diamond (Vox Motus); 3 Days in July (Soho Theatre); 93.2FM (Royal Court); Little Sweet Thing (Hampstead Theatre / UK Tour); Cutter (Lyric Hammersmith / UK Tour); SlamDunk (UK & European Tour);This Island’s Mine (Hungry Lion Theatre).
Television includes: NW; The Frankenstein Chronicles; Eve; Lewis; Walter; Breathless; Waterloo Road; Mid-Morning Matters; Top Boy; Random; Victim; Game Over; The Silence; Minder; Holby City; Coming Up: And Kill Them; The Bill; The Rulers, Dealer & Losers; Just The Two Of Us; Babyfather; Have A Go Heroes.
Film includes: The Mummy; Tango One (The African); The Last Photograph; Anti Social; Montana; Get Lucky; Fast Girls; Sket; Anuvahood; The Firm; Wilderness; The Plague.
Maurice/ Pastor Joshua
For the Almeida: Our Town.
Theatre includes: Les Blancs (National Theatre); The Initiate (Paines Plough); The Man in the Green Jacket (Jermyn Street Theatre); The Full Monty (West End/UK tour); Macbeth (Out of Joint/World tour); Jack and the Beanstalk; Peter Pan (Theatre Royal, Norwich); The Queen and I (Out of Joint); Ripped (Soho Theatre); The Merchant of Venice (Manchester Library Theatre); A Jamaican Airman Foresees His Death (Royal Court); The Snow Queen (Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh); Colours (Leeds Playhouse); The Canal Ghost (Birmingham Rep); Black Poppies (National Theatre Studio/L’Odeon, Paris); Topokana’s Martyrs’ Day; Accidental Death of an Anarchist (Salisbury Playhouse); The Shelter; The Balcony; Two Noble Kinsmen; The Great White Hope; Every Man in his Humour; The Rover (RSC).
Television includes: Back Thunderbirds Are Go; Beautiful People; Silent Witness; Primeval; The Amazing Mrs Pritchard; Jonathan Creek; Casualty; Brookside; Insiders; Class Act II; The Bill; French and Saunders; Absolutely Fabulous; Black & Blue; Prime Suspect 2; Black Poppies; Arrivederci Millwall.
Film includes: Common People; The Great Ghost Rescue; Boogie Woogie; Felicia’s Journey; The Legend of 1900; Shopping; The Hawk; Three Kinds of Heat.
William/ Samo/ Oliver/ Kevin
Theatre includes: Stop! (Trafalgar Studios); HMP Macbeth; Verona Road; Wasted; Blainabe (Intermission Youth Theatre); Mad about the Boy (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Pandora’s Box (Oval House Theatre); Sixteen (The Gate / Spid Theatre).
Television includes: Chiraq; The Chi; Inspector Lewis; Versailles; The Secret; Hollyoaks; The Cut; E20.
Film includes: Star Wars: The Force Awakens; Shelter; Unlocked; Honeytrap; Gone too Far; Second Coming; Jasmine.
Huw/ Hakan/ Fred/ Ian
Theatre includes: Constellation Street (The Other Room); The Odyssey (Liverpool Everyman / ETT / The Globe); Britannia Waves the Rules (Manchester Royal Exchange); Henry VI Parts I, II & III (The Globe); A Separate Reality; Red Bud (Royal Court); Salt, Root and Roe (Donmar Warehouse); The Cloak Room (Sherman Cymru / Smithsonian Festival, Washington); The Fixer (High Tide); Fast Labour (WYP / Hampstead); This Way Up (Live Newcastle); Woyzeck (St Anne’s Warehouse / Gate Theatre); How Love is Spelt (Bush Theatre); Professor Bernhardi; Rose Bernd (Oxford Stage); Art and Guff (Soho Theatre); Everything Must Go (Sherman); Gas Station Angel (Royal Court / Fiction Factory).
Television includes: Da Vinci’s Demons; 4Funnies – Gittins; New Tricks; The Warm Up Guy; Fallout; Midsomer Murders; Goldplated; Casualty; Ghostboat L714; Sea of Souls; Doctors; Murphy’s Law; Absolute Power; Bradford in my Dreams; Nuts and Bolts; Casualty; The Bench; A Mind to Kill; Nuts and Bolts; The Bill; Crime Traveller.
Film includes: Tarzan; Black Mountain Poets; Svengali; Kubricks; Ghosted; Hunky Dory; A Bit of Tom Jones; Daddy’s Girl; Atonement; All or Nothing; Human Traffic.
Tony
For the Almeida: King Charles III (also West End / Broadway); King Lear.
Theatre includes: A Mad World, My Masters; Titus Andronicus; Candide; The Seagull; King Lear (RSC); Posh (Royal Court / West End); A Soldier and a Maker (Barbican Pit); The Way of the World (Sheffield Crucible); Good (Manchester Royal Exchange); There is a War; Edgar and Annabel (National Theatre); The Elephant in the Room (New Wimbledon Theatre); An English Tragedy (Watford Palace Theatre).
Television includes: Fresh Meat; The Windsors; Ripper Street; Foyle’s War; Mi High.
Film includes: Me Before You; Queen of the Desert; The Iron Lady.
Richard was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor and a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his role in King Charles III.
Alice/ Kat/ Patience
Theatre includes: Omeros (Shakespeare’s Globe & St. Lucia transfer); You’re So Relevant; A Season In The Congo (Young Vic); Primetime; Big Idea: It’s Like The 60’s Never Happened (Royal Court); A Midsummer Night’s Dream; The White Devil; The Arden of Faversham; The Roaring Girl; The Life Of Galileo; Boris Godunov; The Orphan Of Zhao (RSC); Eclipsed; The Rise And Shine Of Comrade Fiasco (Gate Theatre); Holiday (Bush Theatre); His Spirits Hear Me (Kevin Spacey Foundation); Toilet (Southwark Playhouse); The Aim of the Game: The 24 HR Plays; Sex Toys (Old Vic); Eye/Balls; 20 Cigarettes (Soho Theatre); Motortown; Romeo and Juliet (Swan Theatre Company); Medea (Cambridge Arts Theatre).
Television includes: New Blood; Yonderland.
Film includes: Denial; The Dead Sea.
Anne-Marie
Theatre includes: Les Blancs (National Theatre); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s Globe / Deafinitely Theatre); Just Me, You And The Silence; OVNV 24 Hour Plays (Old Vic); Medea: A Solo Adaptation; Richard III; Blood Wedding; Fiesco; Three Sisters (The Faction REP); Mad Blud (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Kampala; Pandora’s Box (The Arcola); Vlad The Impaler (Oran Mor); Egusi Soup (Menagerie / Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds); Leaving Planet Earth (Grid Iron/ Edinburgh International Festival);Tamba Tamba (Tiata Fahodzi); A Drop To Drink (Soho Theatre); Ugly (Redladder); The Jew Of Malta (Hall For Cornwall); Three Good Wives ; Handa’s Hen (Little Angel Theatre); Igloo Hullabaloo (Half Moon Young People’s Theatre).
Television includes: The Littlest Boho; Misfits; Waterloo Road.
Film includes: The Keeping Room; Deep State.
Nounou/ Ira/ Mama Beatrice
Theatre includes: Teddy Ferrara (Donmar Warehouse); Belong; Truth & Reconciliation; Now & Later; Marching for Fausa; Leavetaking (Royal Court); Comedy of Errors; Welcome to Thebes; Racing Demon; The David Hare Trilogy; Fuente Ovejuna (National Theatre); Archbishop & The Antichrist (Soho Theatre); Twelfth Night (RSC Stratford & West End); Talking in Tongues (Lyric Hammersmith); Sanctuary (Joint Stock) Raisin in the Sun (Durban Playhouse, South Africa); The Good Woman of Sharkville; Nothing But The Truth (Market Theatre, South Africa); Going to St Ives (Peter Turin Theatre, South Africa); Salvation (National Tour, South Africa).
Television includes: People Just Do Nothing; Coronation Street; Lewis; Crossroads; Sometime in April; Behind the Badge; Generations; Born Free; EastEnders; London’s Burning.
Film includes: Kingmakers; Man in the Street; The Special Relationship; Zulu Love Letter; A Reasonable Man; Orion’s Key; Human Timebomb.
Victor
For the Almeida: The Burial (also Tiata Fahodzi)
Theatre includes: Egusi Soup (Menagerie / UK Tour); Mountaintop (Gale Theatre London / Barbados); The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (Pilot Theatre / York Theatre Royal); Belong (Royal Court / Tiata Fahodzi); Fixer (Oval House Theatre); In The Blood (Finborough Theatre); The Garbage King (Unicorn Theatre); High Life (Hampstead Theatre); Medea Medea (Gate Theatre / Headlong); The Hounding of David Oluwale (Eclipse Theatre / West Yorkshire Playhouse); White Open Spaces (Pentabus Theatre); Coriolanus (RSC); Full Circle (Blue Hug Theatre Productions / Oval House); The Estate (Tiata Fahodzi).
Television includes: Obsession; Magnum Opus; Dates; Doctors; The Dumping Ground; Eastenders; Run; Caught in a Trap; Shoot the Messenger; The Bill; Nathan Barley.
Film includes: Beast Of No NationThe Vintage; 4 Walls; Police Officer; Pussyfooting.
Oudry
Theatre includes: The Rolling Stone (Royal Exchange / Orange Tree Theatre); The Suicide (National Theatre); The Odyssey: Missing, Presumed Dead (English Touring Theatre / Liverpool Everyman); Bordergame (National Theatre of Wales); Babes In The Wood (Rainbow Valley Productions); Othello (Fluellen Theatre Company); Rude! A Ska Musical; Heart Of Darkness (Give It A Name); Muscle (Shock n Awe); Serious Money (Waking Exploits); Robinson Crusoe; Aladdin (Owen Money Theatre Company); Do Mice Think Bats Are Angels?; Othello; Victory (UGly).
Television includes: Unforgotten; DNN: Definitely Not Newsround; Stella; The 4 O’Clock Club; Mistresses; Crash; Caerdydd; The Black Lion; Y Pris; Scrum IV: Operation Bobble; Casualty; Doctor Who; Fondue, Sex And Dinosaurs; The Story Of Tracey Beaker; First Degree; Outside The Rules; Rugby Promo; WDA Promos.
Film includes: Indifferent; Ashens & The Quest For The Game Child; Bad Fucking; Half Of A Yellow Sun; The Adventurer: Curse Of The Midas Box; Silent Night, Bloody Night: The Homecoming; The Machine; Elfie Hopkins And The Gammons; Night Of The Living Dead: Resurrection; Panic Button; Rock ‘N’ Roll Killers; Eastern Promises; Daddy’s Girl; Starter For Ten; The ‘I’ Inside.
Band
Joseph Roberts is a Composer, Musical Director, and Musician. He studied composition with Dr Michael Waite, choral conducting with Arthur Robson and music improvisation with Dr Rod Paton at University of Chichester.
Joseph has worked commercially with Dr Meaker, Carleen Anderson, Maxi Priest, Corinne Bailey Rae, Moby, Eric Clapton, Luciano Pavarotti, Elton John and Sting to name but a few. His work also involves working with community choirs and mentoring young musicians.
Theatre includes: SOUL (Royal Derngate & Hackney Empire); The Honeyman (UK Tour), Rudy’s Rare Records (Birmingham Rep / Hackney Empire); The Realness (The Big House); Julius Caesar (RSC); Welcome to Thebes (National Theatre); Up Against The Wall (The Octagon); Dancing and Singing The Blues (Europe Tour).
Band
Alan graduated from Guildhall school of music and drama in 1987. His guitar style has been an important part of the international and local (UK) music scene since 1975. He has featured at most of the prestigious festivals and concert venues worldwide, and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows, and music videos.
His recording sessions credits include: Art Blakey, Aswad, Carol Thompson, Caron Wheeler, David Lynden Hall, Dick Heckstall Smith, DHSS Band Pete Brown, Jimmy Cliff, George Clinton, Jazz Warriors, John Holt, Studio 1, Equators Tyrone Downey of (Bob Marley and the Wailers), Ernest Ranglin, Jameila, Joss Stone, Jean Adebambo, Jackie Mitto, Jazz Jamaica, Skatronics , Maxi Priest, Miss Lou, Sugar Minott, Sandra Cross, Trevor Walters, Clifford Jarvis, Cleveland Watkis, Victor Romeo Evans, Janet Kay, Courtney Pine, Pee Wee Ellis, Boy George, Rico Rodriguez, and Alan Weekes Quartet.
Alan has worked on several musicals including: The Harder they Come (Theatre Royal, Stratford East / West End / UK & International Tour), 65 With a Bullet (Battersea Arts Centre / UK Tour / Edinburgh Festival)and Tooth of the Crime (West End / UK Tour / Netherlands Tour). He has also performed in the opera Regina (UK Tour).
Alan currently runs a jazz night at the Haggerston and the Effra Hall which has been going for 20 years. He has two of his own releases with Sandra Cross (vocalist): Dreams Come True and Just A Dream.
Band
Crispin Robinson is a musician and practitioner/scholar of African Diaspora religion, specialising in drums and percussion. He is completing a PhD about sacred drum music in Cuba at SOAS, London.
He has performed and recorded with diverse artists including Soul II Soul, Brian Eno, Chaka Khan, Galliano, Shabaka Hutchings, Nitin Sawney, Jerry Dammers Spatial AKA Orchestra, Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens), Roni Size, Kylie Minogue and many others spanning the worlds of rock, pop, soul, reggae, salsa and jazz.
In theatre, he has performed in productions with Unicorn Children’s Theatre, Nitro (formerly Black Theatre Co-op) and been a consultant on authentically representing African spirituality for This House Will Not Stand at the Tricycle and Feast at the Young Vic.
Last year, he made the documentary La Clave about rumba music in Cuba for Havana Club, which screened at the ICA and around the UK.
Writer
Theatre includes: Stovepipe (HighTide / National Theatre / Bush Theatre); Midnight Your Time (HighTide / Assembly Rooms); The Four Stages of Cruelty (co-written and directed with Sebastian Armesto / simple8 / Arcola Theatre).
Film includes: Best.
Adam is Associate Dramaturg at Nuffield Theatre, Southampton and a lecturer in the English Department at the University of Southampton. He was previously an Associate at the Gate Theatre, Notting Hill. He also regularly works in Live Comedy as a Director and Script Editor. Adam’s first full length play Stovepipe was shortlisted for the George Devine Award, named Best Political Theatre of the year by Time Out, nominated for a WhatsOnStage award and listed in the Sunday Times Best 20 Theatre Events of the Decade. They Drink It In The Congo is his second full length play. Adam’s first script for film, Best, won the 2013 Sundance London Short Film contest and was selected for Sundance Festival 2014 in Utah.
Direction
For the Almeida: Carmen Disruption.
Other theatre includes: Linda The Art of Dying; Remembrance Day (Royal Court); Constellations (Royal Court / West End / UK Tour / Broadway); The Winter’s Tale; ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse); Bad Jews (West End / St James’s Theatre / UK Tour / Ustinov Studio, Bath); A Number (Nuffield Theatre, Southampton / Young Vic); Dealer’s Choice (Theatre Royal, Northampton / Oxford Playhouse); The Blackest Black (Hampstead Theatre Downstairs); The World of Extreme Happiness (The Shed, National Theatre); The History Boys (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield); Cannibals (Royal Exchange, Manchester); If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet (Roundabout / Off Broadway); Sixty-Six Books; On the Beach as part of The Contingency Plan (Bush Theatre); Stovepipe (HighTide Festival / National Theatre);On the Record; Gaudeamus (Arcola Theatre); dirty butterfly (Young Vic); Midnight Your Time (Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh / HighTide Festival); Guardians (Pleasance, Edinburgh / Theatre503).
Michael trained in theatre directing at Mountview. He was the winner of the 2007 Jerwood Directors Award and previously Associate Director at the Nuffield Theatre, Southampton. Constellations received theEvening Standard Award for Best Play, and MTA Best Visiting Production. Stovepipe was shortlisted for the George Devine Award, named Best Political Theatre of the year by Time Out, nominated for a WhatsOnStage award and listed in the Sunday Times Best 20 Theatre Events of the Decade.
Design
Theatre includes: The James Plays (NT / NTS / World tour); Bugsy Malone (Lyric Hammersmith); KURSK (Sound and Fury / Young Vic / Sydney); Ghost Stories (West End / Toronto / Moscow); Lord of the Flies; To Kill a Mockingbird (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); MAMETZ (National Theatre of Wales); The Believers (Frantic Assembly); You for me for you (Royal Court); I am Yusuf (Shebbahurr, Palestine / Young Vic); Water (Filter / Lyric Hammersmith / BAM); Lionboy (Complicité); Terminus (Abbey Theatre, Dublin / Melbourne / New York / Boston) Hamlet; King Lear; The Winter’s Tale; What Country Friends Is This? (RSC).
Dance includes: Hansel and Gretel; Ghosts; Pleasure’s Progress (Royal Opera House); Scribblings; Castaways (Rambert Dance); Blood Wedding (Finnish National Ballet), HOWL (Bern Ballet, Switzerland / Joyce Theatre, New York); Snow White in Black (Phoenix Dance Theatre); In Media Res (Nederlands Dans Theater); Carmen; Firebird (Norwegian National Ballet); Lest We Forget (English National Ballet).
Opera includes: The Knot Garden (Theatre an der Wien); Queen of Spades (Festival Theatre, Edinburgh); The Lighthouse (Teatro Poliziano, Montepulciano); The Human Comedy (Young Vic); The Soldiers Tale (Old Vic / Baghdad).
Jon designed the opening ceremony of the 2012 Paralympic Games in London and the kinetic sculpture to light the flame for the 2014 Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi. He is currently codirecting and designing a new production of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker for Norwegian National Ballet.
Lighting
For the Almeida: Boy; Carmen Disruption; Game.
Theatre includes: Cleansed (National Theatre); Rags; Sweeney Todd (RAM at TRSE); Wit (Royal Exchange); The Haunting of Hill House (Liverpool Playhouse); Dan and Phil: The Amazing Tour is Not on Fire (UK Tour / US Tour / London Palladium); Travelling on One Leg; Happy DaysDeutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg); Phaedra (Enniskillen International Beckett Festival); The Skriker (MIF / Royal Exchange); 2071 (Royal Court); The Forbidden Zone (Salzburg Festival / Schaubühne Berlin); Hopelessly Devoted (Paines Plough); The Kilburn Passion; The Riots (Tricycle); Sorrow Beyond Dreams (Burgtheater, Vienna); Blink (Traverse / Soho Theatre / International Tour); Lungs; Yellow Wallpaper (Schaubühne, Berlin); There Has Possibly Been An Incident (Royal Exchange/UK Tour); Moth (Hightide/Bush Theatre); The Changeling (Young Vic, with James Farncombe); Grounded (Deafinitely Theatre); Tommy (Prince Edward Theatre); Night Train (Halle Kalk, Schauspiel Köln); If That’s All There Is (International Tour); Red Sea Fish (59E59 New York); In a Pickle (RSC / Oily Cart); Ring-A-Ding-Ding (Unicorn Theatre / New Victory Theatre New York / Oily Cart); Land of Lights; Light Show; There Was An Old Woman; The Bounce and Mr & Mrs Moon (Oily Cart).
Jack trained at The Central School of Speech and Drama.
Sound
As composer and sound designer, theatre includes: Contractions (Sheffield); Correspondence; Sparks (Old Red Lion); I See You (Royal Court); Yen (Royal Court / Royal Exchange Theatre); Pomona (National Theatre / Royal Exchange Theatre / Orange Tree Theatre); The Titanic Orchestra; This Will End Badly; Allie (Edinburgh); Little Malcolm And His Struggle Against The Eunuchs (Southwark Playhouse); Outside Mullingar (Theatre Royal, Bath); Back Down (Birmingham Rep); Wolf From The Door; Primetime; Mint; Pigeons; Death Tax; The President Has Come To See You (Royal Court); Lie With Me (Talawa); The Sound Of Yellow (Young Vic); Take A Deep Breath And Breathe; The Street (Oval House Theatre); Stop Kiss (Leicester Square Theatre).
As sound designer, theatre includes: The Sugar-Coated Bullets Of The Bourgeoisie (Arcola / Hightide Festival); Decades (The Brit School For Performing Arts); The Snow Queen (Southampton Nuffield / Northampton Royal / Derngate); Orson’s Shadow (Southwark Playhouse); Defect (Arts Ed); Betrayal (I Fagiolini, UK Tour); A Harlem Dream (Young Vic); Khandan (Birmingham Rep / Royal Court); Superior Donuts (Southwark Playhouse); Three Men In A Boat (Original Theatre Company, UK Tour); King John (Union Theatre); Its About Time (Nabokov Theatre Company, Hampstead Theatre); Shoot /Get Treasure/Repeat (Royal Court, Gate Theatre, Out Of Joint, Paines Plough, National Theatre); House Of Agnes (Paines Plough).
As associate sound designer, theatre includes: Ma Raineys Black Bottom (National Theatre); Henry IV (Donmar Warehouse / Tour); Henry V (Michael Grandage Company / West End); 1984 (West End / UK Tour).
As music producer, theatre includes: An Appointment With The Wickerman (National Theatre of Scotland).
Giles was nominated for Best Sound Designer at the Offie Awards 2015 for his work on Pomona.
Composer and Musical Director
As Musical Director, theatre includes: May Contain Food (Protein Dance); Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare's Globe);Boi Boi Is Dead (West Yorkshire Playhouse / Watford Palace Theatre / Tiata Fahodzi ); The Realness (Big Broad, Hackney Studios); The Amen Corner ; Emperor and Galilean; Fela!; Death and the King's Horseman (National Theatre); Feast (Young Vic / Royal Court).
As Composer: Let's Talk (Deanery Song Project); Jilted (Flam Productions); Circus Tricks (opera for Tête à Tête); Rocket Symphony for 500 voices and fireworks (Linz European Capital of Culture); Stand (BBC Proms)
As Vocal Animateur: Deanery Song Project; BBC Proms; Horrible Histories.
Michael has provided live backing vocals for Chaka Khan, George Michael, Will Young, The Pet Shop Boys and Grace, as well as studio backing vocals for Diana Ross, Robbie Williams, Chrissy Hynde, Billy Bragg and Michael Ball. He has been lead vocalist with The Shout, Flying Pickets, The Tarantinos, Buddy Curtess and the Grasshoppers; and a featured vocalist with Ensemble Modern, Ensemble X, Shiva Nova, Royal Opera House, and Glyndebourne Opera. Michael was also a featured soloist in Scott Walker's Drifting & Tilting at the Barbican.
Movement Direction
Theatre includes: Othello; Julius Caesar (RSC); Klippies (Southwark Playhouse); How Nigeria Became: A story, and a spear that didn't work (Unicorn Theatre); The Gershwin's Porgy and Bess (Regent's Park Open Air Theatre); We Are Proud to Present a Presentation of the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Southwest Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915 (Bush Theatre); The Island (Young Vic); The Relapse (Embassy Theatre); Lola – The Life of Lola Montez (Trestle Theatre); All About It (Little Fish Theatre).
Diane was part of the creative team for the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony, and teaches across a number of drama schools in London. She is a graduate of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
Dialect
Theatre includes:Ross (Chichester Festival Theatre);Flowers for Mrs Harris (Sheffield Crucible); People Places and Things (National Theatre); Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Theatre Clwyd); Hangmen (Royal Court/West End transfer); Dinner With Saddam (Menier Chocolate Factory); Photograph 51 (MGC); The Mentalists (OVP); Bend It Like Beckham (Sonia Friedman Productions); Harvey (Birmingham Rep/Theatre Royal Haymarket); My Night With Reg; Splendour (Donmar Warehouse); Khandaan (Birmingham Rep/Royal Court); Speed the Plow; Hayfever; Saturday Night Fever; Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Theatre Royal Bath); Future Conditional; Other Desert Cities (Old Vic); We Are Proud to Present (Bush); McQueen; Urinetown (Julian Stoneham Associates); Once a Catholic (Tricycle); Fireworks; Liberian Girl; The Djinns of Eidgah; Death Tax; NSFW (Royal Court); The Island; Sizwe Bansi is Dead (Young Vic); The Commitments; Let It Be (West End); Roaring Girl; The Empress; Julius Caesar; The Winter’s Tale; Matilda; Much Ado About Nothing (RSC); Goodnight Mr Tom (Chichester Festival); Behind the Beautiful Forevers; The Veil; 13; The Comedy of Errors; The Animals and Children Took to the Streets; Travelling Light; Collaborators; The Last of the Hausmans; Timon of Athens; This House (National Theatre); The Emperor Self (Arcola); Zaide (Sadler’s Wells/UK tour).
Television includes: Indian Summers; Cucumber/Banana; Cilla; Being Eileen; Blandings; Tutankhamun; Black Mirror.
Film includes: Tulip Fever; The Jungle Book; Lies We Tell; The Conjuring 2; Allied.
Translation & Dialect Consultant
Donovan McGrath, co-author of Colloquial Swahili, is a language teacher at the University of London SOAS. He is a specialist in African Language and Culture, and Film and Visual Cultures. He was the African Language Consultant and Voice and Dialect Coach for the 2016 film, The Legend of Tarzan.
Translation & Dialect Consultant
Nickens was African Language Consultant and Voice and Dialect Coach for The Legend of Tarzan. His voice-over credits include: The Legend of Tarzan, Jadotville and The Crown. Nickens is also a singer, songwriter and composer, as well as the band leader of the established Congolese band Kasai Masai.
Fight Direction
For the Almeida: Children’s Children; House of Games; Ruined; The Knot of the Heart.
Theatre includes: Public Enemy (Young Vic); The Tempest; Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare’s Globe); The Low Road; No Quarter; Belong; In Basildon; Remembrance Day; Our Private Life; Redbud (Royal Court); Cannibals; Three Birds; Orpheus Descending; The Country Wife (Royal Exchange, Manchester); Purple Heart (Gate Theatre); God’s Property (Soho Theatre & Tour); Fences (Theatre Royal, Bath & Tour); Jack & The Beanstalk; Dangerous Lady; Shalom, Baby; Clockwork Orange – The Musical; The Graft (Theatre Royal, Stratford East); The Serpent’s Tooth (Talawa Theatre Co.); If I cd only whisper (Arcola Theatre, London); Reigen (Residenz Theatre, Munich); The Alchemist; The Norman Conquests; A Streetcar Named Desire (Liverpool Playhouse); The Rover (Hampton Court Palace); The Physicists; The Recruiting Officer (Donmar Warehouse); POSH (Duke of York’s Theatre); 9 out of 12 (Trafalgar Studios); Soul Sister (Hackney Empire); Moon On a Rainbow Shawl (National Theatre); Absent Friends; Death and The Maiden (Harold Pinter Theatre); One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Curve Theatre, Leicester); Macbeth; Dead Heavy Fantastic (Liverpool Everyman);Too Much Pressure (Belgrade Theatre, Coventry); Clybourne Park (Wyndham’s Theatre); Men Should Weep (National Theatre).
Television includes: Quick Cuts; Against All Odds.
Film includes: Troy; Vampire Endz; Deathless; The New Girl; Fuel of the Dead.
Casting
For the Almeida, as Casting Assistant: A Delicate Balance; The Master Builder; Hedda Gabler; Festen; The Goat, or Who is Sylvia; Whistling Psyche; The Earthly Paradise; Macbeth; Blood Wedding; Romance; The Hypochondriac.
As Casting Director, theatre includes: Multitudes; The Arabian Nights (Tricycle Theatre); A Number (Young Vic / Nuffield Theatre, Southampton); Five Finger Exercise (Print Room); The Glass Menagerie; The Hudsucker Proxy; Tonight at 8.30; The Saints; The Snow Queen; (Nuffield Theatre, Southampton); The Pitchfork Disney (Arcola); The David Hare Season (Sheffield Theatres); Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell (Theatre Royal , Bath / Tour); Ghosts (West End); The Fastest Clock in the Universe; Lucky Seven (Hampstead Theatre); Educating Rita (Watermill Theatre); Measure for Measure (Theatre Royal, Plymouth / Tour); Our Country’s Good (Liverpool Playhouse); The Inaugural High Tide Festival (High Tide); Scenes from An Execution (Hackney Empire); ‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore (Southwark Playhouse).
As Casting Director, short film includes: Bunny and Clive; Act of Love; That Woman.
As Casting Associate, theatre includes: Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (NT West End / Tour); Privates on Parade; Peter & Alice (Michael Grandage Company); Quartermaine’s Terms (West End); The Real Thing; Six Degrees of Separation; Dancing at Lughnasa (Old Vic); The School for Scandal (Theatre Royal, Bath).
As Casting Associate, television includes: Capital; Atlantis; Arthur & George; Silk; Doc Martin; Vicious; The Politician’s Husband; Best of Men; George Gently VI; We’ll Take Manhattan; Outcasts; Ashes to Ashes; Benidorm; Gavin & Stacey; Mutual Friends; Wild At Heart; Trial & Retribution.
As Casting Associate, film includes: Dunkirk; The Lady in the Van; Belle; The Dark Knight Rises; Fast Girls; Ashes; Sex and Drugs And Rock ‘n’ Roll; Poppy Shakespeare; Mr. Nobody; Largo Winch.
Costume Supervisor
For the Almeida: Ruined; The Chain Play.
As Costume Supervisor, theatre includes:Two Gentleman of Verona; The Merchant of Venice; Holy Warriors; The Taming of the Shrew; Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare's Globe); All the Angels (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse); Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare’s Globe / UK Tour); The Nap (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield); In The Absence of War (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield / Headlong); Jeremy, Hartleby and Ooglemore; Baddies, Velveteen Rabbit; Snow Child; Edward the Fifth; The Nutcracker and the Mouse King(Unicorn Theatre); Monsieur Popular; Forever Yours Marylou (Ustinov Studio, Bath); Country Wife; Mogadishu; Comedy of Errors (Manchester Royal Exchange); Arabian Nights(Manchester Library); Wanderlust; Disconnect(Royal Court); Kursk (Young Vic); Fit and Proper People; Realism; Shraddha; This Isn’t Romance; Piranha Heights; The Diver; The Christ of Coldharbour Lane (Soho Theatre); Stones In His Pockets; Broken Glass; The Great Game: Afghanistan; Women, Power and Politics; Greta Garbo Came To Donegal; Not Black and White; Radio Golf; Let There Be Love; Doubt; Called to Account; The War Next Door; Darfur: How Long is Never?; Fabulation; Inherit the Wind (Tricycle Theatre).
As Costume Assistant, theatre includes: Wig Out (Royal Court).
Resident Director
As Assistant Director, theatre includes: Octagon (Arcola Theatre); Perseverance Drive (Bush Theatre with Black Lives; Black Words); Sizwe Banzi is Dead (Young Vic); Pigeon English (Bristol Old Vic).
As Director, theatre includes: How to Make Love to a Muslim Without Freaking Out (Bush Theatre); Face In a Jar (Rhoda Mcgaw Theatre); Gutted ’n’ Battered (Sweden Tour); 90's Kid (Etcetera Theatre); Sexy Buff Ting (Cockpit Theatre).
Cast
Kirsty Besterman
Fiona Button
Richie Campbell
Sidney Cole
Tosin Cole
Roger Evans
Richard Goulding
Joan Iyiola
Anna-Maria Nabirye
Pamela Nomvete
Mercy Ojelade
Richard Pepple
Sule Rimi
Band
Joseph Roberts
Crispin Robinson
Alan Weekes
Writer Adam Brace
Direction Michael Longhurst
Design Jon Bausor
Composer & Musical Director Michael Henry
Lighting Jack Knowles
Sound Giles Thomas
Movement Direction Diane Alison-Mitchell
Dialect Zabarjad Salam
Translation & Dialect Consultant
Donovan McGrath
Nickens Nkoso
Casting Anna Cooper
Resident Director Taio Lawson
Costume Supervision Sydney Florence