Under the Shadow
Based on the film by Babak Anvari, Adapted by Carmen Nasr, Directed by Nadia Latif
Event details
Tue 2 Jun – Sat 4 Jul 2026
They travel on the wind, just like that missile, and they only land once they find someone to possess.
Babak Anvari’s BAFTA-winning film, acclaimed as a ★★★★★ “ghostly Iranian gem” (The Observer), is reimagined by Carmen Nasr in this suspenseful stage adaptation, directed by Nadia Latif and featuring a cast led by Leila Farzad (I Hate Suzie; Kaos).
When Shideh’s husband is conscripted to serve on the frontline, she is left alone with her young daughter as Tehran is bombed. As the missiles strike, something more ancient and malevolent is carried on the wind.
The world premiere adaptation of this “gripping thriller” (The Hollywood Reporter), set amid the 1980s Iran-Iraq War, explores the boundary between the rational and the irrational, and the question of whether to leave or stay.
Evenings 7.30pm
Matinees 2pm
Content Warnings Recommended for ages 14+. Read more about our production guidance and warnings>
Running Time 2 hours and 20 minutes, including an interval. Please note that this is subject to change during previews.
Cast & Creatives
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Cast
Nadia Albina
Nadia Albina
Nadia Albina
Theatre includes: English (RSC/ Kiln Theatre); Maryland; Living Newspaper: Edition 5; Told From The Inside (Royal Court); Emilia (Shakespeare’s Globe/ West End); Dear Elizabeth; I Call My Brothers (Gate Theatre); The Madness of George III (Nottingham Playhouse); Othello; Macbeth (Shakespeare’s Globe); Macbeth (National Theatre); Quiz (Chichester Festival Theatre); New and Now (Edinburgh Fringe); What if Women Ruled the World? (Manchester International Festival); You Are So Relevant (Young Vic); Hecuba; Othello; The Merchant of Venice (RSC); A Stab in the Dark; A Series of Increasingly Impossible Acts; Glitterland; Chamber Piece; A Streetcar Named Desire; Woyzeck (Secret Theatre).
Film includes: Dangerous Romance; Frank & Louis; Raincatcher; Flavia; All of You; Making it.
Television Includes: Black Doves; The Witcher; Pride and Prejudice; The Cage; Pierre; Prisoner; Dreaming Whilst Black; In Flight; Maigret; Bookish; The Hack; Passenger; A Thousand Blows; You; Great Expectations; Vampire Academy; Silent Witness; The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself; Sherwood; Up To No Good.
Bijan Daneshmand
Bijan Daneshmand
Bijan Daneshmand
Film includes: USA vs Raj; The 100 Nights of Hero; Damavand; The Persian Version; Mister Mayfair; Infidel; Pari; Under the Shadow; Page Eight; Green Zone; Women Without Men; Body of Lies; Saddam’s Tribe; Munich, 2048: Nowhere to Run; Two & Two.
Television includes: Prisoner 951; The Diplomat; House of the Dragon; Flight 422; Kidnap; Suspicion; Coronation Street; EastEnders; Traitors; Deep State; Follow the Money; Looming Tower; Modus; Doctors; The Night Manager; Suspects; Special Forces Heroes; Casualty; Spooks.
Radio includes: Central Intelligence; The Fall of the Shah; Tracks; Dan Dare; The Weapon; The Boy from Aleppo Who Painted the War; Amazing Grace; The Fortunes of War; April’s Fool; Spit; The Fence; Baghdad Burning; The Interview; Westway.
Souad Faress
Souad Faress
Souad Faress
Theatre includes: Escaped Alone and What If If Only (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester); Baghdaddy; Goats (Royal Court); Lotus Beauty (Hampstead Theatre); The Wisdom Club (Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds); Permanent Way; Welcome to Iran (National Theatre).
Film includes: A House in Jerusalem; Dune; Cruella; Christopher Robin; Bridget Jones’s Baby; Sixth Happiness; Taarof.
Television includes: Marlow Murder Club; We Are Lady Parts; The Change; Sandman; Alexander: The Making of a God; Ann Droid; Beyond Paradise; Better; Back to Life; His Dark Materials; Game of Thrones.
Radio includes: The Archers; The Goldilocks Zone; The System; Welcome to Iran; Words and Music.
Leila Farzad
Leila Farzad
Leila Farzad
Theatre Includes: Arcadia (The Old Vic); Richard II (Shakespeare’s Globe); Julius Caesar (Bridge Theatre); Blue Remembered Hills (Chichester Festival Theatre); Exile; Coalition (Theatre503).
Film Includes: Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy; Bank of Dave: The Sequel; The Marvels; Pose.
Television Includes: Two Weeks in August; How to Get to Heaven from Belfast; The Decameron; Kaos; Black Mirror; Better; I Hate Suzie Too; The Fear Index; Landscapers; Avenue 5; This Time with Alan Partridge; I Hate Suzie (BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actress); Innocent; Count Arthur Strong; Cuffs; Avalon; Twenty Twelve; Law and Order; Married, Single, Other.
Mona Goodwin
Mona Goodwin
Mona Goodwin
Theatre includes: Cyrano (CAA Theatre, Toronto); Lifers (Southwark Playhouse); Grenfell: In the Words of Survivors (National Theatre/ St Ann’s Warehouse, New York); The Visit (National Theatre); Misfits (Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch); Napoli, Brooklyn (Park Theatre); War of the Worlds (New Diorama Theatre); Brilliant Jerks (VAULT Festival); Ross and Rachel (UK tour); Blue Heart (Orange Tree Theatre); Laila The Musical (Watford Palace Theatre); The Snow Queen (Royal & Derngate, Northampton); Finding Noor (Citizens Theatre); Where Have I Been All My Life? (New Vic Theatre); Cling to Me Like Ivy (Birmingham Rep); Spring Awakening (Lyric Hammersmith/ West End).
Film includes: Ali and Ava; Brighton Rock; Marvellous.
Television includes: The Cage; Can You Keep a Secret?; Extraordinary; Sex Education; Capital; Black Mirror.
Nicholas Karimi
Nicholas Karimi
Nicholas Karimi
Theatre includes: Loot (Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch); Macbeth; Henry VI: Rebellion and Wars of the Roses; The Comedy of Errors (RSC); A View from the Bridge (Tron Theatre); So Young; The Pearl Fisher; Nova Scotia (Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh); Twelfth Night; A Tale of Two Cities (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Arabian Nights (Bristol Old Vic); Adventures with the Painted People (Pitlochry Festival Theatre); The Twilight Zone (West End); A View from the Bridge (York Theatre Royal/ Royal & Derngate, Northampton); Macbeth; An Oak Tree; Everyman (National Theatre); War Horse (National Theatre/ West End); The Arabian Nights (The Lyceum, Edinburgh); The Kite Runner (West End/ Nottingham Playhouse/ Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse); Any Means Necessary (Nottingham Playhouse); Lardo (Old Red Lion Theatre); The Hairy Ape (The Old Vic); Titus Andronicus (Shakespeare’s Globe); Damascus Aleppo (National Theatre of Scotland/ Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh); Game of Life (The Yard); The Double (Theatre Royal Bath); I Was A Beautiful Day; Outward Bound; The Fear of Breathing (Finborough Theatre); The Dead Fiddler (New End Theatre, Hampstead).
Film includes: Saving Christmas Spirit; Medusa Deluxe.
Television includes: The Witcher; You Don’t Know Me; Surface.
Radio includes: Welcome to Iran; This Thing of Darkness.
Rachid Sabitri
Rachid Sabitri
Rachid Sabitri
Theatre includes:
As Actor: Grenfell: In the Words of Survivors (National Theatre/ St Ann’s Warehouse, New York); The Jungle (West End/ St Ann’s Warehouse, New York/ Young Vic); Aladdin (West End); I Call My Brothers (Arcola Theatre/ New Ohio Theatre, New York); Twelfth Night (Westport Country Playhouse/ Royal & Derngate, Northampton); Rafta, Rafta… (National Theatre/ Old Globe, San Diego); The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife (La Marida Theatre, Los Angeles); Bloodtide (York Theatre Royal); Romeo & Juliet (West End).
As Fight Coordinator: Long Day’s Journey Into Night; The Mirror and the Light (West End); A Thousand Splendid Suns (Birmingham Rep).
Opera includes:
As Actor: Tangier Tattoo (Glyndebourne).
Film includes:
As Actor: One More Shot; The Walk.
As Fight Coordinator: Sabaton: Hordes of Khan; Cerebrum; Thirst Trap; Broken Shelter.
Television includes:
As Actor: Brassic; The Ipcress File; Danny Boy; Homeland; Criminal Minds; Madam Secretary; The Odds; Generation Kill; Doctor Who; The Walk; Blue Murder; Family Business; Casualty; The Bill.
As Fight Coordinator: Last One Laughing; 8/10 Cats; Big Zuu’s Big Eats; The Last Leg; Silence is Golden.
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Child Cast
Jago Agrawal
Esma Akar
Rohan Berry
Atlanta Chaniac Golding
Adi Gimziunas
Erin Jemmotte
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Creatives
Babak AnvariBabak Anvari
Creator of Original Film
Babak Anvari
Film includes:
As Writer and Director: Under the Shadow (BAFTA for Outstanding Debut, London Critics’ Circle Film Award for Best Breakthrough and British Independent Film Award for Best Debut Director and Best Screenwriter); Wounds; I Came By; Two & Two (BAFTA nomination for Best Short Film).
As Director: Hallow Road.
Television includes:
As Executive Producer and Director: Monsterland.
Carmen NasrCarmen Nasr
Adaptor
Carmen Nasr
Carmen is a British-Lebanese writer. She was awarded the Channel 4 New Writers Scheme in 2017. Her work has been supported by leading development programmes including the Royal Court Playwriting Group and the Orange Tree Writers Collective. She leads the MA in Playwriting at the University of Manchester.
For the Almeida: The Maladies (Young Company). Theatre includes: I am Lysistrata (Park Theatre); The Maladies (The Yard); The Climbers (Theatre by the Lake); Let Kilburn Shake (Kiln Theatre); Dubailand; The House of my Father (Finborough Theatre, longlisted for the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting).
Film includes: Jasmine. Home. Mother..
Nadia LatifNadia Latif
Director
Nadia Latif
Nadia is a theatre maker and film director. She trained as a director at RADA under Bill Gaskill. She has been Associate Director of the Young Vic, a Screen International Screen Star of Tomorrow, and a Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab fellow.
Theatre includes: Marys Seacole (Donmar Warehouse); Fairview (Young Vic); Nightclubbing (The Lowry/ Camden People’s Theatre/ UK tour); Fall of the Kingdom, Rise of the Foot Soldier (RSC); Octagon; but i cd only whisper; The Ballad of Crazy Paola (Arcola Theatre); Homegrown (National Youth Theatre); Even Stillness Breathes Slowly Against a Brick Wall (Soho Theatre); Carrot; Coalition; Wild Horses; Slaves (Theatre503).
Film includes: The Man in My Basement; They Heard Him Shout Allahu Akbar; My England; White Girl.
Television includes: Culprits.
Ben StonesBen Stones
Set Designer
Ben Stones
Ben is an Olivier Award-nominated stage designer who trained at Central Saint Martins College of Art.
Theatre includes: Operation Mincemeat (West End/ Broadway/ UK tour); One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest; Sylvia (The Old Vic); Hamlet (National Theatre); Standing at the Sky’s Edge (Sheffield Crucible/ National Theatre/ West End, Olivier Award nomination for Best Set Design); Miss Saigon; Rock; Frost/Nixon; Julius Caesar; Coriolanus; She Loves Me; Kes Reimagined (Sheffield Crucible); Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Leeds Playhouse/ HOME, Manchester); Happy Meal (Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh); The Watsons (Chichester Festival Theatre/ Menier Chocolate Factory); The Bear/The Proposal (Young Vic); Swive (Shakespeare’s Globe); Hir (Bush Theatre); Frankenstein; Breaking the Code; Doctor Faustus; A Taste of Honey; The Producers (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester); The Dazzle; Bug; Fool for Love (Found111); Way Upstream (Chichester Festival Theatre); Creditors (Donmar Warehouse/ BAM, New York).
Opera includes: The Merry Widow (ENO).
Dance includes: Message In A Bottle (Sadler’s Wells); Some Like It Hip Hop; Into the Hoods (Sadler’s Wells/ UK tour); The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party (Royal Opera House/ Roundhouse).
Khadija RazaKhadija Raza
Costume Designer
Khadija Raza
Khadija trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. She won The Linbury Prize in 2017 and The Stage Debut Award for Best Designer in 2018.
For the Almeida:
As Set and Costume Designer: Cacophony (also The Yard).
Theatre includes:
As Set and Costume Designer: Safe Space (Chichester Festival Theatre); Miss Myrtle’s Garden; 10 Nights; Philoxenia; Hijabi Monologues London (Bush Theatre); Sonder(s) (Roundhouse); Funeral Flowers (Roundhouse/ UK tour); Girl in the Machine; The American Dream 2.0; Love Reign (Young Vic); Peanut Butter & Blueberries (Kiln Theatre); Every Leaf is a Hallelujah (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Julius Caesar (Shakespeare’s Globe/ UK tour); The Flood (Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch); A History of Water in the Middle East (Royal Court); Augmented (UK tour); Mixtape (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester); The Bee in Me; Dido (Unicorn Theatre); My White Best Friend (and Other Letters Left Unsaid) (The Bunker Theatre); Spun (Arcola Theatre).
As Set Designer: untitled f*ck m*ss s**gon play (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester/ Young Vic); Sundown Kiki (Young Vic); Skin Hunger (Stone Nest).
As Costume Designer: The Estate (National Theatre); The Secret Garden; Antigone (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Bach & Sons (Bridge Theatre).
James FarncombeJames Farncombe
Lighting Designer
James Farncombe
For the Almeida: The Tragedy of King Richard the Second.
Theatre includes: Les Liaisons Dangereuses; The Playboy of the Western World; The Land of the Living; London Road; Phaedra; When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other; Twelfth Night; Macbeth; The Plough and the Stars; Man and Superman; 3 Winters; Edward II; People and Men Should Weep (National Theatre); The Other Place (National Theatre/ The Shed, New York); People, Places & Things (National Theatre/ West End/ UK tour/ St Ann’s Warehouse, New York); The Cherry Orchard (Donmar Warehouse); John Gabriel Borkman (Bridge Theatre); Three Sisters; The Cherry Orchard; Measure for Measure (Young Vic); Yerma (Young Vic/ Park Avenue Armory, New York); Anatomy of a Suicide (Royal Court); Vanya (West End/ Lucille Lortel Theatre, New York).
Opera includes: The Makropulos Case; Jenůfa; Theodora; Lessons in Love and Violence (Royal Opera House); Lucia di Lammermoor (Metropolitan Opera/ LA Opera); La Traviata (Palais Garnier/ Vienna State Opera); Pelléas et Mélisande; Ariadne auf Naxos; Trauernacht (Aix-en- Provence International Festival); Alcina (Aix-en-Provence International Festival/ Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow); Innocence (Aix-en-Provence International Festival/ Metropolitan Opera); Le Vin herbé (Berlin State Opera).
Donato WhartonDonato Wharton
Sound Designer
Donato Wharton
Theatre includes:
As Sound Designer: End; The Grapes of Wrath; Under Milk Wood; Middle; Three Sisters (National Theatre); Nye (National Theatre/ Wales Millennium Centre); Grenfell: In the Words of Survivors (National Theatre/ St Ann’s Warehouse, New York); Othello (RSC); Cyrano de Bergerac (RSC/ West End); Ghosts (Lyric Hammersmith); Arcadia; A Number; Eureka Day (The Old Vic); Mass; Force Majeure; Appropriate (Donmar Warehouse); White Noise (Bridge Theatre); Phädra, in Flammen; Anatomie eines Suizids (Berliner Ensemble); Norma Jeane Baker of Troy (The Shed, New York); La Maladie de la mort (Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, Paris/ Barbican); De meiden; Uit het leven van marionetten (Toneelgroep Amsterdam); Der Kirschgarten (Deutsches Schauspielhaus, Hamburg, Deutscher Theaterpreis DER FAUST nomination); Bluets; Glückliche Tage; 4.48 Psychose (Deutsches Schauspielhaus, Hamburg); On the Exhale (Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh).
As Co-Sound Designer: Playing Cards: Hearts (International tour).
Anna Cooper CDGAnna Cooper CDG
Casting Director
Anna Cooper CDG
For the Almeida:
As Casting Director: They Drink It In The Congo.
Theatre includes:
As Casting Director: Macbeth; Next to Normal (Donmar Warehouse/ West End); The Cherry Orchard (Donmar Warehouse/ St Ann’s Warehouse, New York); The Fear of 13; Intimate Apparel; Backstroke; Skeleton Crew; Clyde’s; The Human Body; When Winston Went to War with the Wireless; Private Lives; Watch on the Rhine; The Trials; Trouble in Butetown; A Doll’s House, Part 2; Henry V; Marys Seacole; Force Majeure; Europe; [BLANK]; Teenage Dick; Far Away; Love and Other Acts of Violence; The Band’s Visit (Donmar Warehouse); Constellations; Othello (West End); Inside No.9 Stage/Fright (West End/ UK tour); Much Ado About Nothing (RSC); The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (Chichester Festival Theatre/ West End); The Invention of Love; East is South; I and You; Dry Powder; Gloria (Hampstead Theatre); Steel; Love and Information (Sheffield Theatres); Leave Taking; Hir (Bush Theatre); Circle; Mirror; Transformation; The Maids (HOME, Manchester); Multitudes (Kiln Theatre); Tonight at 8.30 (Nuffield Southampton Theatres); A Number (Nuffield Southampton Theatres/ Young Vic).
Film includes:
As Casting Associate: Dunkirk; Mission: Impossible – Fallout; The Dark Knight Rises; Belle.
Television includes:
As Casting Associate: Manhunt; Capital; Silk; Doc Martin; Ashes to Ashes; Arthur and George; Best of Men; Atlantis.
Amy Beadle CDGAmy Beadle CDG
Children's Casting Director
Amy Beadle CDG
For the Almeida: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
Theatre includes:
As Casting Associate and Children’s Casting Director: Mamma Mia! (West End/ UK & International tour); Back to the Future; Aspects of Love; Elf (West End); My Fair Lady (UK & Ireland tour); The Time Traveller’s Wife (Storyhouse, Chester/ West End); Sinatra the Musical (Birmingham Rep); Starter for Ten (Bristol Old Vic) for Grindrod Burton Casting.
As Children’s Casting Director: Mary Page Marlowe; A Christmas Carol (The Old Vic); Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (UK tour); MJ the Musical; Matilda the Musical (West End).
Film includes: Hamnet for Nina Gold; Matilda The Musical; Disenchanted; Zombies 4 for Grindrod Burton Casting.
Scott PenroseScott Penrose
Illusion Consultant
Scott Penrose
Scott is a past President of The Magic Circle. His awards include The Magic Circle Stage Magician of the Year, The David Berglas Award for Services to British Magic and The Merlin Award for Outstanding Contributions to Magic. Magic has taken Scott around the world and along the way he has performed for many interesting people, including HRH King Charles III at Buckingham Palace. He has taught magic for film and TV to the likes of Sir Michael Caine, Catherine Zeta Jones, The Duke of Edinburgh and Stephen Fry.
For the Almeida: The Turn of the Screw.
Theatre includes: KOOZA (International tour); Love Never Dies; Magical Merlin; Bend It Like Beckham (West End); Svengali; Ladykillers; Spamalot; The Tiger Who Came to Tea (West End/ UK tour); The Mesmerist (Watford Palace Theatre); Sleeping Beauty (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Sherlock Holmes: The Best Kept Secret; Ghost Stories (UK tour); The War of the Worlds (Arena tour).
Opera includes: Faust (Metropolitan Opera).
Kev McCurdyKev McCurdy
Fight Director
Kev McCurdy
Kev has been an Equity Registered Fight Director for 25 years. He has been a stage combat tutor for 35 years and co-founded The Academy of Performance Combat.
Theatre includes:
As Fight Director: Les Misérables; The Phantom of the Opera; The Play That Goes Wrong; Stranger Things: The First Shadow; All My Sons; Romeo & Juliet (West End); Oedipus (West End/ Broadway); Brigadoon (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Othello (National Theatre); Edward II (RSC); The Hunger Games: On Stage (Troubadour Canary Wharf Theatre); Small Island (Leeds Playhouse/ Birmingham Rep/ Nottingham Playhouse).
As Director: The Saliva Milkshake; The Glass Menagerie (Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama); Jekyll and Hyde; The Fight (Sherman Theatre, Cardiff); The Welsh Dragon (Theatr Iolo).
Opera includes:
As Fight Director: Carmen (Waterperry Opera Festival); Don Giovanni; Blaze of Glory! (Welsh National Opera); Saul; Falstaff (Glyndebourne).
Film includes:
As Fight Director: John Carter; Protein; The Mill Killers.
As Director: Making of a Motherer.
Television includes:
As Fight Director: Until I Kill You; Bariau; The Undisclosed War; Believe Me.
Malik Nashad SharpeMalik Nashad Sharpe
Movement Director
Malik Nashad Sharpe
Malik is a choreographer, movement director, and creative strategist working internationally across dance, theatre, film, music, and commercial advertising. Underneath his alias Marikiscrycrycry, his choreographic practice constructs worlds for the stage that draw on horror, dark fantasy, and speculative fiction.
Theatre includes:
As Movement Director: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s Globe); THE DELUSION (Serpentine Galleries); The Soul Station (Halle am Berghain); Ada (National Youth Theatre); Mates in Chelsea; The Glow; Living Newspaper (Royal Court); A View from the Bridge (UK tour); Bootycandy (Gate Theatre); Effigies of Wickedness (Gate Theatre/ ENO); Closer; Scandaltown (Lyric Hammersmith); Two-Character Play (Hampstead Theatre); Fairview (Young Vic).
As Movement Director and Co-Director: Romeo and Juliet (Theatre Royal Stratford East/ Sadler’s Wells East). Dance includes:
As Choreographer: AIR BODY SAD; DARK, HAPPY, to the CORE; Goner; He’s Dead; SOFTLAMP.autonomies; $elfie$ (International tour); BEND, UP, CHOKE (MDT Moderna Dansteatern, Stockholm); High Bed Lower Castle (Festival TransAmériques, Montreal); WE HAPPY BUT WE BROKEN (London Contemporary Music Festival); Two Tracks and a Mix (The Place).
Olivia WardOlivia Ward
Costume Supervisor
Olivia Ward
Olivia has worked in theatrical costume for 16 years.
For the Almeida:
As Costume Supervisor: A Moon for the Misbegotten; “Daddy” A Melodrama.
Theatre includes:
As Costume Supervisor: The Collaboration; The Second Woman; Passing Strange; Nachtland; A Face in the Crowd; Beneatha’s Place (Young Vic); Kabul Goes Pop (Brixton House); We Started to Sing (Arcola Theatre); The Trials (Donmar Warehouse); Ballet Shoes (National Theatre).
As Associate Costume Designer: Macbeth (Dock X, Canada Water); Hedda (Theatre Royal Bath).
As Assistant Costume Supervisor: Plenty (Chichester Festival Theatre); Ballet Shoes (National Theatre); Hamlet (Young Vic).
Mary HallidayMary Halliday
Props Supervisor
Mary Halliday
For the Almeida: Christmas Day.
Theatre includes: Stranger Things: The First Shadow; Harry Potter and the Cursed Child; Cabaret; Inter Alia; Clueless The Musical; Unicorn; Medea; Kyoto; An American in Paris; Glengarry Glen Ross; Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown; What’s It All About?Bacharach Reimagined (West End); My Fair Lady; The King and I; Waitress; Everybody’s Talking About Jamie; Beautiful – The Carole King Musical; The Book of Mormon (West End/ UK tour); The Hunger Games: On Stage (Troubadour Canary Wharf Theatre); Moulin Rouge! The Musical (West End/ Musical Dome, Cologne/ UK tour); Kiss Me, Kate (Barbican); South Pacific; Anything Goes (Barbican/ UK tour); The Fear of 13 (Donmar Warehouse); Aspects of Love (Lyric Hammersmith); 101 Dalmatians (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Fiddler on the Roof (Menier Chocolate Factory/ West End); Don Quixote (RSC/ West End); Lazarus (King’s Cross Theatre).
Layla MadanatLayla Madanat
Assistant Director
Layla Madanat
Layla is a director, dramaturg, researcher and producer. Following a master’s degree in Gender, Development and Globalisation, and an undergraduate in History, she has worked across the arts and social impact sectors.
Theatre includes:
As Director: Jesus Christ Superstar (Bird Conservatoire); A Doll’s House (The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama); HOME (Grand Junction); i broke my phone (Theatre503); succession theme is my ringtone (Rose Theatre Kingston); I Lord (Theatre Deli); Shai-Ann (The Albany); Made at Home (Tamasha); She Is A Place Called Home (VAULT Festival); Colour Is Too Sweet (King’s Head Theatre); A New Dawn (King’s Head Theatre/ Union Theatre).
As Staff Director: A Tupperware of Ashes (National Theatre).
As Associate Director: Jesus Christ Superstar (The Watermill Theatre); First Encounters: The Tempest (RSC/ UK tour); The Empress (Lyric Hammersmith/ RSC); The Walk with Little Amal (International tour).
As Associate Director and Puppetry Director: The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Rose Theatre Kingston).
As Assistant Director: Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo (Young Vic); Hakawatis (Shakespeare’s Globe); The Seven Pomegranate Seeds (Rose Theatre Kingston).
Film includes: mosaic.
Dr Sara AlsarafDr Sara Alsaraf
Dramatherapist
Dr Sara Alsaraf
Sara is a therapist (creative arts/dramatherapy) and a consultant psychiatrist. She works in the NHS and private sector. As a dramatherapist, she has supported people from minoritised and racialised backgrounds with their mental health through creativity, art practice, movement and somatic facilitation, often working with grassroots community groups. She trained across London and Brighton and completed a PhD at the University of Birmingham, focusing on the mental health impact of the immigration system upon people who have sought sanctuary in the UK.
Access Performances
Audio Described Sat 27 Jun, 2pm (Touch Tour 12pm)
Captioned Fri 19 Jun, 7.30pm
Relaxed Environment Wed 24 Jun, 2pm & 7.30pm
For full information about how to book for our access performances please visit our Access For All page.
Concessions
All concession tickets are limited and subject to availability. Proof of eligibility is required. Concessions in the final week of performances are only valid on access performances or for Deaf and disabled bookings. More info
Deaf and disabled patrons and a companion can buy discounted tickets by calling the Box Office on 020 7359 4404 or email boxoffice@almeida.co.uk.
£5 tickets will be available to those aged 25 and under for performances from Tue 2 Jun – Mon 8 Jun. Enter code 25UNDER when selecting your seats. £5 Tickets go on sale Tue 12 May at 5pm. More info
If you are aged 30 or under, over 65 or are unemployed you can book tickets at a discounted rate. Not applicable on Thu, Fri, or Sat.
A limited number of discounted tickets are available for school bookings. These range from £15 (restricted view) to £35 on Mon, Tue and Wed performances only, excluding the final week. For more information or to book, please call the Box Office on 020 7359 4404 or email boxoffice@almeida.co.uk
If you live or work in the Islington area you can book discounted tickets for all performances, subject to availability. Enter promo code ISFIRST when selecting your seats – available from 2 – 10 Jun (excluding 9 Jun). Find applicable postcodes here.
Become a member
Join today to gain access to priority booking before tickets go on sale to the general public.
Talks & Events
Talkback
After Thu 11 and Thu 25 Jun performances.
A post-show talk with members of the company. Free to same-day ticket holders.
Almeida For Free
Thu 18 Jun 7.30pm
A free performance and festival of events exclusively for those aged 25 and under. Sign up to our emails for Tickets & Events for 16-25s to be notified when tickets are available.
Production Supporters
Under the Shadow is supported by Dianne Roberts and Cockayne Grants for the Arts, a Donor Advised Fund, held at The Prism Charitable Trust.
