Ben Okri – Adaptation
Ben Okri OBE is a poet and novelist who plays with post-modern ideas of storytelling and metaphor in his work, describing it as obeying a kind of dream logic. His ten novels, three books of Short Stories, two collections of essays, and three volumes of poems include The Famished Road which won the Booker Prize in 1991, The Age of Magic, Dangerous Love, In Arcadia, Stars of The New Curfew, Astonishing The Gods and Wild. Fellowships include Trinity College Cambridge, Mansfield College Oxford, The Royal Society of Literature and a vice-presidency of the English Centre of International PEN. His many International Prizes include the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Africa, the Crystal Award by the World Economic Forum and the Review Aga Khan Prize for Fiction. He wrote the script for the film N: The Madness of Reason. He was born in Nigeria, and lives in London. His latest books are The Magic Lamp: Dreams of our Age and Rise Like Lions: Poetry for the many.
Abbey Wright – Director
Recent directing includes: Why is the Sky Blue? (Southwark Playhouse); The Mountaintop; Diana of Dobson’s; Talent; Ghosts (New Vic); The Mentalists (Wyndham’s West End); The Cocktail Party (Print Room at the Coronet); The Father; Mrs Lowry and Son (Trafalgar Studios); Dublin Carol (Donmar); The Grapes of Wrath (West Yorkshire Playhouse/Nuffield/Royal and Derngate/Nottingham Playhouse); The Glass Supper (Hampstead); Rose (Pleasance Edinburgh); Hidden Glory; The Song of Deborah (Lowry); Holiday/The Eisteddfod (Bussey Building); The Ones That Flutter (Theatre 503); Lakeboat (Arcola).
Abbey is the Artistic Director of Tackroom Theatre and was Resident Assistant Director at the Donmar and Staff Director to Danny Boyle at the National Theatre. She was also Associate Director at the New Vic and the Nuffield.
Richard Hudson – Set and Costume Designer
Born in Zimbabwe, he trained at Wimbledon School of Art. He has designed sets and costumes for operas at Glyndebourne, Covent Garden, The Metropolitan Opera, New York, La Scala Milan, Maggio Musicale Florence, English National Opera, Scottish Opera, Kent Opera, Opera North, Wiener Staatsoper, Munich, Chicago, Copenhagen, Athens, Bregenz, Amsterdam, Zurich, Barcelona, Madrid, Brussels, Houston and Washington and Rome. He has also designed for the Aldeburgh Festival, Royal Ballet, Royal Shakespeare Company, National Theatre, Royal Court, Almeida and Young Vic. In 1988 he won an Olivier Award for a season of plays at the Old Vic, and for The Lion King he received a Tony Award in 1998. He is a Royal Designer for Industry (RDI). In 2003 he won the Gold Medal for set design at the Prague Quadrenniale, and in 2005 he was given an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Surrey. Recent work includes The Nutcracker (American Ballet Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (National Ballet of Canada), Le Coq D’or and La Bayadere (Royal Danish Ballet), Wagner’s Ring Cycle (Teatro Massimo, Palermo), Versailles (Donmar Warehouse), Yumé (Opera de Reims), Peter Grimes (Opera de Lyon), La Traviata (Grange Park), The Sleeping Beauty (Amercian Ballet Theatre at The Metropolitan Opera and La Scala), Morgen und Abend (Royal Opera House and Deutsche Oper), Common (National Theatre) and Raymonda (Royal Danish Ballet).
David Plater – Lighting Designer
David was previously head of lighting at the Donmar Warehouse.
David’s nominations for design include Olivier, Tony, and Drama Desk Award nominations for Best Lighting Design for Bring Up The Bodies (Winter Gardens Broadway, Aldwych, West End); Knight of Illumination Award for Richard II (Best Play Lighting) in 2012 and for This is My Family (Best Musical Lighting) in 2013.
Off west end award winner 2017 Deathwatch (Printroom)
Extensive lighting designs include Misalliance (Orange Tree Theatre), Room (Stratford Theatre Royal, Abbey Theatre Dublin), The Devide (Edinburgh International Festival, The Old Vic) Un Ballo in Maschera, Romeo & Et Julliette, Tosca, Die Walkure, Fancuilla del West and Oliver! (Grange Park Opera), Murder Ballad (Arts Theatre), A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur, Deathwatch, Terra, Out of Blixen and The Cocktail Party (Print Room at the Coronet), Brass (Hackney Empire), The Mentalists (Wyndham’s), Bring Up The Bodies (Winter Gardens Broadway, Aldwych, West End, RSC Swan). Over 50 dance commissions for Ballet Black (the Barbican & ROH2), Beautiful Thing (Arts Theatre) The Dishwashers (Birmingham Rep), The Glass Supper (Hampstead), Billy Liar (Manchester Royal Exchange), Richard III and Twelfth Night, Roger Rees: What You Will, and 13 The Musical (Apollo Theatre), Richard II, Four Quartets and Three Days of Rain (Donmar Warehouse), Loyal Women (Royal Court Theatre Downstairs), Macbeth (Sheffield Crucible), Mrs Lowry & Son, The Silence of the Sea, and Stacy/Fanny & Faggot (Trafalgar Studios), The Chair Plays (Lyric Hammersmith), Outside Mullingar (Ustinov Bath), This is my Family (Sheffield Lyceum), The Effect (Sheffield Studio).
Matt Regan – Sound Designer
Matt Regan is a musician and theatre-maker. He has composed for companies and venues across the UK. Recently he wrote music for Mark Cousins’ upcoming documentary ‘The Eyes Of Orson Welles‘ which premiered at the Cannes film Festival this year. His first album/show ‘Greater Belfast‘ debuted at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow, performed at Traverse Theatre for the Edinburgh Fringe 2016 and was programmed as part of Celtic Connections 2018. He has been nominated for a Critics Award for Theatre in Scotland, awarded Creative Scotland funding, the Total Theatre Award, Scottish Arts Club, Carol Tambor Award, IdeasTap Young Innovator award, and won Summerhall’s Lustrom Award for ‘Greater Belfast‘.
Ruth O’Dowd CDG – Casting Director
For The Print Room: The Outsider, Love-Lies-Bleeding. Other recent projects include: A New and Better You (The Yard Theatre), Jerusalem (Watermill Theatre), Ink (Duke of York’s Theatre), The Grapes of Wrath (Nuffield Theatre and tour). For the Unicorn Theatre: My Father Odysseus, Minotaur, The Velveteen Rabbit, Henry the Fifth, Britain’s Best Recruiting Sergeant, Caucasian Chalk Circle, The Nutcracker, How Nigeria Became and Seesaw.
As Associate to Anne McNulty CDG: King Lear (Duke of York’s Theatre), The Lieutenant of Inishmore (Noel Coward Theatre), Red (Wyndham’s Theatre), What If Women Ruled The World, Fatherland (MIF 2017), Ink (Almeida Theatre), The House They Grew Up In (Chichester Minerva Theatre), The Country Girls (Chichester Festival Theatre), No Man’s Land (Wyndham’s Theatre and tour), Into The Woods (Royal Exchange, Manchester), Photograph 51 (Noel Coward Theatre), Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me (Chichester Festival Theatre), Outside Mullingar (Ustinov Studio, Bath), Bakkhai (Almeida Theatre), Carmen Disruption (Almeida Theatre).
Nezar Alderazi Arab friend on beach
Sam Alexander Raymond
John Atterbury Thomas Perez/Chaplain
Archie Backhouse The Arab
Josh Barrow Undertaker/Lawyer
Tessa Bell-Briggs Judge/Robot Woman
Alex Blake & Steve Nicolson Masson/Celeste/Policeman/Guard
David Carlyle Boss/Prosecutor
Vera Chok Marie
Sam Frenchum Mersault
Andreea Paduradu Nurse/Mistress/Visitor
Mark Penfold Director/Examining Magistrate
Uri Roodner Salamano/Caretaker