Grand Theatre presents Barber Shop Chronicles

A Fuel, National Theatre, and West Yorkshire Playhouse co-production

The international hit from the UK comes to the Spriet Stage November 15-24 for the only Canadian stop on its North American tour

LONDON, ONTARIO, October 29, 2018 – Following two sold out runs at the National Theatre, acclaimed performances at Leeds Playhouse, and a majorly successful tour of Australia and New Zealand, BARBER SHOP CHRONICLES makes its only Canadian stop on the North American tour at the Grand Theatre from November 15–24. The Title Sponsor for BARBER SHOP CHRONICLES is McCormick Canada.

Written by Nigerian-born, London-based (UK) poet and playwright Inua Ellams, BARBER SHOP CHRONICLES is a dynamic play that journeys from a barber shop in London, to Johannesburg, Harare, Kampala, Lagos, and Accra. These are places where the banter can be barbed and the truth is always telling. Newsroom, political platform, local hot-spot, confession box, preacher-pulpit, and football stadium - for generations, African men have gathered in barber shops to discuss the world.

“Years ago I learnt of a charity that was trying to train barbers in the very basics of counselling, and I never realised how intimate the conversations could get between barbers and clients,” said Ellams. “Initially I wanted to be voyeuristic and create poems. The ideas of poems turned to conversations, to scenes, to settings, to drama, to politics, to anthropology, to history, to the contemporary. I wanted to capture the fragility of black men in their own setting.”

With an ensemble of 12, BARBER SHOP CHRONICLES is an intimate exploration of black masculinity set in six cities across two continents.  Exhilarating, and joyous, this ringside view of conversations both personal and political bursts with song, wit, and soul searching. 

 A sold-out sensation in multiple London (UK) runs, the Grand Theatre’s Artistic Director, Dennis Garnhum, was fortunate to see the show during a trip to London last December. After his trip, he knew instantly that this production was one he wanted on the Grand’s stage.

“The moment I walked into the theatre to see BARBER SHOP CHRONICLES, my heart lifted and I burst into a big smile,” said Garnhum. “It was clear that something special was unfolding and I was instantly swept up in the thrill of the event. When I returned to Canada I started making inquiries on how to get the show here, to our London.”

The BARBER SHOP CHRONICLES company will be coming to the Grand in the middle of their tour, which launched in October in Arizona and has been touring the United States’ West Coast. After their time here, the company will head directly to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

“Everyone at Fuel is thrilled about this tour. We are hugely proud of this joyous and soulful production of Inua’s important and life-affirming play,” said Kate McGrath, Director of Fuel. “We are particularly excited, given Fuel’s deep and longstanding dedication to touring, to be working in partnership with a really strong range of venues and partners across North America.”

HANG OUT WITH THE CAST OF BARBER SHOP CHRONICLES ON STAGE

BARBER SHOP CHRONICLES welcomes patrons to get up close and hang out with the cast with on stage seating. Patrons will have the ultimate experience of getting a glimpse into this unique, intimate community where African men gather to discuss the world and their lives. Join in on some pre-show dancing and perhaps a (simulated) style or trim! Tickets for on stage seating are $56 and are available at grandtheatre.com, by phone at 519-672-8800, or at the Box Office, 471 Richmond Street.

The Grand Theatre gratefully acknowledges Season Sponsor BMO Financial Group. We would also like to acknowledge Downtown London and Marriott Residence Inn for their partnership during this production.

Tickets range from $29.95 to $86 and are available at grandtheatre.com, by phone at 519-672-8800, or at the Box Office, 471 Richmond Street.

About the Grand Theatre – World Curious. London Proud.

Under the leadership of Artistic Director Dennis Garnhum and Executive Director Deb Harvey, the Grand is a leading cultural hub located in the heart of downtown London, Ontario. The Grand offers diverse, relevant, and original stories from around the globe through collaborations with national and international performing arts organizations and is committed to developing, producing, and premiering original stories through COMPASS New Play Development program. The Grand supports educational programming with The High School Project, the only program of its kind in North America. The Grand’s season runs from September to May.
 

BARBER SHOP CHRONICLES MEDIA CALL

For more information please contact:
Ashley Roberts, Communications Manager, Grand Theatre
aroberts [at] grandtheatre.com (aroberts[at]grandtheatre[dot]com)
519-672-9030 ext. 247

BARBER SHOP CHRONICLES

A Fuel, National Theatre, and West Yorkshire Playhouse co-production
Written by Inua Ellams
November 15 to November 24, 2018

GUEST ARTIST BIOS

Tuwaine Barrett
Wallace / Timothy / Mohammed / Tinashe 
Tuwaine trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. Credits at Mountview include: The Alchemist; Macbeth; A Lie of the Mind; Ghosts; Othello; and If You Don’t Let us Dream, We Won’t Let You Sleep.His work in theatre includes: Blue Orange (Soho Theatre);  A Streetcar Named Desire and; A Season in the Congo (Young Vic). TV includes: Rellik; A Discovery Of Witches; and Silent Witness. Film includes: Drop.

Elliot Edusah
Samuel 
This is Elliot’s first professional role after completing his training at LAMDA in 2018. Theatre credits at LAMDA include Taming of the Shrew; Suckerpunch; All’s Well That Ends Well and The Flick. Prior to this, Elliot’s theatre credits include As You Like It (The Brit School); and Heartfelt (Theatre Royal Stratford East).

Maynard Eziashi
Musa / Andile / Mensah
Maynard Eziashi’s work in theatre includes: The Winter’s Tale; Pericles; and Season of Migration to the North (Royal Shakespeare Company); Free Fall (Pleasance); Faith v Reason (Bush); A Jamaican Airman Forsees his Death (Royal Court); and A Respectable Wedding (Almeida). TV includes: Bad Boys; The Changeling; and Hallelujah Anyhow. Film includes: The Contract; Kiss Kiss (Bang Bang); and Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls.

Alhaji Fofana
Ethan
Alhaji won the 2017 Children's BAFTA Award for Best Performance for his role of Ryan in Screwball.  His television credits includes Silent Witness (BBC), Holby City (BBC), Josh (BBC3), Brotherhood (Big Talk/Comedy Central),  Siblings (BBC 3) and a series regular in Youngers, series 2 (Big Talk/E4).

Solomon Israel
Winston / Shoni
Solomon trained at LAMDA. Theatre credits include: The Fantastic Follies of Mrs Rich; Duchess of Malfi; Miss Littlewood; Kingdom Come; Twelfth Night; The Comedy Of Errors; and The Tempest (Royal Shakespeare Company); The Pulverised (Arcola/York Theatre Royal); Dutchman (Young Vic); Octagon (Arcola); I Know All the Secrets in My World (Tiata Fahodzi); Chigger Foot Boys (Ovalhouse); Juicy and Delicious (Nuffield Southampton); Taking Steps (Old Laundry Theatre). TV credits include: Lovesick; Doctor Who; I Live With Models; Josh; Brothers with No Game; Law and Order; Holby City; and Quick Cuts.  Radio includes: Three Strong Women (BBC).

Mohammed Mansaray
Tanaka / Fifi
Mohammed’s theatre credits include One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Sheffield Crucible), lead roles in Mrs Dalloway, Jekyll & Hyde and Othello for the National Youth Theatre’s Rep West End Season. He also has Musical Theatre experience having partaken in Oliver! (Theatre Royal Drury Lane) and Daddy Cool (Shaftesbury Theatre, World Tour). His television credits include: Tracey Beaker Returns (CBBC), Law & Order UK and The Bill (ITV). Film credits include: My Brother the Devil (Rock Rest Entertainment).

Patrice Naiambana
Tokunbo / Paul / Simphiwe
Theatre: The Man Who Committed Thought (Fringe First Award Winner); Rosamunde Hutt’s New Nigerians (Arcola); The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives (Femi Elufowoju Jnr Ensemble); The Caretaker (Bristol Old Vic); Iyalode of Eti, Duchess of Malfi (Utopia Theatre); Othello; The Histories Cycle; The Spanish Tragedy; Cymbeline; The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe (Royal Shakespeare Company); Pericles (Shakespeare’s Globe); Steven Berkoff’s Coriolanus (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Marcello Magni’s Tell Them That I’m Young and Beautiful; Ragamuffin (Double Edge Theatre).TV: The Bible; Torchwood; Silent Witness; Casualty; In Exile. Film: Turn up Charlie; Spectre; Monochrome; Schweitzer. Founder of Tribal Soul Arts.

Anthony Ofoegbu
Emmanuel
Anthony’s theatre credits include: Circle Mirror Transformation (HOME, Manchester); Titus Andronicus; Julius Caesar; Antony & Cleopatra (The Royal Shakespeare Company Rome Season, 2017-2018); Twelfth Night (Nottingham Playhouse); Death and the King’s Horseman (Royal National Theatre); Twelfth Night (Royal Theatre, Northampton);  Oedipus at Colonus (Nevada Conservatory Theatre); Treemonisha (Hackney Empire and Battersea Arts Centre); and The Beatification of Area Boy – world tour (West Yorkshire Playhouse). Television credits include: Moonfleet, Spooks, Casualty, Chambers, Family Affairs and The Bill. Film credits include: Justified, Bad Day, Dead Room, Plato’s Breaking Point, The Killing Zone and Samson and Delilah.

Kenneth Omole
Kwame / Fabrice / Brian
Kenneth Omole trained Rose Bruford Drama School. His theatre credits include: Assata Taught Me (Gate Theatre); The Cane (The Bush Theatre) and This Language (Edinburgh Fringe). Kenneth was also nominated for Best Actor at the 2017 Stage Debut Awards.

Ekow Quartey
Olawale / Wole / Kwabena / Simon
Theatre credits include: Amadeus (National Theatre); People, Places & Things (National Theatre/Headlong/Exeter Northcott); Peter Pan (National Theatre); A Midsummer Night's Dream (Theatre Royal Bath); As You Like It (National Theatre); Richard II (Shakespeare's Globe); The Absence of War (Headlong/UK Tour); Spring Awakening (Headlong/West Yorkshire Playhouse/UK Tour); Long Story Short (Pleasance Theatre); and Eye Of a Needle (Southwark Playhouse). Film/TV credits include: Call the Midwife (BBC); Enterprice (BBC3); Undercliffe; Zapped; Porters; The Current War; and Titus Andronicus with Peter Capaldi for Shakespeare's Globe. Ekow was nominated for the prestigious 2015 Ian Charleson Award.

Jo Servi
Elnathan / Benjamin / Dwayne
Jo's theatre credits include: Chess (London Coliseum); The Life (Southwark Playhouse); Dirty Dancing (U.K. & European Tour); Sunny Afternoon (Harold Pinter Theatre); City of Angels (Donmar Warehouse); A Midsummer Night's Dream (Regent's Park); Jersey Boys (Prince Edward Theatre); Before The Dawn - Kate Bush (Hammersmith Apollo);  The Enchanted Pig (New Victory Theater, New York); The Human Comedy (The Young Vic & Watford Palace); Guys And Dolls; Jailhouse Rock; Ragtime (all Piccadilly Theatre), Cinderella (Old Vic Theatre) and Disney's The Lion King (Lyceum Theatre). Film & Television: Muppets: Most Wanted (Disney); Saturday Live (Triffic Films) and The Royal Variety Performance (Granada).

David Webber
Abram / Ohene / Sizwe
David trained at Rose Bruford. His theatre work includes: Death and the King’s Horseman and Leave Taking (National Theatre); The Hudsucker Proxy (Nuffield Southampton and Liverpool Playhouse); Catch-22 (Northern Stage); Sweet Bird of Youth (Old Vic); Government Inspector (Young Vic); What’s in the Cat for Contact (Royal Court); One Love (Bristol Old Vic and Talawa); and The Big Life (Apollo, West End)  TV includes: Chewing Gum; Prime Suspect; Youngers; Nan; The Royal Bodyguard; How Not to Live Your Life; and Being Human. Film includes: Captain Phillips; The Children Act; Broken; Tipping the Velvet; 51st State; Among Giants; The Avengers; and Getting Hurt.

Inua Ellams
Writer
Born in Nigeria, Inua Ellams is a cross art form practitioner, a poet, playwright & performer, graphic artist & designer and founder of the Midnight Run — an international, arts-filled, night-time, playful, urban, walking experience. He is a Complete Works poet alumni and a designer at White Space Creative Agency. Across his work, Identity, Displacement & Destiny are reoccurring themes in which he also tries to mix the old with the new: traditional African storytelling with contemporary poetry, pencil with pixel, texture with vector images. His poetry is published by Flipped Eye, Akashic, Nine Arches & several plays by Oberon.

Bijan Sheibani
Director
Bijan’s recent theatre credits include Dance Nation (Almeida); Circle Mirror Transformation (Home, Manchester); The Brothers Size (Young Vic/Actors Touring Company); Barber Shop Chronicles (National Theatre/Fuel/West Yorkshire Playhouse). He has also directed extensively at the National Theatre of Great Britain where his credits include The Kitchen, Our Class, Emil and the Detectives and A Taste of Honey.Recent opera credits include Nothing (Glyndebourne); and Tell Me The Truth About Love (Streetwise Opera). He was an associate director of the National Theatre from 2010-2015, and artistic director of Actors Touring Company from 2007-2010.

Rae Smith
Designer 
Rae Smith’s recent designs in the UK include Nightfall (The Bridge) Translations and Macbeth (National Theatre); The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Girl from the North Country (Old Vic, Noël Coward Theatre and The Public Theater NY ); This House (National Theatre,Garrick Theatre and UK tour) The Goat or Who is Sylvia? (Theatre Royal Haymarket); Stella (Hoxton Hall and Holland Festival). Other designs include wonder.land, The Light Princess, War Horse (Tony and Olivier Awards) at the National Theatre, Cav and Pag at the Met Opera NY, and The Tempest for Birmingham Royal Ballet. Further info: www.raesmith.co.uk. Upcoming work includes Inua Ellams’ The Little Prince.

Jack Knowles
Lighting Designer
The Importance of Being Earnest (Vaudeville); Machinal, They Drink it in the Congo, Boy, Carmen Disruption, Game (Almeida); Happy Days, Parliament Square, Our Town, Twelfth Night, A Streetcar Named Desire, Wit, The Skriker, There Has Possibly Been An Incident (Royal Exchange); Dan and Phil: Interactive Introverts, The Amazing Tour is Not on Fire (World Tours); Instructions for Correct Assembly, 2071 (Royal Court); Caroline, or Change (Chichester Festival Theatre); Circle Mirror Transformation (Home MCR); Wonderland (Nottingham Playhouse); Beginning (also Ambassadors Theatre); Cleansed  (National Theatre); Committee (Donmar); 4.48 Psychosis, Reisende auf einem Bein, Happy Days (Schauspielhaus, Hamburg); Junkyard, Pygmalion (Headlong). www.jackknowles.co.uk

Aline David
Movement Director
Theatre work includes: Dance Nation, The House of Bernarda Alba (Almeida); Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice (RSC); Romeo and Juliet, A Taste of Honey, Damned by Despair, Antigone, The Kitchen, Greenland, Our Class (National Theatre); The Brothers Size, Dutchman, Eurydice (with ACT), Elektra, (Young Vic); Nothing (Glyndebourne Opera / Den Jyske Opera); The Mighty Waltzer, 1984, Macbeth (Royal Exchange); The Iphigenia Quartet, How to be Another Woman (Gate); The Tempest (National Youth Theatre); First Love is the Revolution (Soho); Romeo and Juliet, A Taste of Honey, Alice (Sheffield Crucible); The Merchant of Venice (RSC); Of Mice and Men (Birmingham Rep).

Gareth Fry
Sound Designer
Gareth’s US work includes Harry Potter and the Cursed Child; The Encounter (with Pete Malkin), Shun-kin and The Noise of Time, for Complicité; Black Watch, and Let The Right One In; for National Theatre of Scotland. Gareth’s work includes over 20 productions at the Royal National Theatre, over 20 at the Royal Court and countless more, including the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games. Awards include two Tony Awards, two Drama Desk Awards and an IRNE award. As well as three Olivier Awards, an Evening Standard Award, and two Helpmann Awards.

Michael Henry
Music Director
Michael is a composer, vocalist and musical director. MD work includes An Octoroon, The Amen Corner, Emperor and Galilean, FELA! and Death and the King’s Horseman (National Theatre); They Drink It in the Congo and Mr Burns (Almeida); SYLVIA (Old Vic); The Brothers Size and FEAST (Young Vic). Live backing vocals include George Michael, Chaka Khan and Pet Shop Boys. Studio vocals include Diana Ross, Robbie Williams and Billy Bragg. Compositions include Rocket Symphony for 500 voices and fireworks and Stand for 16 voices at the BBC Proms 2006. He has sung acapella extensively with Flying Pickets and The Shout.

Stella Odunlami
Associate Director
Stella Odunlami is a theatre-maker and researcher.She most recently presented the sound installation and performance piece London Wall: 1980 something (V&A). Work as a director includes Made Visible (The Yard); Dies Irae (Hoxton Hall); Hidden (33% Festival at Ovalhouse); Preserves (Hen and Chickens); and Black Cab Music (Lyric Hammersmith). She was previously resident assistant director at the Gate, where she worked on Joseph K, Fatherland and Electra. Other work as assistant director includes The Revenger’s Tragedy (Hoxton Hall); Crocodile (Riverside Studios); and Bad Blood Blues and Come Dancing (Theatre Royal Stratford East).

Leian John-Baptiste
Associate Director
In the past Leian has made short films and launched a website (House of Black) to showcase and celebrate young Black British filmmakers. Earlier this year he worked as an Assistant Director (to Oliver Award nominee Bijan Sheibani) at the Young Vic, on the Brothers Size (written by the Oscar winning writer of Moonlight, Tarell Alvin McCraney). More recently he has directed Waterfalls at Theatre Royal Stratford East & Stop & Search at Theatre 503.Leian plans to do more directing for stage and also get back into directing for screen something he hasn’t done much of since studying Broadcast Media at Brunel University.

Catherine Morgan
Associate Designer
Catherine was Associate Designer on St George and the Dragon (National Theatre) and Assistant Designer on The Goat (Theatre Royal, Haymarket).  She has worked for designers including Stewart Laing, Giles Cadle, Leslie Travers, Jamie Vartan, Soutra Gilmour, Antony McDonald and Tom Cairns. Associate design credits include: The Hairy Ape (Old Vic, Park Avenue Armory, New York); and Dido & Aeneas / La Voix Humaine (Opera North).

Catherine’s recent design credits include: Salad Days (The Union Theatre, Bath Theatre Royal); Screwed (Theatre 503); The One Day of the Year (Finborough). She recently participated in the final for the Dutch Opera Design Award.

Louise Marchand-Paris
Wardrobe Supervisor
Louise Marchand-Paris graduated from Wimbledon College of Art Costume Design in 2014. She has worked on film sets in France as a dresser and a wardrobe assistant. Since graduating, Louise has worked as a maker for film productions including Lady Macbeth; My Cousin Rachel in 2016, and she has been working at the National Theatre for three years as a dresser and a wardrobe assistant.  She was also the costume designer of Radieuses Vermines (Radiant Vermin by Philip Ridley). After a short run at the Leicester Square Theatre earlier this year, it toured in Paris and the Avignon Festival during the summer.

Julia Reid
Company Stage Manager
Julia trained in Stage Management at the Royal Central School of Speech & Drama. Theatre credits include: Things I Know To Be True  (Frantic Assembly, UK Tour); Fatherland (MIF, Frantic Assembly, Royal Exchange Manchester); Twelfth Night, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Scuttlers, Three Birds, Rats Tales, Good, Punk Rock and Private Lives (Royal Exchange Manchester); Midsummer Nights Dream (Int tour, Propeller); The Late Middle Classes (Donmar); Julius Caesar (RSC Swan); In the Night Garden (UK Tour); Been So Long, A Prayer for my Daughter and the Good Soul of Szechuan (Young Vic); Rough Crossings, Angels in America, Paradise Lost (Headlong).

Fiona Bardsley
Deputy Stage Manager
Fiona trained at LAMDA on the Stage Management and Technical Theatre course. She then worked in the fringe and the Soho Poly Theatre. Fiona worked at the Royal Court as DSM on many plays including Road, A Lie of the Mind, and Ice Cream and Hot Chocolate.  Fiona's credits at the National Theatre as Deputy Stage Manager include: The Shaugraun; Arcadia; Dealers Choice; Amy's View; Skylight. World tours of Richard III; King Lear; Hamlet;  The History Boys; Power; Frankenstein; Collaborators; Battle Royal; Humble Boy; Gagarin Way; The Talking Cure; Gethsemane; The Effect; Beyond Caring; Hedda Gabler and Exit the King.

Sylvia Darkwa-Ohemeng
Assistant Stage Manager
Sylvia is a Rose Bruford Graduate in Stage Management. Her credits include: The 33% Festival (Creative Youth Department at Oval House); 24hour plays (Old Vic: New Voices); NineRooms (Old Vic Tunnels); Monologue Slam; RichMix; Future Fest; Eclipse (NTC); Grandfathers (NTC); Half Breed (India Tour, Soho Theatre); A Guide to Second Date Sex; Strong Arm (Edinburgh Festival: Underbelly Venue); Jungle Book (Birmingham Rep/Roundhouse); Ada Ada Ada (Proximus Lounge, Brussels); Brainstorm (Temporary Space); Putting Words in Your Mouth (Roundhouse); Take-Over Season, Storylab (Tricycle Theatre); NYT Playing Up Season (Arcola); Halfbreed (India Tour); Boys (Vaults Festival); and Nine Night (National Theatre: The Dorfman).

Fuel, co-producer
Fuel produces an adventurous, playful and significant programme of work – live, digital, and across art forms – for a large and representative audience across the UK and beyond. We collaborate with outstanding artists with fresh perspectives and approaches who seek to explore our place in the world, expose our fears, understand our hopes for the future, create experiences which change us and in turn empower us to make change in the world around us.

Fuel Director Kate McGrath and Inua Ellams met in 2008, after Kate saw the beginnings of what became Inua’s first play, The 14th Tale, at BAC. Fuel helped Inua develop this debut and produced it, premiering it at the Edinburgh Festival, winning a Fringe First, touring it in the UK and internationally and presenting it at the National Theatre. Since that first meeting, Fuel has worked closely with Inua, producing Untitled, Knight Watch, The Long Song Goodbye, Black T-shirt Collection, The Spalding Suite, and Barber Shop Chronicles since its inception. Fuel previously toured Inua’s An Evening with an Immigrant where with poems, stories and extracts from his plays, he tells about his life  through the lens of his experience of immigration.

Upcoming Fuel projects include: Touching The Void, adapted by David Greig and directed by Tom Morris, opening at the Bristol Old Vic in September 2018. And The Half God of Rainfall by Inua Ellams at the Kiln Theatre in April 2019.

National Theatre, co-producer
The National Theatre makes world-class theatre that is entertaining, challenging and inspiring. And we make it for everyone.

We stage up to 30 productions at our South Bank home each year, ranging from reimagined classics – such as Greek tragedy and Shakespeare – to modern masterpieces and new work by contemporary writers and theatre-makers. The work we make strives to be as open, as diverse, as collaborative and as national as possible. Much of that new work is researched and developed at the New Work Department: we are committed to nurturing innovative work from new writers, directors, creative artists and performers. Equally, we are committed to education, with a wideranging Learning programme for all ages in our Clore Learning Centre and in schools and communities across the UK.

The National’s work is also seen on tour throughout the UK and internationally, and in collaborations and co-productions with regional theatres. Popular shows transfer to the West End and occasionally to Broadway. Through National Theatre Live, we broadcast live performances to cinemas around the world.

National Theatre: On Demand. In Schools makes acclaimed, curriculum-linked productions free to stream on demand in every primary and secondary school in the country. Online, the NT offers a rich variety of innovative digital content on every aspect of theatre.

We do all we can to keep ticket prices affordable and to reach a wide audience, and use our public funding to maintain artistic risk-taking, accessibility and diversity.

West Yorkshire Playhouse, co-producer 
Welcome to the home of incredible stories

There has been a Playhouse in Leeds for almost 50 years; from 1968 to 1990 as Leeds Playhouse and then with the opening of a brand new theatre on its current Quarry Hill site it became West Yorkshire Playhouse.

West Yorkshire Playhouse is a leading UK producing theatre; a cultural hub, a place where people gather to tell and share stories and to engage in world class theatre. We make work which is pioneering and relevant, seeking out the best companies and artists to create inspirational theatre in the heart of Yorkshire. From large scale spectacle, to intimate performance we develop and make work for our stages, for found spaces, for touring, for schools and community centres. Our 2015/16 production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang played to over 500,000 people across the country – our production of Beryl played to 100 in a village hall in Wickenby, Lincolnshire. We create work to entertain and inspire.

As dedicated collaborators, we work regularly with other theatres from across the UK, independent producers, and some of the most distinctive, original voices in theatre today. We develop work with established practitioners and find, nurture and support new voices that ought to be heard. We cultivate new talent by providing creative space for new writers, emerging directors, companies and individual theatre makers to refine their practice.

Alongside our work for the stage we are dedicated to providing creative engagement opportunities that excite and stimulate. We build, run and sustain projects which reach out to everyone from refugee communities, to young people and students, to older communities and people with learning disabilities. At the Playhouse there is always a way to get involved.

Production credits 
Globe built by Creative Metalwork. Model-maker Tom Paris. Thanks to Ashley Jackson, Professor of Imperial and Military History, Defence Studies Department, Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy, King’s College London, Visiting Fellow, Kellogg College Oxford. Thanks to: Krystle Lai, Kate McGrath, Bijan Sheibani, Stella Odunlami, Fisayo Akinade, Hammed Animashaun, Peter Bankolé, Maynard Eziashi, Simon Manyonda, Patrice Naiambana, Cyril Nri, Kwami Odoom, Sule Rimi, Abdul Salis, David Webber, Anthony Welsh, Rae Smith, Jack Knowles, Aline David, Gareth Fry, Michael Henry, Kev McCurdy, Peter Atakpo, Charmian Hoare, Hazel Holder, Sebastian Born, Tom Lyons, Rufus Norris, Ben Power, Emily McLaughlin, Nina Steiger, Wendy Spon, Douglas Ejikeme Nwokolo, Michael Ekewere, Ros Brooke-Taylor, Nick Starr, Peter Nice, Nadine Patel, Fusi Olateru, The British Council, Jo and Alison Elliot, Rambisayi Marufu, Billy Wolf, Christina Elliot, Alice  Massey, Chesta Clarke, ShonisaniLethole, Milisuthando Bongela, Mandal Mazibuko, Dwain, Abel, Jay, Thabiso Mohare, Lebo Mashile, Tendai, Jessica Horn, Michale Onsando, Daniel, Aleya Kassam, Njoki Ngumi, Maimouna Jallow, Ian Arunga, Brian Munene, George Gachara, Njeri Wagacha, Mugsas Blick, Phiona Okumu, Cathy Adengo, Beverly Namozo, Simon, Alex, Dre Jackson, Jimmy, Patricia Okelowange, Jessica Horn, Jude Atebe, Wallace Egbe, Fiona Hecksher, Wana Udobang, Tolu Ogunlesi,Wole Oguntokun, Adreonke Adebanjo, Kenneth Uphopho, Ore Disu, Jude Atebe, Tj Owusu, Mary Owusu-Bempah, Seth EboArthur, Nii Ayikwei Parkes, Fiifi Ayikwei Parkes, Omara Ayikwei Parkes, Marianne San Miguel, Billie McTernan, Belinda Boakye, Belinda Zhawi, Bridget, Anna & Joseph Minamore, Leeto Thale, Simon Godwin, Mensah Bediako, Daniel Ward, Jo Servi, Syrus Lowe, Denver Isaac, Ekow Quartey, Tunji Lucas, Tunji Kasim, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Seun Shote, Kurt Egyiawan, Ivanno Jeremiah, Daniel Francis, Calvin Demba, Sope Dirisu, Daniel Poyser, Poetra Asantewa, Shade & Kay Odunlami, Xavier de Sousa, Jamie Hadley and the team at The Cut Festival of Barbering, and the late David MacLennan and his team at A Play, a Pie and a Pint at Òran Mór, Catherine Morgan, Laura Hammond, Louise Marchand-Paris, Julia Reid, Fiona Bardsley, Sylvia Darkwa-Ohemeng, Peter Atakpo, Lotte Hines, Tuwaine Barrett, Elliot Edusah, Alhaji Fofana, Bayo Gbadomsi, Solomon Israel, Anthony Ofoegbu, Kenneth Omole, Jo Servi, Rachel Bowen, Laura Howells, Richard Eustace and Sarah Cowan.

This event was made possible by support from the British Council. The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We create friendly knowledge and understanding between the people of the UK and other countries. We do this by making a positive contribution to the UK and the countries we work with – changing lives by creating opportunities, building connections and engendering trust.