Wessex Grove Gavin Kalin Productions
Eilene Davidson Productions, Grace Street Creative Group, Kater Gordon Productions, Keren Misgav, Patrick Gracey Productions, Roast Productions, Rupert Gavin & Mallory Factor, Tilted Productions, Winkler & Smalberg in association with the Barbican
Present
PAUL BAZELY CATE BLANCHETT PRIYANGA BURFORD TOM BURKE
EMMA CORRIN ZACHARY HART PAUL HIGGINS
TANYA REYNOLDS KODI SMIT-MCPHEE JASON WATKINS
BY ANTON CHEKHOV
ADAPTED BY DUNCAN MACMILLAN & THOMAS OSTERMEIER
CONCEIVED & DIRECTED BY THOMAS OSTERMEIER
Set Designer Magda Willi
Lighting Designer Bruno Poet
Casting Jim Carnahan, CSA
Liz Fraser, CSA
Voice Coach Hazel Holder
Associate Sound Designer Erwin Sterk
Costume Supervisor Poppy Hall
Understudies
Costume Designer Marg Horwell
Sound Designer Tom Gibbons
Dramaturgy Maja Zade
Associate Director Alice Wordsworth
Assistant Director Oliver Hurst
Props Supervisor Fahmida Bakht
Valentine Hanson Lucy Karczewski Celia Nelson John Vernon Tom Victor
Executive Producer & General Manager
Wessex Grove
Marketing
Roast Productions
Company Manager
Jenny Grand
Head of Wardrobe
Nicole Ashwood
Ticketing & Sales Nat McCormack
Stage Manager Pippa Meyer
Deputy Head of Wardrobe
Kathy Richardson-Howell
Hair & Make-Up Manager
Lucy Horton
Production Manager Kate West
Press & Publicity
Kate Morley PR Campaign Graphics feastcreative.com
Deputy Stage Manager Anna Hunscott
Wardrobe Assistant Jessica Richardson
Head of Sound Will Miney
Assistant Stage Managers
Elizabeth Patrick &
Louise Quartermain
Dresser Alise Kennedy
Deputy Head of Sound Michael Rogerson
There is a special tingle of anticipation that occurs when sitting in the Barbican Theatre auditorium and the doors at the end of each row slide shut, signalling that the show is about to begin. Perhaps not entirely surprisingly, back in 1982 the audience at the very first performance in the Barbican Theatre –the Royal Shakespeare Company’s revival of Henry IV, parts 1 and 2, directed by Trevor Nunn, gave this discreet moment of drama its very own round of applause.
For the last 40 odd years the quiet electronic magic of the closing doors has come to portend some of the most thrilling theatrical experiences which the world has to offer, from Yukio Ninagawa’s famed cherry blossom Macbeth to Simon Stone’s version of The Wild Duck set in a glass house where an Australian family discover it is never wise to throw stones. When those doors glide shut, we are not sealed in, but being offered the opportunity to be taken by the hand and go on an imaginative journey in the company of some of the world’s greatest theatre artists.
Many of these artists, including Thomas Ostermeier, director, and co-adaptor of The Seagull- – return to the Barbican over and over. To them it has become more than just a venue but a London home, and one in which they are in an on-going dialogue with audiences, often over many years.
As the great Irish actor Fiona Shaw, who first stepped on the Barbican stage as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company in the early 1980s, observed after commanding the mainstage in her one-woman performance of Colm Toibin’s The Testament of Mary (2013), “I felt I was just talking with the audience. We were of one mind.”
It is a rare feat for a theatre to boast the conditions which allows for both the intensely intimate and the epic to sit cheek by jowl, sometimes even swinging from one to the other, moment by moment. But with its wide stage, and wider fanned auditorium without a central aisle, the Barbican Theatre has proved itself capable of delivering both the thrill of the large scale in the work of artists including Pina Bausch, Yukio Ninagawa and Robert Wilson as well as the sense in one person shows of being right inside the very core of someone else’s brain. Think Complicitie’s The Encounter with Simon McBurney, Bobby Baker’s How to Live, or Maxine Peake in the intensely moving Avalanche.
Avalanche, a co-production with the Sydney Theatre Company, was designed by Marg Horwell who also designs the costumes for The Seagull. During her time training at Central St Martins School of Art, The Seagull set designer, Magda Willi, undertook her work placement at the Barbican on Night of the Soul. In 2016, The Seagull’s co-adaptor Duncan Macmillan worked with Katie Mitchell on The Forbidden Zone, a searing examination of science, war, and morality, co-produced with the Salzburg Festival and the Schaubühne Berlin. The tentacles of the Barbican curl not just across UK theatre but reach right across the globe.
Truly great directors, designers and actors see the possibilities of the space and take full advantage of its chameleon-like duality. Cate Blanchett demonstrated that exquisitely and with total command when she was last on stage at the Barbican in 2012 in Botho Strauss’ surrealist drama Big and Small (Gross und Klein), directed by Benedict Andrews for the Sydney Theatre Company. Critics, as well as audiences, swooned at the uninhibited dazzle of her performance as Lotte, an eternal outsider in a coldly materialistic world. Veteran critic Michael Billington marvelled at her lightening ability to telescope “from a figure of bounding, irrepressible energy to one shrouded in silence like a Samuel Beckett character staring into the abyss.”
But the transformation of the Barbican into a theatre in which world class UK talent such as Ballet Black or Complicite- – some of the latter’s greatest hits including A Disappearing Number have first been seen in London at the Barbican- – and the international sit in constant dialogue, came about more by accident than design. In 2002, the RSC, unhappy and never fully settled in its London home, quit the Barbican.
Long since reconciled, the RSC now enjoys a regular Autumn season at the Barbican, where its most significant recent international co-production, My Neighbour Totoro, premiered. But its departure in the early 2000s left many empty weeks in the theatre’s calendar that required filling. Out of necessity, the Barbican International Theatre Events (BITE) seasons were born, in the process opening up a window on the world and theatre practices outside of the British tradition.
British audiences soon discovered that a visit to the Barbican could take them to the four corners of the globe and back again and introduced them to a range of artists whose work might otherwise never have been seen in London, from Lev Dodin and the Maly theatre to Canada’s Robert Lepage, and the work of Ivo Van Hove. Van Hove’s Roman Tragedies, seen at the Barbican in 2009, became a rallying point for young British theatre makers eager to break free from some of the stifling conventions surrounding so many British revivals of Shakespeare.
It wasn’t just Shakespeare. Thomas Ostermeier first made his UK debut on the Barbican stage in 2004 with a singular contemporary staging of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. When Ostermeier’s Nora slammed the door shut on her family home, she left a trail of blood behind her. Over the subsequent two decades he has commanded the Barbican stage bringing us a genuinely explosive Hedda Gabler, (2008), an iconoclastic An Enemy of the People (2014) rewritten for murky modern times. The latter was restaged in an English version starring Matt Smith at the Duke of York’s in 2024. And who could forget that electrifying Richard III (2017) with the mighty Lars Eidinger as a monstrously watchable Richard, like a gone to seed rock god who doesn’t realise it’s time to relinquish the microphone.
The Barbican is not just a theatre but an arts centre, one where all artforms— visual arts, cinema, all kinds of music and the performing arts—thrive and bounce merrily off each other. Rather than keeping them apart like dangerous wild beasts that programmers fear might do an injury to the other and confuse audiences, Barbican mainstage programming embraces contemporary dance and theatre and circus and live art in one joyous whirligig. As Toni Racklin, head of theatre and dance at the Barbican, has said, “bringing the art forms together was transformative” because it has given the Barbican its identity and sprung constant surprises. “Often an audience comes out of the Barbican saying, ‘I didn’t expect that.’”
The Barbican Theatre is also singular in that it has no external presence. While other theatre buildings across London and UK signal their existence enthusiastically- – sometimes strenuously- – the Barbican Theatre sits buried unseen within the arts centre and the residential complex. For something so invisible it creates a mighty magnetic pull, a hidden crucible for thinking and feeling and debating which is powered by the greatest artists in the world.
It’s a place where anything can happen. Will happen. Tonight. Lean forward in your seat and wait for those doors to glide shut.
Lyn Gardner, 2025
Credit: Lisa Tomasetti
BY ANTON CHEKHOV
THREE o’clock in the morning. The soft April night is looking in at my windows and caressingly winking at me with its stars. I can’t sleep, I am so happy!
“My whole being from head to heels is bursting with a strange, incomprehensible feeling. I can’t analyse it just now – I haven’t the time, I’m too lazy, and there – hang analysis! Why, is a man likely to interpret his sensations when he is flying head foremost from a belfry, or has just learned that he has won two hundred thousand? Is he in a state to do it?”
This was more or less how I began my love-letter to Sasha, a girl of nineteen with whom I had fallen in love. I began it five times, and as often tore up the sheets, scratched out whole pages, and copied it all over again. I spent as long over the letter as if it had been a novel I had to write to order. And it was not because I tried to make it longer, more elaborate, and more fervent, but because I wanted endlessly to prolong the process of this writing, when one sits in the stillness of one’s study and communes with one’s own day-dreams while the spring night looks in at one’s window. Between the lines I saw a beloved image, and it seemed to me that there were, sitting at the same table writing with me, spirits as naively happy, as foolish, and as blissfully smiling as I. I wrote continually, looking at my hand, which still ached deliciously where hers had lately pressed it, and if I turned my eyes away I had a vision of the green trellis of the little gate. Through that trellis Sasha gazed at me after I had said goodbye to her. When I was saying good-bye to Sasha I was thinking of nothing and was simply admiring her figure as every decent man admires a pretty woman; when I saw through the trellis two big eyes, I suddenly, as though by inspiration, knew that I was in love, that it was all settled between us, and fully decided already, that I had nothing left to do but to carry out certain formalities. It is a great delight also to seal up a love-letter, and, slowly putting on one’s hat and coat, to go softly out of the house and to carry the treasure to the post.
There are no stars in the sky now: in their place there is a long whitish streak in the east, broken here and there by clouds above the roofs of the dingy houses; from that streak the whole sky is flooded with pale light. The town is asleep, but already the water-carts have come out, and somewhere in a far-away factory a whistle sounds to wake up the workpeople. Beside the postbox, slightly moist with dew, you are sure to see the clumsy figure of a house porter, wearing a bell-shaped sheepskin and carrying a stick.
He is in a condition akin to catalepsy: he is not asleep or awake, but something between.
If the boxes knew how often people resort to them for the decision of their fate, they would not have such a humble air. I, anyway, almost kissed my postbox, and as I gazed at it I reflected that the post is the greatest of blessings.
I beg anyone who has ever been in love to remember how one usually hurries home after dropping the letter in the box, rapidly gets into bed and pulls up the quilt in the full conviction that as soon as one wakes up in the morning one will be overwhelmed with memories of the previous day and look with rapture at the window, where the daylight will be eagerly making its way through the folds of the curtain.
Well, to facts. . . . Next morning at midday, Sasha’s maid brought me the following answer: “I am delited be sure to come to us to day please I shall expect you. Your S.”
Not a single comma. This lack of punctuation, and the misspelling of the word “delighted,” the whole letter, and even the long, narrow envelope in which it was put filled my heart with tenderness. In the sprawling but diffident handwriting I recognised Sasha’s walk, her way of raising her eyebrows when she laughed, the movement of her lips. . . . But the contents of the letter did not satisfy me. In the first place, poetical letters are not answered in that way, and in the second, why should I go to Sasha’s house to wait till it should occur to her stout mamma, her brothers, and poor relations to leave us alone together? It would never enter their heads, and nothing is more hateful than to have to restrain one’s raptures simply because of the intrusion of some animate trumpery in the shape of a half-deaf old woman or little girl pestering one with questions. I sent an answer by the maid asking Sasha to select some park or boulevard for a rendezvous.
My suggestion was readily accepted. I had struck the right chord, as the saying is.
Between four and five o’clock in the afternoon I made my way to the furthest and most overgrown part of the park. There was not a soul in the park, and the tryst might have taken place somewhere nearer in one of the avenues or arbours, but women don’t like doing it by halves in romantic affairs; in for a penny, in for a pound – if you are in for a tryst, let it be in the furthest and most impenetrable thicket, where one runs the risk of stumbling upon some rough or drunken man. When I went up to Sasha she was standing with her back to me, and in that back I could read a devilish lot of mystery. It seemed as though that back and the nape of her neck, and the black spots on her dress were saying: Hush! . . . The girl was wearing a simple cotton dress over which she
had thrown a light cape. To add to the air of mysterious secrecy, her face was covered with a white veil. Not to spoil the effect, I had to approach on tiptoe and speak in a half whisper.
From what I remember now, I was not so much the essential point of the rendezvous as a detail of it. Sasha was not so much absorbed in the interview itself as in its romantic mysteriousness, my kisses, the silence of the gloomy trees, my vows. . . . There was not a minute in which she forgot herself, was overcome, or let the mysterious expression drop from her face, and really if there had been any Ivan Sidoritch or Sidor Ivanitch in my place she would have felt just as happy. How is one to make out in such circumstances whether one is loved or not? Whether the love is “the real thing” or not?
From the park I took Sasha home with me. The presence of the beloved woman in one’s bachelor quarters affects one like wine and music. Usually one begins to speak of the future, and the confidence and self-reliance with which one does so is beyond bounds. You make plans and projects, talk fervently of the rank of general though you have not yet reached the rank of a lieutenant, and altogether you fire off such high-flown nonsense that your listener must have a great deal of love and ignorance of life to assent to it. Fortunately for men, women in love are always blinded by their feelings and never know anything of life. Far from not assenting, they actually turn pale with holy awe, are full of reverence and hang greedily on the maniac’s words.
Sasha listened to me with attention, but I soon detected an absent-minded expression on her face, she did not understand me. The future of which I talked interested her only in its external aspect and I was wasting time in displaying my plans and projects before her. She was keenly interested in knowing which would be her room, what paper she would have in the room, why I had an upright piano instead of a grand piano, and so on. She examined carefully all the little things on my table, looked at the photographs, sniffed at the bottles, peeled the old stamps off the envelopes, saying she wanted them for something.
“Please collect old stamps for me!” she said, making a grave face. “Please do.”
Then she found a nut in the window, noisily cracked it and ate it.
“Why don’t you stick little labels on the backs of your books?” she asked, taking a look at the bookcase.
“What for?”
“Oh, so that each book should have its number. And where am I to put my books? I’ve got books too, you know.”
“What books have you got?” I asked.
Sasha raised her eyebrows, thought a moment and said:
“All sorts.”
And if it had entered my head to ask her what thoughts, what convictions, what aims she had, she would no doubt have raised her eyebrows, thought a minute, and have said in the same way: “All sorts.”
Later I saw Sasha home and left her house regularly, officially engaged, and was so reckoned till our wedding. If the reader will allow me to judge merely from my personal experience, I maintain that to be engaged is very dreary, far more so than to be a husband or nothing at all. An engaged man is neither one thing nor the other, he has left one side of the river and not reached the other, he is not married and yet he can’t be said to be a bachelor, but is in something not unlike the condition of the porter whom I have mentioned above.
Every day as soon as I had a free moment I hastened to my fiance. As I went I usually bore within me a multitude of hopes, desires, intentions, suggestions, phrases. I always fancied that as soon as the maid opened the door I should, from feeling oppressed and stifled, plunge at once up to my neck into a sea of refreshing happiness. But it always turned out otherwise in fact. Every time I went to see my fiance I found all her family and other members of the household busy over the silly trousseau. (And by the way, they were hard at work sewing for two months and then they had less than a hundred roubles’ worth of things). There was a smell of irons, candle grease and fumes. Bugles scrunched under one’s feet. The two most important rooms were piled up with billows of linen, calico, and muslin and from among the billows peeped out Sasha’s little head with a thread between her teeth. All the sewing party welcomed me with cries of delight but at once led me off into the dining-room where I could not hinder them nor see what only husbands are permitted to behold. In spite of my feelings, I had to sit in the dining-room and converse with Pimenovna, one of the poor relations. Sasha, looking worried and excited, kept running by me with a thimble, a skein of wool or some other boring object.
“Wait, wait, I shan’t be a minute,” she would say when I raised imploring eyes to her. “Only fancy that wretch Stepanida has spoilt the bodice of the barge dress!”
And after waiting in vain for this grace, I lost my temper, went out of the house and walked about the streets in the company of the new cane I had bought. Or I would want to go for a walk or a drive with my fiance, would go round and find her already standing in the hall with her mother, dressed to go out and playing with her parasol.
“Oh, we are going to the Arcade,” she would say. “We have got to buy some more cashmere and change the hat.”
My outing is knocked on the head. I join the ladies and go with them to the Arcade. It is revoltingly dull to listen to women shopping, haggling and trying to outdo the sharp shopman. I felt ashamed when Sasha, after turning over masses of material and knocking down the prices to a minimum, walked out of the shop without buying anything, or else told the shopman to cut her some half rouble’s worth.
When they came out of the shop, Sasha and her mamma with scared and worried faces would discuss at length having made a mistake, having bought the wrong thing, the flowers in the chintz being too dark, and so on.
Yes, it is a bore to be engaged! I’m glad it’s over.
Now I am married. It is evening. I am sitting in my study reading. Behind me on the sofa Sasha is sitting munching something noisily. I want a glass of beer.
“Sasha, look for the corkscrew. . . .” I say. “It’s lying about somewhere.”
Sasha leaps up, rummages in a disorderly way among two or three heaps of papers, drops the matches, and without finding the corkscrew, sits down in silence. . . . Five minutes pass – ten. . . I begin to be fretted both by thirst and vexation.
“Sasha, do look for the corkscrew,” I say.
Sasha leaps up again and rummages among the papers near me. Her munching and rustling of the papers affects me like the sound of sharpening knives against each other. . . . I get up and begin looking for the corkscrew myself. At last it is found and the beer is uncorked. Sasha remains by the table and begins telling me something at great length.
“You’d better read something, Sasha,” I say.
She takes up a book, sits down facing me and begins moving her lips. . . . I look at her little forehead, moving lips, and sink into thought.
“She is getting on for twenty. . . .” I reflect. “If one takes a boy of the educated class and of that age and compares them, what a difference! The boy would have knowledge and convictions and some intelligence.”
But I forgive that difference just as the low forehead and moving lips are forgiven. I remember in my old Lovelace days I have cast off women for a stain on their stockings, or for one foolish word, or for not cleaning their teeth, and now I forgive everything: the munching, the muddling about after the corkscrew, the slovenliness, the long talking about nothing that matters; I forgive it all almost unconsciously, with no effort of will, as though Sasha’s mistakes were my mistakes, and many things which would have made me wince in old days move me to tenderness and even rapture. The explanation of this forgiveness of everything lies in my love for Sasha, but what is the explanation of the love itself, I really don’t know.
Simon Stephens
When did you first read Chekhov?
Thomas Ostermeier
That was probably during my time at theatre school.
SS
And where was that? In Berlin?
TO
Yeah. That was at the Ernst Busch. I wasn't a big fan. I'm not sure I am a big fan now.
SS Why not?
TO
Well, I'm a big fan of Shakespeare as you know. And in Shakespeare’s plays, you always have a clear conflict and incredible stakes. In Chekhov, I sometimes feel ‘where are the stakes?’ That might be a reason for why I'm so much into The Seagull because I can clearly see the stakes in the situations.
SS
I read him after I left university. I had a collection of his plays, I remember finding them a tussle to read because as you said, the stakes and the tension, the dynamism is rarely explicit. It exists in the space in between the characters. Have you discovered as a director, stakes that you hadn't realised that were there when you were a reader?
TO
Yeah. Definitely. Always. Even today, in today’s rehearsal we dug deeper into the play. We got to know the play better. I had the feeling that there was much more in the scene we were rehearsing than even I realized.
SS
Can I ask what scene it was?
TO
That was the first scene of the third act between Masha and Trigorin where Masha tells Trigorin that she would have killed herself if Konstantin had achieved to kill himself. There’s a mirroring effect with the previous scene between Trigorin and Nina. In that scene Trigorin tells Nina, that he’s interested in her because she’s a younger person and the younger characters in his books are implausible because he doesn’t spend enough time with young people. And Masha only tells Trigorin about her feelings about Konstantin because he is a writer. I had the idea that she must have been eavesdropping. It unfolds and unfolds and unfolds. I understand more and more and more all the time.
SS
Yeah he's a fucker, really. What about you Duncan? When did you first read Chekhov?
Duncan Macmillan
It's a really interesting question. Not when did I first see it, but when did I first read it?
SS
I only asked because I read him first.
DM
As a teenager I was taken to see productions of The Cherry Orchard and Three Sisters. I had never been so bored in my life. But then I read Uncle Vanya, and I really loved it. I went back and read those other two plays and loved them on the page – they were surprising, funny, sad, truthful. Compared to the two-dimensional mouthpieces in lots of plays, his characters felt like real people – I wanted to hug them and to shake them by the shoulders. I don’t know exactly why those productions had failed to grab me, but I do think there’s a tone and even a sort of crucial central mechanism in the plays that is often completely missed in both adaptation and in production.
SS
If the plays are so tricky to read and to stage in a way that captures their potential, why do you think he's produced so widely?
TO
It’s the feeling in them, the sentimentality. But not only that. Actually, the sentimentality is everything I'm trying to fight against when I'm directing Chekhov! I'm trying to really dig deep into the comedy. Chekhov calls The Seagull ‘a comedy.’ We should pay attention to that. But it’s difficult. I have made three other productions of this play. In Berlin and Amsterdam and Paris.
The last time I directed it I had the feeling I’d made it too farcical. So, if you only stress the comedy too much, then it becomes superficial. What you really need to do, you need to try to let the actors be truthful to the situation and to respect the stakes and to let them experience the situations as a tragedy. The comedy lies in the situation they are in, not in the fact that they're trying to be funny.
SS
It's Aristotelian. In a comedy the characters never see their own truth. Whereas in a tragedy a character realizes their truth. In Chekhov plays, the characters never realize.
DM
If you look at the great comedy characters, they all lack knowledge about themselves – things that are immediately apparent to the rest of us but that the character themselves will never learn. Homer Simpson will never be truly introspective, he’s never going to change, and that’s at the core of why we laugh at him. Chekhov’s characters walk a fine line between comedy and tragedy because, while they are acutely aware of being unhappy, they are seemingly incapable of escaping that unhappiness. In fact, their actions prohibit them from doing so! But they come really close to it. In adaptation, and in production, you have to walk that line, I think, between comedy and tragedy. Playing them as straight-up comedies doesn’t work, but neither does treating them as pure tragedy.
One of the starting points for me reading The Seagull is that Chekhov had been to the penal colony island of Sakhalin, just before he wrote the play. I re-read his journalistic account of his time there again before coming here to London. It's horrible what he describes. You ask yourself how could it be that he comes from Sakhalin and then writes a play about love? And my understanding of this lies in this world which he lived in. It was a world of famine, it was a world in transition, it was a world where the people living in the countryside, the so-called aristocracy, were about to lose everything they had, and they were facing profound changes. I think my understanding of the comedy of this play lies in the idea that anybody who has seen hell looks at the behavior of people in a different way. I think having seen a world which was collapsing and was riddled with disaster, to then imagine a group living in a bourgeois bubble talking about love and art was innately ridiculous. That's why I think of it as a comedy.
When you described the world that he's living in the Russia of the 1900s, the three images you chose were images of a time of famine, a time of profound change, and a time in which the affluent cultures were on the cusp of losing everything. There's part of me that wonders if there are analogies to 2025.
Of course, there are similarities to our times. Look at all the wars which are going on in the world right now and Trump is back in power. There are crises in Gaza, in Sudan, in Ukraine. And amidst all these terrible events we are making a play about art and love or theatre and love.
The Seagull is also about that contradiction – the play itself asks: can theatre, or literature or art in general, make a difference to the world? In fact, I think every great play – I don't know if this is true, but I'm going to say it – every great play articulates that sort of crisis of confidence. Perhaps part of their greatness comes from how the form’s essential limitations have to be bent or broken in the attempt to truthfully address real-world tragedies – whether it’s Samuel Beckett or Sarah Kane or debbie tucker green. That resonates with me, in this moment, as a theatre-maker but also as a person – we’re all sitting around, theorizing, talking about the world, feeling powerless but refusing to give up hope, wanting to write plays which change the world but ending-up writing about love. Which, of course, is no small thing.
What I find with Chekhov’s plays, as well as his understanding of the folly of the attempt to keep telling stories and making theatre and falling in love with the wrong people at a time of catastrophe, is a great compassion for the people who keep on trying.
I wrote a quote on the rehearsal room wall – metaphorically of course – in which he said that he had decided to portray the world as he saw it and not to make any judgment on that. And that is pretty close to my own agenda, this attempt not to judge. It’s interesting making this work in the UK. For me, all the writers and the plays ever directed from the UK share that impulse. My interest was only ever in staging the plays as honestly as possible. Not strangling them with a concept.
In this sense I think I would consider myself the most British of the German directors.
A lot of people in Britain would think of your name as being a shorthand for the radical German avant-garde.
TO
I know. It's a complete misunderstanding because in German I'm considered to be a very conventional director. My passion is making actors beautiful on stage, or complex, in the representation of their characters.
DM
I think part of that truth of The Seagull, of all of Chekhov’s plays comes in its structure.
In The Seagull, unlike in Ibsen, say, more in familiar Hollywood story structure, there’s no clear protagonist, no clear enemy or obstacle. There is a mess of contradictory goals and accidental meetings, missed-opportunities, impulsive decisions. There’s a loose, symphonic ensemble structure to the play. People drifting in and out, making decisions in the moment based on what just happened. Watching it you see how, while your life may be on one path, a single conversation, an unexpected reaction, perhaps even someone interrupting at exactly the wrong moment can nudge you in an entirely different direction. That feels really truthful to me, as someone who has often sort of bumbled blindly through life, it feels like how things really happen. He reveals life as an unplanned, essentially random sequence of events, chance encounters, decisions made when you’re tired or angry or upset and your life takes a different path. We’re all Chekhovian characters in that sense. I mean, that's what I really loved so much about Vanya when I read it for the first time. That it wasn't this staid world of characters in fine white linens, speaking beautifully and intelligently that I'd seen in that inert production of The Cherry Orchard. It's 3 o'clock in the morning. No one has slept enough. Everyone's drinking too much. Everyone's horny for all the wrong people, and they're suicidally depressed. Anything can happen. The decisions they're making, the words they're saying are not being said by sober people in their right minds. They are people at a certain heightened frequency making decisions that they probably otherwise wouldn't. And something that’s really thrilling about rehearsing a play like this with Thomas is that it's incredibly physical and instinctive from the beginning, rather than intellectual or tactical. The actors have been basically off-book from day one, so we’ve been on our feet since the start, we've not sat around a table once. I think there's an English tradition to treat Chekhov as literature and to act it from the neck upwards, to find your light and sit nicely and face out and be emotionally legible, but it’s all much messier and inexplicable and human than that.
SS
One of the surprising things about your work here is that you're not working at the National Theatre, at the Royal Court Theatre, the home of the playwrights that you've loved, you're in the West End. What does the West End bring you as an artist?
TO
I have to admit that I really enjoy working in the West End, I like the truth of it. I like the fact that you are worried about whether or not tickets are selling.
SS
It’s a Shakespearian tradition.
SS Theatre has a different function in London to its function in Berlin.
TO
I was amazed about the fact that in the Duke of York's, they have this champagne bar! And people buy bottles of champagne and bring them into the audience in the break. In Germany, you’re not allowed to bring a drink in the auditorium because you really need to pay attention to the event on stage. In Berlin going to the theatre is not like being in a pub and having a drink and looking at the world. I prefer the atmosphere of the pub and the drink.
SS Why?
TO
Because I think if theatre is honest it has to be entertaining. The idea that we can only understand ourselves, only understand what we are as a society or as human beings with the dryness of a classroom is a mistake. Life isn’t like that. I think British audiences understand that somehow.
The audience is the real experience in British theatre.
I staged Ibsen’s Enemy of the People at the Duke of York’s. Matt Smith played the lead role.
I created an intervention at the heart of the play where the characters turn to the audience and invite them to share their experiences of living in Britain in these times.
Every time I was in the audience during this moment, I was close to tears. What people shared was so moving. Audiences would never be so honest in German theatre. I remember one person picking up the microphone that we handed to the audience and saying that she was working for the NHS, in a mental hospital. She said ‘I can tell you that the cuts in the NHS cost lives of people. This country doesn't have a cost-of-living crisis, this country has a mental health crisis.’ I was shocked. Or a teacher stood up one time and said ‘yeah, my partner is working as a professor in university, I'm a teacher, and we can't afford to have children because we can't afford to even pay the rent for the apartment we're living in and so we will not have children because of the cost of living.’ I was surprised that British audiences were ready to take this moment so seriously and really felt invited to share their own lives.
Its early days yet, you're in the second week of six weeks of rehearsal. But how do you anticipate that this direct and honest British audience, with its high expectations of entertainment, will react to your Seagull?
Well, if we continue to work in the way we are working at the moment, I think it is possible that we can create a quality of performance where what's happening with the characters is very truthful to the situation. I think it can be touching at times. And because it's so truthful, it's incredibly comical. And if we succeed then the audience may be entertained because The Seagull is a good comedy. Not a comedy which is searching for laughter or for any comical effect, because as Freud wrote there are many different types of laughter. If we generate a laughter because our audience recognizes themselves, they see how ridiculous they are every now and then, even in tragic situations, then, well, I think that would make a good show.
His theatre work includes: The Father and the Assassin, Anna, Hamlet, Really Old Like Forty Five, The Waiting Room, Richard III (National Theatre); Quiz (Chichester Festival Theatre & Noel Coward); Dear Elizabeth (Gate); The White Devil (Globe); Drawing The Line (Hampstead); A Passage to India (Shared Experience);,The Djinns of Eidgah, Last Dance at Dum Dum, and East is East (Royal Court)
Television includes: Such Brave Girls, Miss Scarlet, Amadeus, Citadel, Feel Good, The Sister, The Hollow Crown – Richard III, Benidorm, Black Mirror, Dr Who, The I.T. Crowd, The Ipcress Files and Green Wing
Films include: Pirates of the Caribbean – On Stranger Tides, Jadoo –Kings of Curry, Star Wars – The Last Jedi, Cruella, and Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.
Paul voices the books of the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center of New York and of the meditation teacher, Eknath Easwaran�
Cate’s theatre credits include: The Present (Sydney Theatre Company (STC) and Broadway – nominated for a Tony Award); The Maids (STC, Lincoln Center Festival – Helpmann Award); Gross und Klein – Big and Small (STC, Barbican, Théâtre de la Ville Paris, Wiener Festwochen Vienna, Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen – Helpmann Award); Uncle Vanya (STC, Lincoln Center Festival, Kennedy Center Washington – Helpmann Award); A Streetcar Named Desire (STC, BAM New York, Kennedy Centre Washington – Helen Hayes Award); The War of The Roses (STC); Hedda Gabler (STC, BAM New York – Ibsen Centennial Commemoration Award, Helpmann Award); Kafka Dances (STC); The Tempest (Belvoir); The Seagull (Belvoir); When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other (National Theatre) As director: Blackbird and The Year of Magical Thinking (STC) Blanchett served with Andrew Upton as co-Artistic Director and co-CEO of Sydney Theatre Company between 2008-2013, programming across four stages� She is a board member of the National Theatre�
Her television work includes: Disclaimer, Mrs America, Stateless.
Her film work includes: Black Bag, Rumours, Tár, Nightmare Alley, Don’t Look Up, Ocean’s 8, Thor: Ragnorok, Carol, Blue Jasmine, I’m Not There, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Notes on a Scandal, The Life Aquatic, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of The Crystal Skull, The Lord of The Rings Trilogy, The Hobbit, The Good German, The Aviator, The Talented Mr Ripley and Elizabeth�
Numerous awards for screen include two Academy Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes and three Screen Actors Guild awards� The Venice Film Festival has twice awarded her The Volpi Cup for Best Performance� She has received the Stanley Kubrick Award for Excellence in Film and holds a BFI Fellowship from the BFI London Film Festival� Other accolades include the Honorary Cesar, International Goya, Chaplin, TIFF Share Her Journey and Donostia Awards
Priyanga trained at LAMDA�
Her theatre work includes: An Enemy of The People (Olivier Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress – Duke of York's); The Vortex (Chichester Festival Theatre); Rapture (The Royal Court); The Winter’s Tale, Eyam (Shakespeare’s Globe); Consent (National); The Effect (Sheffield Crucible)�
Television credits include: The Steeltown Murders, Innocent 2, Industry, Avenue 5, This Time with Alan Partridge, Press, W1A, King Charles III, 100 Days of UKIP, The Thick of It, Silent Witness, The Shadowline.
Film credits include: No Time to Die, The Other Man.
His theatre work includes: Rosmersholm (Duke of York’s Theatre); Don Carlos (UK tour); The Deep Blue Sea, The Doctor’s Dilemma (National Theatre); Reasons to be Happy (Hampstead), Reasons to be Pretty, Macbeth (Almeida), Design for Living (Old Vic); Restoration (Salisbury Playhouse); Creditors (winner of the Ian Charleson Award – Donmar & Brooklyn Academy of Music); Don Juan Comes Back From The War (Coventry Belgrade); I’ll Be The Devil (Tricycle); The Cut (Donmar + UK tour); Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare’s Globe) and Gertrude: The Cry (Riverside Studios, UK tour + Elsinore Castle)
Television work includes: Blade Runner 2099, The Lazarus Project, The Crown, Strike, The Musketeers, War and Peace, Utopia, The Hour, Great Expectations, Casanova, and State of Play.
Film work includes: Furiosa, The Wonder, Klokkenluider, True Things, Mank, The Souvenir, Telstar, Cleanskin, Only God Forgives, The Invisible Woman, and Third Star.
Their theatre work includes: Orlando (Garrick), and Anna X (Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress and The Stage Debut Award nomination for Best West End Performer – Harold Pinter)
Television credits include: The Crown (Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award, SAG and Emmy nominations), A Murder at the End of the World (nomination for an Independent Spirit Award in the Best Lead Performance), and the forthcoming Black Mirror.
Film credits include : Nosferatu, Deadpool & Wolverine, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, My Policeman, and the forthcoming 100 Nights of Hero.
Zachary trained at The Academy of Live and Recorded Arts where he was nominated for the Spotlight Prize Award�
His theatre credits include: The Constituent (Old Vic); An Enemy of The People (Duke of York’s); and Julius Caesar (The Bridge)�
Television credits include: Slow Horses, Masters of the Air, Bodies, Peaky Blinders, The Witcher: Blood Origin, Doc Martin, Doctors, Casualty.
Film credits include: Jericho Ridge, Sitting in Limbo, Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and Legendary Tapes.
His theatre credits include: This is Memorial Device (Lyceum Theatre/ Edinburgh Book Festival), Romeo & Juliet, The Doctor (Almeida); Aristocrats (Donmar); The White Guard (National Theatre); The Meaning of Zong (Bristol Old Vic); and Local Hero (Chichester Festival Theatre)�
Television credits include: Slow Horses, Brain and Maggie, Cold Call, Line of Duty, Utopia, The Ipcress File, and The Thick of It,
Film credits include: Couple in a Hole, In the Loop, Victoria and Abdul, Greed and Kill.
Her theatre credits include: A Mirror (Almeida & Trafalgar – Olivier Award nomination Best Supporting Actress); Scenes with Girls (Royal Court), She Stoops to Conquer (Orange Tree), and White Rabbit Red Rabbit (Soho Place)�
Television and film credits include: The Decameron, Sex Education, Timestalker, Emma, The Baby, Fanny Lye Deliver’d, Delicious, Outlander and Rellik.
Tanya was listed as a 2020 Screen International Star of Tomorrow, she trained at The Oxford School of Drama, graduating in 2015�
Kodi makes his professional stage debut as Konstantin�
His television work includes: Disclaimer and Interrogation.
Film work includes: Maria, Memoir of a Snail, The Power of the Dog (New York Critics’ Film Award, and BAFTA and Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor as well as a Golden Globe win for Best Supporting Actor), Dolemite is My Name, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, Alpha, Deadpool 2, X Men: Apocalypse, Slow West, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, All the Wilderness, ParaNorman, Let Me In (nomination for AFI Award for Best Young Actor), The Road and Romulus, My Father (AFI Award for Best Young Actor), and the forthcoming Zealot
Jason was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in A Servant to Two Masters for the RSC/Young Vic/West End�
Recent theatre includes: The play, Frozen (The Haymarket); The Twits (Royal Court); Strange Interlude, Landscape with Weapon, Our Class, Inadmissible Evidence (National Theatre); A Laughing Matter (NT and Out of Joint)
Other selected theatre includes: The Plantagenets, The Plain Dealer (RSC); Blue Kettle and Hearts Desire (Out of Joint); The Late Henry Moss, Midsummer’s Nights Dream (Almeida Theatre); A Farewell to the Theatre (Hampstead Theatre); The Dumb Waiter (Oxford Playhouse); Boy Gets Girl, Rafts and Dreams, King Lear (Royal Court); and Arden of Faversham (Old Red Lion)�
Jason played the title role in The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies, for which he won the Best Actor BAFTA� He played Harold Wilson in The Crown�
Recent Television includes: Anansi Boys, Des, Archie, Coma, The Catch, The Trick, The Crown (SAG Award Best Ensemble) Line of Duty, Taboo, Inside No 9, A Very English Scandal, Friday Night Dinner, Trollied, Simon Harwood in WIA. He is DS Dodds in McDonald and Dodds� Pennyworth in Batman Caped Crusader the Animated Series, for Warner Bros�
Other TV work includes: Being Human, Housewife 49, Sex Traffic, Little Dorrit, Funland, Are You Being Served and the documentary: Jason and Clara In Memory of Maudie.
Film credits include: The Phoenician Scheme, Dragonfly, Wicked Little Letters, Hampstead, The Children Act, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, Wild Child, Bridget Jones – The Edge of Reason, High Hopes� Jason is Gordon Shakespeare in the Nativity film series�
Short film: The One Note Man (Greece International Film Festival Best Actor & Richard Harris Best Actor Award)�
His theatre credits include: The Lehman Trilogy, The Grapes of Wrath, The Effect (National); The Importance of Being Earnest (English Touring Theatre); Orpheus Descending (Theatr Clwyd & Menier Chocolate Factory); Still Lives (The Old Waiting Room); We Anchor in Hope (Bunker Theatre); Handfast (Summerhall, Edinburgh Festival); The Sisterhood (Belgrade); Hector (Eden Court & Ambassadors); Cuming and Going (Bush); StopSearch (Catford Broadway Studio); Footprints in the Sand, Letting Go, For One Night Only (Pursued by a Bear); Word Peace: A Celebration (Globe); Festen, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Lyric); The Tempest (Orange Tree); G.I. Blues (Forest Forge); After the End of the World (Red Ladder, National Tour); Positive Mental Attitude (Theatre Centre, National Tour); and The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn (Classic Theatre, National Tour)�
Television credits include: The Friday Night Project, Murder City, and Casualty.
Film credits include: London Voodoo.
Lucy recently graduated from LAMDA where her credits included: Juliet in Romeo and Juliet; Laura in the Glass Menagerie and Grusha in the Caucasian Chalk Circle; she was on the team that represented the Academy in the 2023 Carlton Hobbs Awards� Lucy is a proud former participant of the Open Door scheme� This will mark her West End debut
Celia Nelson trained at The Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art�
Her theatre credits include: Oedipus (Duke of York’s); Dear Octopus, The House of Bernarda Alba (National); The Doctor (Richmond Theatre & Duke of York’s); Virtual Reality, Private Lives (Stephen Joseph); Broken Glass (Theatre Royal Northampton); Saints Day (Orange Tree); Lady Windermere’s Fan, Blithe Spirit (Salisbury Playhouse); The Animals, Big Fella (Dublin Festival); Tartuffe, Having a Ball, Blithe Spirit (Perth Rep); Loot (UK tour); The Rehearsal, A Flea in Her Ear, Joking Apart, La Vie de Boheme (Pitlochry); Vanity Fair, Spokesong, A Streetcar Named Desire (Sherman, Cardiff); The Playboy of the Western World, Hard Times, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Turn the Old Year Go (Torch, Milford Haven); and Sticks and Stones ( Old Red Lion)�
TV includes: The Bill, Slap, and Telephone Detectives.
Radio includes: BBC Radio 4’s The Archers.
John Vernon trained at Coventry School of Drama and studied Creative arts at Crewe and Alsager College�
His theatre work includes: The Importance of Being Earnest, Coriolanus, London Tide, Dear Octopus and The Red Lion (National Theatre); Noises Off (Haymarket); Mad House, COCK (Ambassadors Theatre); Uncle Vanya, The Birthday Party (Harold Pinter); Bitter Wheat (Garrick); King Lear (Duke of York’s); and The Price (Wyndham’s) Eureka Day (Old Vic); North by Northwest, Pressure (Royal Alexandra, Toronto); A Room with a View, Hobson’s Choice (Theatre Royal Bath); Pygmalion (English Theatre Vienna); In Broad Daylight (Tricycle); Ben & Joe’s, QRs and AIs Clearly State (King’s Head); Macbeth (Pentameters, Hampstead); Hamlet (Rose, Chelsea); Tess of the d’Urbervilles (Assembly Room); Orion and the Great Bear (Traverse, & Warehouse Croydon); and Translations (George Wood Theatre)�
Television includes: DI Ray Season 2, Call the Midwife, Doctors, Longford, The Knock, EastEnders, The Bill, Heartbeat, Medics, Harry Enfield Show, Poirot, Brief Encounter and The New Adventures of Robin Hood.
Film includes: Russian Whispers, Ma part du Gâteau, Princess in Love, and Warrior Angels.
Tom graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in 2022 and was quickly offered the lead in the C4 factual drama Consent, directed by Nadira Amrani Tom can most recently be seen starring opposite Julianne Moore in the Sky series Mary and George directed by Oliver Hermanus�
Director & Co-Adaptor
Since September 1999 Thomas Ostermeier has been resident director and member of the Artistic Direction of the Schaubühne Berlin� His productions for the company include Nora – Nestroy Prize and Politika Prize, Hedda Gabler – Theatertreffen Berlin, Hamlet – co-production with Athens Festival and festval d’avignon, Barcelona Critic's Prize as critic’s prize as Best International Production 2011 in Chile, John Gabriel Borkman – Grand Prix de la Critique of France, Measure for Measure –Friedrich-Luft-Prize for the Best Theatre Performance in Berlin, An Enemy of the People, The Little Foxes – audience award of the Theatergemeinde Berlin, Richard III – Premio della Critica Teatrale, Bella Figura, Professor Bernhardi, Returning to Reims, – Theatertreffen Berlin – History of Violence, Italian Night, abgrund, Youth without God – co-production with Salzburger Festspiele, Qui a tué mon Père, Vernon Subutex, ödipus – coproduction with the Athens Epidauros festival, The Seagull – audience award of the Theatergemeinde Berlin and changes
His theatre work with other companies includes Der starke Stamm, Vor Sonnenaufgang, Die Ehe der Maria Braun, and Susn (Münchner Kammerspiele), The Girl on the Sofa (Edinburgh Festival – Herald Angel Award), The Master Builder (Burgtheater in Vienna), La Mouette (ThéâtreVidy, Lausanne), La Nuit des rois ou Tout ce que vous voulez (ComédieFrançaise Paris) – Prix Molière for the best Production in France 2022 and Vox Humana (Dramaten, Stockholm) The Threepenny Opera –(Festival d’Aix-en-Provence/Comédie-Française Paris) and An Enemy of the People (The Duke of York’s Theatre, London)� Thomas Ostermeier’s productions are touring across the globe�
In November 2004 Ostermeier was appointed Artiste Associé for the Festival d’Avignon and has been presenting shows at the Festival regularly since then� He has been appointed Officier des Arts et des Lettres by the French ministry of Culture, was German president of the DeutschFranzösischer Kulturrat (DKFR) – German-French Council of Culture, was the recipient of the Golden Lion of the Venice Biennale, Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and the KYTHERA-Price for Culture, and is a member of the Deutsche Akademie der Künste, of the Académie de Berlin and of the Deutsch-Französischer Kulturrat, as well as receiving honorary doctorates from the Universities of Kent and Gothenberg
Co-Adaptor
Duncan is an award-winning writer and director His work has been performed throughout the world, including at the National Theatre, Royal Court, Old Vic, Almeida, Barbican, St Ann’s Warehouse, Schaubühne Berlin, Berliner Ensemble, Hamburg Schauspielhaus, Burgtheater Wien, Melbourne Theatre Company, Vesturport, Kansallisteatteri, Nationaltheatret Oslo, at the Salzburg Festival, in the West End and on Broadway His screen work has been shown at the London and Berlin film festivals, on the BBC, Netflix and, HBO� Plays include: People, Places and Things; Lungs; Every Brilliant Thing; An Enemy of the People (adapt� Henrik Ibsen/Thomas Ostermeier/ Florian Borchmeyer); Rosmersholm (adapt� Henrik Ibsen); 1984 (adapt� George Orwell, co-written and co-directed with Robert Icke); City of Glass (adapt Paul Auster); 2071 (co-written with Chris Rapley); The Forbidden Zone; Wunschloses Unglück (adapt� Peter Handke); and Reise durch die Nacht (adapt� Friederike Mayröcker), which was selected for Theatertreffen and Festival d’Avignon and awarded the Nestroy Preis for Best German Language Production� People, Places and Things, 1984 and Rosmersholm were all nominated for Olivier Awards�
Set Designer
Magda is a set and costume designer based in Berlin� She works internationally in theatre and opera� She completed her theatre design studies at Central St� Martins and in 2015, received the Swiss Design Award for her work� From 2013-2018 Magda was Head of Design at the Gorki Theatre Berlin�
Magda has designed various productions at the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz Berlin, Young Vic Theatre London, Donmar Warehouse, Comédie Française Paris, Gorki Theatre Berlin, Bayerische Staatsoper, Opernhaus Zürich, Göteborgsoperan, Opéra Nationale de Lyon, Deutsches Theater Berlin, Staatsschauspiel Dresden, Schauspielhaus Bochum, Østerbro Teater Kopenhagen, Theater Basel, Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf and Volkstheater Wien among others�
UK theatre includes: A Streetcar Named Desire; Jesus Hopped the A Train (Young Vic); Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Apollo) and The Cherry Orchard (Donmar)�
Opera includes: Così fan tutte (Bayerische Staatsoper München); The Threepenny Opera (Festival Aix-en-Provence/Comédie Française); Rigoletto (Göteborgsoperan); Entführung aus dem Serail (Volksoper Wien) and Germania (Opéra Nationale de Lyon)�
Dance includes: For Hedy/Rhapsodies (Opernhaus Zürich)�
MARG HORWELL
Costume Designer
Marg is a multi-award-winning set and costume designer for theatre, opera and film�
Marg has been recognised for her outstanding work with three Sydney Theatre Awards and thirteen Greenroom Awards, and was awarded the Olivier Award for Best Costume Design in 2024 for The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Recent theatre includes: The Picture of Dorian Gray (Michael Cassel Group/Kindred Partners/Sydney Theatre Company); The Confessions (National); Dracula, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Sydney Theatre Company); The Dead City (Deutche Oper Am Rhein); The Happy End (Victorian Opera); The Marriage of Figaro, The Human Voice and The Call (Opera Queensland); My Brilliant Career (Melbourne Theatre Company); Because the Night (Malthouse); Our Town (Theater Basel)
Marg designed costumes for Kip Williams’ The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui and Lord of the Flies and designed set and costumes on How to Rule The World and The Lifespan of a Fact (Sydney Theatre Company); Salome (English National Opera); Avalanche (Barbican); Leviathan (Circa); Common Ground (Chunky Move)�
For Melbourne Theatre Company Marg has designed: Bernhardt/ Hamlet, Escaped Alone and What It If Only, My Sister Jill, Girls and Boys, The Truth, Lilith The Jungle Girl (MTC/Sisters Grimm), Sexual Misconduct of The Middle Classes (MTC/Belvoir), Marlin (MTC/Arena), Cock (MTC/La Boite), The House of Bernarda Alba, Birdland, Peddling, Constellations, Music, The Dream Life of Butterflies, The Water Carriers, and Circle Mirror Transformation.
In 2017, Marg was the Designer in Residence at Malthouse Theatre, and designed: The Homosexuals, Revolt� She said� Revolt Again, The Testament of Mary, The Real and Imagined History of the Elephant Man, Edward II, The Good Person of Szechuan (Malthouse / The National Theatre of China), Bliss (Malthouse/Belvoir St), Melancholia, Blasted, The Histrionic and Caravan for the company�
Lighting Designer
Bruno works extensively in opera, theatre, dance, and live music� He has won three Knight of Illumination Awards for his work on the Sigur Rós 2013 World Tour, Björk’s Cornucopia, and Frankenstein at the National Theatre, where he also won the Olivier Award for Best Lighting Design�
Credits include: The Devil Wears Prada (West End/Plymouth); Macbeth (West End/Donmar Warehouse); Waiting For Godot (West End); Miss Saigon (West End/Broadway/Japan/European Tour/US Tour/Australia Tour); TINA: The Tina Turner Musical (Tony Nomination, West End/ Broadway/International Tours); The Witches, Frankenstein, London Road, Light Shining In Buckinghamshire (National); Richard II, Julius Caesar, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Bridge); 42 Balloons (Lowry); Uncle Vanya (West End); From Here To Eternity (West End); Bad Cinderella (Broadway); The Convert (Young Vic); The Hours (Met Opera); Alicia Keys: Keys To The Summer (US Arena Tour); Pet Shop Boys Dreamworld Tour; Sigur Ros (all world tours since 2012); Amadeus (Royal Danish Opera); Salome (Houston Grand Opera); Don Giovanni (Royal Opera House/LA Opera/Houston Opera); UAE 49th, 50th, 51st, 52nd and 53rd National Day; Akhnaten (ENO/LA Opera/Met Opera); Gary Barlow: A Different Stage (West End/UK Tour); Bjork Cornucopia (International Tour); Trovatore (Montecarlo/Madrid/Copenhagen/LA Opera); Billie Eilish Live (Steve Jobs); Oklahoma (Grange Park Opera); Otello (Royal Opera House); Carmen (Bregenz); Alcina (Glyndebourne)�
Sound Designer
Recent work includes Coriolanus (National); Passing Strange (Young Vic); Oedipus, Opening Night, Long Day’s Journey into Night (West End); Dear England (National Theatre, West End); Jesus Christ Superstar (DeLaMar Theatre, Amsterdam); The Enormous Crocodile (Regent’s Park, Leeds Playhouse); Here We Are (The Shed, New York); Dead Man Walking (The Metropolitan Opera); Best of Enemies (Noël Coward Theatre, Young Vic); Grey House (Lyceum Theatre, Broadway); Good (West End); Hamlet, Oresteia, The Doctor (Park Avenue Armory, Almeida Theatre, West End); Animal Farm (UK tour); West Side Story, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Broadway); Cabaret (Göteborg Opera); Judas, Oedipus, The Doctor (International Theatre Amsterdam); The Antipodes, Home, I’m Darling, People, Places and Things (Winner for Best Sound Design, Olivier Awards 2016); Hedda Gabler, Sunset At The Villa Thalia, The Red Barn (National Theatre/West End); All About Eve (West End); Our Town (Regent’s Park Open Air); The Doctor, Wild Duck (Almeida/West End); Madness of King George III (Nottingham Playhouse); Hexenjagd (Theater Basel); Mr Burns, 1984 (Almeida/West End/Broadway); Fanny and Alexander, The Lorax (Old Vic); A View From the Bridge (Young Vic/West End/Broadway); Obsession (International Theatre Amsterdam, Barbican); Life of Galileo, Happy Days, A Season in the Congo, Disco Pigs (Young Vic); Les Miserables (Wermland Opera, Sweden); The Crucible (Walter Kerr Theatre, Broadway); Anna Karenina (Manchester Royal Exchange); The Moderate Soprano, Elephants (Hampstead); White Devil, As You Like It (RSC); Translations, Plenty (Sheffield Crucible); After Life, The Absence of War, Romeo & Juliet (Headlong); Lion Boy (Complicite); Venus in Fur (Theatre Royal Haymarket); Henry IV, Julius Caesar (Donmar, St Ann’s Brooklyn); The End of History, Pah La, The Woods, Love Love Love, (Royal Court)�
Casting Director
Jim has cast over 150 Broadway shows
Broadway includes: Sunset Blvd, Stranger Things: The First Shadow, Just in Time, Pirates! The Penzance Musical, Cult of Love, The Hills of California, Our Town, Swept Away, Appropriate, Merrily We Roll Along, A Doll’s House, A Beautiful Noise, Leopoldstadt, Funny Girl, Take Me Out, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Moulin Rouge! The Musical. The Shark is Broken, New York, New York, A Doll’s House, Take Me Out, Almost Famous, Plaza Suite, Leopoldstadt, Funny Girl, Plaza Suite, Caroline, or Change, The Lehman Trilogy, Soldier’s Play, Christmas Carol, Betrayal, Burn This, Kiss Me Kate, The Ferryman, Angels in America, 1984, Groundhog Day, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, She Loves Me, Noises Off, King Charles III, Fun Home, Constellations, The River, Cabaret, Glass Menagerie, Matilda, Peter and the Starcatcher, Once, Mountaintop, Jerusalem, Anything Goes, Scottsboro Boys, American Idiot, A Behanding in Spokane, Boeing-Boeing, Sunday in the Park, Spring Awakening.
Off-Broadway includes: Little Shop of Horrors, Medea, Hamlet/ Oresteia, The Doctor.
London includes: Oedipus, Eureka Day, Groundhog Day, The 47th(Old Vic); Stranger Things: The First Shadow (Phoenix); Plaza Suite (Savoy); Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons, Nice Fish, Betrayal (Harold Pinter); Best of Enemies (Noel Coward); Mad House (Ambassadors), Glengarry Glen Ross (Playhouse), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Apollo), Angels in America, Red Barn, Motherf**ker with the Hat (National), Glass Menagerie (Duke of York’s), and A Streetcar Named Desire (Young Vic)�
Film/Television: Ari Aster’s Beau is Afraid, John Mulaney & The Sack Lunch Bunch (Netflix), The Seagull, A Home At The End Of The World, Flicka, Glee (Emmy nomination)�
He is a member of the Casting Society of America and a twenty-seventime recipient of the Artios Award for excellence in casting�
Casting Director
Broadway: Cult of Love, Our Town, Pirates! The Penzance Musical, Patriots
Television: FBI: Most Wanted (CBS), FBI (CBS), Chicago Fire (NBC), Chicago PD (NBC), Chicago Med (NBC)�
Dramaturgy
Maja is a dramaturg, playwright and translator She is head of dramaturgy at the Schaubühne Berlin, where she has worked since 1999� She was raised in Germany and Sweden, studied English Literature at London University and at Queen’s University in Canada, and theatre production at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London� From 1997 to 1999 she was Senior Reader at the Royal Court Theatre in London She has taught at Malmö Theatre School and at Edinburgh University since 2012, and is part of the jury for the James Tait Black Prize for Drama� Beside her work at the Schaubühne she has worked as a dramaturg for Michael Thalheimer productions at Dramaten, Stockholm� Various translations into German include work by Lars von Trier and Caryl Churchill and translations into English (from German and Swedish) by Marius von Mayenburg, Lars Norén and Falk Richter� Her plays status quo, abgrund, ödipus, reden über sex all premiered at the Schaubühne and have been translated into e g Swedish, Latvian, Polish, Hebrew, French and English� She directed her play spinne at the Schaubühne in June 2024, and her latest play, changes, directed by Thomas Ostermeier, opened at the Schaubühne in November 2024�
Voice Coach
Hazel is a voice & dialect coach, actor, and voice Associate for the National Theatre�
Theatre includes: The Importance of Being Earnest, A Tupperware of Ashes, The Grapes of Wrath, The Hot Wing King, Death of England trilogy, The Effect, Grenfell: in the Words of Survivors, Blues for an Alabama Sky, The Crucible, Nine Night, Barber Shop Chronicles and Angels in America (National); Waiting for Godot (Theatre Royal Haymarket); People, Places and Things (National/Trafalgar Studios); Two Strangers Carry a Cake Across New York (Criterion); Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Wyndham’s); Sunset Boulevard (Savoy); Best of Enemies (Noel Coward/Young Vic); Cock (Ambassadors); To Kill A Mockingbird (Gielgud); The Glass Menagerie (Duke of York’s); Constellations (Vaudeville/Donmar); 2:22 (Noel Coward/ Apollo); Death of a Salesman (Piccadilly/Young Vic); Uncle Vanya (Harold Pinter); Tina: The Tina Turner Musical (Aldwych); Dreamgirls (Savoy); Clyde’s, The Doll’s House Part II, Marys Seacole, Love and Other Acts of Violence, (Donmar); Jitney (Old Vic); Ulster American (Second Half Productions), Giant, seven methods of killing kylie jenner, Ear for eye, A Kind of People, Pigs & Dogs, Father Comes Home from the Wars (Royal Court); Mlimas Tale, Retrograde, Wife of Willesden, Pass Over, The Father (Kiln Theatre); A Face in the Crowd, The Homecoming, Mandela, Fairview, The Convert, The Emperor (Young Vic); August in England, (Bush); Richard II (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse); Newsies (Troubadour, Wembley Park); A Place For We (Talawa / Park)� Television includes: Silo (Apple TV+); The Power (Amazon); The Baby (Sky); Small Axe (BBC)� Film includes: The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (Amazon); Aisha, ear for eye (BBC Film); The Silent Twins (Focus Features); Death on the Nile (Twentieth Century Fox)
Associate Director
Directing credits include: For Susie, With Love (Short Film); Anansi The Spider (Unicorn); An Intervention (Riverside Studios); Duizend Schepen, We’re All Mad Here, and Love Stories (Amsterdam on Stage)�
As Associate Director: Oedipus (Wyndham’s); F*ghag (Assembly, Edinburgh Fringe); Opening Night (Gielgud); Macbeth (UK Tour/ Washington DC); and An Hour & A Half Late (Theatre Royal Bath).
As Assistant Director: A Little Life (Harold Pinter & Savoy); Gulliver’s Travels, Maggot Moon, The Canterville Ghost, The Bee in Me (Unicorn) and Love on the Links (Salisbury Playhouse)�
Associate Sound Designer
Between 2011 and 2020 Erwin was affiliated with International Theater
Amsterdam
At ITA he was head of sound from 2015-2020 and participated in numerous productions as (technical) sound designer with highlights such as: Kings of war, Death in Venice, A Little Life, Fountainhead, The Human Voice, Age of Rage and the ITAlive streaming platform�
Since 2019 he is partner of sound designers collective De Compaenen�
Associate sound design highlights include: Jesus Christ Superstar, I want Absolute Beauty, Oedipus, Lazarus , The Human Voice, The Damned, Blood Wedding, The Doctor, and several shows for the Holland Festival�
Erwin regularly consults on audio installations for theaters and artspaces�
Assistant Director
Oliver is the Artistic Director of Manchester based Red Brick Theatre and the recipient of the Royal Exchange Hodgkiss Director Award 2024�
Oliver’s directing credits include: Pornography, Life on a Plum, Sea Wall (53Two); The BBC’s First Homosexual (New Adelphi); and Bad Moult (The King’s Arms)�
As Assistant Director: The Importance of Being Earnest; The Den (Royal Exchange); American Buffalo (The King’s Arms), and A Number (53Two)�
Costume Supervisor
Film & TV credits include: Assistant Costume Designer, Secret Invasion (Marvel); See How They Run Theatre credits include: Tartuffe, John, Network, Salome, Amadeus, Hedda Gabler, The Motherfucker With The Hat, The James Plays Trilogy, Doctor’s Dilemma, One Man Two Guvnors, London Assurance, Men Should Weep, The Cat in The Hat, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Much Ado About Nothing, Statement of Regret, Measure for Measure (National); As You Like It (@sohoplace); Lyonesse, A Little Life, Walden, Uncle Vanya (Harold Pinter); Girl from the North Country (Old Vic, Noel Coward, Gielgud Theatre & UK Tour); Rosmersholm, Jeeves and Wooster, That Face (Duke of York’s); All AboutEve (Noel Coward); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Michael Grandage Company, Noel Coward); Wings (Young Vic); The Real Thing, Electra, Resurrection Blues (The Old Vic); Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Theatre Royal Drury Lane); The Lion in Winter (Theatre Royal Haymarket); The Children’s Hour (Comedy); La Bete (Comedy & Broadway); Private Lives (Vaudeville); Opening Night, Little Dog Laughed (Garrick); Judgement Day, Duet for One (The Almeida); Ring Round the Moon (Playhouse); A Little Night Music (Menier Chocolate Factory & Garrick); Dealers Choice (Menier Chocolate Factory & Trafalgar Studios); Girl From The North Country (Belasco Theatre & Public Theater, NY & Royal Alexandra
Theatre, Toronto); Jesus Christ Superstar (Lyric Opera Chicago, US Tour); Madness of King George (Nottingham Playhouse); Coram Boy, Sound Of Music, Strife, Taken at Midnight, Mack and Mable, Love Story, Music Man (Chichester Festival); A Doll’s House Part 2, Sweet Charity, Committee, Saint Joan, One Night in Miami, The Vote, City of Angels,Passion, Dimetos, Red, Parade (Donmar); Frost Nixon (Donmar & Gielgud); A Disappearing Number, Noise of Time (Complicite)�
Props Supervisor
Theatre credits include: The Tempest (Drury Lane); The Creakers (Plymouth/Southbank); Sour Angelica (ENO); The Promise, House Party (Chichester Festival); Opening Night (Gielgud); Enfield Haunting (Ambassadors); Time Travellers Wife (Apollo); A Strange Loop (Barbican); Richard III, Caucasian Chalk Circle (The Rose, Kingston); Sylvia, Bagdad Cafe, A Number, The 47th (Old Vic) Romeo & Juliet (Regents Park); Get Up Stand Up (Lyric); Wuthering Heights (Bristol Old Vic & UK Tour); The Seagull, Betrayal, The Dumb Waiter, A Slight Ache, Moonlight, Night School, Homecoming (Harold Pinter); Richard III, The Spoils, Buried Child (Trafalgar Studios); Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (Leicester Curve & UK Tour); Big The Musical (Dominion); Pitchfolk Disney (Shoreditch Town Hall ); Lady Windermere’s Fan, and A Woman of No Importance (Noël Coward)
Production Manager
Recent productions include: Barcelona (Duke of Yorks); Oedipus (Wyndhams); Waiting for Godot (Haymarket); The Spy Who Came In From The Cold (CFT); Slave Play (Noel Coward); The Other Boleyn Girl (CFT), Nachtland (Young Vic); Hills Of California (Harold Pinter); Unfriend (Wyndham, Criterion, CFT); Back Stairs Billy (Duke of Yorks); The Three Billy Goats Gruff (CFT), The Old Man and the Pool (Wyndhams); Assassins (CFT); Operation Mincemeat (Fortune); Aspects of Love (Lyric); Women Beware the Devil (Almeida); As You Like It (Sohoplace); Orlando (Garrick); John Gabriel Borkman, Book of Dust, Bach and Sons, The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe, A Midsummer Night Dream, Alys Always, Allelujah!, My Name is Lucy Barton, Julius Caesar (Bridge); The Blue Woman, Lohengrin (ROH); The Son (Duke of Yorks); Unfriend, 8 Hotels, The Meeting (Chichester Festival); Love and Other Acts of Violence, Blindness, Teenage Dick, Europe, Sweet Charity, St Nicholas, Sweat, Measure for Measure, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The Way of the World (Donmar); Imperium (Gielgud); The Band (UK Tour/Haymarket); Common (NT); 42nd Street (Drury Lane); Flowers for Mrs Harris (Sheffield Crucible); The Caretaker (Old Vic); Hamlet (Barbican)
Production Mental Health & Wellbeing Support
Applause for thought CIC is a multi-award-winning community interest company that facilitates mental health; support, talks and workshops, accredited mental health training and bespoke consultancy and aims to create safe, empowering, and empathic spaces for all within the arts� The AFT mantra is ‘Education Equals Prevention’ as we believe that if we can empower individuals and organisations with the awareness, knowledge and tools surrounding mental health and make this information and support more accessible and affordable, we can not only help break the mental health stigma, but we can also help prevent more serious mental health concerns from developing and contribute to cultural change that will make the arts a healthier and more inclusive industry to be a part of� www�applauseforthought�co�uk
Production
Victoria is a psychotherapist and support lead at Applause for Thought She has been working on The Seagull as the Production Wellbeing Practitioner where she supports and advises the production company on how best to meet the duty of care to the creatives, cast and off-stage departments, develops helpful resources for the company as well as actively supports all teams with their own mental health, resilience and wellbeing as they work within the themes and content of the show� Victoria has an undergraduate degree in Psychology, a Masters in the Psychodynamics of Human Development and PGDip in Integrative Psychotherapy, and she also has a Masters in Acting from Drama Centre� Victoria began supporting the mental health of those working in creative industries in 2014 before joining the AFT team as Support Lead in 2021� Victoria was nominated for an Industry Mind award in 2022 for her contribution to mental health in the arts�
Company Manager
JENNY GRAND
Stage Manager PIPPA MEYER
Deputy Stage Manager
Assistant Stage Managers
Hair & Make up Manager
ANNA HUNSCOTT
ELIZABETH PATRICK & LOUISE QUARTERMAIN
LUCY HORTON
Head of Wardrobe NICOLE ASHWOOD
Deputy Head of Wardrobe KATHY RICHARDSON-HOWELL
Wardrobe Assistant
JESSICA RICHARDSON
Dresser ALISE KENNEDY
Head of Sound WILL MINEY
Deputy Head of Sound
MICHAEL ROGERSON
Advertising & Marketing ROAST PRODUCTIONS
Ticketing & Sales
Press & Publicity
Campaign Graphics
NAT McCORMACK & SARAH BEEBE
KATE MORLEY PR
FEASTCREATIVE.COM
Rehearsal & Production Photographer MARC BRENNER
Production Mental Health and Wellbeing Support
Executive Producer & General Manager
APPLAUSE FOR THOUGHT
WESSEX GROVE
Associate Production Manager
CHARLOTTE RANSON
Intimacy Coordinator ROBBIE TAYLOR HUNT
Props Maker CHARLOTTE NEVILLE
Lead Production Carpenter
Production Carpenters
Lighting Programmer
TOM HUMPHREY
LUCY ADAMS
JAMES BOSTON
DAVID STONE
Lead Production Electrician SAM HOUSE
Production Electricians
Sound Assistant
Lead Production Sound Engineer
Production Sound Engineers
Production Runner
Transport
Set Construction
Lighting Equipment
Scenic Painting
Sound Equipment
Rain Effect
Performer Flying
Rigging Equipment
Costume Supplier
Wigs
JOHN DELANEY EMILY IRISH
JAMES LYONS
NICK MUMFORD
TERESA NAGEL
DEANNA H. CHOI
DYLAN SABERTON
ADAM MAJSAI
TIM RAWLINGS
TIM STEPHENS
JADE DAVIES
PAUL MATHEW TRANSPORT
EJS COURIER
DEADLINE
NEG EARTH LIGHTS
RN SCENIC
AUTOGRAPH SOUND
WATER SCULPTURES
SUSPENDED ILLUSIONS
MECHSTAGE
ACADEMY COSTUMES
CAMPBELL YOUNG
Company Injury Mentoring FRANCES COLLIER / BODYLISTICS
Rehearsal Rooms
COPPERFIELD REHEARSAL ROOMS
Security THE PALLATON COLLECTIVE
Audio Described Perfomance
Captioned Perfomance
VOCALEYES
STAGETEXT
Executive Producer & General Manager
Wessex Grove is a theatrical production company set up by Benjamin Lowy and Emily Vaughan-Barratt in 2020�
Current and upcoming productions include: The Off-Broadway transfer of Simon Stephens’ Vanya with Andrew Scott (Lucille Lortel Theatre –2024 Olivier Award for Best Revival); Cabaret (West End & Broadway); Sunset Blvd (Broadway); and A Streetcar Named Desire (Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York)�
Recent productions include: Macbeth with David Tennant (Harold Pinter); Dylan Mulvaney’s Faghag (Edinburgh Fringe); Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder (Ambassadors); Julia Masli’s Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha (Soho Playhouse, New York); Sunset Blvd (West End); Ivo Van Hove & Rufus Wainwright’s Opening Night with Sheridan Smith (Gielgud); Macbeth with Ralph Fiennes & Indira Varma (Liverpool, Edinburgh, London & Washington D C ); Thomas Ostermeier’s An Enemy of the People with Matt Smith (Duke of York’s); Andrew Scott in Vanya, 2024 Olivier Award winner for Best Revival (Duke of York’s); Quiz (UK Tour); The Old Man & The Pool (Wyndham’s); Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life directed by Ivo Van Hove (Harold Pinter & Savoy); One Woman Show (Ambassador’s & Greenwich House Theatre, New York); Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons (Harold Pinter); James Grahams’ Best of Enemies (Noel Coward); A Strange Loop (Barbican); A Doll’s House with Jessica Chastain (Hudson Theatre, Broadway); A Streetcar Named Desire with Paul Mescal (Phoenix); and Constellations (2022 Olivier Award for Best Revival – Vaudeville)� wessexgrove�com
Producers | Benjamin Lowy & Emily Vaughan-Barratt
Executive Director | Tom Powis
Associate General Manager | Sarah Alford-Smith
Production Assistant | Lily Ford
Assistant Producer | Max Hoffman
Literary and Development Associate | Kat Pierce
Production Coordinator | Hugh Summers
Executive Assistant | Connie Wookey
Producer Gavin Kalin Productions is an award-winning theatrical production company that specialise in producing theatre in the West End, on Broadway and internationally�
Recent West End credits include: Sunset Boulevard, Vanya, A Little Life, A Streetcar Named Desire, Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, Back to the Future, Cyrano, Betrayal, 9 to 5 The Musical, Pretty Woman The Musical, Come From Away, Pinter at the Pinter, Oslo and The Ferryman.
Recent Broadway credits include: Sunset Boulevard, Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, A Doll’s House, Plaza Suite, Betrayal, Leopoldstadt, Funny Girl, Sea Wall / A Life and The Ferryman.
Other entertainment: Monopoly Lifesized, London and the Paddington Bear Experience, London.
For more gavinkalinproductions�com
Gavin is also the founder of Totally Theatre Productions Ltd, a TV/Video production company that specialize in producing Broadcast and online content for theatre and live entertainment� Clients are worldwide with many in the West End and on Broadway For more totallytheatreproductions com
Co-Producer
Eilene Davidson is an award winning international producer working on Broadway and in the West-end� Current shows include Idina Menzel’s new Broadway musical Redwood, the hit new show The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and The Merchant of Venice 1936 She is currently a co-producer on Elektra and the forthcoming My Master Builder� Recent co-produced Broadway plays include Prima Facie, A Doll’s House, Plaza Suite, Leopoldstadt, and Life of Pi. Recent UK productions include Macbeth, Anything Goes, Uncle Vanya, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, Starry Messenger, and the Olivier winning new play Emilia. Eilene formerly worked as an actress and writer in Europe and the USA� Her main interest is in new writing and she was a founder of Stage Traffic a US/UK company specialising in producing new plays� She is in the President’s Circle at BAFTA and serves on various arts boards both in the UK and US
Co-Producer
Based in Washington D�C� and New York Grace Street Creative Group is a creative arts portfolio company with ventures in music recording, artist development, theater production and the visual arts�
Co-Producer
Kater is an Emmy Award-winning writer and Olivier Award-winning Producer� Recent projects include: VANYA (Duke of York’s); Kathy and Stella Solve A Murder (Ambassadors); 2:22 — A Ghost Story (Noël Coward, Gielgud, Criterion, Lyric, Apollo, Ahmanson Theatre, Her Majesty’s Theatre Melbourne, UK Tour); Shifters (Duke of York’s); Macbeth (Dock X); Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons (Harold Pinter); Disney’s Newsies (Troubadour Wembley); and Broadway’s A Doll’s House (Hudson Theatre).
Co-Producer
Through her company Norel Productions, Keren invests and produces theatre in the UK and on Broadway� Recent productions credits include: Farewell Mister Haffmann (Ustinov); Rose (Ambassadors); Bad Jews (Arts); Drop the Dead Donkey, The Night of the Iguana (Noel Coward Theatre); One Jewish Boy, Speech & Debate (Trafalgar Studios), and more�
Recent investments include: Waiting for Godot; Starlight Express; Shifters; Mrs Doubtfire; Hairspray; A Little Life; A Streetcar Named Desire; Good; Leopoldstadt; Lemons; Medea; Sunset Boulevard; Witness for the Prosecution; The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, and more� Broadway productions include: A Doll’s House; Some Like It Hot; Mrs Doubtfire; Hadestown; The Lehman Trilogy; The Girl from the North Country; The Play That Goes Wrong; Plaza Suite; Betrayal, and more� www�norelproductions�co�uk
Keren is also a partner in the film and TV production company Origin Pictures, which produces premium content for the UK and international markets� www�originpictures�co�uk
Co-Producer
Patrick has produced, co-produced, or general managed over 50 plays and musicals in the West End, on Broadway, and in Australia� He is a Board Member of the Society of London Theatre and the League of Independent Producers, and a Trustee of the Theatre Development Trust www patrickgracey com
Co-Producer
Roast Productions is a live entertainment company founded by Bonnie Royal and Michael Stevens, based in London and working internationally, focusing particularly on theatre, concerts and family entertainment, as well as offering general management and marketing consultancy services in the West End and beyond� Recent projects include Duck Pond (Southbank, London), Virginia Gay’s Cyrano (Traverse Theatre; Park Theatre), an Australian tour of Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible is Going to Happen, Standing at the Sky’s Edge in partnership with the National Theatre and Various Productions (Gillian Lynne Theatre, West End), Vanya starring Andrew Scott (Duke of York’s Theatre, West End; Lortel Theatre, NYC), 2:22 A Ghost Story (Apollo Theatre, West End; Australia; and UK tour), Macbeth starring Ralph Fiennes and Indira Varma (Liverpool; Edinburgh; London; and Washington DC), Tyrell Williams’ Red Pitch (@sohoplace, West End), Christmas Actually curated by Richard Curtis (Southbank Centre, London), The 13-Storey Treehouse (UK tour) and the inaugural Wimbledon Children’s Festival (New Wimbledon Theatre)� roast�productions
Co-Producer
UK producer Sir Rupert Gavin (for Incidental Colman) and US producer Mallory Factor (for Hill Street Productions) have successfully collaborated on a range of highly creative, ground breaking new theatre projects, on the West End, on Broadway , and international and domestic touring, winning multiple Olivier and Tony awards for their productions� They are proud to be currently co-producers on The Rocky Horror Show; Cabaret; A Streetcar Named Desire; Barcelona; Oedipus; Unicorn; Juno and the Paycock; The Years; The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; The Hills of California; Brainiac; Slava’s Snowshow; Oof!, and Sunset Boulevard (Broadway)
Co-Producer
Tilted is a production company founded by Sam Hodges Tilted develops and produces musicals, plays, films, and podcasts adapted for the stage�
Other theatre credits — As Co-Producer: The Years (West End), Giant (West End); Unicorn (West End); Sunset Boulevard (St James); Oedipus (West End); Juno & the Paycock (West End); House of Life (Edinburgh Fringe); A Mirror (Trafalgar); Calamity Jane (UK Tour); Shifters (West End); Hello Dolly (Palladium); Cabaret (August Wilson); The Piano Lesson (Ethel Barrymore); A Doll’s House (Hudson)�
Recent podcast to stage productions: Uncanny (UK tour), Brown Girls Do it Too (Soho/UK Tour); Something Rhymes with Purple (Fortune)�
Co-Producer
Richard Winkler and Dawn Smalberg� With thirteen Tony Awards and nine Olivier Awards, both individually and collectively, West End productions include: Titanique; The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Juno and the Paycock; Oedipus; Barcelona; Starlight Express; The Lehman Trilogy; Standing at The Sky’s Edge; Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York); The Hills of California; Dear England; The Motive & The Cue; An Enemy of The People; A Mirror; Macbeth (starring Ralph Fiennes); Lyonesse; The McOnie Company Nutcracker; Leopoldstadt; The Inheritance; The Ferryman; Come From Away; Patriots; Dr. Semmelweis; and The Doctor�
Their Broadway credits include: Sunset Boulevard; Stereophonic; Once Upon a Mattress; Merrily We Roll Along; Leopoldstadt; Life of Pi; The Inheritance; The Ferryman; Come From Away; The Lehman Trilogy, and Memphis, The Musical.
Winkler & Smalberg’s upcoming productions include: Elektra in the West End, and Good Night, and Good Luck on Broadway
The Barbican is a catalyst for creativity, sparking possibilities for artists, audiences, and communities� We showcase the most exciting art from around the world, pushing traditional artistic boundaries to entertain and inspire millions of people, create connections, provoke debate, and reflect the world we live in�
We are an international arts and events centre rooted firmly in our own neighbourhood, collaborating with local communities and putting the City of London on the map as a destination for everybody� Central to our purpose is supporting emerging talent and shaping opportunities that will accelerate the next generation of creatives
As a not-for-profit, we rely on the generosity of individuals and organisations, including our principal funder the City of London Corporation� Every ticket purchased, donation made, and pound earned supports our arts and learning programme and enables the widest possible range of people to experience the joy of the arts�
Opened in 1982, the Barbican is a unique and audacious building, recognised globally as an architectural icon� As well as our theatres, galleries, concert halls and cinemas, we have a large conservatory with over 1,500 species of plants and trees, a library, conference facilities, public and community spaces, restaurants, bars, and a picturesque lakeside oasis
We’re proud to be the home of the London Symphony Orchestra, and a London base of the Royal Shakespeare Company� We regularly cocommission, produce and showcase the work of our other associates and partners including the Academy of Ancient Music, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Boy Blue, Darbar, Doc'n Roll Film Festival, Drum Works, EFG London Jazz Festival, London Palestine Film Festival, Serious, and Trafalgar Theatre Productions�
The Producers would like to thank:
TONI RACKLIN, FIONA STEWART
AND ALL THE STAFF AT THE BARBICAN THEATRE
MARK SUBIAS
HYLDA QUEALLY
JULIE DUFFELL
TIM MCKEOGH
RACHEL TAYLOR
TOBIAS VEIT
DIETMAR BOCK
LYN GARDNER
JULI FRAIRE
LINDA PLANT AND THE TEAM AT THE LONDONER HOTEL
AIMEE BELCHAK
MARY ROSCOE
ELOISE KENNY-RYDER
CHARLIE SMITH
SIMON STEPHENS
HUW DAVIES
ALEXIS TURNER AT LONDON TAXIDERMY
RC – ANNIE
PAUL HANDLEY
JORDAN COLLS
LOU SHEPHERD
LETTICE EVENTS
SOCIAL PANTRY
GIRLS ON TOPS
EMILIO MADRID
SHARON TRICKETT
Barbican Centre Board
Chair
Sir William Russell
Deputy Chair
Tijs Broeke
Deputy Chair
Tobi Ruth Adebekun
Board Members
Randall Anderson, Munsur Ali, Michael Asante MBE, Stephen Bediako OBE, Farmida Bi CBE, Zulum Elumogo, Jaspreet
Hodgson, Nicholas Lyons, Mark Page, Anett Rideg, Jens Riegelsberger, Jane Roscoe, Despina Tsatsas, Irem Yerdelen
Clerk to the Board
John Cater and Kate Doidge
Barbican Centre Trust Chair
Farmida Bi CBE
Vice Chair
Robert Glick OBE
Trustees
Stephanie Camu, Tony Chambers, Cas Donald, David Kapur, Ann Kenrick, Kendall Langford, Sir William Russell, Sian Westerman
Directors
Chief Executive Officer (Interim)
David Farnsworth
Deputy CEO (Interim)
Ali Mirza
Director of Development
Natasha Harris
Head of Finance & Business
Administration
Sarah Wall
Director for Buildings & Renewal
Dr Philippa Simpson
Director of Commercial
Jackie Boughton
Director for Audiences
Beau Vigushin
Director for Arts and Participation
Devyani Saltzman
Executive Assistant to CEO
Hannah Hoban
Theatre Department
Head of Theatre and Dance
Toni Racklin
Senior Production Manager
Simon Bourne
Producers
Liz Eddy, Jill Shelley, Fiona Stewart
Assistant Producers
Mrinmoyee Roy, Mali Siloko,
Tom Titherington
Production Managers
Jamie Maisey, Lee Tasker
Technical Managers
Steve Daly, Jane Dickerson, Nik Kennedy, Martin Morgan, Stevie Porter
Stage Managers
Lucinda Hamlin, Charlotte Oliver
Technical Supervisors
James Breedon, Charlie Mann, Josh Massey, Matt Nelson, Adam Parrott, Lawrence Sills, Chris Wilby
Technicians
Kendell Foster, David Kennard, Burcham
Johnson, Bart Kuta, Christian Lyons,
Fred Riding, Fede Spada, Matt Turnbull
PA to Head of Theatre
David Green
Production Administrator
Caroline Hall
Production Assistant
Ashley Panton
Stage Door
Julian Fox, aLbi Gravener
Creative Collaboration
Head of Creative Collaboration
Karena Johnson
Senior Producer for Learning and Participation
Oluwatoyin Odunsi
Senior Manager
Sarah Mangan
Producer
Josie Dick
Assistant Producer
Carmen Okome
Marketing Department
Head of Marketing
Jackie Ellis
Deputy Head of Marketing
Ben Jefferies
Senior Marketing Manager
Kyle Bradshaw
Marketing Manager
Rebecca Moore
Marketing Assistant
Antonia Georgieva, Ossama Nizami
Communications Department
Head of Communications
James Tringham
Senior Communications Manager
Ariane Oiticica
Communications Manager
HBL
Communications Officer
Sumayyah Sheikh
Communications Assistant
Andrea Laing
Audience Experience
Senior Audience Experience Managers
Oliver Robinson, Liz Davies-Sadd, Ben Skinner
Ticket Sales Managers
Jane Thomas, Bradley Thompson, Lucy Allen
Ticket Sales Team Leaders
Molly Barber, Alex Steggles, Máire Vallely, Nicola Watkinson, Charlotte Day
Operations Managers
Tabitha Fourie, Aksel Nichols,
Ben Raynor, Samantha Teatheredge, Hayley Zwolinska
Operations Manager (Health & Safety) Mo Reideman
Audience Event & Planning Manager
Freda Pouflis
Venue Managers
Catherine Campion, Scott Davies, Maria Pateli, Lotty Reeve, Shabana Zaman
Assistant Venue Managers
Sam Hind, Bronagh Leneghan, Melissa Olcese, Daniel Young
Crew Management
Dave Magwood, Rob Magwood, James Towell
Access and Licensing Manager
Rebecca Oliver
Security
Operations Manager
Naqash Sheikh
Audience Experience Coordinator
Ayelen Fananas
The Barbican sparks creative possibilities and transformation for artists, audiences and communities - to inspire, connect, and provoke debate.
As a not-for-profit, we need to raise 60% of our income through fundraising, ticket sales, and commercial activities. With the help of our generous supporters, we are able to share the work of some of the most inspiring and visionary artists and creatives, enabling the widest possible audience to experience the joy of the arts.
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We also want to thank the Barbican Patrons, members, and the many thousands who made a donation when purchasing tickets.
The Barbican Centre Trust Ltd, registered charity no. 294282
Teatro La Plaza, Peru
Hamlet
24 – 27 Apr
Unmissable performances from around the world
