Bush Theatre announces casting for Autumn productions

CASTING ANNOUNCED TODAY FOR OF KITH AND KIN AND RAMONA TELLS JIM

  • Casting is announced today for two new plays as part of the Bush Theatre’s Autumn Winter season by Sophie Wu (Ramona Tells Jim) and Chris Thompson (Of Kith and Kin)

Ramona Tells Jim
Written by Sophie Wu
Directed by Mel Hillyard
Designed by Lucy Sierra

Cast includes: Ruby Bentall (Ramona), Joe Bannister (Jim) and Amy Lennox (Pocahontas).

Bush Theatre Studio
20 September – 21 October 2017

It’s 1998. Ramona, of Englandshire, is 15 and she’s totally cool. Honestly. She’s completely cool.

On a wet, midge-riddles geography field trip she meets Jim, a local laddie wearing an anti-pill fleece. He’s obsessed with hermit crabs, rock erosion and making homemade Irn-Bru cocktails.

Deep in the Scottish Highlands, Ramona falls for Jimmy’s awkward charm but gets caught in a scandal that will haunt them both for years to come.

Fast forward fifteen years and Jim, of the shittest village in Scotland, has got a girlfriend and something like a functional life. But Ramona still can’t shake the consequences of that fateful trip. Determined to clear her conscience, she heads back to the Highlands to find that neither her nor Jim’s lives have turned out how they had planned.

Ramona Tells Jim is a darkly comic play about confession and the gravity of young love, from Bush Theatre Emerging Writers’ Group graduate and actor Sophie Wu (Kick AssWild Child), directed by Mel Hillyard and designed by Lucy Sierra.

Supported by Peter Wolff Theatre Trust.

A Bush Theatre and Sheffield Theatres co-production
Of Kith and Kin
Written by Chris Thompson
Directed by Robert Hastie
Designed by James Perkins

Cast includes: Joanna Bacon (Lydia and Carrie), Donna Berlin (Arabelle), James Lance (Daniel), Chetna Pandya (Priya) and Joshua Silver (Oliver).

Sheffield Theatres
14 September – 7 October
Press Night 19 September, 7.45pm

Bush Theatre
18 October – 25 November 2017

Daniel and Oliver are about to have their first baby. With their best friend, Priya, acting as surrogate, they’ve turned the study into a nursery and the bottles are sterilised. All that’s missing is the bundle of joy they’ve been pining for.

But when Daniel’s chaotic mother gatecrashes the baby shower with a few home truths, the cracks in Daniel and Oliver’s relationship begin to show. Are they as ready for this as they think they are? And more importantly, is Priya?

Sheffield Theatres Artistic Director Robert Hastie (Julius CaesarMy Night With Reg) directs this gripping new comedy by Chris Thompson (Albion).  The pair previously collaborated onCarthage at the Finborough Theatre.  Of Kith and Kin will be designed by James Perkins, with lighting by Prema Mehta, sound by Ella Wahlström and casting by Vicky Richardson.

Of Kith and Kin opens at Sheffield Studio Theatre on 15 September with a press night on 19 September.