ETT ANNOUNCE MUGABE & ME AT YORK THEATRE ROYAL
ETT (English Touring Theatre), today announce Tonderai Munyevu’s Mugabe, My Dad & Me, co-produced with York Theatre Royal, in association with Alison Holder. Directed by John R. Wilkinson and performed by Munyevu and Millicent Chapanda. The autobiographical play about growing up in 1980’s Zimbabwe following independence opens at York Theatre Royal on 14 September, with previews from 9 September, until 18 September, with tour dates for 2022 to be announced.
The company return to national touring in the autumn opening with Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in September, co-produced with Curve and Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse, and directed by the 2019 RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award winner Anthony Almeida. The production opens at Curve, Leicester on 8 September, with previews from 3 September, before touring to Liverpool, Canterbury, Ipswich, Theatr Clwyd, and concludes in Southampton on 30 October. The cast is Sam Alexander (Gooper), Teresa Banham (Big Mama), Peter Forbes (Big Daddy), Oliver Johnstone (Brick), Siena Kelly (Maggie), Suzette Llewellyn (Doctor Baugh), Minal Patel (Reverend Tooker) and Shanaya Rafaat (Mae).
ETT have just completed the tour of their outdoor performance space, Trailer Story, which visited Newcastle and Keswick, and featured performances by Testament, Tim Crouch, Grace Savage, Lung Theatre and Nouveau Riche, and this year they also released That Podcast – a twelve part magazine-style podcast series, with guest hosts Remona Aly, Desiree Burch and Sophie Duker, Nish Kumar, Terry Gilliam and Chris McCausland, that tells the story of a nation and a world in rapid transition featuring over 100 artists, commentators and thought leaders, and Children’s Children – a series of five monologues, curated by Amber James, exploring the interaction of the past with the present and celebrating Black history. Both series’ are available in full here: https://ett.org.uk/
ETT and York Theatre Royal in association with Alison Holder present
MUGABE, MY DAD & ME
Written by Tonderai Munyevu
Performed by Tonderai Munyevu and Millicent Chapanda
Director: John R Wilkinson; Designer: Nicolai Hart-Hansen
Sound Designer and Composer: Nigel Glasgow
York Theatre Royal
9 – 18 September
Tonderai Munyevu was born in 1982 Zimbabwe, what they call the “born frees” – one of the generation born in the 1980s after independence.
He tells us how the first cracks of prosperous Zimbabwe’s decline began to appear in the 1990s, and how he emigrated with his mother to England, where he has since remained. How his father lost his job at the hands of a white man, and how this changed both their lives irrevocably, until his father’s death prompted Tonderai to question his identity and what it means to return ‘home’.
Interspersing his dialogue with the audience are Robert Mugabe’s speeches: ranging from the 1980s figure in a Savile Row suit to the bitter and derisive missives from the 1990s, up until 2017 when Mugabe was ousted by a political coup.
Tonderai Munyevu writes and performs. His writing credits for the stage include The Moors (Tara Arts Theatre), Harare Files: 700,000 People Lost Their Homes (Harare International Festival of the Arts), and Zhe [Noun] Undefined (Soho Theatre, international tour). For radio, his writing credits include The Tranquil Minds. As an actor, his theatre credits include Black Men Walking (Royal Court Theatre), Treasure Island (Birmingham Rep), The Man Who Almost Killed Himself (Edinburgh Festival Fringe), Sizwe Banzi Is Dead (Young Vic), and Zhe [Noun] Undefined (Soho Theatre). Munyevu is co-Artistic Director of Two Gents Productions.
Millicent Chapanda is a Shona cultural artist and performs vocals, mbira, ngoma drumand hosho shakers.
John R. Wilkinson directs. His theatre credits include Hello and Goodbye, Swallows and Amazons, Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down (York Theatre Royal), Talking Heads (Leeds Playhouse), Winter (Young Vic – for which he won the 2018 Genesis Future Directors Award), and The Drowned World (National Theatre Studio).
ETT, Curve and Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse present
CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF
By Tennessee Williams
UK tour: 3 September – 25 October
Director: Anthony Almeida; Set and Costume Designer: Rosanna Vize
Lighting Designer: Joshua Gadsby; Composer and Sound Designer: Giles Thomas
Associate Designer and Costume Designer: Sarah Mercadé; Movement Director: Gemma Payne
Casting Director: Ginny Schiller
On a sweltering Mississippi night, the lies are as stifling as the heat.
Maggie has fought up from poverty, only to find herself in a passionless, burning marriage. Her husband Brick, a former pro footballer, drinks to drown out the hurt he has bottled up inside. When the entire Pollitt family meet for Big Daddy’s 65th birthday, the claws are out.
As shattering truths threaten to spiral out of control, the family set out to protect themselves, and each other, from falling apart.
This bold new revival of Tennessee Williams’ lyrical Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece is a blazing portrayal of what it takes to survive in a society where we’re all desperate to feel free.
Directed by Anthony Almeida, winner of the 2019 Royal Theatrical Support Trust (RTST) Sir Peter Hall Director Award.
The production is supported by grant funding from the RTST.
Tennessee Williams (1911 – 1983) is one of the greatest American playwrights. His principal works include A Streetcar Named Desire (Pulitzer Prize), The Glass Menagerie (New York Critics’ Circle Award), The Rose Tattoo (Tony Award for Best Play), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Pulitzer Prize), Suddenly Last Summer, Sweet Bird of Youth, Orpheus Descending and The Night of the Iguana (New York Critics’ Circle Award).
Sam Alexander plays Gooper. His theatre credits include The Watsons (Chichester Festival Theatre/Menier Chocolate Factory), The Outsider (The Print Room), Lady in the Van, Racing Demon (Theatre Royal Bath), Love’s Labour’s Lost, Much Ado About Nothing (RSC/Theatre Royal Haymarket), Lawrence After Arabia (Hampstead Theatre), The Ghost Train (Royal Exchange Theatre) and The Christmas Truce (RSC). His television credits include Hard Sun and The Marchioness Disaster; and for film, Misbehaviour, Mogul Mowgli, 45 Years, Perfect Life and An American Haunting.
Teresa Banham plays Big Mama. Her theatre credits include Acceptance (Hampstead Theatre), The Whale (Theatre Royal Bath), House and Garden (The Watermill Theatre), Dessert (Southwark Playhouse), The Open House (Theatre Royal Bath/The Print Room, Arcadia (Nottingham Playhouse), A Chorus of Disapproval (Harold Pinter Theatre), Heresy of Love, Measure for Measure (RSC), 5@50, True Love Lies (Royal Exchange Theatre), The Picture (Salisbury Theatre), The Glass Menagerie (Theatr Clwyd), The Father (Chichester Festival Theatre), The Herbal Bed (RSC/Duchess Theatre), Snake in the Grass (The Old Vic), Here (Donmar Warehouse) and Valentine’s Day (Shakespeare’s Globe). Her television credits include The Crown, Robin Hood, Monsignor Renard and Roughnecks.
Peter Forbes plays Big Daddy. His theatre credits include Yes Prime Minister (Theatr Clwyd), Allelujah! (Bridge Theatre), Follies, Our Country’s Good, The Observer, Afterlife, Never So Good, Two Weeks with the Queen (National Theatre), A Number, Educating Agnes (Royal Lyceum Theatre), The James Plays (UK and international tour), Way Upstream, A Small Family Business (Chichester Festival Theatre), How to Hold Your Breath (Royal Court Theatre), The Same Deep Water as Me (Donmar Warehouse), Singin’ in the Rain (Chichester Festival Theatre/Palace Theatre), A Journey to London, Adam Bede (Orange Tree Theatre), The Winter’s Tale, Troilus and Cressida (Shakespeare’s Globe), My Dad’s a Birdman (Young Vic) and Mamma Mia! (Prince Edward Theatre). His television credits include Traces, Manhunt, Berkeley Square and Taking the Floor; and for film, Judy, The Wife, Nativity 3: Dude, Where’s My Donkey?!, Wilde and Blue Ice.
Oliver Johnstone plays Brick. His theatre credits include Tribes (Sheffield Theatres), King Lear, Cymbeline, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Oppenheimer (RSC), Teddy Ferrara (Donmar Warehouse), Spring Awakening (Headlong and West Yorkshire Playhouse) and Another Country (Chichester Festival Theatre). For television, his credits include Loaded, Inspector George Gently, The Syndicate and Little Crackers;and for film, On Chesil Beach, The Inbetweeners 2 and Skyfall.
Siena Kelly plays Maggie. Her theatre credits include Teenage Dick (Donmar Warehouse), Describe the Night (Hampstead Theatre), A Christmas Carol (The Old Vic), On the Town (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre) and Water Babies: The Musical (Curve). Her television credits include Adult Material, Temple and Vanity Fair.
Suzette Llewellyn plays Doctor Baugh. Her theatre credits include Chigger Foot Boys (Tara Arts), Mr Tiddle Tum Tums & Other Stories, Whale (National Theatre), The Multiple Myrtle Mysteries (The Milo Wladek Company), Urban Afro Saxons (Talawa Theatre), Marisol (Traverse Theatre), Love’s Labour’s Lost, Children of a Lesser God, Comedy of Errors, Golden Girls (New Wolsey Theatre), Belle of Belfast City (Lyric Theatre, Belfast), Trinidad Sisters (Tricycle Theatre) and Garden Girls (Bush Theatre). Her television credits include as series regular Sheree Trueman in EastEnders, Fearless, Thirteen, Rocket’s Island, Catastrophe, Oscar Charlie, Surgical Spirit and Black Silk; and for film, Real, Faces, Molly Moon and the Incredible Book of Hypnotism, Manderlay, Welcome II the Terrordome, Sammy and Rosie get Laid, Playing Away and Personal Services.
Minal Patel plays Reverend Tooker. His theatre credits include A Christmas Carol (Dominion Theatre), Curtains (Wyndham’s Theatre/UK tour), Man of La Mancha (London Coliseum/ENO), Aspects of Love (Southwark Playhouse/Hope Mill Theatre), Dialetikon (Park Theatre), The Secret Garden (The Barn Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (New Wolsey Theatre), The Queen and I (Arcola Theatre), You and Me, Here We Are (Birmingham Eastside Projects), Beauty and the Beast (Theatre Royal Stratford East), Between Empires (Edinburgh Festival Fringe), The Three Musketeers (Barbershopera) and As You Like It (Southwark Playhouse).
Shanaya Rafaat plays Mae. Her theatre credits include Jude (Hampstead Theatre), Romeo and Juliet, Richard III, The White Devil, King Lear (Shakespeare’s Globe), Frankenstein (Royal Exchange Theatre), Uncle Vanya (Theatr Clwyd/Sheffield Theatres), Terror (Lyric Hammersmith), A Tale of Two Cities (Northampton/UK tour), Great Expectations (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Stateless (Tristan Bates Theatre), Around The World in 80 Days (St James Theatre), The Illusion (Southwark Playhouse) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (RSC/international tour). Her television credits include Silk and Lewis; and for film, Honeycomb Lodge.
Anthony Almeida’s directing credits include Figures of Speech (Almeida Theatre). As Assistant/Associate Director, his credits include The Return of the Ulysses (Roundhouse), Oresteia (Almeida Theatre, Trafalgar Studios), and The Odyssey, The Iliad and Game (Almeida Theatre).