LEADING LADIES ANNOUNCED FOR
LEOPARDS AND THE SEVEN POMEGRANATE SEEDS –
THE OPENING PRODUCTIONS IN CHRISTOPHER HAYDON’S
INAUGURAL SEASON AT ROSE THEATRE
Rose Theatre’s Artistic Director, Christopher Haydon, is delighted to announce initial casting for Leopards and The Seven Pomegranate Seeds, the first two Rose Original productions in his inaugural season. In Leopards, by rising playwright Alys Metcalf, Niala will be played by Saffron Coomber. Niamh Cusack will be reuniting with director Melly Still in the world premiere of Colin Teevan’s The Seven Pomegranate Seeds.
Saffron Coomber’s recent theatre credits include Emilia (West End), for which she was nominated for ‘Best West-End Debut’ at The Stage Debut Awards 2019, Sonnet Sunday (Globe) and A New and Better You (Yard Theatre). Her television credits include: Small Axe (BBC/Amazon), The Deceived (Channel 5), Strike: Lethal White (BBC), EastEnders (BBC), Holby City (BBC) and as Sapphire Fox in Tracy Beaker: Series 1 – 3 (BBC). Films includeElectricity (Stone City Films) and Dustbin Baby (BBC). Most recently, Saffron appeared in the live-streamed production of A Cold Supper Behind Harrods, alongside David Jason, Stephanie Cole and Anton Lesser.
Niamh Cusack is an Associate Artist at the Rose. She starred as Lenu in the premiere of My Brilliant Friend – Parts 1 & 2 at the Rose and when it transferred to the National Theatre. Other work at the National Theatre includes The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (also in London’s West End), The Enchantment and His Dark Materials. Her other theatre include Macbeth, As You Like It, The Art of Success, Romeo and Juliet, Othello and Mary After the Queen for the RSC; Playboy of the Western World, Cause Célèbre and Dancing at Lughnasa at the Old Vic; The Winter’s Tale at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse; The Rehearsal and The Merchant of Venice at the Chichester Festival Theatre; Breathing Corpses at the Royal Court. Her many television credits include Death in Paradise, The Virtues, State of Mind, Always and Everyone, Rhinoceros, Colour Blind and Heartbeat. Films include The Ghoul, Departure, Testament of Youth, In Love with Alma Cogan, Hereafter, Five Minutes of Heaven, The Closer You Get, Playboys, Paris by Night and Fools of Fortune.
Leopards will premiere at Rose Theatre from 2 to 25 September, with a national press night on 7 September. It is produced by Rose Theatre and the Olivier Award-winning Francesca Moody Productions (Fleabag, Baby Reindeer, Shedinburgh) in association with Emmy Award winner Kater Gordon. Christopher Haydon makes his Rose directorial debut.
Sex, power and consent – can we ever atone for the sins of our distant past? When Niala arranges to meet celebrated charity leader Ben in the bar of a London hotel for career advice, their evening unfolds into something far less professional. As the weather closes in and secrets start to surface, the consequences of their choices leave them nowhere to hide. Leopards is a new play about the image we construct of ourselves and explores what it truly means to be good.
Alys Metcalf’s other plays include You Only Live Forever at Soho Theatre, Reel Life at Ustinov Studio Theatre Royal Bath and Unearthed, which was chosen as one of the Guardian Readers’ Favourite Plays of 2015 and played the Arcola and a UK Tour. She is currently developing several films and TV sitcoms and dramas, and is a member of the BBC Comedy Room
Leopards is directed by Christopher Haydon, designed by Lily Arnold, with sound design by Gareth Fry and lighting design by Colin Grenfell. Asha Jennings-Grant is the intimacy director and Amber Sinclair-Case the assistant director.
The Seven Pomegranate Seeds runs at Rose Theatre from 4 to 20 November, with a national press night on 10 November. Colin Teevan’s world premiere is directed and designed by Rose Associate Artist Melly Still (Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, My Brilliant Friend).
The Seven Pomegranate Seeds takes seven contemporary stories grounded in prominent, mythical origins. Persephone, Hypsipyle, Medea, Alcestis, Phaedra, Creusa and Demeter, the women of Euripides’ plays, are reimagined as people of today in an unexpected fusion of celebrity, inappropriate desires, historical police investigations and missing children. A severed maternal bond threads each story together, charting a journey through rage and redemption, towards a compelling conclusion.
Colin Teevan created, wrote and was co-executive producer of Rebellion, seasons 1 and 2, for RTE, Sundance TV and Netflix. Most recently, he wrote and executive produced the second season of the critically acclaimed German series Das Boot and is currently working on season three. His other work for television includes Silk (BBC) starring Maxine Peake, and Vera (ITV) starring Brenda Blethyn. Colin’s theatre credits include The Emperor, which won Best New Play at the Manchester Theatre Awards, Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus and Franz Kafka’s Report to An Academy for the Young Vic, The Kingdom and The Bee at the Soho Theatre, Peer Gynt for the National Theatre of Scotland and later the Barbican.
Melly Still’s recent credits include Captain Corelli’s Mandolin which premiered at the Rose before touring the UK and transferring to the West End, My Brilliant Friend Parts 1 & 2 which premiered at the Rose and transferred to the National Theatre, and The Lovely Bones at Birmingham Rep and on tour. Other credits at the National include From Morning til Midnight, The Revenger’s Tragedy, and Coram Boy, which transferred to Broadway and earned Still Olivier and Tony Award nominations for both Best Direction and Best Design.
The Seven Pomegranate Seeds is directed and designed by Melly Still. Original music and sound design is by Jon Nicholls and lighting design by Malcolm Rippeth while Amanda Ramasawmy is associate designer. Layla Madanat is assistant director. This is Madanat’s first placement as Rose Theatre’s 2021/2022 Peter Hall Emerging Artists Fellow.