FULL CAST AND CREATIVES ANNOUNCED FOR UK TOUR OF
MIKE BARTLETT’S BULL
Deafinitely Theatre today announce the full cast and creative team for the UK tour of Mike Barlett’s Bull. Deafinitely Theatre’s Artistic Director Paula Garfield MBE directs Danny Lee (Tony),Ciaran O’Breen (Thomas), David Sands (Carter) and Jasmine Whipps (Isobel). In a co-production with Birmingham Rep and Park Theatre, the production will be presented entirely in British Sign Language and creative captions.
The creative team is completed by Paul Burgess (Set, Costume & Video Designer), Jessie Addinall (Lighting Designer) Eleanor Isherwood (Sound Designer & Composer) and Ben Glover (AV Designer) and Raffie Julien (Associate Director).
The UK tour of Bull opens at Birmingham Rep on 15 September, with previews from 12 September, and runs until 19 September; it will then tour to HOME Manchester from 24 to 26 September, and conclude its run at Park90 at Park Theatre from 30 September to 24 October.
Deafinitely Theatre’s Artistic Director, Paula Garfield said, “I’m incredibly excited to bring Bull to the stage with a brilliant cast of deaf actors who bring real talent and creative input to this production. Performed entirely in British Sign Language, with no spoken dialogue, it offers a fresh perspective on Mike Bartlett’s powerful play, with creative captions for all.
“Too often, people assume deaf people are always supportive and kind to one another, but we’re human like everyone else. Bull explores ambition, power and bullying in a deaf workplace, showing how far people will go to succeed. I hope audiences leave challenged, moved, and with a deeper appreciation of the power, beauty and humanity of British Sign Language on stage.”
Deafinitely Theatre, Birmingham Rep and Park Theatre present
BULL
by Mike Bartlett
UK Tour
12 September – 24 October 2026
Cast: Danny Lee (Tony), Ciaran O’Breen (Thomas), David Sands (Carter), Jasmine Whipps (Isobel)
Director: Paula Garfield; Set, Costume & Video Designer: Paul Burgess; Lighting Designer: Jessie Addinall; Sound Designer & Composer: Eleanor Isherwood;AV Designer: Ben Glover; Associate Director: Raffie Julien
Who gets to stay?
Who is pushed out?
And who decides?
Four colleagues sit in a meeting room.
Jobs are on the line.
The rules are unspoken, but everyone knows them.
Bull is a strained and unsettling examination of workplace bullying, power and survival. As pressure builds, alliances shift and cruelty surfaces, exposing a system where fear thrives and empathy disappears.
Sharp, darkly funny and deeply uncomfortable, Bull lays bare the human cost of a working culture shaped by competition, hierarchy and silence. How far will people go to protect themselves?
This is Deafinitely Theatre’s second adaptation of a play by Mike Bartlett, following the Off West End Award-winning, critically acclaimed and sold-out production of Contractions in 2017. Bull is presented in the entirely in British Sign Language with creative captions and is directed by Deafinitely’s award-winning Artistic Director Paula Garfield.
“It’s not personal. It’s just business.”
Mike Bartlett’splays include Juniper Blood (Donmar Warehouse), Unicorn (Garrick Theatre), Scandaltown (Lyric Hammersmith Theatre), The 47th (The Old Vic), Cock (Ambassadors’ Theatre, Royal Court Theatre), Mrs Delgado (Arts at the Old Fire Station, Theatre Royal Bath, Oxford Playhouse), Albion, Game (Almeida Theatre), Snowflake (Arts at the Old Fire Station, Kiln Theatre), Wild (Hampstead Theatre), King Charles III – Olivier Award for Best New Play (Almeida Theatre, Wyndham’s Theatre, Music Box Theatre, New York), An Intervention (Paines Plough, Watford Palace Theatre), Bull (Sheffield Theatres, Off Broadway, Young Vic), Medea (Headlong, Glasgow Citizens, Watford Palace Theatre, Warwick Arts Centre), Chariots of Fire (Hampstead Theatre, Gielgud Theatre), 13 (National Theatre), Decade (Headlong), Earthquakes in London (Headlong, National Theatre), Love, Love, Love (Paines Plough, Plymouth Theatre Royal, Royal Court Theatre, Roundabout Theatre Company, New York, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre), Contractions (Royal Court Theatre, Sheffield Theatres), My Child (Royal Court Theatre), Artefacts (Bush Theatre, Nabokov). Bartlett has previously been Writer In Residence at the National Theatre and is currently an Associate Playwright at the Royal Court Theatre. His television credits include Life, Doctor Foster, King Charles III, Sticks and Stones, Trauma and Press.
Danny Lee plays Tony. Bull marks his professional stage debut.
Ciaran O’Breen plays Thomas. For Deafinitely Theatre, his credits include Can Bears Ski? and Getting There (UK tours). Other theatre credits include Wonder Boy, The Story of Guts (Bristol Old Vic), Lord of The Flies (Leeds Playhouse, Belgrade Theatre Coventry, Rose Theatre Kingston), Hansel & Gretel (PaddleBoat Theatre), Flood (Theatre Temoin) and Red (Polka Theatre); and for television, Galwad.
David Sands plays Carter. For Deafinitely Theatre, his credits include Love’ Labour’s Lost and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s Globe). Other theatre credits include On Blindness (Soho Theatre). His television credits include Small World; and for film, Grandad.
Jasmine Whipps plays Isobel. For Deafinitely Theatre, her credits include The Vagina Monologues. Whipps has worked as a TV presenter for OMGenius and See Hear series.
Paula Garfield directs. For Deafinitely Theatre she has also directed The Promise, Something Else, Can Bears Ski? Everyday, 4.48 Psychosis, Horrible Histories – Dreadful Deaf, Contractions – which wonthe Off West End Award for Best Production, Two Chairs, Motherland, Children of a Greater God, Playing God, Double Sentence and Gold Dust. She also devised and directed The Boy and the Statue for Deafinitely at the Tricycle Theatre and on a London schools’ tour. Garfield has directed two productions at Shakespeare’s Globe – Love Labour’s Lost, for the Globe to Globe Festival as part of Deafinitely’s 10th anniversary, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Her other directing work includes Tanika’s Journey (Southwark Playhouse) and Grounded (Park Theatre).
An actor, director and field creative leader, she has worked on a variety of television, film and theatre projects over the past twenty years. In 2002, she established Deafinitely Theatre with Steven Webb and Kate Furby after becoming frustrated at the barriers that deaf actors and directors face across the arts and media industry. She has produced and directed many plays and worked extensively in TV, including Channel Four’s Learn Sign Language, Four Fingers and a Thumb, BBC’s Hands Up and Casualty, plus appearances in every series of the BBC’s deaf drama, Switch.
In 2019 Artistic Director, Paula Garfield won a Tonic Award for her energy and unwavering
commitment to opening theatre up and the artistic quality of the work she produces as Artistic
Director of Deafinitely Theatre. In 2024 she was awarded an MBE as part of the King’s birthday
honours list in recognition of her contribution to the arts and the deaf community.
LISTINGS
BULL
UK Tour
12 September – 24 October 2026
Age Guidance: 14+
The Door, Birmingham Rep
12 – 19 September at 7pm
2pm matinees on Thursday 17 and Saturday 19 September
Box office: 0121 236 4455 /www.birmingham-rep.co.uk
HOME, Manchester
24 – 26 September at 7:45pm
Box office: 0161 200 1500 / www.homemcr.org
Park90, Park Theatre, London
30 September – 24 October at 7:45pm
3:15pm matinees on Thursdays and Saturdays
Box office: 020 7870 6876 /www.parktheatre.co.uk