FULL CAST ANNOUNCED FOR WORLD PREMIERE OF untitled f*ck m*ss s**gon play.
Today the full cast for Kimber Lee’s untitled f*ck m*ss s**gon play directed by Royal Exchange Joint Artistic Director Roy Alexander Weise has been announced by Royal Exchange Theatre, Factory International on behalf of Manchester International Festival, Young Vic Theatre and Headlong.
Winner of the inaugural Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting 2019, International Award, this powerful production will receive its world premiere at the Royal Exchange Theatre as part of MIF23 (24 June – 22 July 2023), before transferring to the Young Vic Theatre in London (18 September – 4 November 2023). Tickets are on sale now.
Olivier Award nominee Mei Mac (My Neighbour Totoro) leads an ensemble cast as Kim, with Lourdes Faberes (Boiling Point)as Rosie / Cio-Cio, Jennifer Kirby (Call the Midwife)as Evelyn / Richards, Tom Weston-Jones (Sanditon)as Clark, Rochelle Rose (Rockets and Blue Lights)as the Narrator / Brenda and Jeff D’Sangalang (The Ocean At The End Of The Lane)as Afi/Goro.
‘Very well. I will do what I must do, Mother.’
Kim (Mei Mac) is having one of those days. A terrible, very bad, no-good kind of day, and the worst part is…it all feels so familiar. Caught up in a never-ending cycle of events, she looks for the exit but the harder she tries, the worse it gets and she begins to wonder: who’s writing this story? She makes a break for it, smashing through a hundred years of bloody narratives that all end the same way. Can she find a way out before it’s too late?
With breathless hilarity untitled f*ck m*ss s**gon play jumps through time – wriggling inside of and then exploding lifetimes of repeating Asian stereotypes, wrestling history for the right to control your own narrative in a world that thinks it can tell you who you are.
untitled f*ck m*ss s**gon play is designed by Khadija Raza with costume design by Loren Elstein, lighting design by Josh Pharo, composition by Ruth Chan, sound design by Giles Thomas, movement by Shelley Maxwell, fight and intimacy direction by Haruka Kuroda, Jerwood Assistant Director is Caroline Yu and casting by Helena Palmer CDG.
Mei Mac says: “I’m thrilled to be bringing Kimber Lee’s play to life. It’s a bold and delicious opportunity to reclaim the narrative of East and South East Asian women in the diaspora, from years of dehumanisation and denied agency. It’s empowering to explore the conversations I’ve had with my sisters and in my communities with a wider audience in such a fun, spicy, theatrical way. A genre, timeline defying way. Because that’s what’s so exciting about this play; its refusal to be reduced by the patriarchy and its determination to take full autonomy.”
Kimber Lee says: “I cannot wait to get in the rehearsal room with this wonderful cast! A play craves embodiment, and I’m looking forward to getting to know these incredibly gifted actors, and seeing how each person brings their humor, intelligence and passion to the process.“
Roy Alexander Weise says: “When I first read Kimber’s play it blew me away and I knew we had to programme it. We received it on the first day of our tenure so it’s serendipitous that it’s my last production as Artistic Director. It’s the greatest privilege to be asked to direct this brilliantly funny, uniquely voiced and skilfully crafted masterpiece. We’ve pulled together an amazing team to shape the story ready for the stage. The cast are fantastic and I can’t wait to get into a rehearsal room and to show the world how f*cking funny Kimber’s play is. I can’t wait!”
Olivier award nominee Mei Mac is best known for playing Mei Kusakabe in the world premiere My Neighbour Totoro at the Barbican theatre. Other stage credits include: Dear Elizabeth (Gate Theatre), Five Plays – Tongues (Young Vic), The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (Bridge Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), Under The Umbrella (Belgrade/Tamasha/Yellow Earth Theatre), The Hundred And One Dalmatians (Birmingham Rep). Television credits include: East Mode (Comedy Central) and Call The Midwife (Neal Street Productions).
Actress and filmmaker Lourdes Faberes just wrapped filming a new series of Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys for Amazon. Her film credits include: Boiling Point (Netflix), Operation Fortune (Miramax/STX Global), No Time To Die (Eon Productions), Someone You Love (Zentropa Productions Intl), Room 204 (Alphaville Pictures), Spread (Katalyst Films), State Of Play (Universal Pictures). Television credits include: The Power (Amazon), The Sandman (Netflix), Grenslanders: Floodland (Eyework Netherlands/Belgium/C4), Good Omens (Amazon/BBC 2), Holby City (BBC). Her theatre credits include: Rescuing One’s Sister In The Wind and the Dust (Almeida Theatre), Richard II (Shakespeare’s Globe), The Tide Whisperer (National Theatre of Wales), Tamburlaine (Arcola Theatre), Cruel and Tender (Young Vic).
Stage and screen actress Jennifer Kirby is best known for her role as Valerie Dyer in Call The Midwife (Neal Street Productions). Other TV credits include Endeavour (Mammoth Screen), Vampire Academy (My So-Called Company) and Holby City (BBC). Her stage credits include: Henry V and Henry IV (RSC), Teddy (Snapdragon Productions), The Massive Tragedy of Madame Bovary (Jermyn Street Theatre) and Pride and Prejudice (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre).
Tom Weston-Jones is due to appear in the third season of Warrior for HBO. Prior screen credits include: Sanditon (PBS/ITV), Shadow and Bone (Netflix), The Terror (AMC), Troy (BBC/Netflix), Dickensian (BBC), Not Safe For Work (Channel 4), Copper Season 1 and 2 (BBC America), World Without End (Channel 4). Theatre credits include: Labyrinth and Enlightenment (Hampstead Theatre), and The Merchant of Venice (Almeida Theatre).
Rochelle Rose’s stage credits include: Rockets and Blue Lights (National Theatre / Royal Exchange Theatre), salt. (Royal Court), The Ridiculous Darkness (Gate Theatre), The Mountaintop (UK Tour), Cinderella and Aladdin (Oxford Playhouse), The Winter’s Tale (Orange Tree Theatre)and One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show (Kiln Theatre / Eclipse Theatre). Her screen credits include: Boxing Day (Film 4), Ear for Eye (BBC Films), Death in Paradise and Lawful Killing (BBC One).
Jeff D’Sangalang’s stage credits include: The Ocean At The End Of The Lane (West End / National Theatre), That Pesky Rat (Chichester Festival Theatre), Shut Up I’m Dreaming (National Theatre UK tour/ The Pappyshow), Boys (The Pappy Show), To Kill A Mockingbird (National Youth Theatre).
Kimber Lee’s plays include the water palace (2021 Susan Smith Blackburn Special Commendation), to the yellow house (La Jolla Playhouse), untitled f*ck m*ss s**gon play (2019 Bruntwood Prize International Award), saturday (2022 Colorado New Play Summit), antarctica (Radio Play for Two River Theatre), tokyo fish story (South Coast Rep, TheatreWorks/SV, Old Globe), brownsville song (b-side for tray)(Humana Festival, LCT3, Long Wharf Theatre, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Seattle Rep, Moxie Theatre, Shotgun Players), and different words for the same thing directed by Neel Keller (Center Theatre Group). She has also developed work with Lark Play Development Center, Ground Floor/Berkeley Rep, Page 73, CTG, Denver Center, O’Neill NPC, Hedgebrook, Ojai Playwrights Conference, Seven Devils, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Great Plains Theatre Conference, ACT Theatre/Seattle, Premiere Stages, and Magic Theatre. Lark Playwrights Workshop Fellow, Dramatists Guild Fellow, member of Ma-Yi Writers Lab, and recipient of the Ruby Prize, PoNY Fellowship, Hartford Stage New Voices Fellowship, 2020-2021 Hodder Fellowship, 2020 Helen Merrill Award, 2020 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Finalist, 2021 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Special Commendation, inaugural winner Bruntwood Prize International Award 2019, 2021 Edgerton New Play Award, 2023 Hermitage Artist Retreat Fellow, and 2021 Herb Alpert Award in the Arts. MFA: UT Austin.
Roy Alexander Weise is Joint Artistic Director of the Royal Exchange Theatre. He was the 19th annual winner of the James Menzies-Kitchin Award and directed his critically acclaimed, sell-out production of The Mountaintop by Katori Hall at the Young Vic. Roy was nominated at the 2018 Evening Standard Awards for the ‘Emerging Talent’ Award for his production of Nine Night at the National Theatre and in the West End. As Joint Artistic Director at the Exchange he has directed, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and on stage and as a digital reading The Mountaintop and developed projects such as All I Want For Christmas and Oh Woman for the theatre. Recent productions include Cat on a Hot Tin Roof(Royal Exchange), Much A Do About Nothing (RSC), Master Harold And The Boys (National Theatre), The Trick (Bush Theatre and UK Tour), Nine Night (National Theatre & West End), Dead Don’t Floss (National Theatre), The Dark (Fuel Theatre & UK Tour), Br’er Cotton (Theatre 503), The Ugly One (Park Theatre), Primetime (Royal Court) and Stone Face (Finborough Theatre).