GREG GERMANN, JASSA AHLUWALIA AND SOPHIE MELVILLE
STAR IN THE TRANSATLANTIC PRODUCTION OF
LUCINDA COXON’S HERDING CATS
NEW ACCESS INITIATIVES ALSO ANNOUNCED
New York-based, Olivier-winning, and Tony-nominated OHenry Productions and Stellar, in association with Soho Theatre, today announce the full cast for the transatlantic production of Herding Cats by Lucinda Coxon, combining live in-person and streamed theatre. Anthony Banks directs Jassa Ahluwalia (Unforgotten, Peaky Blinders) as Michael, Greg Germann (Grey’s Anatomy, Friends From College and Ally McBeal) as Saddo, and Sophie Melville as Justine (Pops, Iphigenia in Splott). The show has now added extra performances, and will run from 19 – 22 May 2021 – with press performance on 20 May, Herding Cats is a Stellar Original production.
Directed by Anthony Banks, reunited with Coxon following their collaboration on the world première production, the staging is a hybrid of in-person and livestream theatre that marks a first-of-its-kind international collaboration. With Germann performing live in Los Angeles, his character will be transmitted via video-link into the Soho Theatre where Ahluwalia and Melville are performing in-person, creating a unique live experience for the audience. Simultaneously, audiences across the globe can access the production as a live-streamed cinematic theatrical experience that will combine the performances of both the American and British actors in real-time. The production is accessible online to audiences across the globe via Stellar and in person, with social distancing in line with current UK government guidelines, at Soho Theatre.
Also announced today, is a $10 Lottery which patrons can enter once for a performance of their choice via: www.herdingcatsplay.com/lottery; and a partnership with Broadway For All and Mousetrap Theatre Projects as part of the Broadway Plus One campaign, which provides students in the US and the UK with subsidized $2 tickets to make theatre accessible for all. Ticket buyers can participate in the “Buy One, Give One” (BOGO) program by adding BOGO tickets to their cart during checkout on the Stellar website. For information on how to make a larger, tax deductible donation to the program, visit www.herdingcatsplay.com/bp1
Herding Cats is a chillingly funny play about a generation negotiating intimacy and independence in the 21st century. Meeting the demands of modern life is as impossible as herding cats for Justine, Michael and Saddo. To deal with work, Justine talks – a little too much – to her roommate Michael who earns a living by chatting with strangers like Saddo. But all three will soon find that in a cold, disconnected world, words may not be enough.
Jassa Ahluwalia plays Michael. For theatre, his work includes Skin a Cat (The Bunker, Vaults Festival), Wipers (Curve, Watford Palace Theatre, Belgrade Theatre), and Piranha Heights (The Old Red Lion Theatre). For television, his work includes Unforgotten (as series regular Adam Stuart), Peaky Blinders, Some Girls (as series regular Rocky), Ripper Street, The Whale, Legends and The Bible; for video game, Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier; and for film, Slaughterhouse Rulez, Dragonheart: The Sorcerer’s Curse and The Rezort.
Greg Germann plays Saddo. He became a member of Circle Repertory Company and Ensemble Studio Theatre, with appearance both Off-Broadway and on Broadway in Stephen Sondheim’s musical Assassins, The Person I Was opposite Holly Hunter, and David Mamet’s War Games. He also starred in Speed the Plow at the Geffen Playhouse with Alicia Silverstone and Jon Tenney. Most recently he was seen in the origination of Steve Martin’s Meteor Shower at The Old Globe with Jenna Fischer. His television credits include five seasons on Ally McBeal as series regular Richard Fish; as Greg Norbert in House of Lies opposite Don Cheadle and Kristen Bell; as Hades in Once Upon a Time; alongside Keegan-Michael Key, Fred Savage, and Cobie Smulders, as part of the ensemble cast in the Netflix comedy Friends From College; and recently in CBS limited series $1. He is currently playing series regular Dr Tom Koracick in the ABC hit Grey’s Anatomy. For film, his credits include Get Hard with Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart; the Will Ferrell and Sacha Baron-Cohen comedy, Talladega Nights; the Sundance hit Friends with Money, alongside Jennifer Aniston, Catherine Keener, and Joan Cusack; opposite Chris Rock in the Farrelly Brothers’ Down to Earth; Sweet November with Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron; and in the short film Culture which earned an Academy Award nomination.
Sophie Melville plays Justine. Her theatre credits include Living Newspaper (Royal Court Theatre), Pops (Roxy Assembly – The Stage Award for Outstanding Performance, Young Vic), Wolfie (Theatre503), Blue (Chapter Theatre), Close Quarters (Sheffield Theatres), No One Will Tell Me How to Start a Revolution (Hampstead Theatre), The Divide, Pagans (The Old Vic), Low Level Panic (Orange Tree Theatre), 2066 (Almeida Theatre), Blackbird (The Other Room Theatre – Wales Theatre Awards Best Female Performance), Insignificance, Under Milk Wood (Theatr Clwyd), Iphigenia in Splott (National Theatre/Theater 59E59 NYC/The Sherman Theatre/Edinburgh Fringe Festival and international tour – The Stage Award for Acting Excellence, Wales Theatre Award for Best Female Performance, Evening Standard Award nomination for Best Actress, Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Solo Performance), Romeo and Juliet (The Sherman Theatre), The Shape of Things; ‘Tis a Pity She’s a Whore; See How They Run (Theatre by the Lake) and Romeo and Juliet (The Sam Wanamaker Festival). For television, her work includes The Pact, Bang series 2, Call the Midwife, The Left Behind, The Missing 2.
Lucinda Coxon’s theatre writing credits include Alys, Always; Herding Cats, Happy Now, The Eternal Not, Nostalgia, The Shoemaker’s Wife, Vesuvius, Wishbones, Three Graces, The Ice Palace and Waiting at the Water’s Edge. Her screenwriting credits include the multiple award-winning The Danish Girl starring Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander, The Crimson Petal and the White starring Romola Garai for BBC, Wild Target starring Emily Blunt, The Heart of Me starring Paul Bettany and Helena Bonham-Carter and The Little Stranger starring Domnhall Gleeson and Ruth Wilson.
Anthony Banks has directed world premieres of many new plays including The Girl On The Train (West End/National Tour), Nick Dear’s Hogarth’s Progress (Rose Kingston,; Ryan Craig’s Games For Lovers (Vaults), Kevin Elyot’s Twilight Song (Park Theatre), Jim Cartwright’s Raz (West End/UK tour), Lucinda Coxon’s Herding Cats (Hampstead Theatre/Theatre Royal Bath); James Graham’s Bassett (Bristol Old Vic), Dennis Kelly’s DNA (UK tour), Bryony Lavery’s Cesario and More Light, Lucinda Coxon’s The Eternal Not and Michael Lesslie’s Prince of Denmark (National Theatre), Snoo Wilson’s Pignight (Menier Chocolate Factory), Mark Ravenhill’s The Experiment (Soho Theatre/Berliner Ensemble). He has also directed some twentieth century classics including Daphne du Maurier’s My Cousin Rachel by Joseph O’Connor, Patrick Marber’s After Miss Julie (Theatre Royal Bath), Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train; Patrick Hamilton’s Gaslight and Dial M For Murder (UK tours) and Tennessee Williams’ The Hotel Plays. Banks was an associate director at the National Theatre 2004-2014 where he commissioned and developed a hundred new plays for NT Connections.
The additional creative team includes Olivier-nominee lighting designer Howard Hudson (&Juliet – Olivier nomination, West End, In the Heights King’s Cross Theatre), costume designer Susan Kulkarni (Secret Cinema), video designer Andrzej Goulding (& Juliet, West End, Groundhog Day, Broadway), set designer Grace Smart (Susanna, Royal Opera House), and sound designers Ben and Max Ringham (Blindness, Donmar Warehouse, Cyrano de Bergerac, West End – Olivier nomination).
UK Casting, Stuart Burt (2021 CDG Award Winner), and US Casting, Taylor Williams (2021 Artios Award Winner).
Herding Cats is co-produced by Jeff Hollander, Executive Produced by Josh McTaggart with Kim Onah as Associate Producer.
URL: http://herdingcatsplay.com/
IG: @herdingcatsplay
TW: @herdingcatsplay
FB: https://www.facebook.com/herdingcatsplay
HERDING CATS
LISTINGS
Soho Theatre
21 Dean St, Soho, London W1D 3NE
For in-person and streaming tickets, go to www.herdingcatsplay.com
Tickets in person start from £10 GBP; and streaming starts from $29USD.
PERFORMANCE DATE AND TIMES – PLEASE NOTE NEW SCHEDULE:
Wednesday 19 May at 7.30pm GMT / 2.30pm ET
Thursday 20 May at 7.30pm GMT / 2.30pm ET – PRESS PERFORMANCE
Friday 21 May at 7.30pm GMT / 2.30pm ET
Friday 21 May at 11pm GMT / 6pm ET
Saturday 22 May at 7.30pm GMT / 2.30pm ET
Saturday 22 May at 11pm GMT / 6pm ET
SEE IT SAFELY -We have been granted the use of Society of London Theatre & UK Theatre’s See It Safely mark. The mark certifies that we are complying with the latest Government and industry COVID-19 guidelines, to ensure the safety of our staff and audiences. You can find out more here https://officiallondontheatre.com/see-it-safely/ about the measures we have been putting in place ready for your visit, and what you will need to know beforehand.
