CASTING AND FULL CREATIVE TEAM ANNOUNCED FOR ANTIGONE BY INUA ELLAMS
- ZAINAB HASAN PLAYS ANTIGONE
- TONY JAYAWARDENA PLAYS CREON
Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre have today announced casting and the full creative team for Antigone. Written by Inua Ellams (Barber Shop Chronicles, Three Sisters), this contemporary retelling of Sophocles’s epic story has been commissioned by the theatre in its 90th anniversary year.
A torn family. A hostile state. One heroic brother. One misguided son. One conflicted sister, and the second is on the run.
The creative team includes: Michael ‘Mikey J’ Asante MBE (composer), Shanaé Chisholm (casting assistant), Barbara Houseman (voice & text and season associate director), Carrie-Anne Ingrouille (choreographer), Polly Jerrold (casting director), Jack Knowles (lighting designer), Emma Laxton (sound designer), Ingrid Mackinnon (season associate: intimacy support), Khadija Raza (costume designer), Leslie Travers (set designer), Jo Tyabji (co-director), Max Webster (director) and Kate Waters (fight director).
Zainab Hasan plays the role of Antigone, and Tony Jayawardena plays Antigone’s uncle, Creon.
Also joining the cast are: Pandora Colin (Eurydice) Rhianna Dorris (Lyra), Sandy Grierson (Aleksy), Nadeem Islam (Polyneices), Abe Jarman (Eteocles), Oliver Johnstone (Haemon), Munir Khairdin (Nikomedes), Susan Lawson-Reynolds (Commissioner), Eli London (Tiresius), Shazia Nicholls (Ismene), Mervin Noronha (Chorus), Razak Osman (Athan), Joseph Prouse (Officer), Nadia Sohawon (Kyria), Riley Woodford (Strom) and Lydia Bakelmun (walking understudy).
Zainab Hasan (Antigone)
Theatre includes: Chasing Hares (Young Vic); Lotus Beauty (Hampstead); Rice (Orange Tree/Actors Touring Company); Living Newspaper (Royal Court); The Welkin (National Theatre); Blank, Shakespeare Trilogy, Henry IV (Donmar Warehouse); Timon of Athens, Tartuffe, Tamburlaine (RSC); Hijabi Monologues (Bush); The Tempest (Donmar Warehouse/St Ann’s Warehouse, New York); Boy (Almeida); Henry IV (St Anne’s Warehouse, NYC); The Class by Luke Barnes (National Youth Theatre); Tory Boyz, Romeo & Juliet, Prince of Denmark (Ambassadors).
Television includes: Casualty (BBC One); Maryland (BBC Two, Century Films).
Writing includes: Writing Wrongs – Equal Measure (Donmar Warehouse).
Tony Jayawardena (Creon)
Theatre includes: The Father and the Assassin, England People Very Nice (National Theatre); East is East (National Theatre/Birmingham Rep); The Invisible Hand, White Teeth (Kiln); Christmas at the Snow Globe, Twelfth Night, Lions and Tigers (Shakespeare’s Globe); Hobson’s Choice (Royal Exchange, Manchester); Young Marx (The Bridge); The Tempest, The Roaring Girl, The White Devil (RSC); Bend It Like Beckham (Phoenix).
Television includes: Avoidance, Holby City (BBC One); The Crown, The Duchess (Netflix); Ackley Bridge, The Windsors (Channel 4); The Tunnel (Sky Atlantic); Cuckoo (BBC Three); The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (Kindle Entertainment).
Film includes: A Street Cat Named Bob; The Cook; Trance; A Bunch of Amateurs.
Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre’s 90th Anniversary season also includes the sell-out hit musical Legally Blonde (playing until 2 July) directed by Lucy Moss, co-creator of Six the Musical, which has now played to over 65,000 people. From 12 July to 28 August, 101 Dalmatians is a newly commissioned musical written by Douglas Hodge (music and lyrics) and Johnny McKnight (book), from a stage adaptation by Zinnie Harris, based on the book by Dodie Smith.
The theatre also presents a series of one-off MOREoutdoor events including Daniel Kitson with or near Gavin Osborn (24 July, 21 August), Austentatious: An Improvised Jane Austen Novel (Sunday 31 July), Frankenstein: How To Make A Monster (Monday 8 August) from Battersea Arts Centre the BAC Beatbox Academy, Le Gateau Chocolat, making his Open Air Theatre debut with Raw Cacao (Sunday 14 August), and The Luna Cinema presents Steven Spielberg’s multi-award-winning new take on West Side Story (Sunday 18 September).