J’OUVERT AND ANNA X TO PLAY ADDITIONAL PERFORMANCES
AT THEATRE ROYAL AND ROYAL CONCERT HALL NOTTINGHAM
AND THE LOWRY, SALFORD
Following performances as part of SFP’s RE:EMERGE season at the Harold Pinter Theatre, Yasmin Joseph’s J’Ouvert will run for 5 performances only at Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall Nottingham from 21 to 24 July; and Joseph Charlton’s Anna X will run at The Lowry, Salford for 6 performances only from 10 August to 14 August, enabling more audiences to access the productions.
The RE:EMERGE season at the Harold Pinter Theatre is creating a space for new voices and fresh talent in the West End and beyond, working alongside some of the industry’s greatest theatremakers and artists. Opening with Amy Berryman’s Walden – ‘A fresh and ambitious new play. A giant leap for the West End’ – Daily Telegraph – and continuing with J’Ouvert and Anna X, the season of plays curated by Sonia Friedman Productions with Ian Rickson tackles urgent issues integral to rebuilding our society, including structural inequality, climate change and the economics of truth in an internet age. Supported using public funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England, RE:EMERGE is supporting the theatre-makers of the future, providing vital work for the freelance community and celebrating the live experience as we begin to build back to the full reopening of British theatre.
The RE:EMERGE season, helping to re-open and re-energise our theatres, is staged in a Covid safe environment following current government advice and adhering to social distancing guidelines; and in line with Society of London Theatre’s See It Safely campaign.
J’OUVERT
A new play by Yasmin Joseph
Harold Pinter Theatre 16 June – 3 July
Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall Nottingham 21 – 24 July
Cast: Annice Boparai, Gabrielle Brooks, Sapphire Joy
Directed by Rebekah Murrell; Designed by Sandra Falase in collaboration with Chloe Lamford; Movement by Shelley Maxwell; Lighting Design by Simisola Majekodunmi; Sound Design by Beth Duke; Casting by Isabella Odoffin
“What people you know can party through all of the earth’s elements?”
2017. Carnival is here. The streets of Notting Hill are alive with history and amongst the pulsating soca, dazzling colour, and endless sequins and feathers, Jade and Nadine are fighting for space in a world they thought was theirs. A timely reflection on the Black British experience and sexual politics of Carnival, J’Ouvert is a piercing, hilarious and fearless story of two best friends, battling to preserve tradition in a society where women’s bodies are frequently under threat.
J’Ouvert was first produced by Bad Breed in co-production with Theatre503 and Tobi Kyeremateng.
Yasmin Joseph is a London-based writer. Her debut play J’Ouvert premièred at Theatre503 in 2019 and she was nominated for the Evening Standard’s Most Promising Playwright Award, and most recently won the 2020 James Tait Black Prize For Drama. She is the current writer-in-residence at Sister Pictures, and is on attachment at the Royal Court Theatre as a winner of the Channel 4 Playwrights scheme. She is also under co-commission with Soho Theatre and The Actors Touring Company as part of the Soho Six, The Place Theatre in Bedford with the Retired Caribbean Nurses Association and Clean Break.
Annice Boparai plays Nisha. Her theatre credits include Border Control, 17 (The Vaults), Hear Me Now Monologues, Behind the Blast Wall (Theatre503), Service Ellandar Productions (White Bear), Tamasha Scratch Night (Leicester Curve/Soho), J’Ouvert (Theatre503), Trojan Horse (Summerhall Main Hall, Edinburgh), The Canary and the Crow and 17 (Gig), Silently Hoping (Arcola Theatre), Earlsfield Stories (Tara Arts), If and When (Soho Theatre) and The Lights (Royal Court Theatre/Oxford School of Drama).
Gabrielle Brooks plays Nadine. Her theatre credits include Anna Bella Eema (Arcola Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), Twelfth Night (Young Vic), The Way of the World (Donmar Warehouse), The Wizard of Oz (Sheffield Theatres), Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (Sheffield Crucible), Lazarus (King’s Cross Theatre), The Strangers Case (Liverpool Everyman Theatre), The Book of Mormon (Prince of Wales Theatre), I Can’t Sing (London Palladium) and Our House (Savoy Theatre). For television her credits include Shadow and Bone and Coming Down The Mountain. For film, her credits include Notes on A Scandal. She has created and produced BlackStage UK – an emotional and educational exposé on what it means to be Black in the UK Arts industry, featuring 30 Black and Black mixed-raced workers from across the sector and from all over the UK.
Sapphire Joy plays Jade. Her theatre credits include Anansi The Spider (Unicorn Theatre), Grey (Ovalhouse), J’Ouvert (Theatre503), Twelfth Night (Southwark Playhouse), Our Country’s Good (Nottingham Playhouse), The Interrogation of Sandra Bland (Bush Theatre) and Imogen (Shakespeare’s Globe). Her television credits include Speak For Herself, Casualty, Seconds From Disaster: Jonestown Cult Suicide and Crimewatch.
Rebekah Murrell directs. She is an actor and director from London. She made her professional directing debut with J’Ouvert by Yasmin Joseph which premièred at Theatre503 in 2019. She is currently directing a community project for The Place Theatre in Bedford with the Retired Caribbean Nurses Association; and an audio drama for Audible with students at LAMDA; and will shortly be appearing at Shakespeare’s Globe in Romeo and Juliet.
J’Ouvert will be adapted for the screen as part of BBC Lights Up, an unprecedented season of plays for BBC radio and TV, produced in partnership with theatres across the UK and continuing BBC Arts’ Culture in Quarantine initiative. The film will be screened on BBC Four on Monday 26 April at 10pm and iPlayer.
ANNA X
A new play by Joseph Charlton
Harold Pinter Theatre: 10 July – 4 August
The Lowry, Salford 10 – 14 August
Cast: Emma Corrin, Nabhaan Rizwan
Directed by Daniel Raggett; Set and Video Design by Mikaela Liakata and Tal Yarden
Lighting Design by Jessica Hung Han Yun; Sound Design by Mike Winship
Costume Design by Natalie Pryce
Anna. 25. Curator. Retired intern. Previously @RAW magazine. I ♥ art, fashion, NYC.
Ariel. 32. CEO of @GenesisApp. A social and dating network by invitation only. SF-NYC-LDN.
Immersed in an addictive world of front-row fashion shows, private views, and endless parties, Anna and Ariel find themselves struggling to keep up with New York’s dazzling social elite. How far will two outsiders go to construct the identities they want? And at what price?
Golden Globe Award-winner Emma Corrin and Royal Television Society’s 2019 Breakthrough star Nabhaan Rizwan make their West End debuts in this searing tale of self-invention, determination, and deceit. ANNA X is a new play by Joseph Charlton, directed by Daniel Raggett which originally ran at the Vault Festival in 2019.
ANNA X is a fictional imagining inspired by real life events, and was originally produced by Rebecca Gwyther at the VAULT Festival, 2019.
Joseph Charlton is a multi-award-winning writer from the north east of England. He is currently adapting his play Brilliant Jerks into an eight-part series for the BBC.He worked previously as a journalist.
Emma Corrin makes her professional stage debut playing Anna. For television, her credits include playing Lady Diana Spencer in the award-winning The Crown – for which she recently won a Golden Globe, a Critics Choice Award and a SAG nomination, and Pennyworth. For film her credits include Misbehaviour, and the forthcoming My Policeman and Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
Nabhaan Rizwan plays Ariel. His theatre credits include Little Revolution (Almeida Theatre) and The Undergrowth (Royal Court Theatre). For television his credits include Informer (RTS Breakthrough Award), Industry, The Accident and the forthcoming Station Eleven;and for film, Mogul Mowgli, 1917 and the forthcoming Last Letters From Your Lover.
Daniel Raggett is a director who has worked with theatres including the Young Vic, Headlong, the Almeida and the National Theatre; and as an associate director on productions in the West End and on Broadway. His recent work includes Jean Cocteau’s The Human Voice at the Gate Theatre (also adapted) and, as associate, All About Eve in the West End and West Side Story and Network on Broadway.
Listings Information
RE:EMERGE Season
Harold Pinter Theatre, Panton St, London SW1Y 4DN
Box Office: 0844 871 7622 www.atgtickets.com
WALDEN
Harold Pinter Theatre until 12 June
J’OUVERT
Harold Pinter Theatre 16 June – 3 July
Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall Nottingham 21 – 24 July
https://trch.co.uk/ / Box Office: 0115 989 5555
ANNA X
10 July – 4 August
The Lowry, Salford 10 – 14 August
https://thelowry.com/ / 0343 208 6000