Production images have been released for the world premiere of The Fellowship, an electrifying, hilarious and gripping new play by Roy Williams. Directed by Paulette Randall, The Fellowship will run until 23 July 2022. Images are available to download here.
Set in modern Britain, The Fellowship cast comprises of Rosie Day (Instructions for a Teenage Armageddon, Southwark Playhouse; Microwave, National Theatre), Ethan Hazzard (Raised by Wolves, HBO; The Long Song, BBC One), Trevor Laird (Small Island and One Man, Two Guvnors, National Theatre), Suzette Llewellyn (Running with Lions, Lyric Hammersmith; EastEnders, BBC One), Yasmin Mwanza (Spider-Man: Far from Home, Marvel Studios, Sony and Columbia Pictures; Girls, Talawa Theatre Company) and Cherrelle Skeete (Fun Home, Young Vic; The Phlebotomist, Hampstead Theatre).
Director Paulette Randall, is joined by designer, Libby Watson; lighting designer, Mark Jonathan; sound designer, Delroy Murray; casting director, Briony Barnett CDG; associate director, Grace Joseph and assistant designer, Roma Farnell.
Children of the Windrush generation, sisters Dawn (Cherrelle Skeete) and Marcia Adams (Suzette Llewellyn) grew up in 1980s London and were activists on the front line against the multiple injustices of that time. Decades on, they find they have little in common beyond family… Dawn struggles to care for their dying mother, whilst her one surviving son is drifting away from her. Meanwhile, high-flying lawyer Marcia’s affair with a married politician might be about to explode and destroy her career. Can the Adams sisters navigate the turmoil that lies ahead, leave the past behind, and seize the future with the bond between them still intact?
Roy Williams OBE is one of the UK’s leading dramatists. His plays include The Firm, Wildefire (Hampstead Theatre), Sucker Punch (Royal Court)and Death of England and Sing Yer Heart Out For The Lads (National Theatre). In 2020, his play Death of England: Delroy reopened the National Theatre and he received both a BAFTA Nomination (Best Short Form Drama) and an RTS nomination (Best Writer, Drama) for his contribution to BBC4’s Soon Gone, A Windrush Chronicle. Williams is also mentor of Hampstead Theatre’s year-long writers’ programme Inspire.
Associate Director of London’s 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony and a former Artistic Director of Talawa Theatre Company, Dr. Paulette Randall MBE makes her Hampstead Theatre debut. Other directing credits include Doctor Faustus (Shakespeare’s Globe), Gem of the Ocean (Kiln) and Fences with Lenny Henry (Duchess Theatre).
The Fellowship is a T.S. Eliot Foundation commission.
LISTINGS
Address: Hampstead Theatre, Eton Avenue, London, NW3 3EU
Box Office: 020 7722 9301 (Mon – Sat 10.30am – 7pm) | hampsteadtheatre.com
WORLD PREMIERE
THE FELLOWSHIP
Playwright Roy Williams
Director Paulette Randall
Designer Libby Watson
Lighting Designer Mark Jonathan
Sound Designer Delroy Murray
Casting Director Briony Barnett CDG
Associate Director Grace Joseph
Assistant Designer Roma Farnell
Cast Rosie Day, Ethan Hazzard, Trevor Laird, Suzette Llewellyn, Yasmin Mwanza, Cherrelle Skeete
Dates: until Saturday 23 July 2022
Press Night: Monday 27 June at 7.30pm
Captioned Performance: Tuesday 19 July at 7.30pm (socially distanced)
Audio Described Performance: Saturday 23 July at 2.30pm (socially distanced)
Socially Distanced Performances: Wednesday 13 July at 7.30pm & Thursday 14 July at 2.30pm
#HTFellowship
TIMINGS
Monday – Saturday: 7.30pm
Thursday & Saturday Matinees: 2.30pm
TICKET PRICING FOR PREVIEWS, MONDAYS AND MATINEES:
Full Price: £10/£18/£27/£30
Under 30s/Students: £10/£15*
Seniors: (matinees only): £20/£25
Access: £16
TICKET PRICING FOR TUESDAY – SATURDAY EVENINGS:
Full price: £12/£25/£32/£37
Under 30s/Students: £10/£15*
Access: £16
*Under 30s and Student concession seats are available in Row A (£15) & Band C (£10)
Should any productions need to be postponed, audiences can choose between a full refund or credit to be used for future Hampstead productions.
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FULL LENGTH BIOS
CREATIVE TEAM
ROY WILLIAMS – WRITER
Roy began writing plays in 1990. In 2000 he was the joint-winner of The George Devine Award and in 2001 he won the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright. He was awarded the OBE for Services to Drama in the 2008 Birthday Honours List and was made a fellow of The Royal Society of Literature in 2018.
His plays include Death of England (Dorfman, National Theatre); Death of England : Delroy (Olivier, National Theatre); The Firm (Hampstead Downstairs); Soul: The Untold Story of Marvin Gaye (Royal and Derngate/Hackney Empire); Antigone (Pilot Theatre Company – UK tour); Wildefire (Hampstead Theatre); Advice for the Young at Heart (Theatre Centre); an adaptation of The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (Pilot Theatre Company – UK tour); Sucker Punch (Royal Court – nominated for Olivier Award for Best Play); Kingston ’14 (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Category B (Tricycle); Days of Significance (RSC); Joe Guy (Tiata Fahodzi/Soho); There’s Only One Wayne Matthews (Polka Theatre); Baby Girl (National Theatre Connections); Absolute Beginners (Lyric Hammersmith); Little Sweet Thing (Nottingham Playhouse); Slow Time (National Theatre Education); Fallout (Royal Court); Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads (National Theatre); Clubland (Royal Court); The Gift (Birmingham Rep/Tricycle); Local Boy (Hampstead Theatre); Lift Off (Royal Court); Starstruck (Tricycle – Winner of John Whiting Award, Alfred Fagon Award & EMMA Award for Best Play); Josie’s Boy (Red Ladder Theatre Company) and The No-Boys Cricket Club (Theatre Royal, Stratford East). He also contributed to the Royal Court’s Peckham: The Soap Opera.
Film work includes Fast Girls and Death of England: Face to Face.
Television work includes Let It Snow; Fallout (Screen Nation Award for Achievement in Screenwriting); Offside (Winner of BAFTA Children’s Film & TV Award for Best Schools Drama); Babyfather and Soon Gone: A Windrush Chronicle.
Radio work includes adaptations of ER Braithwaite’s A Choice of Straws and To Sir with Love and
John Wyndham’s The Midwich Cuckoos as well as two original plays Tell Tale and Homeboys. He has also created and written eight series of Interrogation for BBC.
PAULETTE RANDALL M.B.E – DIRECTOR
Paulette was the Associate Director of the Opening Ceremony for the 2012 London Olympic Games.
Theatre work includes Dr Faustus (Shakespeare’s Globe); Love Letters to the NHS (National Theatre Wales); Daisy Pulls It Off (Park Theatre); The Disappearance of Dorothy Lawrence (Vital Exposure); Obama-ology (RADA); Play Mas (Orange Tree); Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (Chichester Festival Theatre); Rudy’s Rare Records – starring Lenny Henry (Birmingham Rep/Hackney Empire); Fences (Theatre Royal Bath/UK tour/West End) and the sketch show Funny Black Women on the Edge.
Television work includes Silent Witness; Tin Star; Hollyoaks; Death in Paradise; Casualty; River City; Holby City; The Real McCoy; Desmond’s; Porkpie; C4; The Crouches; Comin Atcha; Kerching! and The Little Miss Jocelyn Show (Creative Consultant).
LIBBY WATSON – DESIGNER
Libby works across theatre and dance. She trained at Bristol Old Vic and Wimbledon School of Art.
Theatre work includes Tony! [The Tony Blair Rock Opera] (Park Theatre); Bring It On: The Musical (QEH); Being Mr Wickman (Live stream, Regency Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds); The Witchfinder’s Sister (Queen’s); Privacy and Trolle (Norway); Toast (The Other Palace/UK tour); One Man Two Guvnors (Wolsey, Ipswich/Southampton); Once (UK tour); Dr. Faustus (Sam Wannamaker); Fences (Duchess); Paradise Lost (Barbican); The Philanthropist (Trafalgar Studios); Emma (UK tour); Miss Meena and the Masala Queens (Watford Palace/UK tour); As You Like It (Theatre by the Lake, Keswick); Godiva Rocks (Belgrade Theatre); Daisy Pulls It Off (Park Theatre); Lady Anna All at Sea (UK tour); Peter Pan (Bogota); August (Milton Court);
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Wolsey, Ipswich); Sisterhood (Belgrade Theatre); Laila (UK tour); Little Lord Fauntleroy (Peacock); Feed the Beast (Birmingham Rep); Sweet Charity (Wolsey, Ipswich); The History Boys (UK tour); Play Mas (Orange Tree); The Deranged Marriage (Watford Palace/UK tour); Frankie & Johnny in the Clair de Lune (Chichester Festival Theatre); Rudy’s Rare Records (Hackney Empire); The Dead Dogs (Print Room) and Propaganda Swing (Belgrade Theatre/Nottingham Playhouse).
Television work includes Alexander Pope Rediscovering a Genius.
MARK JONATHAN – LIGHTING DESIGNER
Mark Jonathan is internationally renowned as a multi-award winning, lighting designer of Dance, Drama, Opera and Musicals. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Previous work with Paulette Randall and Libby Watson includes Frankie & Johnny in the Clair de Lune (Chichester Festival Theatre); Rudy’s Rare Records (Birmingham Rep/Hackney Empire) and Playmas (Orange Tree).
Most recent work includes Don Giovanni (Scottish Opera); Anne of Green Gables (London Children’s Ballet); Giulio Cesare (Theater an der Wien) and Private Lives (Theatre Royal, Bath/UK tour).
Mark was head of lighting at the National Theatre between 1993 and 2003.
Other UK work includes productions for the RSC as well as in the West End, The Royal Court, Chichester, Nottingham, Liverpool, Bristol, Edinburgh Festival, Headlong, Manchester Royal Exchange, Leeds, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Royal Ballet, Northern Ballet, Glyndebourne, Garsington, Buxton, Scottish Opera and WNO.
Overseas his work has taken him to Aarhus, Antwerp, Banff, Barcelona, Beijing, Bolzano, Cape Town, Charleston, Copenhagen, Dublin, Florence, Ghent, Helsinki, Houston, Johannesburg, Kuwait, Los Angeles, Madrid, Mexico, Munich, New York, Oslo, Potsdam, Rome, Spoleto, Stockholm, Stuttgart, Strasbourg, Tokyo, Toulouse, Toronto, Vienna and Washington.
BRIONY BARNETT CDG – CASTING DIRECTOR
Theatre work includes The Memory of Water and The Death of a Black Man (both Hampstead Theatre); The Darkest Part of the Night and NW Trilogy (both Kiln); Overflow and Chiaroscuro (both Bush); An Unfinished Man (Yard Theatre); When the Crows Visit and White Teeth (both Kiln); Princess and the Hustler (Bristol Old Vic/UK tour); Half God of Rainfall (Kiln/Birmingham Rep); Black Men Walking (Scottish tour);The Trick (Bush/UK tour); Again (West End); An Adventure (Bush); Abigail’s Party (Hull Truck); Black Men Walking (Manchester Royal Exchange/UK tour); Handbagged (Vaudeville/Tricycle);Fences (Duchess/Theatre Royal, Bath); A Raisin in the Sun (Sheffield Crucible/UK tour); Ticking (West End); Play Mas (Orange Tree); The Invisible Hand; Ben Hur; A Wolf in Snakeskin Shoes; The House That Will Not Stand; The Colby Sisters and One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show (all Tricycle).
Films work includes Bluebird; Samuel’s Trousers; Bruce; Gypsy’s Kiss; The Knot; High Tide; What We Did On Our Holiday (children); Common People; Tezz; Final Prayer; Love/Loss; Stop; A Sunny Morning; Value Life; Conversation Piece and 10by10.
Television work includes Outnumbered (children) Just Around the Corner (children); Dickensian (children) and Inside the Mind of Leonardo.
GRACE JOSEPH – ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
Grace is currently undertaking a practice-based PhD in Theatre & Performance at Goldsmiths University.
Work as Director includes Pretend Singing (Omnibus Theatre); White (Other) (Brighton Fringe); Monster (Camden People’s Theatre); Valley of the Weird (Vaults); Expectations (Theatre N16) and war war brand war (Edinburgh Fringe).
Work as Assistant Director includes Dark Night of the Soul and Dr Faustus (both Shakespeare’s Globe); Daisy Pulls It Off and The View from Nowhere (both Park Theatre); Meantime (Greenwich Theatre) and The Disintegration Loops (The North Wall).
CAST
ROSIE DAY – SIMONE
Theatre work includes Self-penned Instructions for a Teenage Armageddon (Southwark Playhouse); Isolated but Open (Papatango Theatre); My White Best Friend (and Other Letters Left Unsaid) (Bunker); The Girl Who Fell and Again (both Trafalgar Studios); Velocity (Finborough); The Pussy Riots (Royal Court); Microwave (National Theatre Studio); Spur of the Moment (Royal Court); Les Misérables (Palace); The Winter’s Tale; Playboy of the Western World and Summerfolk (all National Theatre).
Film work includes Ten Dates; Real Love; Midas Man; Baby; Down a Dark Hall; Indigo Valley; Butterfly Kisses; 10X10; Heretiks; Howl; All Roads Lead to Rome; A Thousand Leaves; The Bigger Picture; Soror; For Sale; The Seasoning House; Sixteen; Ironclad: Battle for Blood; Heart of Lightness; Good Night and Darwin’s Daughter.
Television work includes Call the Midwife Christmas Special; The Sandman; McDonald and Dodds; Scrambled Eggs; Agatha Raisin; Frank; Living the Dream (Series 1 & 2) ; Prime Suspect: 1973 ; Good Omens; Watership Down ; Outlander ; Grantchester; Cuffs; Siblings; Misfits; Homefront; Holby City; DCI Banks; Doctors; Summer in Transylvania; Half Moon Investigators; The Large Family; Harley Street; My Life as a Popat; Dead Gorgeous; The Romantics; Pants on Fire; Bernard’s Watch; Trust; Family Affairs; Big Train; In Deep; Black Books and Hope and Glory.
ETHAN HAZZARD – JERMAINE
The Fellowship is Ethan’s stage debut.
Film work includes Break and The Dare.
Television work includes Raised by Wolves; Giri/Haji; The Long Song and Damned.
TREVOR LAIRD – TONY
Theatre work includes The Long Song (Chichester Festival Theatre); Small Island; One Man
Two Guvnors; England People Very Nice; Statement of Regret and The Mysteries (all National Theatre); Much Ado About Nothing (Oxford Playhouse/Old Vic/World tour); Hamlet (Black Theatre Live); Sucker Punch (Royal Court); Kingston 14 (Theatre Royal, Stratford); Foxes; The Shoemaker’s Holiday; Hapgood; The Revengers’ Tragedy and Sunsets and Glories (all West Yorkshire Playhouse); The Night Just Before the Forests and Moon on a Rainbow Shawl (both Almeida); Othello (Tivoli; Dublin/tour of Japan); Colours and You Can’t Take It with You (both Abbey, Dublin) Master Harold and the Boys (Liverpool Everyman); Welcome Home Jacko and Mama Dragon (both Black Theatre Co-Op) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Twelfth Night (both Regent’s Park).
Television work includes Ted Lasso; Death in Paradise; Toast of London; Dr Who; Peep Show; Casualty; The Murder Room; The Last Detective; William & Mary; NCS Manhunt; The Murder of Stephen Lawrence; Undercover Heart; The New Statesman; Struggle; Bernard & the Genie The Lenny Henry Show; Give Us a Break; Dear Heart; Maybury; Waterloo Sunset; Victims of Apartheid and Playthings.
Film work includes To Be Someone; Love; Honour & Obey; Water; Slipstream; The Flying Devils;The Long Good Friday; Smack & Thistle; Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire; Babylon andQuadrophenia.
SUZETTE LLEWELLYN – MARCIA
Theatre work includes Electric Rosary (Manchester Royal Exchange); Running with Lions (Talawa, Lyric Hammersmith); Cat On a Hot Tin Roof (English Touring Company/Curve Theatre/Liverpool Playhouse); BiBi Crew Get Raunchy (Albany, Deptford); Chigger Foot Boys (Tara Arts); Mr Tiddle Tum Tums & Other Stories (National Theatre); Hell Screen (Vaults Festival); Urban Afro Saxons (Talawa, Theatre Royal, Stratford); On a Level (BiBi Crew UK tour); Marisol (Traverse); A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Love’s Labour’s Lost (both Wosley, Ipswich); Belle of Belfast City (Lyric); Whale (National Theatre); Trinidad Sisters (Tricycle); Garden Girls (Bush); Children of a Lesser God; The Comedy of Errors and Golden Girls (all Wosley, Ipswich) and Twelfth Night (Northumberland Touring Company).
Film work includes The Mouse; Real; Faces; Molly Moon; Bucky; Manderlay; Baby Mother; Welcome to Terrordome; Best Wishes; Playing Away and Sammy and Rosie Get Laid.
Television work includes Our House; Hold the Sunset; Doctors; Eastenders; Holby City; Top Boy; The Dumping Ground; The Windsors; Fearless; Hollyoaks; The Coroner; Catastrophe; Scott & Bailey; Thirteen; Crims; Rocket’s Island; West 10LND; The Bill; Casualty; Brookside; Hope and Glory; Surgical Spirit; Running Late; Desmond’s; The New Statesman; Black Silk and Star of the Roller State Disco.
YASMIN MWANZA – SYLVIA/PC SPENCER
Yasmin graduated from the Manchester School of Theatre in 2017. Prior to that, she completed a one year Acting Foundation Course at Arts Educational Schools London in 2013 – 2014.
Theatre work includes Our Lady of Kibeho (Royal & Derngate, Northampton); Girls (Talawa Theatre Company – Pleasance, Edinburgh); Doña Rosita; The Blue Room and King Richard II (All Manchester School of Theatre).
Film work includes Lady of Heaven and Spider-Man: Far from Home.
Television work includes Stephen; Doctors; Rhyme Time Town; Hanna and Leave to Remain.
CHERRELLE SKEETE – DAWN
Theatre work includes The 47th (Old Vic); The High Table (Bush); King Hedley II (Theatre Royal, Stratford); A Small Place (Gate); Fun Home (Young Vic); The Phlebotomist (Hampstead Downstairs); The Seagull and Jack and the Beanstalk (both Lyric Hammersmith); Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Palace); Three Days in the Country and The Amen Corner (both National Theatre); The Wind in the Willows (Royal & Derngate Theatre); The 24 Hour Plays: Old Vic New Voices (Old Vic); I and Silence (Finborough).
Theatre work whilst training at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama includes The Edge (New Diorama); Sold; King Lear; Love’s Last Shift; There’s no Place Like Home; A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Three Sisters.
Musical theatre work includes The Lion King (Disney Theatrical Productions).
Television work includes The Midwich Cuckoos; Hanna (series regular); Silent Witness; Doctors (series regular); Danny and the Human Zoo; The Five; Ordinary Lies and Call the Midwife (Season 4).
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