Room

Tue 2nd May - Sat 3rd Jun 2017

About

Emma Donoghue’s bestselling novel Room has been adapted as a new play with songs by Scottish songwriter Kathryn Joseph and Cora Bissett. Previously adapted by Donoghue for the screen, the film won Academy Awards, Golden Globes and BAFTAs.

Kidnapped as a teenage girl, Ma has been locked inside a purpose built room in her captor’s garden for seven years. Her five year old son, Jack, has no concept of the world outside and happily exists inside Room with the help of Ma’s games and his vivid imagination where objects like Rug, Lamp and TV are his only friends. But for Ma the time has come to escape and face their biggest challenge to date: the world outside Room.

Watch the videos.

Total running time: 2 hours 30 mins (including an interval of 20 mins).

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What the critics say

★★★★ ‘Vital, imaginative theatre’ Time Out

★★★★ ‘Thrilling, emotive and inventive’ The Stage

★★★★ 'Bissett’s production is ingenious...I was deeply touched'
The Guardian

★★★★'Compelling viewing… a triumph.' The Times

★★★★ 'Having watched (and adored) the film - I felt this stage production deepened my emotional connection to the story.' Afridiziak

★★★★ ‘A frequently moving, theatrically visual spectacle’ Musical Theatre Review

★★★★'Deeply satisfying... a rich theatrical piece' Stage-Talk

‘There is a moment where you feel you would fight anyone who tried to wrestle [the book] from your grasp with the same ferocity that Ma fights for Jack, such is the author’s power to make out of the most vile circumstances something absorbing, truthful and beautiful.’ The Guardian

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Cast and Creatives

Written by Emma Donoghue

Adapted for the stage by Emma Donoghue

Music and Lyrics by Cora Bissett and Kathryn Joseph

Director Cora Bissett

Designer Lily Arnold

Video Designer Andrzej Goulding

Lighting Designer David Plater

Additional music & musical direction Gavin Whitworth

Soundscore Alexandra Faye Braithwaite

Puppet Designer David Cauchi

Movement Director Siân Williams

Associate Director Ellen Havard

Casting Director Debbie O'Brien

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Stephen Casey plays Grandpa/Doctor. His theatre credits include Mametz and Silly Kings (National Theatre Wales), Animal Farm (Peter Hall Season at Bath Theatre Royal), Journey’s End, Love’s Labour’s Lost, The Tempest (UK tour) Of Mice And Men and As You Like It (Old Vic), Andorra (Young Vic), Henry V, Comedy Of Errors, A Jovial Crew, Two Shakespearean Actors, King Lear, The Pretenders, Richard II, Don Juan, The Odyssey, Tamburlaine, and The Changeling (Royal Shakespeare Company); and for television, Mount Pleasant, Love and Marriage, Jericho and Da Vinci’s Demons.

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Janet Kumah plays Policewoman/Interviewer/understudy Ma. Theatre credits include The Winter's Tale (Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh), After Orlando (The Vaults Theatre), Rites (National Theatre of Scotland), Snakes and Ladders (UK Tour), The Bodyguard (Adelphi Theatre), Simpatico (Tabard Theatre), Dancing In the Streets (Aldwych Theatre), Fame (UK Tour), The Blues Brothers (European Tour), The Wild Party (Union Theatre), Those Who Trespass Against Us (Hackney Empire). TV and film credits include Dark Heart (ITV Encore), 50 Ways to Kill Your Lover (CI Channel); Alan (Grass Roots Media), Containment (Bright Cold Day Films). Radio and web credis include Barking Mad Show (Colourful Radio); Kin Hell (Voodoo Productions). Music credits include: BBC Maida Vale Studios, BBC Radio 2, BBC London Radio, Glastonbury Festival, London Jazz Cafe, Latitude Festival, The Secret Garden Party Festival, Notting Hill Carnival, Rototom Sunsplash European Festival, Boomtown Fair Festival, The BorderLine.

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Fela Lufadeju plays Big Jack. For theatre his credits include The Importance of Being Earnest (Curve, Leicester & Birmingham Rep), Kiss Me Kate (Theatre Du Chatalet), Beautiful (Aldwych Theatre) and Dessa Rose (Trafalgar Studios.

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Liam McKenna plays Old Nick. For theatre his credits include Flowering Cherry (Finborough Theatre), Asking Rembrandt (Old Red Lion), Hamlet (Rose Theatre Kingston), Magpie Park and Tender Dearly (West Yorkshire Playhouse) and Money, SummerFolk, The Merchant of Venice, The Villian's Opera and Peter Pan (National Theatre). For television his credits include The Bastard Executioner, Hustle, Battlefield Britain, Dirty War, The Greatest Heist, Ultimate Force, Stick With Me, Kid, Elington and Kiss & Tell; and for film, The Riot Club, Maleficent, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Metamorphosis, The Disappearance of Alice Creed, Eastern Promises, Venus, Like Minds, Chromophobia, The Libertine, Vanity Fair, To Kill A King, Uprising and The Ice House.

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Lucy Tregear plays Grandma. Her theatre credits include The Middlemarch Trilogy, Seven Year Twitch, The Conspirators, Lips Together Teeth Apart, Flora The Red Menace (Orange Tree Theatre), The Country Wife (Haymarket Theatre), Coriolanus, A Woman Killed With Kindness, The Merry Wives Of Windsor, The Two Gentlemen Of Verona (Royal Shakespeare Company), By Jeeves (Scarborough/Duke Of York/Lyric) and Three Sisters (Chichester Festival Theatre); and for television, The Robinsons, Peak Practice and Between The Lines.

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Witney White plays Ma. Theatre credits include wonder.land (National Theatre), Dusty (Charring Cross Theatre), Snow White (Fairfield Halls) and Loserville (West Yorkshire Playhouse & Garrick Theatre).

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Darmani Eboji plays Little Jack. Darmani is 8 years old and attends the Academy Performing Arts School in Essex. Credits include a commercial for Disney Horizon and a short film titled Toybox. Darmani is very excited to be playing Little Jack in Room and is very thankful for this opportunity.

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Taye Kassim Junaid-Evans plays Little Jack. Taye is a pupil at Liz Burville Performing Arts Centre where he achieved the Trinity Silver Young Peformers award. His recent work includes short films, Brothers and Subconscious Uncoupling, Magformers and Thomson TV Commercials, Fighting in the Moonlight (The Souls) music video and on stage Peter Pan A Rock Fantasy (Orchard Theatre).

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Harrison Wilding as Little Jack. Harrison attends Mandy Ellen Performing Arts Dance School. Harrison made his West End debut as Eric in the musical Matilda and was in the role from March to Sepember 2016. Harrison appeared on the BBC One Show on 12th September as part of the ensemble from Matilda performing a medley of songs from the show. Harrison enjoys dancing, singing, acting & his favourite subject at school is maths.