Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres, Robert Hastie, today announces the full cast for the world première of Giles Foden’s The Last King of Scotland, adapted for the stage by Steve Waters; and for their major revival of Charlotte Keatley’s My Mother Said I Never Should in a co-production with fingersmiths.

For The Last King of Scotland, Gbolahan Obisesan directs Tobi Bamtefa (Idi Amin Dada), Akuc Bol (Kay Amin), George Eggay (Archbishop), Peter Hamilton Dyer (Perkins), Baker Mukasa (Jonah Wasswa), John Omole (Peter Mbalu-Mukasa), Joyce Omotola (Malyam, Journalist One, Barmaid), Mark Oosterveen (Stone), Daniel Portman (Nicholas Garrigan), Hussina Raja (Priti) and Eva Jane Willis (Marina Perkins). The production opens on 1 October, with previews from 27 September, and runs until 19 October.

For My Mother Said I Never Should, Jeni Draper directs Ali Briggs (Doris), Lisa Kelly (Rosie), Jude Mahon (Margaret) and EJ Raymond (Jackie). All performances are in spoken English and British Sign Language (BSL) and are accessible for hearing and Deaf audiences. The production opens on 12 November, with previews from 8 November, and runs until 23 November.

CRUCIBLE
A Sheffield Theatres Production
World Première
THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND
Based on the novel by Giles Foden
Adapted for the stage by Steve Waters

Cast: Tobi Bamtefa (Idi Amin Dada), Akuc Bol (Kay Amin), George Eggay (Archbishop), Peter Hamilton Dyer (Perkins), Baker Mukasa (Jonah Wasswa), John Omole (Peter Mbalu-Mukasa), Joyce Omotola (Malyam, Journalist One, Barmaid), Mark Oosterveen (Stone), Daniel Portman (Nicholas Garrigan), Hussina Raja (Priti) and Eva Jane Willis (Marina Perkins)

Director Gbolahan Obisesan; Designer Rebecca Brower; Lighting Designer Sally Ferguson
Sound Designer Donato Wharton; Video Designer Zsolt Balogh; Movement Director Kane Husbands
Casting Director Nadine Rennie

27 September – 19 October
Press night: 1 October, 7pm

‘He is the sickness and you maintain that sickness’

Idi Amin is the self-declared President of Uganda. When Scottish medic Nicholas Garrigan becomes his personal physician, he is catapulted into Amin’s inner circle. A useful asset for the British Secret Service, is Garrigan the man on the inside, or does he have blood on his hands too? The first stage adaptation of the award-winning novel that inspired the Oscar-winning movie, The Last King of Scotland is an electrifying thriller about corruption and complicity.

Tobi Bamtefa plays Idi Amin Dada. His theatre work includes Barber Shop Chronicles (National Theatre and Leeds Playhouse), Network (National Theatre), Sweet Taboo (Talawa) and Step (Theatre Royal Stratford East). For television, his work includes Responsible Child, Mae and George, A Confession, The Witcher, Berlin Station, Lucky Man and Tin Star; and for film, Horrible Histories: The Movie, How To Build a Girl and Lost in London.

Akuc Bol plays Kay Amin. Her theatre work includes The Mini Dream, Encourage the Others (Almeida Theatre), Banana Boys, Fisheress, God is a DJ and Class of ’09 (Hampstead Theatre). For television her work includes Messiah and The Dumping Ground.

George Eggay plays Archbishop. His theatre work includes The Firm (Hampstead Theatre), Ear for Eye (Royal Court Theatre), King Lear (The Old Vic), The Tiger’s Bones (New Perspectives), Arabian Nights (New Vic Theatre), Dishoodbe on TV (Hackney Empire), Papa Mas (Told By an Idiot), Frozen, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Power Book (National Theatre), The Ramayana (Birmingham Rep and National Theatre). For television, his work includes Black Earth Rising, Sarajevo, Spooks, Soldier Soldier, Pie in the Sky and Between the Lines; and for film, All You Need is Kill and The Final Passage.

Peter Hamilton Dyer plays Perkins. His theatre work includes #WeAreArrested, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Epicoene (RSC), Twelfth Night, Richard III, King Lear, The Comedy of Errors, The Tempest, Henry VIII, All's Well That Ends Well, Antony and Cleopatra, The Changeling, The Broken Heart, Anne Boleyn, Gabriel, The Frontline, Holding Fire, The Golden Ass (Shakespeare's Globe), One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (UK tour), The Bacchae (Shared Experience), Richard II, The Moonstone (Royal Exchange Manchester). For television, his work includes Genius: Einstein, Babs, Upstart Crow, Wolf Hall, Downton Abbey, Silk, Silent Witness, Waking the Dead, Table Twelve, The Plot Against Harold Wilson and The Curse of Steptoe; and for film, The Nest.

Baker Mukasa plays Jonah Wasswa. For theatre, his credits include Tina the Musical (Aldwych Theatre), The Hartlepool Monkey (Fuel/Stratford Circus Arts Centre, UK tour), The Beggar’s Opera and Alice in Wonderland (Storyhouse Chester) and Beasty Baby (Theatre Rites, UK tour).

John Omole plays Peter Mbalu-Mukasa. His theatre work includes To Kill A Mockingbird (Regents Park Open Air Theatre / UK tour), King Lear, Hamlet (RSC), #hashtag Lightie (Black Apron Entertainment / Arcola Theatre), Skin Like Butter (Etcetera Theatre), Red Balloon (Theatre503), Jamaica Boy (Team Angelica / Theatre Royal Stratford East). For television, his work includes The Feed, Ghosts, Chewing Gum, Hollyoaks and Miss Wright.

Joyce Omotola plays Malyam, Journalist One, Barmaid. Her theatre work incudes I Know My Husband Loves Me (Croga Productions), The Astronaut’s Wives Club (National Youth Theatre), Omish (Lunar Theatre), A Midsummers Night’s Dream (East London Shakespeare). Rays of Rhythm 5 – Masi Da Mission (Sapnay’s Productions), The Court of Smiles (East London Shakespeare), The Wasteland (Jesse Cooper Productions). For film, her work includes Consequences of Silence.

Mark Oosterveen plays Stone. I Need an Adult (Lyric Hammersmith), The Grift (The Town Hall Hotel), Breaking the Code (Royal Exchange Manchester), New Friend (Arcola Theatre), Buckets (Theatre Royal, Bath), Foreplay (King’s Head Theatre), How to Begin, Why Can’t We Live Together? (Soho Theatre and Theatre503), Above & Beyond (Look Left Look Right), Love’s Comedy, Mary Goes First (Orange Tree Theatre), When Chaplin Met Gandhi (Kingsley Hall), Personal Enemy (59E59, New York), Pythonesque (Underbelly, Edinburgh) and Muhmah (HighTide). His television work includes Rank; and for film, The Drummond Will.

Daniel Portman plays Nicholas Garrigan. His theatre credits include Square Go (59E59 New York and Roundabout at the Edinburgh Festival), We’re Staying Right Here (Park Theatre), The Collector (The Vaults), Black Watch (National Theatre of Scotland), and Philoctetes and Lysistrata (Òran Mór). For television he is perhaps best known for playing series regular Podrick Payne in Game of Thrones. His other television work includes River City; and for film, Robert The Bruce, In the Cloud, The Journey, The Angel’s Share and Outcast.

Hussina Raja plays Priti. For theatre, her work includes The Effect (The Other Room), Great Britain (Hackney Showroom), Spooky Action at a Distance (Gate Theatre), Tomorrow (Arts Theatre), Glasshouse (Cardboard Citizens UK tour), 66 Minutes in Damascus (LIFT), Step (Theatre Royal Stratford East), Hidden (Hampstead Theatre), Suffocation (Oval Theatre) and The Glass Menagerie (Shared Experience). For television, her work includes Back to Life, Informer, Murdered for Love? Samia Shahid, A Discovery of Witches, The Level and The Watchman; and for film, A Moving Image, Zoo-Head, The Survivalist.

Eva Jane Willis plays Marina Perkins. Her theatre credits include Private Lives (The Mill at Sonning), The Rubenstein Kiss (Southwark Playhouse), Moll Flanders (Mercury Theatre Colchester), Tiny Dynamite (Old Red Lion), All My Sons (Nottingham Playhouse), Winter Hill (Octagon Theatre, Bolton), Magnificence (Finborough Theatre) and We Really Should Do Something (Bush Theatre). For television, her work includes Gangs of London, Mrs Wilson, Humans, Uncle and Maigret Sets a Trap; and for film, Only Child, Chick Lit and The Pinocchio Effect.

Giles Foden was assistant editor of The Times Literary Supplement and deputy literary editor of The Guardian. His first novel, The Last King of Scotland, won the 1998 Whitbread First Novel Award, a Somerset Maugham Award, a Betty Trask prize and the Winifred Holtby Memorial Award. It was made into a feature film, starring Forest Whittaker (who won an Oscar for Best Actor for his performance) as Idi Amin, and directed by Kevin McDonald. His other books include Ladysmith, Zanzibar and Turbulence, and non-fiction book, Mimi and Toutou Go Forth.

Steve Waters’ plays include Limehouse (Donmar Warehouse, 2017), Temple (Donmar Warehouse, 2015), Why Can’t We Live Together? (Menagerie Theatre/Soho/Theatre503, 2013), Europa, as co-author (Birmingham Repertory Theatre/Dresden State Theatre/Teatr Polski Bydgoszcz/Zagreb Youth Theatre, 2013), Ignorance/Jahiliyyah (Hampstead Downstairs, 2012), Little Platoons (Bush Theatre, 2011), The Contingency Plan (Bush Theatre, 2009), Fast Labour (Hampstead, in association with West Yorkshire Playhouse, 2008), Out of Your Knowledge (Menagerie Theatre/ Pleasance, Edinburgh/East Anglian tour, 2006-8), World Music (Sheffield Crucible, 2003, and subsequent transfer to the Donmar Warehouse, 2004), The Unthinkable (Sheffield Crucible, 2004), After the Gods (Hampstead Theatre, 2002), and English Journeys (Hampstead Theatre, 1998). His writing for television and radio includes Safe House (BBC4), The Air Gap, The Moderniser (BBC Radio 4), Scribblers, Bretton Woods (BBC Radio 3), and Fall of The Shah (BBC World Service 9-part series).

Gbolahan Obisesan directed four plays as part of The Bush Theatre’s 66 BOOKS project which ran at the Bush and Westminster Abbey. Other directing credits include SUS (Young Vic and UK tour - Jerwood Award for directing) and he was Director in Residence at the National Theatre Studio and resident director for the Fela! (National Theatre). Associate Director credits include The Way of The World, and Julius Caesar (RSC). He is Genesis Fellow of the Young Vic Theatre and is under commission to Eclipse Theatre Company. Previous credits include SS Mendi: Dancing the Death Drill (Nuffield Southampton Theatres), How Nigeria Became: A Story, And A Spear That Didn’t Work (Unicorn Theatre), We Are Proud To Present… (Bush Theatre), Pigeon English (Bristol Old Vic / Edinburgh Festival) and Mad About The Boy (Edinburgh Festival and UK tour). He was one of the six writers and the only British writer on Rufus Norris’ Feast, commissioned by the Royal Court and The Young Vic for their World Stages London which was produced at The Young Vic.


STUDIO
A Sheffield Theatres and fingersmiths Production
MY MOTHER SAID I NEVER SHOULD
By Charlotte Keatley

8 – 23 November
Press night: 12 November, 7.45pm

Cast: Ali Briggs (Doris), Lisa Kelly (Rosie), Jude Mahon (Margaret) and EJ Raymond (Jackie)

Director Jeni Draper; Designer Sophia Lovell Smith; Lighting Designer Gary Longfield
Sound Designer Nick Greenhill; Movement Director Luanna Priestman

‘You are always your Mother’s child, my Mother used to say’

A moving and funny exploration of the lives of four generations of women in one family. Shifting back and forth in time, we see their loves, expectations and choices play out against the huge social changes of the past century.

A contemporary classic, Sheffield Theatres is delighted to work with fingersmiths (Up ’n’ Under) to present this multi-award-winning play in British Sign Language and spoken English. Featuring a cast of d/Deaf and hearing actors, this production’s visual, physical storytelling style captures the power of a timeless story which shows it’s never too late to change.

All performances are in spoken English and British Sign Language (BSL) and are accessible for hearing and Deaf audiences.

Ali Briggs returns to Sheffield Theatres to play Doris – she previously appeared in Song From the Sea. Forest of Forgotten Discos (Contact Theatre), Radical Arts (Commonwealth Theatre), The Knitting Circle (Vital Exposure), Peeling, A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur (Graeae) and Breaking the Silence (Red Ladder). For television, her work includes as series regular Freda Burgess in Coronation Street, Fat Friends, No Excuses, Alphabet Soup, Whose Diary is it Anyway? and Over the Edge.

Lisa Kelly plays Rosie. This production marks her professional stage debut.

Jude Mahon plays Margaret. Her theatre work includes Reasons to be Cheerful, Whiter than Snow, And Seven (Graeae), Children of a Lesser God (Salisbury Playhouse) and I Ought To Be in Pictures (Eye Theatre). Her television work includes Fool Britannia and Silent Witness; and for film, Cake!, and Retreat.

EJ Raymond plays Jackie. Her theatre credits include Finding Nina! (Deaf Connection, Glasgow), The House of Bernarda Alba (Graeae Theatre Company / Royal Exchange Manchester), Dream On! (BBC Arts Live), Blood Wedding (Graeae Theatre Company / Dundee Rep), A Woman Alone (Ramesh Meyyappan/Royal Conservatoire of Scotland), Rescuers’ Speaking, The Irish Giant, Mouth of Silence (Birds of Paradise Theatre Company), Love and Information (Solar Bear Ltd & Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) and I Confess (The Arches Theatre Company). Her film credits include Chase Identities, Perfumer, The Studio and A Love Divided.

Charlotte Keatley is an award-winning playwright and My Mother Said I Never Should is the most widely performed play ever written by a woman, having now been translated or produced in 31 countries from Japan to Peru. in 2000 the National Theatre named it one of the Significant Plays of the Twentieth Century, and it is a GCSE set text. Other credits include The Iron Serpent, An Armenian Childhood, Waiting for Martin, Fears and Miseries in the Third Term, The Ringing Singing Tree, The Sleep of Reason, I am Janet, and Our Father (published by Methuen). Keatley has also written for radio, television and film. She was co-winner of an EMMY for filming in children's prisons in Georgia, East Europe, for a the C4 documentary Kids Behind Bars. She has run playwriting workshops from Burnley to Shanghai, and continues to run workshops in theatres, schools, universities and for community groups of all ages.

Jeni Draper directs. For fingersmiths, Jeni Draper has directed Up n Under (NWT co-production and national tour), Frozen (Birmingham Rep co-pro and national tour), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (R&D) and In Praise of Fallen Women (co-creator with Kaite O’Reilly and Jean St Clair). Her other directing credits include Invisible Women (Writer: Nicky Werenowska in development 2018), Don’t Leave Me Now (rehearsed readings ongoing), War Crimes for the Home (tour), Inheritance (R&D), Merry Wives of Waltham (London fringe), Silence (R&D Mercury Colchester), Counting the Ways (Face Front Theatre, national tour) and Masked (Colchester Arts Centre R&D). Consultancy for individual artists and companies including Ramps on the Moon (Tommy) and The Book of Light and Dark (Adam Z Robinson). She also works as a consultant for individual artists and companies. fingersmiths is an Associate company at New Wolsey Theatre, and she is an Associate Artist at Prime Youth Theatre Swindon. She is a qualified sign language interpreter.

Sheffield Theatres Listings
Crucible Lyceum Studio 55 Norfolk Street, Sheffield, S1 1DA
Box Office 0114 249 6000 – Mon – Sat 10am to 8pm
On non-performance days the Box Office closes at 6pm.
www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk

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