07 September 2017
Newsdesk
Rehearsals begin today at the Bush Theatre for Ramona Tells Jim, the world premiere of a darkly comic play about confession and the gravity of young love by Sophie Wu graduate of the Bush Theatre’s Emerging Writers’ Group. Ramona Tells Jim opens on 20 September (press night 22 September) and runs until 21 October 2017.
It’s 1998. Ramona, of Englandshire, is 15 and she’s totally cool. Honestly. She’s completely cool. On a wet, midge-riddles geography field-trip she meets Jim, a local laddie wearing an anti-pill fleece. He’s obsessed with hermit crabs, rock erosion and making homemade Irn-Bru cocktails.
Deep in the Scottish Highlands, Ramona falls for Jimmy’s awkward charm and gets caught in a scandal that will haunt them for years to come.
Fast forward fifteen years and Jim, of the shittiest village in Scotland, has got a girlfriend and something like a functional life, but Ramona still can’t shake the consequences of that fateful trip. Determined to clear her conscience, she heads back to the Highlands to find that neither her nor Jim’s lives have turned out how they planned.
Actress and writer Sophie Wu’s debut play, Sophie Wu Is Minging, She Looks Like She’s Dead, premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and transferred to Soho Theatre to critical acclaim. She is currently developing original TV projects with Charlie Brooker’s company, House of Tomorrow, Roughcut and Kudos and has a script commission for Minging Lizzie for Channel 4.
Director Mel Hillyard won the JP Morgan Award for directing in 2015 and spent 6 months at the National Theatre Studio as Resident Director. Her directing credits include Scarlett (Hampstead Theatre), The Brink (Orange Tree Theatre), The Late Henry Moss (Southwark Playhouse), Love and Information (The Caird Theatre), Hamlet (The Secret Nuclear Bunker – East 15), Hard Shoulders (Latitude Festival), Even Stillness Breathes Softly Against A Brick Wall (Theatre503), In An Instant (Latitude Festival and Theatre503), His Face Her Face and Three Is Company (King’s Head) and Loose Ends (Edinburgh Festival).
Lucy Sierra’s recent design credits include Ode to Leeds (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Macbeth (Dorfman, National Theatre and schools tour), Young Vic 5 (Young Vic), Cathy (Cardboard Citizens), The Grand Journey (Bombay Sapphire Immersive Experience), A Kid, This Tuesday (Arcola), The Tempest (Royal & Derngate), Giving (Hampstead Theatre, Downstairs), Another World-Losing Our Children to Islamic State (Shed, National Theatre), Calculating Kindness (Camden People’s Theatre), Snow White & Rose Red (Rash Dash and Cambridge Arts Theatre), Abyss (Arcola), Benefit, We Are All Misfits (Cardboard Citizens), We Have Fallen (Underbelly), If You Don’t Let Us Dream, We Won’t Let You Sleep (Royal Court), Sign of the Times (Theatre Royal, Bury), The Bear (Improbable), Sweeny Todd, David Copperfield, White Nights (Octagon, Bolton), Symmetry (Southwark Playhouse), Songs Inside (Gate) and Fewer Emergencies (Oxford Playhouse).
Ruby Bentall plays Ramona. Her theatre credits include Britten in Brooklyn (Wiltons Music Hall), The Cement Garden (Heritage Arts Company), Peter and Alice (Noel Coward Theatre), Hansel and Gretel, Grief, The Miracle, DNA, Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat (all National Theatre), Blue Heart Afternoon (Hampstead Theatre), Remembrance Day (Royal Court Theatre) and Alice (Sheffield Crucible). Television credits include Midsomer Murders, Absentia, Poldark series 1, 2 and 3, Jekyll and Hyde (ITV), Blandings II ‘Throwing Eggs’, The Paradise (BBC), Larkrise to Candleford (BBC), The Bill, New Tricks, Lost in Austen, Oliver Twist (BBC), Doctors (BBC), You Can Choose Your Friends and Holby City. Film credits include Interlude in Prague, Bikini Blue, Mr Turner, Robin Hood, The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler and Tormented.
Joe Bannister plays Jim. His theatre credits include Wild Honey (Hampstead Theatre), As You Like It (National Theatre), Hobson’s Choice (Vaudeville Theatre), King John (Rose Theatre Kingston), Mad World My Masters (ETT Tour/Barbican), The Witch of Edmonton, The Roaring Girl, Arden of Faversham (RSC Roaring Girls Season), Titus Andronicus, A Mad World My Masters (RSC), Chariots of Fire (Gielgud Theatre/Hampstead Theatre), Bloody Poetry (Jermyn Street Theatre) and The Lion in Winter (Theatre Royal Haymarket). His television credits include Howard’s End (BBC) and Endeavour (Mammoth for ITV). His film credits include The Isle.
Amy Lennox plays Pocahontas. Her theatre credits include Elly in David Bowie’s Lazarus (King’s Cross), Lauren in Kinky Boots (Adelphi Theatre), Cathy in The Last Five Years (Lyric Theatre, Belfast), Steph in Tracks (The Miniaturists, Arcola), Woman in The Pink Bedroom (The Hotel Plays, Defibrillator), Princess Pertunia in Puss in Boots (Hackney Empire), Doralee Rhodes in 9 to 5 The Musical (UK tour), Velcro in Soho Cinders (Soho), Decade (Headlong), Mary Lennox in The Secret Garden (Birmingham Rep), Margot and u/s Elle Woods in Legally Blonde (original London company), Jenny in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (Assembly Rooms Edinburgh/Royal & Derngate), Wendy in Peter Pan (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Liesl in The Sound of Music (London Palladium) and Sweeney Todd (Royal Festival Hall). Television credits include Sally McColl in Shetland Series 4 (ITV) and Casualty (BBC). Film credits include: Cruz in Wrong Turn 5 (20th Century Fox); Sophie in Cab Ride (Abelle Films Ltd) and Jen in Never Let Me Go (DNA Films).
Madani Younis, Artistic Director of the Bush Theatre said; ‘We first encountered an early version of Sophie's fantastic play back in 2015, when she took part in our very first Emerging Writers' Group. We invited a group of guests to listen to a sharing of Ramona Tells Jim and the reaction was electric: we knew we had to programme that play. Fast forward two years and we now have our brand new, intimate Studio and what better play to kick off our autumn season than this. Sophie's work is smart, funny and rude - I can't wait for Mel and her team to bring it to life.’
Ramona Tells Jim is supported by Peter Wolff Theatre Trust.
For more information on the Bush Theatre’s programme, visit www.bushtheatre.co.uk
Bush Theatre
7 Uxbridge Road
London W12 8LJ
Tel: 020 8743 3584
Mob: 07956 879165
Box Office: 020 8743 5050
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