Papatango announced the full cast and creative team for the world première of Clive Judd’s Here, the winner of the 2022 Papatango New Writing Prize.
“There’s somethin’ about this house. Somethin’ here. Somethin’ in the walls. Its bones. Like DNA.”
A family packs into a small house with a tangled history. Matt is here, yearning to reach someone he’s lost. His cousin Jess is here, too; she just wants to feel something. Anything. And Aunt Monica and Jeff are still here, just about. Together, ferocious and funny, they laugh, they scrap, they remember.
Tonight these four people, inextricably bound yet so far apart, will finally confront the old decisions that haunt them. How does a family make a future, when everything that holds it together lies in the past?
Set in the West Midlands, Here is a tender, funny and utterly truthful story about family and feeling, performed by Lucy Benjamin (Monica), Mark Frost (Jeff), Sam Baker-Jones (Matt) and Hannah Millward (Jess). The ensemble of actors all have strong connections to the West Midlands.
Completing the creative team are Jasmine Swan (Set and Costume Designer), Bethany Gupwell (Lighting Designer) and Asaf Zohar (Composer and Sound Designer).
Clive Judd’s debut play won the 2022 Papatango Prize from a record 1,553 scripts – more submissions, by annual average, than any other UK playwriting award. Heralding a remarkable new talent, this year’s Prize production will run on Papatango’s biggest ever stage – The Large at Southwark Playhouse – offering main house billing for a debut playwright. It follows previous Papatango Prize discoveries who have gone on to win Olivier, Critics’ Circle and OffWestEnd Awards and première worldwide.
Lucy Benjamin plays Monica. Lucy is perhaps best known as Lucy Fowler in EastEnders, for which she received a National Television Award nomination for Most Popular Actress.
Mark Frost plays Jeff. Theatre credits include extensive work in Steven Berkoff’s devising company and in his various productions of Oedipus (including at Liverpool Playhouse/Nottingham Playhouse) and Bible Stories (New End, Hampstead).
Sam Baker-Jones plays Matt. Here will be his professional stage debut.
Hannah Millward plays Jess. Her theatre credits include: Peter Pan Reimagined and Rebel Music (Birmingham Rep).
Clive Judd is a writer, director and bookseller originally from Dines Green in Worcester, who now lives in Birmingham.
George Turvey directs. He co-founded Papatango in 2007 and became its sole Artistic Director in January 2013.
Set & Costume Designer Jasmine Swan trained at Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, where she received the Ede & Ravenscroft Prize for Creative and Technical Excellence (2016).
Lighting Designer Bethany Gupwell won the Association of Lighting Designer’s Francis Reid Award in 2018.
Composer and Sound Designer Asaf Zohar’s credits include: Sorry, You’re Not A Winner (Bristol Old Vic/Theatre Royal Plymouth); The Bit-Players and Romeo and Juliet (Southwark Playhouse).
Papatango discover and champion new playwrights through free opportunities open to anyone in the UK and Ireland. The motto is simple: all you need is a story.
The Papatango New Writing Prize is assessed anonymously and all entrants receive personal feedback on their scripts, an unmatched commitment to supporting aspiring playwrights. The winner is guaranteed a full production, publication, royalties and commission. The Prize was the first UK award to make such a commitment, changing the landscape for new writing. Writers discovered through the Prize have won Olivier, Critics’ Circle, BAFTAs, The Times Breakthrough, OffWestEnd and Royal National Theatre Foundation awards, premièred in over 30 countries, and gone on to work at the forefront of UK theatre.
Here?was developed with the support of the National Theatre.
Southwark Playhouse, 77-85 Newington Causeway, London SE1 6BD from 11 November, and runs until 3 December 2022. Time: 7.30pm. Tickets available from £14
Box Office: 020 7407 0234 (Mon-Sat, 10am-9pm) – southwarkplayhouse.co.uk
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