Press Release 24 October 2019 Hampstead Theatre announces full casting for Ravens: Spassky vs. Fischer this Christmas RAVENS: SPASSKY vs. FISCHER By Tom Morton-Smith Directed by Annabelle Comyn 29 November – 18 January Press night: Thursday 5 December 2019 7pm ‘The Cold War is still a war. Soft power is still power. You’re out here playing by the rules … they’re out here playing to the crowd’ Hampstead Theatre today announces casting for the world premiere of the gripping psychological thriller Ravens: Spassky vs. Fischer, written by Tom Morton-Smith (Oppenheimer). From one of Ireland’s leading theatre directors Annabelle Comyn, this new play depicts one of the pivotal moments of the Cold War era, and one of the greatest sporting matches in history on stage for the first time – the 1972 ‘Match of the Century’ between the two towering chess grandmasters from the USSR and USA, Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer. The cast will include Ronan Raftery as Boris Spassky and Robert Emms as Bobby Fischer. They will be joined by Gunnar Cauthery, Simon Chandler, Buffy Davis, Philip Desmeules, Solomon Israel, Beruce Khan, Emma Pallant, Gyuri Sarossy, Rebecca Scroggs and Gary Shelford. Reykjavik, 1972. All eyes are on Iceland ahead of ‘the Match of the Century’: Boris Spassky vs. Bobby Fischer in the World Chess Championship. Never before in chess history has a tournament attracted such global media attention. And for the two contenders, Spassky the World Champion and the maverick superstar Fischer, the stakes have never been higher – not only the world title, but unprecedented prize money and stratospheric fame are all on the table. But as the Cold War begins to heat up, each side of the Atlantic spots a major opportunity to demonstrate superiority over the other. So why hasn’t America’s knight in shining armour shown up? And why won’t Russia’s grandmaster listen to orders? As the two superpowers prepare their opening gambits in a proxy battle of ideologies, with sport as the weapon of choice, both sides find themselves undermined by their pawns, who seem oddly unwilling to cooperate… Gunnar Cauthery plays Gudmundur. Gunnar trained at RADA. Previous work at Hampstead Theatre includes Wild Honey; Wonderland and The Empty Quarter. Other theatre work includes Jo Allan PR 1 All My Sons (Old Vic); Another World: Losing Our Children to Islamic State; The Suicide; This House and The White Guard (all National Theatre); Mack and Mabel and The House of Special Purpose (both Chichester Festival Theatre); Little Shop of Horrors (Royal Exchange Theatre); Privacy (Donmar); Henry V and The Winter’s Tale (both Propeller); As You Like It (Shakespeare’s Globe); A View from the Bridge (Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh) and Harvest (Oxford Playhouse/UK tour). Film work includes Eurovision; The Nest; War Horse and Benjamin Dove. Television work includes The First Team; Mars; Genius: Einstein; The Tudors; The Demon Headmaster and Just William. Radio work includes Home Front; Tommies; Watership Down; Rumours; The Great Escape: The Justice; Professor Challenger; Wives and Daughters; The Cherry Orchard; The Time Machine; The Admirable Crichton and Slaughterhouse Five. Simon Chandler plays Max Euwe. Theatre work includes The Double Dealer (Orange Tree); Cock; The Stepmother and For Services Rendered (all Chichester Festival Theatre); Wild Honey (Hampstead Theatre); Red Velvet (Garrick/Tricycle/St Ann's Warehouse, New York); The Letter of Last Resort (Traverse); The Bomb Season (Tricycle); Persuasion (Salisbury Playhouse); Cause Célèbre (Old Vic); Women, Power & Politics season (Tricycle); Democracy (Wyndham’s); All Mouth (Menier Chocolate Factory); One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Garrick) and King Lear (RSC/Thelma Holt). Film work includes The Old Guard; 55 Steps; The Theory of Everything; Mr Turner; The Iron Lady; The Kings Speech; Perfume; The Rising; Stoned and The Commissioner. Television work includes Trigonometry; Doc Martin; The Crown; Call the Midwife; Casualty; Wallander; The Enfield Haunting; Mr Selfridge; The Bletchley Circle; Judge John Deed; Silk; The Politician's Husband; Vera; The Shadow Line; Murder Rooms and Teachers. Buffy Davis plays Fred/Lina. Theatre work includes Shakespeare in the Abbey and Sonnet Walks (both Shakespeare’s Globe); 49 Donkeys Hanged (Theatre Royal, Plymouth); The Divide; The Hairy Ape and Hedda Gabler (all Old Vic); Ugly Lies the Bone and The Rose Tattoo (both National Theatre); Once in a Lifetime; Government Inspector and Annie Get Your Gun (all Young Vic); Uncle Vanya (St James); The School for Scandal (Park Theatre); The Silver Lake and The Beggar's Opera (both Wilton’s Music Hall); Punchbag (Hampstead Theatre); Much Ado About Nothing (Dukes, Lancaster); Loot (Leicester Haymarket); The Norman Conquests (Stephen Joseph) and Sunday in the Park With George (National Theatre). Film work includes Angel Has Fallen; Anna Karenina; Hyde Park on Hudson; Till Death; Crystal’s Shadow; The Cure of Folly; The Company and The Machinist. Television work includes Life; Doc Martin; The Trial of Christine Keeler; Berlin Station; Chimerica; The Night Manager; What Remains; The Big Battalions; Mutual Friends; Affinity; Fear of Fanny; Ultimate Force; Harnessing Peacocks; She’s Out; Doctors; Canterbury Tales - The Miller's Tale; Dalziel and Pascoe; Waking the Dead; The Waiting Time; Kid in the Corner and Undercover Heart. Radio work includes The Handmaids Tale; The Hours and The Archers. Philip Desmeules plays Lothar Schmid. Theatre work includes An Ideal Husband (West End); A View From the Bridge (West End); My Real War 1914 (Trafalgar Studios/UK Tour, Two’s Company); The Art of Gaman (Theatre503); Henry V (Theatre Delicatessen); Love in Idleness (Bristol Old Vic); Mary Stuart (Southampton Nuffield); A Christmas Carol (Dukes, Lancaster); Venison (Yellowtale); Lecture Notes on a Death Scene (Lowry Theatre, Analogue) Hothouse (Arcola, TeatroVivo); Uncertainty (Arts); The Tempest (Southwark Playhouse); The Cudgel and the Rapier (Battersea Art Centre); Appendix (Pleasance); The Elephant Man and Animal Farm (both Sincera Productions, Brazil); Macbeth (Lost Theatre/Tour) and Hamlet (Greenwich Park). Film work includes The Hustle; The Banana Dream; Blackpills – The Show; Jo Allan PR 2 Hotel Ambassador; Don’t Hang Up; Louis-Ferdinand Céline; I Am a Soldier; Désaccord Parfait; Caught Out; Greta May and The Lost Boy. Television work includes Vanity Fair; Witnesses: Frozen Death; Little Dorrit; The Tudors; Gracie!; The Bill; Doctors and Trafalgar Battle Surgeon. Radio work includes Tommies, The Truth About Anna and The Republicans. Robert Emms plays Bobby Fischer. Robert trained at LAMDA. Theatre work includes The Six Days World (Finborough); The Glee Club (Manchester Library) and War Horse (West End). Film work includes Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom; Apostasy; Borg/McEnroe; Kick Ass 2; The Selfish Giant; Broken; Mirror Mirror; War Horse; Anonymous and The Arbor. Television work includes His Dark Materials; The Barking Murders; Chernobyl; Do Not Disturb; Cleaning Up; Gunpowder; Happy Valley; The Living and the Dead; Capital; Atlantis (series 1 & 2); Scott and Bailey; The Street and Waking the Dead. Solomon Israel plays William Lombardy / Henry Kissinger. Theatre work includes The Barber Shop Chronicles (National Theatre USA tour); Miss Littlewood; The Fantastic Follies of Mrs Rich; The Duchess of Malfi; Kingdom Come; The Tempest; Twelfth Night; The Comedy of Errors (all RSC); The Pulverised (Arcola); Dutchman (Young Vic); I Know All the Secrets in My World (UK tour, Tiata Fahodzi); Octagon (Arcola); Juicy and Delicious (Southampton Nuffield); Chigger Foot Boys (Ovalhouse); Taking Steps (The Old Laundry Theatre); Redemption Over Hammersmith Broadway (Lyric Hammersmith) and Taking Steps (Tricycle). Television work includes In the Long Run; Lovesick; Doctor Who; Brothers With No Game; I Live With Models; Josh; Law and Order: UK; Holby City; Quick Cuts and The Dumping Ground. Beruce Khan plays Iivo. Theatre work includes Shadowlands (Chichester Festival Theatre); Twelfth Night and A Christmas Carol (both Royal Shakespeare Company); As You Like It (Regent's Park); Combustion (Tara Arts); Gary Tank Commander (SSE Hydro, Glasgow); Henry V (Regent's Park); Hamlet (Shakespeare’s Globe world tour); Romeo and Juliet and Henry V (both Shakespeare’s Globe); The Madness of George III (Apollo); The History Boys (Theatre Royal Bath/West Yorkshire Playhouse/UK tour) and The Black Album (National Theatre). Television work includes Shakespeare Uncovered. Emma Pallant plays Regina. Theatre work includes An Enemy of the People and LAVA (both Nottingham Playhouse); Intra Muros (Park Theatre); A Christmas Carol (RSC); William Wordsworth (Theatre by the Lake); The Wind in the Willows (Rose; Kingston); Much Ado About Nothing; As You Like It; A Midsummer Night's Dream; Romeo and Juliet; The Comedy of Errors and Macbeth (all Shakespeare's Globe); It Just Stopped and Alison's House (both Orange Tree); Bell; Book and Candle; Bleak House; Great Expectations and Romeo and Juliet (all New Vic); The Cherry Orchard; His Dark Materials and Katherine Desouza (all Birmingham Rep); The Dog in the Manger; The House of Desires and Pedro the Great Pretender (all RSC/West End); Tamar's Revenge; Henry IV (Parts I and II); As You Like It and Laughter in the Dark (all RSC, Stratford); On Golden Pond and The Herbal Bed (both Salisbury Playhouse); The House of Bernarda Alba (Belgrade Theatre); Cymbeline (Regent's Park); Top Girls (Watford Palace) and Precious Bane (Pentabus). Television work includes