Press Information ! ! VIBRANT NEW WRITING | UNIQUE REDISCOVERIES Spring Season – January–April 2017

The world premiere RUN THE BEAST DOWN by Titas Halder. Directed by Hannah Price. Set and Costume Design by Anthony Lamble. Lighting Design by Rob Mills. On-Stage Sound Design by Chris Bartholomew. Sound Design Consultancy by Ben and Max Ringham. Assistant Producer – Emma Murton. Produced by Libby Brodie Productions and The Marlowe Theatre in association with Neil McPherson for the . Cast: Ben Aldridge. Chris Bartholomew.

"When I looked up, I saw him. Burnt orange, bright against the summer woods. He stood grandly on all fours, the King."

Award winning director Hannah Price directs the world premiere of new playwright Titas Halder’s debut play, Run The Beast Down, opening at the Finborough Theatre for a four week limited season on Tuesday, 31 January 2017 (Press Nights: Thursday, 2 February and Friday, 3 February 2017 at 7.30pm), starring Ben Aldridge (Fleabag, Our Girl, Lark Rise To Candleford, The Railway Man) alongside live on-stage Sound Designer and DJ Chris Bartholomew.

Charlie has stopped sleeping. His neighbour’s cat has been dismembered. And worse, he’s being haunted by an urban fox. In a haze of neon-soaked insomnia, lines blur between reality and fantasy. What are they up to? Whatever it is, it’s big. The mystery twists its way towards a dead rabbit, a city in flames and a Kendal mint cake fuelled murderous showdown.

An exhilarating theatrical journey performed with a live electronic score, Run The Beast Down is a exciting hybrid piece of theatre and music, combining elements of storytelling, dark comedy and magical realism with a pulsing soundtrack.

Run The Beast Down is Titas Halder’s first full length play. It will be directed by Hannah Price, founder of Theatre Uncut and director of the critically acclaimed Boa (Trafalgar Studios), starring Dame Harriet Walter and Guy Paul.

Run The Beast Down has been developed under the Marlowe Theatre’s ROAR! Project for New Writing and will premiere at the Marlowe Theatre Studio Space in January 2017. It will feature the music of DJ ANoR and other artists.

The cast is: Ben Aldridge Trained at the Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and the National Youth Theatre. Theatre includes American Psycho (), The Lyons (), Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare’s Globe), Antigone at Hell’s Mouth () and Fish and Company (Soho Theatre). Television includes The Devil’s Whore, Compulsion, Lewis, Heavenly, Pramface, The Selection, Vera, The Cricklewood Greats, The Bible, Toast, First Light, Reign, Stan Lee’s Lucky Man, Detour and Our Girl. Film includes The Railway Man, In The Night, Titan and Amre. Ben can currently be seen starring in Fleabag for BBC3 and Amazon.

Chris Bartholomew

118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED Telephone 020 7244 7439 e-mail [email protected] www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk Artistic Director Neil McPherson

The Finborough Theatre is managed by The Steam Industry. Registered in England and Wales as a company limited by guarantee, no. 3448268. Registered Charity no. 1071304. Registered address: 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED. A member of the Independent Theatre Council. Press Information ! Chris is a sound designer and composer based in South London. Trained in Electronic Music at Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Chris has created sound and music for various productions by Theatre Ad Infinitum including Light (Edinburgh Festival, London International Mime Festival and International Tour) and Bucket List (Edinburgh Festival, BAC and National Tour). Theatre includes Grounded (), Shooting With Light and Voyager (New Diorama Theatre and National Tour). As a composer, Chris works with a blend of acoustic and electronic. He has been commissioned to write for stage, screen, orchestra and helipad, including Lead Composer for Mozart Remixed, a long running collaboration between the London Mozart Players and Croydon Council, culminating in a performance of two remixed symphonies performed in St Thomas’s Cathedral for the Portsmouth Festivities. Chris has also worked as a DJ in venues including Egg, Pacha London and Koko Camden, amongst others.

Playwright Titas Halder is a writer, director and musician working across theatre, film and music. Titas trained under directors Michael Grandage, Jamie Lloyd, David Leveaux, Indhu Rubasingham, on the Resident Assistant Director Scheme, on the Finborough Theatre Resident Director Programme, the National Theatre Studio Directors’ Course and the Young Writers’ Programme. Writing includes Not Cricket (Paines Plough, and Ventnor Festival), Replica (Nabokov Theatre Company) and Feeding Me (Paines Plough). Titas has previously been the Associate Director of the Tricycle Theatre, Resident Assistant Director of the Donmar Warehouse, Creative Associate of the Bush Theatre and a Resident Assistant Director and Literary Associate of the Finborough Theatre. He is currently Artistic Associate of The Other Room, Cardiff. His second play Escape The Scaffold will be produced at The Other Room in Spring 2017.

Director Hannah Price is an award winning theatre director and filmmaker, Co-Artistic Director and Founder of Theatre Uncut. Theatre includes TEST (Scala Theatre, Switzerland), The Dead Monkey (Park Theatre), Boa (Trafalgar Studios), Cello/Fragile (Yard Theatre), Call to Prayer (), Bud Take the Wheel, I Feel a Song Coming On ( and Edinburgh Festival), That Moment (King's Head Theatre, Edinburgh Festival and National Tour), In a Very Real Sense (Soho Theatre), Portmanteau ( and BikeShed Theatre, Exeter) and Loving Ophelia (Pleasance London). For Theatre Uncut, Hannah has directed In Opposition (Paines Plough Roundabout), Knowledge is Power: Knowledge is Change (Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Òran Mór, Glasgow, Soho Theatre, Brighton Dome, Bristol Old Vic, Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury, and Everyman Theatre, Liverpool), Referendum Plays (Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh), TU Istanbul: Power and Protest (Dot Tiyatro Istanbul, Istanbul International Theatre Festival), TU 2013: The Rise of the Right (The ) and The Cuts Plays (Southwark Playhouse, Soho Theatre and Latitude Festival). Hannah has won two Fringe First awards, a Herald’s Angel award and the Spirit of the Fringe Award for her work with Theatre Uncut. She was Resident Assistant Director at the Donmar Warehouse in 2012 and toured to New York with the all-female Julius Caesar at St. Ann’s Warehouse in 2013, and was Associate Director on The Machine (Manchester International Festival and The Armory, New York) and Good Canary (Rose Theatre, Kingston).

ANoR are Andy and Fraser, a DJ and producer duo from the UK, with over 20 years of Dj'ing and producing experience between them. Under different aliases they have had releases on labels such as Noir Music, Hotfingers, Spinnin, NM2, Klass Action, Savoir Faire Musique to name but a few. They are regulars at many of London’s hottest events including ABODE, and with 3 releases on Larry Cadge's Smiley Fingers Records under their belt these guys are ones to watch.

The Press on director Hannah Price “Hannah Price’s uncluttered, nimble production” The Independent on Boa “Such moments are…gracefully drawn out by director Hannah Price” ★★★★ The Telegraph on Boa “Directed with daring by Hannah Price, a comic treat” ★★★★ The Observer on The Dead Monkey “Theatre Uncut isn’t just a performance, it’s an idea: that theatre can be immediately responsive to the world’s events” Lyn Gardner, The Guardian on Theatre Uncut “Director Hannah Price draws superb performances from a first class cast” ★★★★★ Broadway Baby on Bud Take The Wheel I Feel A Song Coming On “Drama of epic proportions…powerful stuff” ★★★★ Metro on Bud Take The Wheel I Feel A Song Coming On

PRESS NIGHTS: THURSDAY, 2 FEBRUARY AND FRIDAY, 3 FEBRUARY 2017 AT 7.30PM PHOTOCALL: TUESDAY, 31 JANUARY 2017 AT 1.00PM-1.30PM

Finborough Theatre, 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED Box Office 0844 847 1652 Book online at www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk Tuesday, 31 January – Saturday, 25 February 2017

118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED Telephone 020 7244 7439 e-mail [email protected] www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk Artistic Director Neil McPherson

The Finborough Theatre is managed by The Steam Industry. Registered in England and Wales as a company limited by guarantee, no. 3448268. Registered Charity no. 1071304. Registered address: 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED. A member of the Independent Theatre Council. Press Information ! Tuesday to Saturday evenings at 7.30pm. Sunday matinees at 3.00pm. Saturday matinees at 3.00pm (from 11 February 2017). Prices until 12 February 2017 – Tickets £16, £14 concessions, except Tuesday evenings £14 all seats, and Friday and Saturday evenings £16 all seats. Previews (31 January and 1 February) £12 all seats. £10 tickets for Under 30s for performances from Tuesday to Sunday of the first week when booked online only. £12 tickets for residents of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea on Saturday, 4 February 2017 when booked online only. Prices from 14 February 2017 – Tickets £18, £16 concessions, except Tuesday evenings £16 all seats, and Friday and Saturday evenings £18 all seats. Group Bookings – 1 free ticket for every 10 tickets booked. Performance Length: Approximately 70 minutes with no interval.

For more information, interviews and images, please contact Neil McPherson on e-mail [email protected] or 07977 173135 Download press releases and images at http://www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk/press-resources.php

118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED Telephone 020 7244 7439 e-mail [email protected] www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk Artistic Director Neil McPherson

The Finborough Theatre is managed by The Steam Industry. Registered in England and Wales as a company limited by guarantee, no. 3448268. Registered Charity no. 1071304. Registered address: 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED. A member of the Independent Theatre Council.