PRESS RELEASE 28 August 2018 FULL CAST ANNOUNCED FOR The Old Vic & Wise Children’s WISE CHILDREN WORLD PREMIERE By Angela Carter Adapted and directed by Emma Rice Co-produced by the Belgrade Theatre Coventry, Oxford Playhouse and York Theatre Royal Previews from 8 October, press night 17 October 2018 The Old Vic today announces the cast of Wise Children, which will have its world premiere at The Old Vic on 17 October, with previews from 8 October, ahead of its UK tour. The cast includes Sam Archer, Ankur Bahl, Stu Barker, Omari Douglas, Mirabelle Gremaud, Alex Heane, Paul Hunter, Melissa James, Bettrys Jones, Patrycja Kujawska, Etta Murfitt, Katy Owen, Ian Ross, Gareth Snook and Mike Shepherd. ‘Let’s have all the skeletons out of the closet, today, of all days!’ It’s 23 April, Shakespeare’s birthday. In Brixton, Nora and Dora Chance - twin chorus girls born and bred south of the river – are celebrating their 75th birthday. Over the river in Chelsea, their father and greatest actor of his generation Melchior Hazard turns 100 on the same day. As does his twin brother Peregrine. If, in fact, he’s still alive. And if, in truth, Melchior is their real father after all... A big, bawdy tangle of theatrical joy and heartbreak, Wise Children is a celebration of show business, family, forgiveness and hope. Expect show girls and Shakespeare, sex and scandal, music, mischief and mistaken identity - and butterflies by the thousand. Emma Rice (Romantics Anonymous, Tristan & Yseult, The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk and Brief Encounter) brings her unique, exuberantly impish vision to Angela Carter’s great last novel, Wise Children, launching her new theatre company of the same name and its London residency at The Old Vic. Suitable for ages 14+. Writer Angela Carter Adapted & Directed by Emma Rice Designer Vicki Mortimer Musical Director & Composer Ian Ross Sound and Video Simon Baker Lighting Malcolm Rippeth Choreographer Etta Murfitt Animation Beth Carter and Stuart Mitchell Puppetry Design Lyndie Wright Fight Directors Rachel Bown-Williams and Ruth Cooper-Brown of Rc-Annie Ltd. Sam Archer (Young Peregrine). Theatre credits include An Ideal Husband (Vaudeville Theatre/Oscar Wilde Season); Wonderland (National Theatre, London and Châtelet Theatre, Paris); The Soldier’s Tale (Metropolitan Theatre, Tokyo); La Bohème (Royal Albert Hall); We Will Rock You (Dominion Theatre); The Red Shoes, Lord Of The Flies, Swan Lake, Cinderella, Edward Scissorhands (Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures Company). Television credits include Humans Series 2 and Mr Selfridge Series 3. Ankur Bahl (Young Melchior). Theatre credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s Globe); This Beach (Broken Talkers, Ireland); Volpone, The Empress, The Comedy of Errors, The Tempest, Twelfth Night (RSC); Can We Talk About This (DV8 International Tour); Miranda (Assembly Rooms Edinburgh/Tara Arts); Britain’s Got Bhangra, Where’s My Desi Soulmate (Rifco Arts); To Be Straight With You (National Theatre/DV8); Just Add Water (Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company); Seven Deadly Sins (Welsh National Opera); Shades of Passion (National Dance Company of Wales). Film and television credits include Voices of Finance, The Surprise, Honeycomb Lodge, Desi Boyz and Jump Nation. Stu Barker (The Band). Stu has worked extensively as composer/musical director with Kneehigh Theatre over the last twenty-five years. Credits as a composer and Musical Director include A Matter Of Life And Death, Tristan And Yseult (National Theatre); Brief Encounter (Broadway/West End); Cymbeline, Don John, The Empress (RSC); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Winter’s Tale, Romeo And Juliet (Shakespeare’s Globe); 946-The Amazing Story Of Adolphous Tips (Kneehigh); Hansel And Gretel (Bristol Old Vic); The Bacchae, The Wooden Frock (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Nights At The Circus, The Red Shoes (Lyric Hammersmith); The Wild Bride, Rapunzel, Midnight Pumpkin (BAC) and Pandora’s Box (Northern Stage). Other theatre credits include The Grinning Man (West End) and productions at the Donmar Warehouse, Bristol Old Vic, Welfare State International, Contact Theatre, Horse and Bamboo, Liverpool Lantern Company, And Now, and Travelling Light. Television work includes The Cult of The Suicide Bomber and Beyond Grief. Other music work includes Trombonist with C. W. Stoneking & His Primitive Horn Orchestra (Jungle Blues tour). Omari Douglas (Showgirl Nora). Theatre credits include High Society (The Old Vic); Five Guys Named Moe (Marble Arch Theatre); Elegies For Angels, Punks And Racing Queens (Criterion Theatre); Rush (King’s Head Theatre); Peter Pan, Jesus Christ Superstar (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Tristan And Yseult (Kneehigh/Shakespeare’s Globe); The Life (Southwark Playhouse); Annie Get Your Gun (Sheffield Crucible); When The Waters Recede (Theatre by the Lake) and Hairspray (Leicester Curve/UK Tour). Alex Heane (The Band). Theatre credits include The Tallest Horse on Earth (Silly Boys Theatre); Jane Eyre (National Theatre); The Little Matchgirl and Other Happier Tales (Shakespeare’s Globe); Cinderella: A Fairytale (Travelling Light /Tobacco Factory Theatres); Hetty Feather (KW&NB) and 100: The Day Our World Changed (Wildworks Theatre). He is also a member of the band Branwell and half of the folktronica duo With Flares. Paul Hunter (Melchior). Theatre credits include Life of Galileo (Young Vic); The Little Match Girl, The Mystery Plays, Much Ado About Nothing, Troilus and Cressida, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Under the Black Flag (Shakespeare’s Globe); Gaslight (Northampton); Tartuffe (Birmingham Rep); The Fantasticks (West End); Napoleon Disrobed, The Farenheit Twins, Don’t Laugh – It’s My Life, You Haven’t Embraced Me Yet, I’m So Big, On The Verge of Exploding (Told By An Idiot Tour); Nocturnal (The Gate); Rapunzel, The Red Shoes (Kneehigh); Beauty and the Beast (Belgrade Theatre); The Water Engine (Young Vic/Theatre 503); Oliver Twist, Aladdin, Pinocchio (Lyric Hammersmith); Playing the Victim (Traverse/Royal Court); The Play What I Wrote (Wyndham’s Theatre/Liverpool Playhouse) and The Firework Maker’s Daughter (Sheffield Crucible). Film and TV credits include Still Open All Hours, Denial, This Beautiful Fantastic, Pan, Marvellous, Cinderella, Maleficent, Wizards vs. Aliens, Snow White and the Huntsman, Pirates of the Caribbean, One Day, Trinity, After You’ve Gone, Absolute Power, The Only Boy For Me, Tunnel of Love, Mitchell and Kenyon, Black Books, Hardware, Everything I Know About Men, My Family, Music at the Close, Absurd, Vertical Hold, Hanging Around. Mirabelle Gremaud (Young Nora). Mirabelle has worked with Acrojou (circus/theatre), Urban Conceptz Theatre (Dance/theatre) and with performance artist Georgina Starr. Other work under her label ‘Le Mirabellier’, includes a solo dance piece at the Resolution Festival 2018 (The Place) and the Fun Fatale Festival 2018, Prague. She graduated from the Accademia Teatro Dimitri and has a post-graduate from the Laban Conservatory of Dance. Her performance involves elements from circus, acrobatics, contortion and hand-balancing. Melissa James (Showgirl Dora). Theatre credits include The Two Noble Kinsmen (Shakespeare’s Globe); Eugenius! (The Other Palace); One Love: The Bob Marley Musical (Birmingham Rep); Annie Get Your Gun (Sheffield Crucible); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Theatre Royal Bath); The Bodyguard (UK Tour); Guys and Dolls (Chichester Festival Theatre); Cats (UK Tour). Television credits include Training Days; Ransom Series 2; Dead Pixels; Waffle the Wonderdog; Thanks for the Memories’ Holby City; Silent Witness; WPC 56 and Doctors. Bettrys Jones (Young Dora). Theatre credits include War Horse (National Theatre/West End); Wait Until Dark (West End); Hamlet (Shakespeare’s Globe); As You Like It (Shakespeare’s Globe); The Tin Drum (Kneehigh); Life Of Galileo (Young Vic); The Little Match Girl (Shakespeare’s Globe); We Want You To Watch (National Theatre); Praxis Makes Perfect (National Theatre Of Wales/Berliner Festspiele); Sleeping Beauties (Sherman Theatre Cymru); Edward II (National Theatre); The Mouse And His Child (RSC); Manchester Lines (Manchester Library Theatre); The Adventure (High Tide Festival); The Snow Queen (The Rose Theatre, Kingston); Sixty Six Books (Bush Theatre); The Dar Philosphers (Told By An Idiot – Edinburgh Traverse); And The Horse You Rode In On (Told By An Idiot – Drum Theatre Plymouth/Barbican); The Crucible (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Measure For Measure (Theatre Clwyd; Cariad (Theatre Clwyd); Box (Birmingham Rep); To Kill A Mockingbird (West Yorkshire Playhouse/Birmingham Rep/UK Tour); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (RSC/West End); Comedy Of Errors (RSC/West End); Quinto Quarto (Union Theatre); The Little Years (The Orange Tree Theatre) and Party Time/One For The Road (Battersea Arts Centre). Patrycja Kujawska (Lady Atalanta/Wheelchair).Theatre credits include Drop Dead Gorgeous, Let The Mountains Lead You To Love, Punch Drunk, Broken Chords, Fairy Tale, Test Run, If We Go On, Motherland, Underworld (Vincent Dance Theatre); Don John (Kneehigh/Royal Shakespeare Company); Midnight’s Pumpkin, The Red Shows, The Wild Bride, Tristan and Yseult, Dead Dog In A Suitcase, 946, The Tin Drum (Kneehigh) and The Grinning Man (Bristol Old Vic). Etta Murfitt (Nora). Etta is Associate Artistic Director for Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures. Stage credits as associate director and performer for Adventures in Motion Pictures and New Adventures include Cinderella (Sadler’s Wells 2010 & Original London and LA productions); Swan Lake (Sadler’s Wells, West End,