PRESS RELEASE – Monday 11 June 2018 IMAGES CAN BE DOWNLOADED HERE Twitter/ Facebook / Instagram @TheJungleLDN TheJunglePlay.co.uk A NATIONAL THEATRE AND YOUNG VIC CO-PRODUCTION WITH GOOD CHANCE THEATRE THE JUNGLE by Joe Murphy & Joe Robertson directed by Stephen Daldry & Justin Martin FULL CAST ANNOUNCED FOR CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED THE JUNGLE AND REHEARSAL PICTURES RELEASED TODAY THEATRE TRANSFORMATION UNDERWAY IN ORDER TO ACCOMMODATE MIRIAM BUETHER’S UNIQUE SET DESIGN FROM THE YOUNG VIC NEW FOR PLAYHOUSE AUDIENCES, THE DRESS CIRCLE WILL BE TRANSFORMED INTO ‘CLIFFS OF DOVER’, WITH UNIQUE AND INTIMATE VIEWS OVER THE SPACE BELOW ENHANCED BY SCREENS RELAYING CLOSE-UP ‘LIVE NEWS BROADCAST’ STYLE FOOTAGE OF THE ACTION AS IT HAPPENS THE JUNGLE WILL PREVIEW FROM 16 JUNE AT THE PLAYHOUSE THEATRE IN LONDON’S WEST END Following critical acclaim, and a sold-out run at the Young Vic, producers Sonia Friedman Productions, Tom Kirdahy and Hunter Arnold are delighted to announce the full cast for the West End transfer of Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson’s The Jungle, a National Theatre and Young Vic co-production with Good Chance Theatre, directed by Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin. The production is set in Europe’s largest unofficial refugee camp, the Calais Jungle, which in 2015, became a temporary home for more than 10,000 people. Previewing from 16 June, with World Refugee Day on 20 June, The Jungle will have an Opening Night on 5 July at the Playhouse Theatre, with rehearsal photography released today. Cast transferring from the Young Vic include Mohammad Amiri, Elham Ehsas, Trevor Fox, Moein Ghobsheh, Ammar Haj Ahmad, Alex Lawther, Jo McInnes, John Pfumojena, Rachel Redford, Rachid Sabitri, Mohamed Sarrar, Ben Turner and Nahel Tzegai. New cast members include Tiran Aakel, Gerard Carey, Alexander Devrient, Cherno Jagne, Kiki Kendrick, Freddie Meredith, Sara Mokonen, Yasin Moradi, Jonathan Nyati, Dominic Rowan and Eric Sirakian. The company is made up of actors from around the world, cast are from Iran, Sudan, Afghanistan, Eritrea, England, Zimbabwe, Syria, Armenia, Congo, Wales, Scotland, The Gambia, Morocco, Lebanon and Germany. The Jungle will transfer to the Playhouse Theatre, where the traditional proscenium theatre is undergoing an unprecedented transformation, unlike anything seen in a West End venue before. The stalls have been completely reconfigured to house Miriam Buether’s critically-acclaimed set design as seen at the Young Vic, where audiences were invited to sit at the benches and tables of the Afghan café in the Calais camp. The Playhouse Theatre will also offer the brand new experience of watching from the Dress Circle, which has been renamed “Cliffs of Dover”. Whilst the circle will retain its traditional theatre seating, the unique and intimate experience will be completely unlike anything regular Playhouse Theatre attenders have had before, with views over the dramatically transformed performance space below, which extends beyond the proscenium arch and over the stalls, enhanced by accompanying video screens, relaying close-up ‘live news broadcast’ style footage of some of the action. The in-the-round transformation reduces the capacity of the theatre to under 450 seats. Top price tickets are directly enabling 40% of the house to be priced at £25 and under, and a proportion of tickets will be held off sale to be offered to refugees and targeted groups in order to maximise diversity and accessibility. This is the place where people suffered and dreamed. Meet the hopeful, resilient residents of the Jungle – just across the Channel, right on our doorstep. The Jungle tells stories of loss, fear, community and hope, of the Calais camp’s creation - and of its eventual destruction. Join the residents over freshly baked naan and sweet milky chai at the Afghan Café, and experience the intense, moving and uplifting encounters between refugees from many different countries and the volunteers who arrived from the UK. Official charity partner, Help Refugees, which was established alongside the Good Chance Theatre in the Calais Jungle in 2015, and is now the leading UK NGO in a new movement of International humanitarian aid, will be supported by the production, with fundraising efforts taking place at the venue throughout the entire run. Tiran Aakel is from Britain, his family are Israeli. His theatre credits include Burkas And Bacon Butties (Tara Finney Prods/Vault Festival); Time's Up (Yvonne Arnaud Theatre); I Was Looking At The Ceiling (Southwark Playhouse); Beyond Therapy (Etcetera Theatre); Purge, Asturias, Sab! (all Edinburgh Fringe Festival) Ooh Ah Showab Khan, Kicking Out (both Arc Theatre); Baby Love (Sylvester Tobias Theatre Co). Television includes: Eastenders, Casualty, Panorama, Bed Bugs. Radio includes: Sherlock Holmes - His Last Bow. Film includes: Pretty Music For Very Ugly People; Regret Button; I'm No Stranger. Mohammad Amiri is from Afghanistan. His theatre credits include Boy (Almeida). His television work includes Unforgotten 2. His film credits include: Fighting With My Family; City of Tiny Lights. Gerard Carey is from Britain. His theatre credits includes: A Christmas Carol (RSC); Half A Sixpence (Chichester/Noel Coward Theatre); Shrek the Musical (UK tour); Dickens Abridged (Arts Theatre); Soho Cinders, Ex (Soho Theatre); Master Class (Vaudeville); Invisible Man (Menier Chocolate Factory); Noises Off, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz (Birmingham Rep); Spamalot (Palace); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, High Society, Leonardo’s Last Supper, The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Regent’s Park Open Air); Mary Poppins (Cameron Mackintosh/Disney). His television credits include: Love Soup; Torchwood. Alexander Devrient is from Germany and Lebanon. Theatre includes: Die Entuhrung aus dem Serail (Glyndebourne); L’Avare (European Tour) Twelfth Night (Greenwich Playhouse); Silent Chalk (Old Theatre Royal Bath); The Tragedy of Soliman & Perseda (Rose Theatre Bankside). Film includes: The Danish Girl, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. Television includes: Genius: Picasso, SS-GB, Das Institut, Emmerdale, Le Bureau des Legendes and Alarm fur Cobra 11. Elham Ehsas is from Afghanistan. Film work includes: Our Kind of Love; The Kill Team; Oksijan; War Machine; Harry Potter the Deathly Hallows; The Kite Runner. His television credits include: The Informer; Brussel; Silent Witness. Trevor Fox is from Britain. Theatre credits include: Macbeth, Common (National Theatre); People, Places & Things (Headlong/National Theatre tour); Amedee (Birmingham Rep); The Tempest, Cymbeline, The Oresteia, Measure for Measure, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Gabriel, Coriolanus, Under The Black Flag (Shakespeare’s Globe); King Lear, Children’s Children (Almeida Theatre); The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time (Apollo). His film credits include: Bridget Jones – The Edge of Reason; Gabriel & Me; Billy Elliot. Moein Ghobsheh is a musician from Iran. His theatre credits include: The Jungle (Young Vic). Ammar Haj Ahmad is from Syria. Theatre credits include: Returning to Haifa (Finborough); LOVE (National Theatre/ Birmingham Repertory); Goats/Told From the Inside (Royal Court); Kan Yama (Cockpit Theatre). His film credits include: London Tomorrow; ALEGNA; Wall; Round Trip; Wada'an; Monologue. His television work includes: Agatha Raisin; Letters from Baghdad. Cherno Jagne is from The Gambia. Theatre credits include: Closer, 2 Families 14 Lives (The Courtyard Theatre). His film credits include: Haraam. Kiki Kendrick is from Britain. Theatre credits include: The Ruffian On The Stair (Blue Devil/Brighton Festival); Cutting Corners (Juno Theatre); oysters (Eastern Angles); The Woman Who Cooked Her Husband (Th. Royal Winchester); I Want That Hair (Hull Truck); Babushka (Liberated Theatre); Fly Me To The Moon (Hull Truck/Stephen Joseph Theatre); Raindrops & Roses (Soho Theatre); Reunion (Hull Truck/UK tour); Insane Jane (Pleasance Edinburgh/Soho Theatre); Too Close For Comfort (Soho Theatre); Down Dog (Edinburgh Underbelly); My Beautiful Launderette (Snap Theatre); Lip Service (Soho/Finborough Theatres); Crime And Punishment (Finborough Theatre); Blind Date (Pleasance Theatre Edinburgh); Waiting For Hillsborough (Gutted Theatre Company). Television includes: The Office, Cold Feet, Holby City, Waterloo Road, Doctors, The Bearded Ladies, Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps, Funland, Fat Friends. Film includes: Gridiron; Webcast; Frontman; Grave Tales; Do I Love You?; Reverb; Firefall; Diagnosis; Nine Lives Of Tomas Katz Alex Lawther is from Britain. Theatre credits include: Crushed Shells and Mud (Southwark Playhouse); The Glass Supper, Fault Lines (Hampstead Theatre); South Downs (Harold Pinter/Chichester Festival Theatre). His film credits include: The Translators; Ghost Stories; Goodbye Christopher Robin; Old Boys; Freakshow; Departure; The Imitation Game; X+Y. His television work has included: The End of the Fucking World; Howards End; Black Mirror. Jo McInnes is from Britain. Theatre credits include: Wastewater, Fleshwound, Bluebird (Royal Court); The House of Bernarda Alba, The Children’s Hour (National Theatre); M.A.D (Bush Theatre); On Blindness, Dirty Butterfly (Soho Theatre). Her film credits include: Me and Orson Welles; The New Romantics; My Wife Is An Actress; Birthday Girl. Her television work has included: Eternal Law; Fine Daughters; Recovery; Afterlife; Spooks; Living It; Playing the Field. Freddie Meredith’s theatre credits include Fracked! (Chichester Festival Theatre). His television credits