The Bush Theatre have today announced the cast for the upcoming production of Fair Play, an exploration of the underside of women’s athletics by Ella Road which opens at the Bush Theatre on 3 December.
Charlotte Beaumont and Nick King will play opposite each other in the two-hander, with direction by Monique Touko, set and costume design by Naomi Dawson, lighting design by Matt Haskins, sound design and music by Giles Thomas, and movement direction by Joseph Toonga, the co-founder of Just Us Dance Theatre, which creates hip hop and contemporary dance pieces and runs mentoring programmes for young people. Casting is by Heather Basten CDG.
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| Fair Play. Photo: Bronwen Sharp. Art Direction by Studio Doug |
The clocks are set. The line is drawn. They've got a chance to be champions. But at what cost? When Ann joins Sophie's running club she's thrown into a world of regimented training and pure focus. The two girls couldn’t be more different, but soon their shared passion makes them inseparable - dreaming in lanes and lap-times, waking up picturing Olympic medals, each day stronger and faster…
But set head-to-head in the run-up to the World Championships, they find themselves and their friendship put to the ultimate test. As their relationships, their bodies, and their very identities are pulled into public scrutiny, does being exceptional come at too high a price?
Opened in 1972, the Bush Theatre is an internationally renowned new writing theatre.
Fair Play is at the Bush Theatre from 3 December 2021 to 22 January 2022.
Further cast and creative details:
Charlotte Beaumont’s theatre credits include The Lovely Bones (Birmingham Repertory Theatre & UK tour), The Importance of Being Earnest (The Watermill), Romeo & Juliet (The Globe), No One Will Tell Me How To Start A Revolution (Hampstead Theatre), Jumpy (Theatre Clwyd), Three Winters (National Theatre, Lyttleton), Playhouse Creatures (Chichester Festival Theatre), The Flooded Grave and 2,000 Feet Away (Bush Theatre). On television she has appeared in Broadchurch (ITV), Waterloo Road (BBC), Death In Paradise (BBC), Coming Up: Sink or Swim (Channel 4), Zapped (Baby Cow), and Skins (E4). Charlotte’s film appearances include The Windmill Massacre (Pellicola), Butterfly Kisses (Blue Shadow Films), Balcony (Clipside Films), Skip Girl (Mara Adina), Jupiter Ascending (Warner Bros), Tommy (Left Bank Pictures), and Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (Aegis Film Fund).
With roots in Broadway, network television, and both voice and commercial acting, NicK King’s previous stage credits include the 30th anniversary USA tour of Annie, The Lion King (Broadway), and The Nutcracker (The Washington Ballet). NicK has appeared on television in Law & Order and Village People and in the short films Dead Air and FINE as well as regional and national US commercials. NicK is no newcomer to storytelling from the heart, having written their own stories in the forms of a published book of poetry and prose, songs, series, and stage plays. With new opportunities emerging for intersex, trans/nonbinary, and queer actors every day, NicK is eager to contribute to creating and telling stories that explore all sides of them and their surrounding communities.
Ella Road’s debut play The Phlebotomist was produced at Hampstead Theatre, nominated for an Olivier Award, and was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. It was translated into a radio drama for BBC Radio 3, and is now being adapted for the screen. Ella is currently writing new play commissions for the Almeida Theatre and Hampstead Theatre. Her play How to Eat An Elephant was due to premiere at Theatre Royal Plymouth last year and has been postponed due to the pandemic. Ella recently finished writing on the British series of Call My Agent for Bron/Headline, for which she wrote two episodes. She is currently writing projects for the BBC and Film4, and developing original series with Drama Republic, Element Pictures, and Potboiler. Ella was lucky enough to be a Soho Theatre Young Writer 2017/18, one of the Bush Theatre’s Emerging Writers 2018/19, and on the BBC Drama Writersroom 2019/20. Ella is part of the London Theatre Consortium’s Climate Lab, looking at how we can move to more sustainable working practices in the industry. She also facilitates theatre workshops in prisons with Synergy Theatre.
Director Monique Touko made her professional debut with Malindadzimu by Mufuro Makubika at Hampstead Theatre Downstairs. Her directing training included the Regional Theatre Young Directors Scheme at Royal Exchange Manchester and at the Young Vic, her training involved the Intro to Directing course led by Sasha Wares, Boris Karloff Trainee Assistant Directors Programme, and the Jerwood Assistant Director Scheme. Her assisting credits include Wishlist by Katherine Soper, directed by Matthew Xia at Royal Exchange Manchester and Royal Court, HighTide’s touring production of Kanye The First by Sam Steiner directed by Andrew Twyman, Yellowman by Dael Orlandersmith directed by Nancy Medina at Young Vic, China Plate’s On the Exhale by Martin Zimmerman directed by Christopher Haydon at Traverse Theatre, Cock by Mike Bartlett directed by Kate Hewitt at Chichester Festival Theatre, Shakespeare’s Richard II directed Lynette Linton and Adjoa Andoh at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, Ibsen’s Rosmersholm adapted by Duncan Macmillan, directed by Ian Rickson at Duke of York's Theatre and Lorca’s Blood Wedding adapted by Marina Carr directed by Yael Farber at Young Vic.
She is also part of The Ubunifu Space which is an online platform that builds and raises the profiles of creative artists within Africa. Monique is Partnership Manager and Assistant Producer for Ubunifu Radio as well as a regular member of the UK reaction team on the youtube channel which has a global following of 300K+ subscribers.
