1 month ago
Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour and director Omar Elerian have launched a theatre accumulation company, There & Then.
They are readying connected a West End type of Soleimanpour’s White Rabbit Red Rabbit astatine nan Duchess Theatre arsenic their inaugural production, presented successful relation pinch Nica Burns and her Nimax Theatre Group. The play sees a different performer taking to nan shape each nighttime pinch a sealed envelop containing a book they’ve ne'er seen before, which is nan performed pinch nary rehearsal aliases director.
Running betwixt June 8-November 2 connected Monday evenings, nan first roster of artists includes David Harewood (Othello) connected nan opening night, David Tennant (Rivals) connected 15 June, Jo Joyner (Little Disasters) connected 22 June, Asim Chaudhry (People Just Do Nothing) connected 29 June, Luke Thompson (Bridgerton) connected 6 July, Jodie Whittaker (Toxic Town) connected 13 July, Kathryn Hunter (Poor Things) connected 20 July, Kunal Nayyar (The Big Bang Theory) connected 27 July, Archie Madekwe (Steal) connected 21 September and Riz Ahmed (Bait) connected 28 September. Further casting to beryllium announced successful nan coming weeks.
White Rabbit Red Rabbit has been performed complete 4,000 times and translated into complete 25 different languages since its debut successful 2011. It was written while Soleimanpour was forbidden to time off Iran.
Nassim Soleimanpour and Elerian are known for collaborations on Echo at nan Royal Court Theatre and Nassim astatine nan Bush Theatre, some of which likewise situation performers to return connected roles pinch nary anterior preparation. They are joined by astatine Then & There by executive producer Roz Coleman and supported by producing advisor Malú Ansaldo.
Along pinch presenting their ain work, Soleimanpour and Elerian will activity pinch artists, performers and communities to supply platforms and support to artists astatine different stages of their careers. White Rabbit Red Rabbit is their first solo production, pinch casting by Casting Director Matilda James. They are besides presenting nan 2nd world circuit of their astir caller cold-read work, Echo, moving pinch shaper Immanuel Bartz.
“We are each made of nan stories we situation to tell, and nan silences we yet springiness a voice. What began arsenic a leap into nan chartless pinch White Rabbit Red Rabbit has, done years of collaboration pinch Omar Elerian, go a shared theatrical connection and nan instauration of this caller company, and we’re excited that our first accumulation will beryllium successful relation pinch Nica Burns and Nimax arsenic we stock this adjacent section pinch audiences,” said Then & There founding head Soleimanpour.
Elerian, nan different founding director, added: “I americium highly excited to embark connected this caller imaginative section successful collaboration pinch my partner-in-crime, Nassim Soleimanpour. Together, we look guardant to introducing thing caller and unconventional to nan West End, assured that London audiences will clasp nan exhilarating high-wire quality of our activity – anchored successful presence, immediacy, and a tone of nan unknown. In these vulnerable and uncertain times, we dream to reaffirm that risk, imagination, and nan enduring powerfulness of storytelling stay among our astir captious and transformative forces.”
