Posted on January 15th, 2019
HighTide, Loose Tongue and the Bush Theatre have today announced the full cast for The Trick which opens at the Bush Theatre on 19 February prior to national tour will be Lachele Carl, David Verrey, Ani Nelson and Sharlene Whyte.
Following its run at the Bush Theatre (ends 23 March), The Trick will tour to The North Wall, Oxford (26 & 27 March), Salisbury Playhouse (28 – 30 March), Marina Theatre, Lowestoft (1 April), Aldeburgh Jubilee Hall (2 April), Watford Palace Theatre (5 & 6 April), Birmingham REP (8 & 9th April), Square Chapel, Halifax (11 April) and York Theatre Royal (12 & 13 April).
‘Of course you take me away from the world, and who cares…. you’re the best reason I know to wake up.’
Mira’s husband, Jonah, died seven months ago, but that doesn’t mean that either of them are ready to let him go.
For most of her life Jonah has been Mira’s reason to get out of bed in the morning. So when he does his final disappearing act, Mira can’t quite believe her eyes. She knows she should be moving on. And yet, Mira finds herself caring less and less about the world outside.
The Trick is a magic show about the parts of life we don’t talk about – the realities of getting older and coming to terms with loss. Ghosts, goldfish, mediums, and sleight-of-hand collide in this unpredictable exploration of ageing and grief by Eve Leigh (Stone Face, Silent Planet). This world premiere will be directed by award-winning Roy Alexander Weise (The Mountaintop, Nine Night).
Cast
Lachele Carl was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and graduated with a degree in Theatre from Point Park College. She lives and works in the UK. Lachele’s theatre credits include: A Streetcar named Desire at the Young Vic; Gods and Monsters at the Southwark Playhouse; Theatre Festival at Theatre 503; ObamAmerica; AlbansGardens, The Notebook of Trigorin, and with, The Chronic Love Dispensary; Life Mater and Penetration. Lachele appeared in the series of Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Mysteries as the character Trinity Wells. Other television and film credits include: The Ambassadors, and the series The Honourable Woman; Modus 2; Holby City; Deep State and most recently, Into The Badlands. Film credits include: Denial; Showdogs.
Ani Nelson trained at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts (ALRA). Her theatre performances include Abigail’s Party (Hull Truck Theatre); A Cratchit Christmas (Theatre 503); Underwater Love (Futures Theatre); The Revenger’s Tragedy (Rose Theatre Bankside); Game (Courtyard Theatre). On television she appeared in Roadkill (Channel 4) and on film, in Crooked House (Brilliant Films).
David Verrey has appeared on stage in Losing Venice (Orange Tree); Platonov, Ivanov (Chichester Festival Theatre and National Theatre); One Man Two Guvnors, The Recruiting Officer, The Madness of George III, The Coast of Utopia, England People Very Nice (National Theatre); Mirror Teeth (Finborough); The Years Between (Northampton); The Charming Man (Theatre503); Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (ESC); Laughter on the 23rd Floor, Drums in the Night, Filumena (Manchester Library); Dead, Falstaff!, Dawn Made Myth, The 1985 Show, Shrivings (Edinburgh Festival); Accidental Death of an Anarchist (Contact); The Comedy of Errors (RSC); The Tempest (Rose); The White Devil (Pentameters); The Merchant of Venice, Fiddler on the Roof, And Then There Were None (Wolsey, Ipswich); Measure for Measure, Macbeth (Theatre Unlimited); Lock Up Your Daughters (Belgrade, Coventry); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (New End).
Television includes The Long Song, Doctors, Holby City, The Game, Doctor Who, Ripper Street, Garrow’s Law, Little Dorrit, Game of Thrones, Judge John Deed, Casanova, The Art of the Garden, Red Dwarf, Birds of a Feather, Law and Order UK, Future Tense:The Story Of H.G. Wells, Poirot, The Fear, Diamond Geezer II, Ultimate Force, Family Affairs, Paul Merton:The Series, The Bill, London’s Burning, Kavanagh QC, Pieces of a Silver Lining, Masterworks, Dream Team, Knightmare, Lexx, Supply and Demand, The Musketeers.
Films include The Secret Garden, The Terrible Tale of Henrietta Tate, Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason, Attack on Leningrad, Sixty-Six, Magwitch, Secret Weapon.
Sharlene Whyte trained at RADA. Her theatre appearances include Matilda the Musical (Cambridge Theatre); As Good a Time As Any (Print Room); Wildefire (Hampstead Theatre); Nut (National Theatre); Treasure Island (Theatre Royal, Haymarket); Julius Caesar (Lyric Hammersmith); Born Bad (Hampstead); The Three Birds (Gate); Arabian Nights (Young Vic/ tour). Television includes Home Alone 2, Casualty, Critical, Jonathan Creek: The Case of the Savant’s Thumb, Bev in Sadie J, Truckers, Run, Mightier Than the Sword, Spooks, The Undisclosed, Coronation Street, Doctors, Adanna Lawal in Waterloo Road, Silent Witness, Jenny Edwards in The Story of Tracy Beaker, Tinsel Town, My Hero, Burnside, As If, Other People’s Children. Sharlene’s film appearances include Second Coming, Video, Second Nature, High Heels and Low Lifes.
Creative Team
Eve Leigh – Writer
Eve Leigh is a playwright and theatre-maker. She was the recipient of the 2017 Royal Court commission for the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama; with her play, Spooky Action at a Distance, produced by the Royal Court, RWCMD, and Gate Theatre. She was the first artist-in-residence at the Experimental Stage of the National Theatre of Greece. Her plays Silent Planet and Stone Face were produced by the Finborough Theatre and published by Oberon Books. Stone Face was shortlisted for three Offies, including Best New Play. Other plays include The Curtain (Young Vic Taking Part), Plunder (Young Vic Taking Part), Red Sky at Night (Bush Theatre), Rapture (Soho Theatre), Enough (Birmingham REP Young Rep). Eve was dramaturg on How to Win Against History (Young Vic). Upcoming commissions include work for the Bush Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, The Place/DanceEast, 36 МАЙМУНИ (Sofia), and DOCK11 (Berlin).
Roy Alexander Weise – Director
Director Roy Alexander Weise is the 19th annual winner of the James Menzies-Kitchin Award and directed his critically-acclaimed, sell-out production of The Mountaintop by Katori Hall at the Young Vic. He was shortlisted for the Evening Standard Emerging Talent Award 2018’. Theatre credits include: Nine Night (National Theatre, and currently running at the Trafalgar Studios), Br’er Cotton (Theatre 503), Heretic Voices (Arcola Theatre); Jekyll and Hyde (National Youth Theatre); Dead Don’t Floss (National Theatre); The Ugly One (Park Theatre, Buckland Theatre Company); The Dark (Fuel & Ovalhouse); Zero For The Young Dudes (Young & Talented in association with NT Connections); The Mountaintop (Young Vic); Primetime (Royal Court, Jerwood Theatre); and Stone Face (Finborough Theatre). Assistant Director credits include: Hangmen (Royal Court and West End); X, Escaped Alone, You For Me For You, Primetime 2015, Violence and Son, Who Cares, Liberian Girl (Royal Court); Albion, We Are Proud To Present… (Bush Theatre) and The Serpent’s Tooth (Talawa/Almeida Theatre). For Television, Roy was Trainee Director on Invisible (Red Room/Ballet Boys/Channel 4). Roy has previously worked at the Royal Court as the Trainee Director, at the Bush Theatre and Lyric Hammersmith as the BBC Theatre Fellow and at The Red Room as Associate Artist. Roy is now Associate Director at the Harts Theatre Company and Lead Acting Tutor at Young & Talented School of Stage & Screen.
Jemima Robinson – Designer
Designer Jemima Robinson was awarded the Max Rayne Design Bursary at the National Theatre which she completed in March 2018. Jemima is a winner of the biennial Linbury Prize for Stage Design and has been nominated for Best Set Design at the Offie awards for Br’er Cotton at Theatre 503 and for Thebes Land at the Arcola Theatre. She is a former resident artist at Kenya’s Kuona Arts Trust in Nairobi and resident designer for Istanbul’s Talimhane Theatre.
Her recent UK Design credits include: Hansel and Gretel (Opera for Hidden Woods, Iford Arts), Br’er Cotton (Theatre 503, Nominated for Best Set Design for the Offie Awards), The Majority (Dorfman, National Theatre), New Nigerians, Thebes Land (Nominated for Best Set Design and Winner of Best Production in the Offie Awards), Maria de Buenos Aires (Arcola); Parallel Yerma (Young Vic); License to Ill, This Will End Badly, Little Malcolm and his struggle against the Eunuchs (Southwark Playhouse); Biedermann and the Arsonists, Synergies: NEBT (Sadlers Wells); Mapping Brent (Tricycle Theatre), Dyl, Sparks (Old Red Lion); Hearing Things (Albany), The Dark Room (Theatre 503), The Tempest (Watermill Theatre), I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (Zorlu Centre, Istanbul). Jemima has also designed events, merchandise and foyers for the National Theatre, King’s Cross Theatre and Waldorf Hotel. She has run workshops and worked on community projects for The Young Vic, Kiln Theatre (The Tricycle), Iford Arts and the National Theatre.
Jemima currently lives and works in London. When she is not designing, she enjoys illustrating, painting and travelling… and dinosaurs.
Amy Mae – Lighting Designer
Lighting Designer Amy Mae works across Theatre, Dance, Site Specific and Devised performance. She designed the lighting for the acclaimed ‘Pie Shop’ version of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street which is currently playing at the Barrow Street Theatre in New York. She won the Knight of Illumination Award in 2016 for the London production, and her designs for the New York production have been nominated for the 2017 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lighting Design and the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Lighting. Upcoming credits include Wild East (Genesis Directors Award).
Recent Credits include: Hansel and Gretel (Rose Theatre, Kingston); The Fishermen (Edinburgh Fringe, UK Tour); Three Sat Under The Banyan (Polka Theatre); About Leo (Jermyn Street); Mountains: The Dreams of Lily Kwok (Royal Exchange) and Exploding Circus (Pavilion Theatre, Worthing); Br’er Cotton (Theatre 503); Othello, Jekyll and Hyde and The Host (NYT Rep Season 2017); Half Breed (Talawa – Soho Theatre & Assembly Rooms); Start Swimming (Young Vic/Summerhall Edinburgh); The Ugly One (Park Theatre); Babette’s Feast (The Print Room); The Lounge (Soho Theatre); Wordsworth (Theatre By The Lake); Paradise of the Assassins (Tara Theatre); Knife Edge (Pond Restaurant, Dalston); Minaturists 55 (Arcola Theatre); Prize Fights (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art); Orphans (Southwark Playhouse); Macbeth (Italia Conti); I’m Not Here Right Now (Paines Plough’s Roundabout and Soho Theatre); Liola (New Diorama Theatre); Children in the Uniform, Punk Rock (Tristan Bates Theatre); Sweeney Todd (Harringtons Pie and Mash Shop and West End); The Three Sisters (Cockpit Theatre); Cat Couture (Music Video); In Bed (London Theatre Workshop); Henry V (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art); Pool, The Gut Girls (Brockley Jack Theatre); The Legacy (The Place).
Programming Credits Include: Jeux (Royal Opera House); Tannhauser (Longborough Festival Opera); Robin Hood (Stratford East Theatre Royal); Lela & Co (The Royal Court); Dirty Butterfly (The Young Vic) and Red Forest (The Young Vic).
She was one of the invited speakers at the 2017 Showlight Conference in Florence.
Amy trained at RADA on the postgraduate Stage Electrics and Lighting Design course and has a degree in Stage Management and Performing Arts from the University of Winchester.
Odinn Orn Hilmarsson – Sound Designer
Sound Designer Odinn Orn Hilmarsson is an Icelandic composer and sound designer based in London. Using a mixture of traditional instruments and experimental digital processing, he creates textured and unique sounds and compositions.
Recently Odinn has contributed to the immersive show Reflected (The Milo Wladek Co.); the Eastenders podcast (BBC Sounds); The Zoe Ball Book Club (ITV and Cactus TV).
Previously he and Roy worked together on the National Youth Theatre’s production of Jekyll & Hyde in 2017 and together with Eve Leigh on Stone Face in 2016.
