Cecilia Noble & Fraser James to Star in LIBERIAN GIRL at the Royal Court

Casting is announced today for Liberian Girl a new play by first time writer Diana Nneka Atuona. Directed by Matthew Dunster, the Alfred Fagon award-winning play follows one teenage girl's story of survival.

The cast includes Cecilia Noble (recently nominated for an Olivier Award for her role in The Amen Corner at the National Theatre and who last performed at the Royal Court in Truth and Reconciliation) and Fraser James (who has previously worked with Matthew Dunster on Mogadishu,Troilus & Cressida, The Frontline and Love the Sinner). They will be joined by an exciting young cast of new talent including Landry Adelard, Michael Ajao, Mariéme Diouf, Edward Kagutuzi, Valentine Olukoga, Weruche Opia and Juma Sharkah.

Liberian Girl is part of the Royal Court's Jerwood New Playwrights programme, which aims to discover and support the next generation of world class playwrights, supported by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation.

Between 1989 and 2003 the Civil War in Liberia saw over 200,000 people killed, a million others displaced into refugee camps, and over 15,000 children recruited into 'Small Boys Units'.

Named best new play of the year at the 2013 Alfred Fagon Awards, Liberian Girl powerfully explores issues of sexual violence in conflict and examines the female experience of war. It was performed as a staged presentation at the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, chaired by William Hague and Angelina Jolie, at the Excel Centre, in June 2014.

After its run at the Royal Court, Liberian Girl will tour to the CLF Art Café at the Bussey Building in Peckham from 3 - 7 February and the Bernie Grant Arts Centre in Tottenham from 10 - 14 February. For further details please visit www.royalcourttheatre.com.

The production is directed by Matthew Dunster, designed by Anna Fleischle, lighting is by Philip Gladwell, sound design is by George Dennis and fight direction is by Kate Waters.

Diana Nneka Atuona attended the Royal Court's Peckham Writers Group, as part of the Royal Court's Theatre Local workshops in 2012 and this is her first play.

Matthew Dunster directs. As a director, his recent credits include The Lightning Child by Ché Walker and Arthur Darvill at Shakespeare's Globe, The Love Girl & the Innocent by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and You Can Still Make a Killing by Nicholas Pierpan at Southwark Playhouse, Mametz for National Theatre Wales, Before the Party for the Almeida Theatre, A Sacred Flame for English Touring Theatre, and A Midsummer Night's Dream at Open Air Regents Park Theatre, Saturday Night, Sunday Morning at the Royal Exchange Manchester and Mogadishu at Royal Exchange, Manchester and Lyric Hammersmith, The Most Incredible Thing at Sadler's Wells, The Two Gentleman of Verona at Royal & Derngate, Northampton and Doctor Faustus at Shakespeare's Globe. In 2015 he makes his RSC directing Love's Sacrifice by John Ford. As a writer, his credits include Children's Children at the Almeida Theatre and You Can See the Hills at the Royal Exchange, Manchester.