Caryl Churchill's FAR AWAY Comes to Ambika P3 This August

25 years since its debut at The Royal Court Theatre, London-based site-specific theatre company Lost Text/Found Space will present Caryl Churchill's modern classic Far Away at the University of Westminster's Ambika P3 space from 5 August (press night 6 August). This new site-specific production, part of Canden Fringe, promises an immersive and intimate experience that brings new life to the play.

Joan can't sleep. She hears screaming outside. Her auntie Harper says it's an owl, but she's not sure. She thought she saw her uncle in the distance, wielding an iron bar.

Years later, the screaming hasn't stopped. The whole world is at war, the animals and birds too. They say the crocodiles are always in the wrong, that deer terrorise shopping malls, and that all the wasps have to go.

But the deer have been with Joan and Harper for weeks, their goodness shining through their soft brown eyes. So what then is the truth?

Confronting our deepest fears, Caryl Churchill's extraordinary play depicts a chilling world where everyone is at war, and not even the birds in the trees or the river below can be trusted.

Ambika P3, ‘One of the capital's hidden and most exciting new spaces' – The Guardian, is a space for contemporary art and architecture, developed from the vast former concrete construction hall at the University of Westminster. It presents a public programme of solo and group exhibitions, education projects, talks, and events dedicated to innovation, experimentation, and learning.  Far Away will be the first theatre production in this unique space.

Caryl Churchill has won four OBIEs, for Cloud Nine in 1981, Top Girls in 1982, Serious Money in 1987 as well as being awarded the Sustained Achievement Award in theatre in 2001. She has also won the Hollywood Dramalogue Critics Award for Cloud Nine and the Susan Smith Blackburn Award for FEN in 1984 and for Serious Money in 1987. Serious Money won the Olivier Award for Best Play of 1987, the Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy and the Plays and Players Award and Susan Smith Blackburn Award in 1987. In 2010, Caryl was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame and in 2018 she received the Writers' Guild of Great Britain's Outstanding Contribution to Writing Award.

Director Rebecca McCutcheon is the founding member of Lost Text/Found Space, directing Still Lives, Til We Meet In England, A Testimony and a Silence, and Cary, the Mariam Cycles, as well as Creative Director of the Making Connections seasons in Peckham's Old Waiting Room. Rebecca trained at Goldsmiths' College & Royal Holloway, University of London and worked at the RSC, the Almeida Theatre, and The National Theatre. Rebecca directed acclaimed productions of Marlowe's Dido Queen of Carthage at The House of St Barnabas in Soho and Kensington Palace, The Round Dance by Arthur Schnitzler at the Roundhouse, and Still Life by Noel Coward at the Aldwych Tube Station, as co-founder of Angels in the Architecture. Theatre-based directing included Bette & Joan for Foursight Theatre and Vincent River for Old Vic Productions. Rebecca is Senior Lecturer in Acting and Directing in the Department of Drama, Theatre & Dance at Royal Holloway University of London. Rebecca is always keen to explore new collaborations and projects - contacts her at Lost Text Found Space.

Lorna Dale plays Joan. Lorna is a Northern-born actor from Stoke-on-Trent, inspired by her northern roots and elevating stories from regional voices. She trained at The Oxford School of Drama, graduating in 2021. Her recent credits include, the leading role in All the Colours, a Brighton-based film on gang violence currently in post-production, 39 and Counting, discussing the impact of femicide and violence against women at The Park Theatre, London and North Wall, Oxford, and numerous research and development for upcoming projects ahead of their debut and a month long run at The Edinburgh Festival Fringe.  

Samuel Gosrani plays Todd.  Samuel graduated from Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in 2019. Theatre credits include Make Good: The Post Office Scandal (Pentabus Theatre), Robin Hood (Regents Park Open Air Theatre), Hedda Gabler, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Machinal and Rage (The Richard Burton Theatre Company), The Lovely Bones (Birmingham Rep Theatre), Waste (Almeida), Romeo & Juliet (Belgrade Theatre, Bristol Old Vic, Hackney Empire).  On television, Sam appeared in Without Sin (ITVX), and on film in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.  Radio credits include Foiled (Rubber Chicken); Gallifrey Time War Volume 2 (Big Finish Productions)

Lizzie Hopley plays Harper.  Lizzie was born in Liverpool and trained at RADA. Her stage work includes The Taming of the Shrew and Princess Essex in The Globe Theatre's Summer Season 2025, the RSC's Roaring Girls Season, an international tour of Tis Pity She's a Whore with Cheek by Jowl, USA tour of The Taming of the Shrew with AFTLS, playing Kate, a No 1 tour of Mike Leigh's Abigail's Party and The Audience at Southampton Nuffield in which she played Margaret Thatcher. Notable TV and film work includes Fackham Hall (feature film written by Jimmy Carr), Testament (Angel Studios), The Crown (Netflix), Time 2 (BBC), The Devil's Hour (Amazon Studios), Soulmates (Amazon AMC), The Long Song (BBC/Heyday Films), Little Boy Blue (ITV), Luther (BBC), Cary Fukunaga's Jane Eyre, Pierrepoint with Timothy Spall, The Thirteenth Tale with Vanessa Redgrave, The Suspicions of Mr Whicher (ITV), Any Human Heart (C4), The Day of the Triffids (BBC) and Randall & Hopkirk Deceased. As a writer, Lizzie was a winner of Pozzitive TV's Funny Dot Comp in 2021. She has a comedy series in development with Showem Entertainment and is a prolific writer of Doctor Who audios for Big Finish, winning her first Scribe Award for The Curse of Lady Macbeth. Lizzie took a year out in 2017 to work full-time as a comedian to create popular blog Diary of a Stand Up Virgin.