Full Cast Set For CLEANSED at the Almeida Theatre

Leo Bill, Pearl Chanda, Luke Cinque-White, Lizzy Connolly, Jack Riddiford, Parth Thakerar and Stuart Thompson are cast in Olivier Award-winning Rebecca Frecknall’s production of Sarah Kane’s contemporary classic, Cleansed.  

The production opens on Wednesday 29 July, with previews from Wednesday 22 July, and runs until Saturday 29 August. 

Also announced is 1000 (Millennia), the final in a trilogy of plays exploring what it means to live, work, love, pray, celebrate and mourn in Islington, by Stephanie Bain and presented in partnership with All Change, Arsenal in the Community and Cardboard Citizens. 

The production runs from Thursday 9 July until Saturday 11 July.  

Cleansed and 1000 (Millennia) will go on sale to Almeida Patrons, Gold Friends and Friends Plus on Tuesday 28 April, Almeida Friends on Thursday 30 April and the general public on Tuesday 5 May. 

CLEANSED   

Wednesday 22 July – Saturday 29 August

Director: Rebecca Frecknall; Set Designer: Madeleine Girling; Costume Designer: Debbie Duru; Lighting Designer: Lee Curran; Sound Designer: George Dennis; Composer: Angus MacRae; Intimacy Director: Ingrid Mackinnon; Casting Director: Julia Horan CDG; Illusions: Chris Fisher; Fight Director: Sam Lyon Behan; Costume Supervisor: Olivia Ward; Assistant Director: Roberta Zuric   

I love you now.  I’m with you now. I’ll do my best, moment to moment, not to betray you. Now. That’s it. No more. Don’t make me lie to you.

Two lovers and two siblings.   How far are they prepared to go to prove their devotion? And will their love survive when subjected to the most extreme violence?  

Sarah Kane was one of the most original and controversial voices in British playwriting history. Rebecca Frecknall (A Streetcar Named Desire; Cabaret) directs Kane’s masterpiece which explores the brutality of desire and asks what happens to love when there’s nothing else worth living for? 

Cleansed is supported by Dianne Roberts. 

1000 (MILLENNIA) 

Thursday 9 - Saturday 11 July

by Stephanie Bain with the Almeida Community Company 

Creative Director: Dani Parr; Directors: Montel Douglas, Jordana Golbourn, Chris Sonnex, Ella Zgorska; Movement Director: Darragh O’Leary; Creative Producer: Beth Bowden; Set Designer: KATE BUNCE; Costume Designer: Georgie Lynch; Lighting Designer: Fraser Craig; Sound Designer: Bryony Blackler; Associate Costume Designer: Lizzie Chute; Costume Supervisor: Louise Smith; All Change Associate Artist and Dramaturg: Francesca Beard; Cardboard Citizens Associate Director: Masha Maroutitch; Assistant Directors: Takiyah Kamaria, Zoë Carvalho Morris 

We will only ever know our little sliver of it all, not the layers upon layers, not the before us, or the after us, the ghosts that linger only in a word heard on the wind, or the sign above a pub, or the name of a street. 

A road cutting through a landscape. A road that changes its name — Gisla’s Hill, Upper Street, Coral Street, Slow Road. A refuge for a young murderess on the run. A sanctuary for a monk waiting for a vision. A drinking hole for a hangman and a landlady who ought to get a room. A meeting-place for doomsday preppers. A high-speed travelator for the hyper-efficient worker. A supper spot for a family wearing flippers. A place made from its people.