Cast Set For SANCTUARY at Edinburgh Fringe
Jacob Sparrow's debut drama draws on the story of an AIDS hospice met with local resistance in Suffolk.
Matthew Tennyson and Richard Cant will star in the world premiere of Sanctuary, the debut play by Jacob Sparrow and winner of the inaugural Leodis Prize. Directed by Josh Seymour, the reflective and time-shifting drama is inspired by real events in a Suffolk village, where plans to open an AIDS hospice in the early 1990s were met with local resistance. Sanctuary explores memory, belonging and community as past and present intertwine when one man is forced to confront memories he has long suppressed. Performances will run Wednesday 5th – Monday 31st August 2026.
Matthew Tennyson won the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Outstanding Newcomer for his performance in Making Noise Quietly at The Donmar Warehouse. His extensive stage credits include Salome for the Royal Shakespeare Company, The Pillowman at the Duke of York's Theatre, King Lear at the Almeida Theatre and The Invention of Love at Hampstead Theatre. His screen credits include Pride, The Hollow Crown and Borgia.
Richard Cant is one of Britain's most respected stage and screen actors. His theatre credits include The Importance of Being Earnest, War Horse and The Normal Heart at The National Theatre, alongside Hamlet and Henry VI for the Royal Shakespeare Company and Medea at the Almeida Theatre. His television credits include The Crown, It's A Sin and Mapp & Lucia.
The production is directed by Josh Seymour, who spent five years as Resident Assistant Director at The Donmar Warehouse. His recent directing credits include A Streetcar Named Desire at Sheffield Crucible, We Had A World at Hampstead Theatre and Spend Spend Spend at the Royal Exchange Theatre.
Winner of the inaugural Leodis Prize, Sanctuary marks Jacob Sparrow's professional playwriting debut. The Leodis Prize underscores the continuing importance of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as a space for discovery and innovation, and as a platform for the next generation of theatre-makers. Playwright Jacob Sparrow was part of the Emerging Writers Group at the Royal Court in 2025. Sanctuary marks his debut play. Set almost entirely within a single house where past and present coexist, Sanctuary is a deeply human story about safety, identity and hope, examining the legacy of shame and the absence of a clear blueprint for queer lives.
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