Alexandra Wood's MERIT to Receive London Premiere

Directed by Tom Littler. Designed by Phil Lindley. Sound by Max Pappenheim. Lighting by Rob Mills.
Presented by Laughton Productions in association with Neil McPherson for the Finborough Theatre.
Cast: Karen Ascoe. Ellie Turner.

"A rapacious banker, corrupt, corrupting, you thought he would steal my soul."

The Finborough Theatre's Spring Season opens with the London premiere of award-winning playwright Alexandra Wood's startling new play, Merit, which opens at the Finborough Theatre for a four week limited season on Tuesday, 1 March
2016 (Press Nights: Thursday, 3 March 2016 and Friday, 4 March 2016 at 7.30pm).

Spain, 2013. Against all odds, young graduate Sofia has got a job as PA to one of the wealthiest bankers in the country. Sofia's mother questions whether she gave more than just a good interview to get it...

In these times of financial chaos, the bankers are getting filthy rich whilst others are left unable to support their families. A storm is brewing, people are desperate - just what will they be driven to? Suicide? Murder?

In a subtle game of cat and mouse, split loyalties and questionable morals, Alexandra Wood's thrilling new play looks at the complexities of a mother daughter relationship and, in the growing argument between rich and poor, the girl who is stuck in between.

First seen at the Theatre Royal Plymouth where it opened on 29 January 2015, Merit now receives its London premiere.

Playwright Alexandra Wood's previous plays include The Human Ear (Paines Plough and UK tour), Man to Man (Wales Millennium Centre), Ages (Old Vic New Voices), The Initiate (Paines Plough - winner of a Scotsman Fringe First), The Empty Quarter (Hampstead Theatre), The Centre (Islington Community Theatre), an adaptation of Jung Chang's Wild Swans (The Young Vic and American Repertory Theater), The Lion's Mouth (Rough Cuts at the Royal Court Theatre), The Eleventh Capital (Royal Court Theatre) and the radio play Twelve Years (BBC Radio 4). She has written short plays for the Royal Court Theatre, the Oxford School of Drama, Rose Bruford College, Dry Write, Nabokov, Curious Directive and she contributed to Decade (Headlong). She is a past winner of the George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright and was the Big Room Playwright-in-Residence at Paines Plough in 2013. She was formerly Literary Manager at the Finborough Theatre.

Director Tom Littler returns to the Finborough Theatre to direct Merit having achieved a record seven OffWestEnd Award nominations last year for his production of Martine by Jean-Jacques Bernard. Other productions at the Finborough Theatre include Jingo: A Farce of War by Charles Wood and a season of rediscoveries comprising The Boatswain's Mate by Ethel Smyth, The Mollusc by H.H. Davies and The Confidential Clerk by T.S. Eliot. Tom is Artistic Director of Primavera and Associate Director of Theatre503. Productions for Primavera include First Episode (Jermyn Street Theatre and Oxford), The Living Room, Bloody Poetry, Anyone Can Whistle (Jermyn Street Theatre), Saturday Night (Arts Theatre), Origin of the Species (Arcola Theatre), the premiere of Shiverman and European premiere of Madagascar (Theatre503), Antigone (Southwark Playhouse) and two seasons of Forgotten Classics staged readings (King's Head Theatre). Recent directing includes Measure for Measure (Cambridge Arts Theatre), the premiere of Dances of Death (Gate Theatre), Good Grief (Theatre Royal Bath and Tour), The Glass Menagerie, Other Desert Cities, Strangers on a Train (English Theatre, Frankfurt), Absurd Person Singular (The Mill at Sonning), Dear Liar (Vienna's English Theatre), The Wind in the Willows, As You Like It, Twelfth Night (Guildford Shakespeare Company), As You Like It (Creation Theatre), Tomfoolery (UK Tour), A Little Night Music (Menier Chocolate Factory and Central Theatre, Budapest), Murder in the Cathedral (Oxford Playhouse), The Twelve-Pound Look, Mr and Mrs Nobody and One for the Road (Frinton Summer Theatre). Tom was educated at Oxford University and is studying for a Masters with the Open University. As an Assistant Director, he has worked in the West End and regionally for directors including Laurence Boswell, Peter Gill, Peter Hall, Alan Strachan and Stephen Unwin. He was Associate Director of The Peter Hall Company for three years, and worked four times as Trevor Nunn's Associate Director. Tom's work has been nominated and shortlisted multiple times for OffWestEnd Awards and has received numerous Critics' Choice Awards.

The cast is:
Karen Ascoe | Patricia
Productions at the Finborough Theatre include Laburnum Grove.
Trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she won the Carleton Hobbs Award.
Theatre includes Strangers on a Train (English Theatre, Frankfurt), Ashes to Ashes (Emporium, Brighton), the title role in Jackie The Musical (Gardyne Theatre, Dundee), Mansfield Park (Theatre Royal, Bury St. Edmunds, and Tour), How The Other Half Loves (The Mill at Sonning), Season's Greetings (Theatre Royal Bath), Footloose (National Tour), Peter Pan (Kensington Gardens), Artefacts (Bush Theatre and Off Broadway), The Years Between (Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond), The Letter (Wyndham's Theatre), Anna Karenina, After Mrs. Rochester (Shared Experience at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, National and International Tours), Ivanov, Much Ado About Nothing (Strand Theatre), A Shayna Maidel (Ambassadors Theatre), Three Viewings (New End Theatre, Hampstead), the jazz-theatre piece Out There (Riverside Studios), Adam Bede, The Case Of Rebellious Susan (Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond), Twelfth Night, Rookery Nook (Mercury Theatre, Colchester), Perfect Days, Extremities (Derby Playhouse), Loot, Glass Menagerie (Swan Theatre, Worcester), Taking Steps and If I Were You (The Mill at Sonning).
Film includes Paper Mask, Loaf and Daisy.
Television includes Drifters, My Mad Fat Diary, Cuckoo, W1A, Emmerdale, Peep Show, The Taking of Prince Harry, Casualty, Doctors, Trinity, The Bill, EastEnders, The Armando Iannucci Shows, Kid in the Corner, Armadillo and The Buccaneers.
Radio includes Tartuffe, An Ideal Husband and The Tempest.

Ellie Turner | Sofia
Productions at the Finborough Theatre include Hindle Wakes - for which she received an Ian Charleson Award commendation - and Drama at Inish.
Theatre includes Nordost (Salisbury Playhouse and Theatre Royal Bath), The Cherry Orchard, Hamlet (National Theatre), An Ideal Husband (English Theatre, Frankfurt), Bloody Poetry (White Bear Theatre), The School of Wives for which she also received an Ian Charleson Award commendation (Upstairs at the Gatehouse), Oliver Twist (Riverside Studios and National Tour), Avocado (King's Head Theatre), La Ronde (Riverside Studios), The Lodger (Arcola Theatre), Alphabetical Order (The Mill at Sonning), The Playboy of the Western (Riverside Studios and National Tour) and Henry V (Riverside Studios and National Tour).
Film includes The Three of Us, Silence, Mother No More, Black Cab - for which she received Best Actress in a short film at The Golden Egg Awards, New York City - and TV Audioville.
Television includes Misfits.