Cast Announced For RARE EARTH METTLE at Royal Court Theatre

Carlo Albán, Marcello Cruz, Arthur Darvill, Jaye Griffiths, Lesley Lemon, Racheal Ofori, Ian Porter and Genevieve O'Reilly have been cast in the world premiere of Rare Earth Mettle written by Al Smith and directed by Royal Court Associate Director Hamish Pirie. With set design by Moi Tran, lighting design by Lee Curran, composition by Carlos Gutiérrez Quiroga, sound design by Ella Wahlström, movement direction by Yami Löfvenberg, dialect coaching by Carter Bellaimey and assistant direction from Camila Ymay González.

Rare Earth Mettle by Al Smith will run at The Royal Court Theatre Jerwood Theatre Downstairs from Wednesday 10 November 2021 - Saturday 18 December 2021 with press night on Tuesday 16 November 2021, 7pm.

"You don't tell an American to switch off her light; you build her a better light bulb."

A leading British doctor with a radical plan to save the NHS and a Silicon Valley billionaire with a radical plan to halt climate change, meet outside an abandoned train on a salt flat in Bolivia.

A landscape so bright in its whiteness that it isn't easy to look at, and so uninterrupted in its flatness there's no echo.

For Kimsa and his daughter who live there, the arrival of these strangers initially seems like an opportunity. Until they both stake their claim on the land, each following their ruthless pursuit of 'the greater good'.

Original images by Chris Staring and Leonardo Rossatti

Al Smith's epic new play is a brutally comic exploration of risk, delusion, and power.

"You only have an attachment to ideas. But I am attached to this place. I know the history. This land is a part of who I am".

Al Smith will be In Conversation post-show on Tuesday 23 November 2021.

Rare Earth Mettle has been generously supported with a lead gift from Charles Holloway. Further support has been received from Cockayne Grant for the Arts, a donor advised fund of The London Community Foundation. It is a recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New Play Award.

It was a co-commission by The Royal Court Theatre, London and Center Theatre Group, Los Angeles, California.