Final Casting Announced For THE SEVEN POMEGRANATE SEEDS at Rose Theatre

Shannon Hayes will join the previously announced Niamh Cusack in the world premiere of Colin Teevan's The Seven Pomegranate Seeds directed by Melly Still. This will be the second Rose Original production in Christopher Haydon's inaugural season as Rose Theatre's Artistic Director.

Shannon Hayes's theatre credits include Raya at Hampstead Theatre, The Gift at Theatre Royal Stratford East, Conspiracy at Barrel Organ, The Ridiculous Darkness at Gate Theatre and Constellations at Experimental Theatre Club. Her television credits include Casualty (BBC 1), Ted Lasso (series 1 & 2, Apple TV), Years & Years (BBC 1), Cold Feet (ITV), Kiss Me First (E4), Vera (series 7, ITV) and Undercover (BBC 1).

Niamh Cusack is an Associate Artist at the Rose. She starred as Lenu in the premiere of My Brilliant Friend - Parts 1 & 2 at the Rose and when it transferred to The National Theatre. Other work at The National Theatre includes The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (also in London's West End), The Enchantment and His Dark Materials. Her other theatre include Macbeth, As You Like It, The Art of Success, Romeo and Juliet, Othello and Mary After the Queen for the RSC; Playboy of the Western World, Cause Célèbre and Dancing at Lughnasa at the Old Vic; The Winter's Tale at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse; The Rehearsal and The Merchant of Venice at the Chichester Festival Theatre; Breathing Corpses at the Royal Court. Her many television credits include Death in Paradise, The Virtues, State of Mind, Always and Everyone, Rhinoceros, Colour Blind and Heartbeat. Films include The Ghoul, Departure, Testament of Youth, In Love with Alma Cogan, Hereafter, Five Minutes of Heaven, The Closer You Get, Playboys, Paris by Night and Fools of Fortune.

The Seven Pomegranate Seeds runs at Rose Theatre from 4 to 20 November, with a national press night on 10 November. Colin Teevan's world premiere is directed and designed by Rose Associate Artist Melly Still (Captain Corelli's Mandolin, My Brilliant Friend).

The Seven Pomegranate Seeds takes seven contemporary stories grounded in prominent, mythical origins. Persephone, Hypsipyle, Medea, Alcestis, Phaedra, Creusa and Demeter, the women of Euripides' plays, are reimagined as people of today in an unexpected fusion of celebrity, inappropriate desires, historical police investigations and missing children. A severed maternal bond threads each story together, charting a journey through rage and redemption, towards a compelling conclusion.

Colin Teevan created, wrote and was co-executive producer of Rebellion, seasons 1 and 2, for RTE, Sundance TV and Netflix. Most recently, he wrote and executive produced the second season of the critically acclaimed German series Das Boot and is currently working on season three. His other work for television includes Silk (BBC) starring Maxine Peake, and Vera (ITV) starring Brenda Blethyn. Colin's theatre credits include The Emperor, which won Best New Play at the Manchester Theatre Awards, Marlowe's Doctor Faustus and Franz Kafka's Report to An Academy for the Young Vic, The Kingdom and The Bee at the Soho Theatre, Peer Gynt for The National Theatre of Scotland and later the Barbican.

Melly Still's recent credits include Captain Corelli's Mandolin which premiered at the Rose before touring the UK and transferring to the West End, My Brilliant Friend Parts 1 & 2 which premiered at the Rose and transferred to The National Theatre, and The Lovely Bones at Birmingham Rep and on tour. Other credits at the National include From Morning til Midnight, The Revenger's Tragedy, and Coram Boy, which transferred to Broadway and earned Still Olivier and Tony Award nominations for both Best Direction and Best Design.

The Seven Pomegranate Seeds is directed and designed by Melly Still. Original music and sound design is by Jon Nicholls and lighting design by Malcolm Rippeth while Amanda Ramasawmy is associate designer. Layla Madanat is assistant director. This is Madanat's first placement as Rose Theatre's 2021/2022 Peter Hall Emerging Artists Fellow.

Booking link for The Seven Pomegranate Seeds: https://www.rosetheatre.org/whats-on/the-seven-pomegranate-seeds