Frantic Assembly Will Bring Back Talent Development Programme, Ignition

Frantic Assembly announced today that following a major fundraising campaign to save Ignition, sufficient funds have been reached to bring the programme back in 2025. Ignition is Frantic Assembly’s free, nationwide talent development programme for young people with little or no previous experience of the arts. Established in 2008 it gives a rare opportunity for young artists aged 16–24 from underrepresented and socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds to discover, develop and showcase their creative potential.

Ignition was paused last year owing to lack of funding and a major fundraising campaign launched to secure the long-term future of the programme.  The campaign had two stages: to raise £75,000 in order to be able to run Ignition this year and secondly to secure multi-year funding for 2026 and beyond to ensure Ignition can continue in the long-term.   Following a fantastic, generous response, to date £129,000 has been raised ensuring the programme can continue for 2025 but fundraising will need to continue if the programme is to keep running from 2026 onwards.

Scott Graham, Artistic Director of Frantic Assembly says, “Ignition sets out to find people with the potential to work in the Arts opening doors and making them feel their presence is welcome. In a cultural climate marked by economic challenges and cuts to creative education, Ignition is more vital than ever. It offers a pathway into the arts for those who may not otherwise access it. We are thrilled to have secured funds for the programme to take place in 2025 and are grateful to all those who have donated. This is a great start, but we still have money to raise to make sure Ignition can continue in the future.’

As well as generous donations from the public and industry figures, Frantic Assembly have secured funding from Trusts and Foundations, with grants received so far from: The Garfield Weston Foundation, The Theatre Development Trust, The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Foundation, The Garrick Trust, The Fidelio Charitable Trust and The Spears-Stutz Charitable Trust.

Frantic Assembly also announced today that Joe Layton (a former Ignition graduate who is currently appearing in ITV’s Coronation Street) and Hannah Sinclair Robinson (Metamorphosis, UK tour; The Play That Goes Wrong, West End) will star in the company’s 30th anniversary production Lost Atoms written by Anna Jordan (Succession, Killing Eve, The Unreturning), directed by Scott Graham (Othello, Metamorphosis) and opening at Curve Leicester from 22 September - 4 October (press night is Monday 29 September) before touring nationally.

Lost Atoms tells the story of a relationship: an extraordinary, transformative love. Or is that only in hindsight? Perhaps it was just typical? Or toxic? Or doomed from the start?  One thing’s for sure: It changed their lives.  Two people plunge deep into their shared pasts and propel themselves into multiple imagined futures.  At times hilarious, at times devastating, Lost Atoms explores how memory impacts the way we look at love, and asks what makes a truly ‘successful’ relationship?

Joe Layton is currently on screen in ITV’s Coronation Street as regular character Mick Michaelis.  He was an early graduate of Frantic Assembly’s talent development programme Ignition and has continued to work with the company as Iago in Othello, Chief Clerk in Metamorphosis and Frankie in The Unreturning.  Joe’s theatre credits include Sam Wanamaker Festival (The Globe) and Animal Farm (West Yorkshire Playhouse) while on-screen highlights include Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Young Wallander, Liberte: A Time to Spy, Casualty, Father Brown and New Worlds.

Hannah Sinclair Robinson is also a regular collaborator with Frantic Assembly having recently starred as Grete in Metamorphosis and Bianca in Othello (both UK tours).  Her other stage credits include The Play That Goes Wrong (Mischief Comedy, West End), The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time (UK & Ireland Tour) and Rockets and Blue Lights (National Theatre).  Her work on TV includes Doctors (BBC); Eastenders (BBC); Four Weddings and a Funeral (HULU) and Killer Cops (CBS Reality).

Lost Atoms premieres at Curve Leicester from 22 September - 4 October before touring to York Theatre Royal (7 – 11 October), Liverpool Playhouse (14 - 18 October), Belgrade Theatre Coventry (21 – 25 October), Mercury Theatre Colchester (4 - 8 November), Lowry Salford (11 - 15 November), Connaught Theatre Worthing (18 – 22 November), Mayflower Studios Southampton (25 - 29 November), Bristol Old Vic (13 – 24 January 2026) and Lyric Hammersmith Theatre (29 January -  28 February).

The production will have set design by Andrzej Goulding, lighting design by Simisola Majekodunmi, sound design by Carolyn Downing, costume design by Alice McNicholas and music supervision by Julie Blake. Commissioned and Produced by Frantic Assembly, Lost Atoms will be a co-production with Curve Leicester, Mayflower Southampton and Lyric Hammersmith Theatre.

Ahead of Lost Atoms this summer, another highlight of Frantic Assembly’s 30th anniversary programme of work will be an exciting new project with Aurora Orchestra following their recent collaboration on a magical staging of Saint-Saëns’s The Carnival of The Animals at Southbank Centre and on tour last month.   Frantic Assembly will once again team up with the pioneering orchestra for a memorised and dramatised staging of Shostakovich’s gripping 5th Symphony as part of the iconic BBC Proms.   

Marking 50 years since Shostakovich’s death, principal conductor Nicholas Collon, Aurora Orchestra and Frantic Assembly take the audience under the hood of a 20th-century masterpiece and into the mind of the man who made it. Actors join the players to bring to life a symphony born in the shadow of Stalin’s regime – music on the edge of life and death by a composer treading a dangerous line between political obedience and artistic defiance.  Co-produced by Aurora Orchestra and the BBC Proms, developed in collaboration with Frantic Assembly, Shostakovich 5 will be performed at Royal Albert Hall  on 16 and 17 August and subsequently broadcast on BBC Four and BBC iPlayer. It will also be performed on 14 August at Saffron Hall, Essex.

Playing the role of Shostakovich will be another Ignition graduate from 2015, Max Revell.  Max won the BBC Young Dancer of the Year in 2019 and since 2022 has been touring in Akram Khan Company’s Jungle Book Reimagined.  A second Ignition graduate from 2012, Sean Hollands will be the Associate Co-Director, working with Scott Graham. Sean is a freelance director and movement director as well as a practitioner with Frantic Assembly.

Joe Layton, Max Revell and Sean Hollands are a few examples of the impact Ignition has had over the last 15 years in finding and nurturing creative talent in the UK.

Photo Credit: Michael Lynch