Kali Theatre Premieres SUNDOWNING This Autumn

Kali Theatre presents Sundowning, a frank and intensely moving new play about the true cost of care, written by Nessah Muthy (recent winner of the Adrian Pagan Award and the inaugural Verity Bargate Character 7 Award). The cast is Hazel Maycock, Nadia Nadif and Aasiya Shah.

Love, loneliness and guilt ricochet between three generations of women as Sundowning brings home the brutal realities and responsibilities of caring for those living with dementia, and the impact on everyone involved.

When Alyssa returns from prison, she is devastated to find her aunt has put her beloved grandmother Betty in a care home. Determined to give her one last jolly, jingle filled holiday and recapture childhood memories, Alyssa kidnaps Betty and the pair embark on a campervan road trip to the seaside. But soon Betty's dementia and Alyssa's troubled past catch up with them.

Nessah Muthy, playwright: 'This play has been with me for a long time. It is inspired, in a small way, by my relationship with my own grandparents, who played a huge part in my upbringing, but the experiences of my characters affect so many, crossing class, wealth and ethnicity. My own experience of dementia has reared unimaginable pain, fear and anger, but also colossal, everlasting love. Ultimately love is what is left and in that there is hope. I have immensely enjoyed developing the play with Helena - including delivering workshops and spending time with people who have dementia - and am thrilled to see it come to the stage.'

Helena Bell, Artistic Director, Kali Theatre / director, Sundowning: 'I have been a fan of Nessah's writing since we first started developing work together almost a decade ago. She has a gift for conveying and scrutinizing human feeling in the most understated and lyrical way. I am delighted to be bringing Sundowning to the stage. A portrait of how family love and guilt can bind us, it feels so personal yet so universal whilst - with an aging population and diminishing resources - fuelling a timely and important conversation.'

Nessah Muthy is a Writer's Guild Award nominated writer, winner of the Adrian Pagan Award 2018, and the inaugural recipient of the Verity Bargate Character 7 Award. She has worked with a number of theatres including Royal Court Theatre, HighTide, National Youth Theatre, Cardboard Citizens, Kali Theatre, Punchdrunk and Theatre Centre, and is under commission to Iris Theatre and National Youth Theatre. For screen, Nessah has written for Holby City and EastEnders: E20 and is currently developing a number of new ideas for television.

Sundowning is directed by Kali Theatre's Artistic Director Helena Bell with design by Rajha Shakiry, whose recent credits include Nine Night at the National, Misty at the Bush, and The Mountaintop at the Young Vic. Lighting design is by Pablo Fernandez Baz and sound design by Dinah Mullen with video design by Daniel Denton and choreography by Yarit Dor.

Venue: Theatre Royal Plymouth, Royal Parade, Plymouth, PL1 2TR

Dates + time: 10 - 13 October at 7.45pm
Box office: 01752 267222 / theatreroyal.com

Tickets: £15

Venue: Tristan Bates Theatre, 1A Tower Street, London, WC2H 9NP

Dates + times: 16 October-3 November at 7.30pm, + 20, 27 October, 3 November at 3.30pm
Box office: 020 3841 6611 / tristanbatestheatre.co.uk

Tickets: £15 (£10 concessions)

Venue: The Curve, William Street, Slough, SL1 1XY
Dates + time: 9 + 10 November at 7.30pm
Box office: thecurveslough.com

Tickets: £8 - £10

Biographies

KALI THEATRE Intrepid plays by fearless women since 1991.

Kali Theatre produces thought-provoking, contemporary new writing by South Asian women which reflects and comments on our lives today. Kali's award winning productions have won rave reviews, sold out performances, and inspired audiences throughout the UK and beyond.

NESSAH MUTHY

Nessah Muthy is a Writer's Guild nominated writer and winner of the Adrian Pagan Award 2018. She has worked with a number of theatres including: The Royal Court Theatre, HighTide, the National Youth Theatre, Cardboard Citizens, Kali Theatre, Punchdrunk and Theatre Centre. For theatre, Nessah is presently under commission to: Iris Theatre and the National Youth Theatre. For screen, Nessah has written for Holby City and EastEnders: E20. She is the inaugural recipient of the Character 7 Award and is currently developing a number of new ideas for television.

HELENA BELL

Helena joined Kali Theatre as Artistic Director in December 2017. Her extensive career (spanning over 25 years) has focused entirely on developing, directing and touring new theatre writing. She was Artistic Director of Pursued by a Bear Productions from 2006 until 2016 and Co-Artistic Director of Brighton's Alarmist Theatre from 1988 to 1998. Her freelance directing and dramaturgical work includes early plays for Kali such as River on Fire by Rukhsana Ahmad (shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Award; produced at Lyric, Hammersmith & UK tour) and Love Comes In At The Window (double bill by Ahmad and Anu Kumar - Oval House, London & National Tour). More recently she directed Satinder Chohan's acclaimed Olympic Year play - Kabaddi, Kabaddi, Kabaddi as a co-production between PBAB and Kali (Arcola Theatre & National Tour) and in 2015 Veronica Dewan's She Is Not Herself for Kali at Tristan Bates, London. Helena's productions as Kali's Artistic Director include War Plays (a season of staged readings at Tristan Bates Theatre) and Ready or Not by Naylah Ahmed (Arcola & National Tour).

CAST:

Aasiya Shah's theatre credits include Spun (Arcola), Anita and Me (Birmingham Repetory theatre UK tour), Tipping The Velvet (Lyric Hammersmith/Royal Edinburgh Lyceum), and Child of the Divide (Tamasha). TV includes Call the Midwife (BBC), The Level and Unforgotten (ITV).

NADIA NADIF's theatre credits include Our Passion (Middle East tour), Macbeth (French language, Voila Festival), Timon of Athens (The Factory/Willow Globe), The Scar Test (Soho Theatre/tour), Catalina (Ovalhouse/tour), Unsung (Wiltons Music Hall/tour), Londonee (Rich Mix Theatre), The House of Bernarda Alba (Almeida), Burst (The Zoo, Edinburgh), New Anatomies (BAC), Sweeney Todd (Shunt Vaults), Much Ado about Nothing (Baron's Court Theatre), Dona Rosita the Spinster (Theatre Royal Haymarket), Our Country's Good (Colchester Mercury Theatre). TV includes: The Secret World of Yarl's Wood (BBC2), Marshal's Law (nominated for Best Sitcom 2012).

HAZEL MAYCOCK's theatre credits include The Secret Keeper (Clerkinworks tour), Frozen (Fingersmiths tour), Duck (Unicorn Theatre), Macbeth, All My Sons, Dangerous Corner, Wizard of Oz (Birmingham Repertory Theatre), Talking Heads, Misery, Once we were Mothers, Top Girls (New Vic), Big Baby, A Spell of Cold Weather, Common Heaven, Turncoat (Theatre Centre), A Christmas Carol (Young Vic), Lear's Daughters, New Anatomies (Women's Theatre Group), The Falling Sky (Oxford Touring).