MY ONE TRUE FRIEND Will Have its World Premiere at the Tristan Bates Theatre; Full Cast Announced!

The world première of Alexander Matthews' My One True Friend is today announced with full cast. Antony Law directs Theo Bamber (Gordon), Mensah Bediako (Kapenie), Suzanna Hamilton (Lady L), Lucy Lowe (Oonagh), and Joseph Rowe (George). The production opens on 27 August at Tristan Bates Theatre, with previews from 21 August, and runs until 14 September.

1970 Rhodesia.

Two families, two different lives.

Preparations are in hand for the irascible Lady L's birthday party but her children are there not for family loyalty or celebration but to claim what they feel is rightly theirs. On another part of the estate Kapenie and his grandson argue about loyalty. Kapenie is loyal to a family but not his own and the generational divide is splitting even wider.

Set against a backdrop of prejudice and inequality, My One True Friend has a profound and life-altering friendship at its heart.

Alexander Matthews today said, "Unfortunately racism is still with us. It refuses to go away. I believe that humanity will not survive without tolerance - and racial tolerance is part of that necessity. Through writing this play I hope to enliven the conversation surrounding the prejudices that we see and, in some cases, tolerate in our own lives. I'm also very pleased to, once again, bring my work to the Tristan Bates Theatre this summer."

Alexander Matthews is a writer and academic. Previous credits as a playwright include Do You Love This Planet?, Screaming Secrets and Glass Roots (Tristan Bates Theatre). Matthews taught Philosophy between 1975 - 1986, including a Visiting Fellowship to Princeton University in 1986, in 1977 he published A Diagram of Definition on the Philosophy of Language. For 15 years Matthews has chaired the Martha Gellhorn Trust Prize Committee, which offers a prize for journalism annually. He has also chaired the NSubF Committee, which advises the UK government on the disposal of nuclear waste for submarines, and has been chairman of the local Kingsbridge Peace Group since 1992.

Theo Bamber plays Gordon. His previous theatre credits include The Winslow Boy (UK tour).

Mensah Bediako plays Kapenie. His previous theatre credits include Respect: The Aretha Franklin Songbook (international tour), The Mountaintop (The Other Room Theatre), The View From Nowhere (Park Theatre), The Bodyguard, Driving Miss Daisy (UK tours), Clybourne Park (Royal Court Theatre / Wyndhams Theatre), Piaf (Donmar Warehouse / Vaudeville Theatre), The Harder They Come (Barbican Theatre), Floyd Collins (Southwark Playhouse) and Tobias and the Angel (Young Vic).

Suzanna Hamilton plays Lady L. Her previous theatre credits include A Tender Thing (Chipping Norton Theatre), Interval (Arcola Theatre), Mr Blue Sky, Hell & High Water (Southwark Playhouse), Darkening Fields (National Theatre), My Sister in this House (Hampstead Theatre), Siblings (Lyric Hammersmith), Waiting at the Water's Edge (Bush Theatre). Television credits include Dinosapian, Jane Hall, as series regular Gabriella Lubas in Silent Witness and as series regular Karen Goodliffe in Casualty. Film credits include My Feral Heart, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Tess, Swallows and Amazons, Wildcats of St Trinians and Out of Africa.

Lucy Lowe returns to the Tristan Bates Theatre to play Oonagh. Previous theatre credits include Do You Love This Planet? (Tristan Bates Theatre), The Lock In, The Lonely Clouds of Guernica and Eight (The Lowry) and Towers of Babel (Octagon Theatre Bolton). Television credits include Worried About the Boy, Hollyoaks and Emmerdale.

Joseph Rowe plays George. Previous theatre credits include Circa (Old Red Lion), Double Act (Polka Theatre), Counting Stars (The Albany), Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (National Theatre), The Low Road (Royal Court Theatre) and Pieces of Vincent (Arcola Theatre).

Antony Law is a director and actor. His previous credits as a director include Do You Love This Planet? (Tristan Bates Theatre), Cinderella, Robin Hood and the Outlaws of Waltham Forest (Ye Olde Rose and Crown Theatre), The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (St. Leonard's Church), A Christmas Carol, Peter Pan, Pride and Prejudice, Little Women (UK tours), Sense and Sensibility (international tour) and Jane Eyre (international tour). Previous credits as an actor include Brief Encounters (UK tour) and Bouncers (Leicester Square Theatre).

Box Office: 020 3841 6611

www.actorscentre.co.uk/theatre

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