Cast Set for UK Tour of CAN BEARS SKI?

The Pied Piper Theatre Company and Deafinitely Theatre have announced the full cast of the Can Bears Ski? bythe award-winning poet Raymond Antrobus in a new adaptation for the stage by Tina Williams. It will be touring the 18 November to 25 February, with the press night on the 3 December at Hawth Studio, Crawley. 

Tina Williams and Paula Garfield direct Ciaran O’Breen (BSL Teacher & David Bear), Emery Hunter (Little Bear), Jessica Warshaw (Audiologist), Nick Ash (Teacher Bear) and Zoë McWhinney (Speech & Language Therapist). 

Tina Williams, the Artistic Director of the Pied Piper Theatre Company, who will co-direct the production said: “We’re thrilled and excited to announce our fantastic cast for this lovely and heart-warming production that we’re presenting with Deafinitely Theatre. Raymond Antrobus’ well-loved story comes to life this winter for all the family, featuring puppetry and music, as well as a fanciful set inspired by Polly Dunbar's stunning illustrations that audiences will love.” 

Raymond Antrobus MBE, the writer of Can Bears Ski?, said: “Seeing the colourful world from the pages of 'Can Bears Ski?' brought to life with actors is truly beautiful. This show isn't just an opportunity to step into a world that deaf and hard of hearing children know well, it's also an example for anyone to see how their own difference can be empowering.” 

Paula Garfield, Co-Director and Artistic Director of Deafinitely Theatre said: “This is a collaboration that we’ve been looking forward to doing with our friends at The Pied Piper Theatre Company for some time – and brings together a hugely talented group of deaf and hearing actors creating onstage magic in British Sign Language and spoken English. All of these talented people will work together to tell this skilfully woven story about how children make sense of their experience when they don’t have the words to describe it.” 

The story draws on the writer’s own experience as a deaf child in a hearing world with a set inspired by Polly Dunbar’s illustrations. The story is brought to life on stage with puppetry, music, British Sign Language and spoken English in a world première production for hearing and deaf young people aged 3+ and their families.  

Little Bear can’t hear Dad Bear calling, but feels the floor vibrate with heavy footsteps... Little Bear can’t catch the funny joke at school when friends are laughing but feels the crunch of snow on frozen pavements. Join Little Bear and Dad Bear as they learn how there are many ways to communicate love, and to find your place in the world.  

 Cast

Ciaran O'Breen plays BSL Teacher and David Bear returning to Deafinitely Theatre having previously appeared in Getting There (Oxford Playhouse). His theatre credits include Lord of the Flies (Leeds Playhouse, Belgrade Theatre and Rose Theatre Kingston), Hensel and Gretel (South West of England tour), Galwad (National Theatre Wales), Flood (Theatre Temoin), Playmakers and Red (Polka Theatre). His television credits include Galwad. 

  

Emery Hunter plays Little Bear, she is a recent graduate of Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Her theatre credits include Undertow Overflow and Don’t. Make. Tea. (Edinburgh Festival Fringe).  

  

Jessica Warshaw plays Audiologist. Her theatre credits include Everyone Cries their First Time (Stockwell Playhouse) and A Year From Now (Tristan Bates Theatre); and for film Boredroom and Runaways. 

  

Nick Ash plays Teacher Bear. He has worked with Pied Piper for several years and helped to create a new strand of work for babies and young toddlers DIG! (UK tour) and BEACH. Other theatre credits as puppet maker include Sarah and Duck (UK tour), Snowflakes (Oxford Playhouse) and Gorilla (Polka Theatre).  

  

Stefan Stuart plays Dad Bear. This is his third role for Pied Piper having previously appeared in Hare and Tortoise and Town Mouse and Country Mouse (UK, Europe and Singapore tour).  

  

Zoë McWhinney plays Speech & Language Therapist. Their previous theatre credits include RED (Polka Theatre), Everyday (UK tour), Lilies on the Land (Apollo Theatre). As a poet, they performed at Roundhouse, United Nations’ Geneva headquarters, City of Birmingham Symphony and Orchestra and Glastonbury Festival.  

Raymond AntrobusMBE FRSL was born in Hackney, London to an English mother and Jamaican father. He is the author of Shapes & Disfigurements, To Sweeten Bitter, The Perseverance and All the Names Given. In 2019 he became the first ever poet to be awarded the Rathbone Folio Prize for best work of literature in any genre. Other accolades include the Ted Hughes Award, Lucille Clifton Legacy Award, PBS Winter Choice, Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, Somerset Maugham Award and The Guardian Poetry Book of the Year 2018, as well as a shortlist for The Griffin Prize, T.S. Eliot Prize and Forward Prize. In 2018 he was awarded The Geoffrey Dearmer Prize for his poem ‘Sound Machine’ and in 2019 and 2021 his poems (‘Jamaican British’, ‘The Perseverance’ and ‘Happy Birthday Moon’) were added to the UK’s GCSE syllabus. Raymond’s debut children’s picture book Can BearsSki? is illustrated by Polly Dunbar and was selected as an Ezra Jack Keats honouree winner in 2021, and selected for a Read For Empathy (Primary) Collection Award in 2022.  

Paula Garfield co-directs. For Deafinitely Theatre she has also directed Vagina Monologues, Everyday, 4.48 Psychosis, Horrible Histories – Dreadful Deaf, Contractions – which won the Off West End Award for Best Production, Two Chairs, Motherland, Children of a Greater God, Playing God, Double Sentence and Gold Dust. She also devised and directed The Boy and the Statue for Deafinitely at the Tricycle Theatre and on a London schools’ tour.  Garfield has directed two productions at Shakespeare’s Globe – Love Labour’s Lost, for the Globe to Globe Festival as part of Deafinitely’s 10th anniversary, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  Her other directing work includes Tanika’s Journey (Southwark Playhouse) Grounded (Park Theatre). 

   

An actor, director, workshop leader and organiser, Garfield has worked on a variety of television, film and theatre projects over the past fifteen years. In 2002 she established Deafinitely Theatre with Steven Webb and Kate Furby after becoming frustrated at the barriers that deaf actors and directors face across the arts and media. She has produced and directed many plays and worked extensively in TV, including Channel Four’s Learn Sign Language, Four Fingers and a Thumb, BBC’s Hands Up and Casualty, plus appearances in every series of the BBC's deaf drama, Switch.  

Tina Williams co-directs. She is the Artistic Director of Pied Piper Theatre Company, which she set up in 1984 having trained as both an actor and a teacher. Tina has written, adapted, directed and produced over twenty-five plays for the company including a large scale national tour of Anne Fine's The Book of the Banshee, and a community tour of A Little Princess involving eight actors and eight young people. Her recent original plays The Big ENORMOUS Present and Robin's Winter Adventure. 

In 1994 Tina set up the Education Department at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre Guildford, which ran until 2008. As well as directing several co-productions with the Yvonne Arnaud she wrote and directed Flash! Bang! Rabbit! for The Youth Theatre as a creative and cultural exchange with the Sherman Theatre in Cardiff. 

Tina has been engaged as Artistic Director for several co-productions throughout the UK and internationally in Singapore. She also directed several seasons at The Fortune Theatre in London’s West End. She is currently writing two new plays for age four upwards. 

Tour Dates  

Ashcroft Arts Centre 

Saturday 18 November at 2pm 

Box Office: www.ashcroft.org.uk / 01329 223100 

Arlington Arts Centre
Thursday 23 November at 1:30pm
Box Office: www.arlington-arts.com / 01635 244 246 

   

Watermans  

Sunday 26 November at 3pm 

Box Office: www.watermans.org.uk / 02082 321010 

  

Brockenhurst Village Hall 

Saturday 2 December at 2.30pm 

Box Office: www.brockenhurstvillage.org.uk / 01590 622 580 

  

Hawth Studio 

Sunday 3 December at 2pm 

Box Office: www.parkwoodtheatres.co.uk/the-hawth / 01293 553636 

  

Half Moon Theatre 

Saturday 16 December at 11am & 2pm 

Box Office: www.halfmoon.org.uk / 020 7709 8900 

  

Haverhill Arts Centre 

Saturday 6 January at 11am 

Box Office: www.haverhillartscentre.co.uk / 01440 714140  

  

The Lights, Andover  

Saturday 20 January at 11am 

Box Office: www.thelights.org.uk / 01264 368 368 

artsdepot
Sunday 21 January at 11am & 2pm
Box Office: www.artsdepot.co.uk / 020 8369 5454  

Yvonne Arnaud Theatre
Sat 27 January at 11am, 2pm & 4pm
Box Office: www.yvonne-arnaud.co.uk / 01483 440 000 

  

Ropetackle Arts 

Sunday 28 January at 11am & 2.30pm 

Box Office: www.ropetacklecentre.co.uk / 01273 464440 

  

Hat Factory, Luton  

Saturday 3 February at 11.30am & 2pm 

Box Office: www.culturetrust.com/venues/hat-factory-arts-centre / 01582 878100 

Derby Theatre 

Sunday 4 February at 11am & 2pm 

Box Office: www.derbytheatre.co.uk / 01332 593 939 

The Rep, Birmingham 

Saturday 10 February at 11am & 1pm
Box Office: www.birmingham-rep.co.uk / 0121 236 4455 

  

Lyric Hammersmith Theatre 

Tuesday 13 – Saturday 17 February at 11am & 1pm 

Box Office: www.lyric.co.uk / 02087 416850  

York Theatre Royal
Friday 23 February at 1:30pm & Saturday 24 February at 10:30am & 2:30pm
Box Office: www.yorktheatreroyal.co.uk / 01904 623 568 

The Arc, Winchester
Sunday 25 February at 11:30am & 2:30pm
Box Office: www.arcwinchester.org.uk / 01962 398 046 

  

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