Casting Announced for Bryony Kimmings' A PACIFIST'S GUIDE TO THE WAR ON CANCER

A casting update is announced today for the world première of new musical A PACIFIST'S GUIDE TO THE WAR ON CANCER with book by Bryony Kimmings and Brian Lobel, music by Tom Parkinson and lyrics by Bryony Kimmings. Kimmings directs a cast including Naana Agyei-Ampadu, Amy Booth-Steel, Hal Fowler, Amanda Hadingue, Akiya Henry, Golda Rosheuvel, Rose Shalloo, Gareth Snook and Gary Wood.

A Pacifist's Guide...will be the first Complicite Associates co-production. This new programme sees renowned theatre company Complicite commissioning and producing new work from brilliant theatre makers. Presented as a co-production with the National Theatre and in association with HOME Manchester, the show opens at HOME from 20 to 24 September 2016, and then tours to Exeter Northcott from 28 September to 2 October, before completing its run at the National Theatre from 14 October to 29 November.

A Pacifist's Guide to the War on Cancer is an all-singing, all-dancing examination of life with a cancer diagnosis. This brand new musical takes you on a whistle-stop tour through five unconventional stories about cancer, confronting the highs and lows of the scariest word we know.

Bryony Kimmings creates fearless theatre to provoke social change. Her collaboration with Complicite will look behind the poster campaigns and pink ribbons at the reality of cancer: the waiting rooms and chemo suites, the changed bodies, the family pressures and financial worries.

Expect big anthems, shiny costumes, blood, tears and real cancer patients in this rip-roaring, heartbreaking celebration of ordinary life and death, scratching at the battle metaphors that surround cancer to reveal what really lies beneath.

In 2013 Complicite producer Judith Dimant saw Credible Likeable Superstar Role Model and enjoyed it so much that she got in touch with the show's creator Bryony Kimmings and arranged to meet. Between that moment and the day they met - which was justthree weeks later - Dimant had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Just like that. Out of nowhere. And so they began a very different sort of conversation - one that tackled issues most people don't talk about.

Bryony Kimmings said today: "The whole idea was sparked from a conversation I had with Judith at Complicite, who at the time was going through cancer. If this musical does one thing, it will be to crack open the metaphors and language we use around the disease and see what really lies beneath. With glitter."

Judith Dimant added: "Bryony's work is brilliantly fearless. We wanted to help her make that work on a larger scale, and so we're thrilled to be launching the Complicite Associates programme together. With Brian Lobel and Tom Parkinson, she's confronting the reality of life with cancer in a show that I know will be gut-wrenching, irreverent and rather extraordinary."

Bryony Kimmings is a performance artist, writer and comedian. Her works centre around outlandish 'social experiments' that Kimmings conducts with genius, intrigue and wholehearted fearless gusto. Previous works have seen Kimmings retracing an STI to its source (Sex Idiot), spending seven days in a controlled environment in a constant state of intoxication (7 Day Drunk) and becoming a pop star invented by a nine year old (Credible Likeable Superstar Role Model). Her recent work Fake It 'Til You Make It is a show created with her real-life partner about living with depression. It toured Australia in 2015 winning numerous awards, before playing sell-out seasons in London and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Brian Lobel is a New York born London based performer. For the past decade he has been a critical voice in the world of cancer care, patient experience and medical education. His work BALL & Other Funny Stories about Cancer, and his exhibition Fun With Cancer Patients bring together many of his creations on the subject. His work has been seen throughout the UK and in more than 25 countries internationally. He is a Senior Lecturer in Performing Arts at the University of Chichester and is a Wellcome Trust Public Engagement Fellow.

Tom Parkinson studied at Dartington and is a composer and sound designer. He wrote the music for Bryony Kimmings' showsCredible Likeable Superstar Role Model and Fake It 'Til You Make It and all the songs for her young people's show The Catherine Bennett Show. This is his first musical.

Naana Agyei-Ampadu's recent theatre work includes Fury (Soho Theatre), I Want My Hat Back, The Amen Corner (National Theatre), The Oresteia and Measure for Measure (Shakespeare's Globe). Her television work includes Cuffs.

Amy Booth-Steele's recent theatre work includes Anita & Me (Birmingham Rep & Theatre Royal Stratford East), The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole 13 3/4 (Curve, Leicester), Betty Blue Eyes (UK tour), The Light Princess (National Theatre) and One Man, Two Guvnors(UK & international tour).

Hal Fowler's recent theatre work includes Wonder.Land, The Light Princess, London Road (National Theatre) and Quartermaine's Terms (UK tour). His television credits include Dracula and Garrow's Law; and for film, London Road.

Amanda Hadingue previously worked with Complicite on The Master and Margarita. Her other recent theatre work includes I Am Thomas (National Theatre of Scotland), Tipping the Velvet (Lyric Theatre) and Ghost Train (Royal Exchange Theatre). For television, her work includes Flowers, Jonathan Creek and Lead Balloon; and for film, Black Pond and The Queen.

Akiya Henry's recent theatre credits include Twelfth Night (Shakespeare's Globe), Sense of an Ending (Theatre 503), Deposit(Hampstead Theatre) and The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (Unicorn Theatre). Her television work includes Obsession: Dark Desires, Captain Mack and Little Britain.

Golda Rosheuvel's recent theatre work includes Now We Are Here (Young Vic), Wonder.Land and The Curious Incident of the Dog In The Night-Time (National Theatre) and Electra (Old Vic Theatre). Her recent TV credits I Live with Models, Damned, Rev, Mr Stink, and Dead Boss.

Rose Shalloo's recent theatre work includes Asking and Superheroes (Clapham Omnibus), Counting the Days (Arcola Theatre),Connected (Landor and Edinburgh Fringe Festival) and Cool Rider (Lyric Theatre). Her television work includes The Five, Call the Midwife and The Scandalous Lady W.

Gareth Snook's theatre work includes Casa Valentina (Southwark Playhouse), Made in Dagenham (Adelphi Theatre) and The Phantom of the Opera (Her Majesty's Theatre). His television work includes Taboo and French and Saunders; and for film, LES MISERABLES.

Gary Wood's theatre work includes House of in Between, The Infidel (Theatre Royal Stratford East), Our Country's Good, Dara(National Theatre) and A Chorus Line (Palladium). For film his credits include World War Z and Walking on Sunshine.

Judith Dimant has been producer for Complicite for more than 22 years - producing all of Simon McBurney's shows during this time. In 2013 she was diagnosed with breast cancer. In 2014 she received an MBE for services to the theatre

A PACIFIST'S GUIDE TO THE WAR ON CANCER

HOME: 20 to 24 September

www.homemcr.org

Box Office: 0161 200 1500

Exeter Northcott: 28 September to 2 October

www.exeternorthcott.co.uk

Box Office: 01392 726363

National Theatre: 14 October to 29 November

www.nationaltheatre.org.uk

Box Office: 020 7452 3000

Photography: Christa Holka, Image Art Direction: David Curtis-Ring, Post Production: Marcelo Dalle Grave

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