Frances Ashman, Natasha Bain & More Set For IN THE BLOOD, Opens August 15

Lambert Maher Productions and Boomerang Theatre Productions in association with Neil McPherson for the Finborough Theatre present The European Premiere IN THE BLOOD by Suzan-Lori Parks.

Directed by Daniel Burgess.
Cast: Frances Ashman. Natasha Bain. Eleanor Fanyinka. Vinta Morgan. Richard Pepple. Clifford Samuel.

The European premiere of In The Blood by Suzan-Lori Parks - the first African-American woman ever to win a Pulitzer Prize, and one of America's most successful contemporary playwrights - plays at the Finborough Theatre for a limited run of six Sunday and Monday performances, opening on 15 August 2010 (Press Night: Monday, 16 August 2010), as part of the 30th anniversary year of the Finborough Theatre.

An urban American "riff" on Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter and shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize, In the Blood is the story of Hester La Negrita, mother to five children, of five fathers, who makes a home beneath a bridge on the streets of New York. Hounded by her need to provide a better future for her family, she bargains her hopes on the only people left in her world, and comes up short. This raw, physical production of Parks' seminal work will take us to this world that exists on the flipside of the American Dream.

Playwright Suzan-Lori Parks is one of the most exciting playwrights in American drama today, and the first African American woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for the Broadway hit TopDog/UnderDog. She is also a MacArthur ‘Genius' Award recipient, was named as one of Time magazine's ‘100 Innovators for the Next New Wave' and is the first recipient of the Master Writer Chair residency at New York's Public Theater. Her numerous plays include TopDog/UnderDog (Tony Award nominee), Venus (OBIE Award), The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire Earth, Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom (OBIE Award for Best New American Play), The America Play, Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 8 & 9) and Snake. In 2007, her project 365 Plays/365 Days was produced in over 700 theatres worldwide, creating one of the largest grassroots collaborations in theatre history. Her screenplays include Girl 6, written for Spike Lee; Their Eyes Were Watching God which starrEd Halle Barry and premiered on ABC's Oprah Winfrey Presents; and co-author of The Great Debaters, starring Denzel Washington. Her novels include Getting Mother's Body, published by Random House.

Director Daniel Burgess was a Resident Assistant Director at the Finborough Theatre where he has worked on A Day at the Racists, Molière, or The League of Hypocrites, Vibrant! - A Festival of Finborough Playwrights and Too True To Be Good. This is his professional debut.

Frances Ashman trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Credits include The Winter's Tale, Pericles, Macbeth (Royal Shakespeare Company), Zuva Crumbling (Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith), Pornography (Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh and Birmingham Rep), Cockroach (National Theatre of Scotland and Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh), A Tale of Two Cities, Twelfth Night, Hay Fever, Trojan Women, Cymbeline, Getting Attention, The Man of Mode, The Mystery Plays (Guildhall School of Music and Drama). Television credits include Doctor Who, Law and Order: UK, Trial and Retribution, Gunrush.

Natasha Bain's credits include The RoyAl Hunt Of The Sun (National Theatre), The Red Balloon (National Theatre and Birmingham Rep), The Lion King (Lyceum Theatre), The Threepenny Opera (Donmar Warehouse), The Amen Corner (Bristol Old Vic), Twelfth Night, The Merry Wives of Windsor, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum (New Shakespeare Company), The Gondoliers, The Water Babies (Chichester Festival Theatre), Sleeping Beauty (Theatre Royal Stratford East), The Lion and the Jewel (Barbican), The Good Soul of Szechuan (Library Theatre, Manchester). Film credits include Greys Inbetween, Sick, Offending Angels. Television credits include Doctors, Rough Treatment, In Your Dreams, The Bill, Casualty.

Eleanor Fanyinka trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Theatre includes Harold Pinter: A Celebration (National Theatre), Comedy of Errors (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester), Tommy, Celebration, Mechanical Piano, Nina, Party Tune, The Revenger's Tragedy, A Trip to Scarborough, Agamemnon, As You Like It (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art).

Vinta Morgan's credits include Romeo and Juliet, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, The House of Desires, Pedro The Great Pretender, Tamar's Revenge (Royal Shakespeare Company), Tamburlaine The Great (Bristol Old Vic and Barbican), To Kill a Mockingbird (West Yorkshire Playhouse, Birmingham Rep, and National Tour), Millennium Mysteries (Belgrade Theatre, Coventry), Mr Equiano's Visit, Chimps (New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich), The Ventriloquist (Rosemary Branch Theatre), Aladdin (Wilde Theatre, Bracknell), Mighty Dread (Edinburgh Festival), Othello (Icarus Theatre Collective). Film credits include Red Light Runners, Nine Lives. Television credits include EastEnders, Silent Witness, Doctors, Casualty, Shadows, In The Firing Line, The Bill.

Richard Pepple's credits include Coriolanus (Royal Shakespeare Company), The Burial (Almeida Theatre), Medea/Medea (Gate Theatre), High Life (Hampstead theatre), 365 Days/365 Plays, White Open Spaces (Soho Theatre), The Hounding of David Oluwale (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Full Circle (Oval House Theatre), White Open Spaces (Pentabus Theatre). Television credits include Nathan Barley, The Bill, Caught in a Trap, The Messenger. Film credits include No Ordinary Trifle.

Clifford Samuel trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Theatre includes Mother Courage and Her Children, Statement of Regret (National Theatre), The Two Gentleman of Verona (Royal Shakespeare Company), The Changeling (Barbican Theatre), Chasing the Moment (Arcola Theatre), Julius Caesar (Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith), Carthage Must Be Destroyed (Theatre Royal Bath), Changes (Camden Arts Festival), Afore Night Come, An Italian Straw Hat, Measure for Measure, Comedy of Errors, Oedipus the King, Antigone, Richard III (Guildhall School of Music and Drama). Film credits include Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll, Shoot on Sight. Television credits include The Bill, Roman's Empire, Grange Hill, Sharp Practice, London's Burning.

Lambert Maher Productions was founded by Rachel Lambert and Bridget Maher in 2009. Their first project was a site-specific production of Breaking the Code at the Kew Bridge Steam Museum, the first production to be staged in that space. The company's focus will be to produce plays sourced from their native regions of America and New Zealand.

The Press on In the Blood
"Suzan-Lori Parks's extraordinary new play, In the Blood, is about the way we live now, and it is truly harrowing. Ms. Parks's writing has grown leaner and hungrier and you will leave this play feeling pity and terror. We cannot turn away, and we do not want to. And because it is a work of art, you will leave thrilled, even comforted by its mastery." The New York Times
"An electrifying drama. The fascinating thing about Parks is the steady power of her language and imagery. She is a relentlessly inventive phrasemaker, and the speech here is a graceful amalgam of street talk and learned prose. The play is gritty, yet full of imaginative flourishes. The language keeps pricking your ears." The Washington Post