Grace Saif, Ella Bryant, and More Join A FINE IDEA at Arcola Theatre
Georgina Rich and Kevin Trainor also star in Charlotte Westenra's production, written by Christine Bacon
ice&fire has announced the cast for its new production A FINE IDEA, premiering at Arcola in June. Directed by Charlotte Westenra, the cast is Grace Saif (Ballet Shoes, 13 Reasons Why) as Kala, Ella Bryant (professional debut) as Jo, Georgina Rich (Heartstopper) as Laura / Christine and Kevin Trainor (The Octoroon) as Elio. Performances will run 11 June - 4 July 2026.
The creative team is completed by Set Designer Georgia Wilmot, Costume Designer Emma Williams, Lighting Designer Hartley Kemp, Sound Designer Tom Smith, Composer Jonny Berliner, Magic Consultant John Bulleid, Voice and Accent Coach Gurkiran Kaur, Assistant Director Muniira Ali and Casting Director Nadine Rennie.
Spanning continents and decades, A Fine Idea travels from post-war idealism to today’s overlapping crises, unpicking the history of aid, power and good intentions. And confronting the question at the heart of it all: Do we really want to change things – or do we just like the idea of helping?
Written by ice&fire’s co-Artistic Director Christine Bacon, this provocative new play is inspired by political economist Jason Hickel’s bestselling book The Divide.
It’s 2026. After years circling the globe delivering aid, Jo has built a career supporting those most in need — a good person doing good things.
But 75 years after her grandfather got the idea of “international development” into President Truman’s inaugural speech, global inequality is worse than ever. Eight billionaires now hold the same wealth as the poorest half of humanity.
And when Jo meets an activist who is fighting with her life for her nation’s future, she can’t shake the feeling that the system she passionately believes in might be part of the problem.
The production brings ice&fire together with director Charlotte Westenra, whose award-winning work includes Owen McCafferty’s Agreement (Belfast, Dublin, New York) - winner of the BWW Irish Award for Best Director and nominated for The Stage International Award, among others.
Christine Bacon, writer and co-Artistic Director of ice&fire, said, “At ice&fire we are motivated by working towards a world where human rights matter. Reading The Divide essentially re-wired my brain and left me reeling with the scale of global inequality, but also with my own ignorance about the forces behind it. Bringing this story to the stage invites a non-specialist audience into that expansive conversation and into a story that challenges us to rethink some of our culture’s most widely held beliefs about charity and justice.”
Jason Hickel, author of The Divide, said, "I wrote The Divide to tell the story of anti-colonial struggle - a 500-year fight for our collective humanity, which continues to this very day. I'm thrilled to see this story take shape now in theatre, bringing life and texture to a narrative that words alone can never hope to capture."
Videos