Kiln Theatre presents
PASS OVER
by Antoinette Nwandu
“Deez streets uh violence. Streets uh anger. Lead deez boys on to dat promised land.”
A lamppost. A street corner. But also a plantation. But also a city built from slaves.
Moses and Kitch wake every morning. Stuck. Hoping to escape. Hoping to move on. Hoping for a promised land. Hoping to pass over.
An epic mash up of Waiting for Godot, the Exodus and stories ripped from the daily headlines, Antoinette Nwandu’s fierce and politically charged new play exposes the experiences of young black men in a world that refuses to see them.
Important Information
WE REGRET THAT ALL PERFORMANCES OF PASS OVER ARE CANCELLED. More information here.
PLEASE NOTE Rows P-U in Stalls aren’t easily accessible
Age Guidance 16+
Content Advice click here
Post Show Discussion 26 Mar 20
Ticket Prices
£15 – £32.50
Booking Information click here
Duration
80 mins
Dates
13 Feb – 4 Apr
A devastating force and a poeticism that dazzles
An evening of theatre that manages to be existential, emotional, politically urgent and often deeply comic.
Electrifying, fiercely relevant and compelling. If, in these times, we are ever more in need of powerful and provocative political theatre, here it is.
A searing fusion of politics and poetry: playful, unsettling, blazingly angry and desperately sad.
Gershwyn Eustache Jnr is an achingly vulnerable Kitch. Paapa Essiedu is masterclass level as Moses, electrifyingly wired and wary’
Powerful, entertaining, meticulously physical, superbly directed
‘Waiting for Godot’ is updated for the Black Live Matter era in this excellent play from Antoinette Nwandu.
I will be thinking about this play for a long time and urge everyone to watch it. It is funny, painful, honest and necessary
A witty, humorous gem of theatre
In this day and age we really need art that challenges the way things have been done and isn’t afraid to ask the big questions – Pass Over does exactly that, with some brilliant acting performances too.
This searing play demands to be seen. If ever there was a play that audiences should listen to, this is it.
Powerful 80-minute drama. The fiercest account of racism on the London stage.
This electrifying, energetic and hard-hitting production is worth seeing.
Tense and compelling. Begs to be watched in person, and up close.
Cast
Alexander Eliot
Mister/Ossifer
Alexander Eliot plays Mister/Ossifer. Eliot recently graduated from Drama Centre.
His theatre work includes Three Sisters (Almeida Theatre) and television work includes Casualty.
Paapa Essiedu
Moses
Theatre credits include: The Convert (Young Vic), Pinter One (West End); Hamlet, King Lear (RSC), Kennedy Centre and Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York; Ian Charleson and UK Theatre Award winner for Best Actor); Racing Demon (Theatre Royal Bath); The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Mouse and his Child (RSC); You For Me For You (Royal Court); Romeo and Juliet (Tobacco Factory); King Lear (National Theatre); Black Jesus (Finborough); Outside on the Street (Pleasance); Dutchman (Orange Tree).
Television credits include: Gangs of London (Sky), Press, The Miniaturist, Black Earth Rising, Revolting, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (BBC), Kiri, Not Safe for Work, Utopia (Channel 4).
Film credits include: Murder on the Orient Express and Women at the Well. (Screen International Star of Tomorrow 2017)
Radio Credits include: Pericles, Wide Open Spaces, As Innocent as You Can Get and Something Understood (BBC Radio 4).
Gershwyn Eustache Jnr
Kitch
Gershwyn Eustache Jnr plays Kitch.
His theatre work includes Small Island, Pinocchio, Home, Nut (National Theatre), Anatomy of a Suicide, A Profoundly Affectionate Passionate Devotion to Someone (Royal Court Theatre), The Royale (Bush Theatre) and The Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare’s Globe).
For television, his work includes January 22nd, Small Ave, Britannia, Fortitude, Legends, Peter and Wendy and Run; and for film, The Yellow Birds, Second Coming and Starred Up.
Creative Team
Antoinette Nwandu
Playwright
Antoinette Nwandu is a playwright who also writes for film & tv. Her play Pass Over (LCT3; Steppenwolf) was a NYT Critic’s Pick and won a Lucille Lortel Award and a Jeff Award for Best Play. A filmed version of Pass Over—directed by Spike Lee—premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and at SXSW, and is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. Her play Breach: a manifesto on race in america through the eyes of a black girl recovering from self-hate premiered at Victory Gardens. And her play Tuvalu, or The Saddest Song will premiere at The Vineyard Theater during the Spring 2020 season. Antoinette is under commission from The Denver Center, Ars Nova & Audible. Antoinette’s writing has won the Whiting Award, the Samuel French Next Step Award, the Cullman Prize, the Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, the Sky Cooper Prize, and spots on the 2016 and 2017 Kilroys lists. She is a MacDowell Fellow, a Dramatists Guild Fellow, and an Ars Nova Play Group alum, and her work has been developed & supported by The Sundance Theatre Lab, Space on Ryder Farm, Ignition Fest, The Cherry Lane Mentor Project, Page73, PlayPenn, Southern Rep, The Flea, Naked Angels, Fire This Time, and The Movement Theater Company. In film & tv, Antoinette wrote for Season 2 of Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It (Netflix), and is adapting the short story “Wash Clean the Bones” for Amazon Studios from the collection Heads of the Colored People by Nafissa Thompson-Spires.
Indhu Rubasingham
Director
Robert Jones
Designer
Oliver Fenwick
Lighting Designer
Ben & Max Ringham
Composers and Sound Designers
Lanre Malaolu
Movement Director
Julia Horan CDG
Casting Director
Hazel Holder
Voice and Dialect Coach
Kevin McCurdy
Fight Director
Anna Bliss Scully
Costume Supervisor
Anthony Simpson-Pike
Assistant Director
Julia Slienger
Company Stage Manager
Helen Fletcher
Deputy Stage Manager
Kate Kenah
Assistant Stage Manager
This production is supported by:
Adam Kenwright