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THE PURISTS

21 Nov - 21 Dec 2024

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Kiln Theatre presents

The Purists

by Dan McCabe

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Queens comes to Kilburn in this high energy comedy featuring DJ sets, rap battles and unforgettable beats.

Lamont, a legendary emcee and Mr Bugz, a hall-of-fame DJ, have been winding up their Musical Theatre loving neighbour Gerry for as long as they can remember. But when two aspiring rappers, Nancy and Val, make them question their attitudes on race, sexuality and music, they’ll need to decide what it really means to keep it real.

Heart and humour collide in this unmissable theatrical event.

Important Information

For content advice, click here.

Post show Q&A: Thu 5 Dec, 7.30pm

Access Performances

Captioned Performance: Mon 9 Dec, 7.30pm
Relaxed Performance: Sat 14 Dec, 2.30pm
Touch Tour: Thu 19 Dec, 6pm
Audio Described Performance: Thu 19 Dec, 7.30pm

Click here for Access information. If you have any questions about any of our services or need assistance in arranging your visit please get in touch: 020 7328 1000 or Access@KilnTheatre.com.

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Duration

approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes, with a 15 minute interval

Dates

21 Nov - 21 Dec 2024

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Behind the Scenes

Rehearsal photos

Behind the scenes

By Marc Brenner

by Michael Wharley

Cast

Jasper Britton

Gerry Brinsler
Jasper Britton

Gerry Brinsler

Jasper Britton plays Gerry Brinsler. His theatre credits include Plague Over England (Finborough Theatre), Jerusalem (Watermill Theatre), Scrooge, What the Butler Saw (Leicester Curve), The Libertine (Theatre Royal Bath, Theatre Royal Haymarket), Tamburlaine, Taming Of The Shrew/Tamer Tam’d, Richard II, The Jew of Malta, Henry IV Part 1 and Part 2 (RSC, The Barbican), Race, Private Lives (Hampstead Theatre), The Picture of Dorian Gray (Abbey Theatre), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Sheffield Theatres), The Visit, Fram, Oedipus (National Theatre), Rhinoceros (Royal Court Theatre), Japes (Theatre Royal Haymarket) Macbeth and The Tempest (Shakespeare’s Globe). His television credits include Hijack, My Dad’s the Prime Minister, The Royal, Murder in Mind, Heartbeat, The Cry, Big Kids and Highlander; and for film, The Critic, Aubergenfeld, Rise of the Footsoldier 2, Blood, Anonymous, Morris: A Life with Bells On and The New World.

Tiffany Gray

Val Kano
Tiffany Gray

Val Kano

Tiffany Gray plays Val Kano. Her theatre credits include Between Riverside and Crazy (Hampstead Theatre). Her television credits include Silo; and for film, The Amateur.

Emma Kingston

Nancy Reinstein
Emma Kingston

Nancy Reinstein

Emma Kingston plays Nancy Reinstein. Her theatre credits include The Band’s Visit (Donmar Warehouse), Carousel (Kilworth House) Heathers the Musical (The Other Palace), Evita (international tour), Children of Eden (Cadogen Hall), The Last 5 Years (Minack Theatre), Fiddler on the Roof (Chichester Festival Theatre), In the Heights (King’s Cross Theatre/Southwark Playhouse), Les Misérables (Queen’s Theatre), Priscilla Queen of the Desert and Grease (UK tours). Her television credits include Sound of Musicals with Neil Brand; and for film, BKLYN The Musical and Been So Long.

Richard Pepple

Mr. Bugz
Richard Pepple

Mr. Bugz

Richard Pepple plays Mr. Bugz. His theatre credits include The Convert (Gate Theatre), They Drink It in The Congo (Almeida Theatre) and High Life (Hampstead Theatre). His television credits include Cobra, The Rig, The Family Pile, Bridgerton, Gangs of London, Line of Duty, Cursed, Motherland, The Long Song, Code 404, Krypton and Clean Break; and for film, Beasts of No Nation and Radioactive.

Sule Rimi

Lamont Born Cipher
Sule Rimi

Lamont Born Cipher

Sule Rimi plays Lamont Born Cipher. His theatre credits include Blues for an Alabama Sky, Three Sisters, The Suicide (National Theatre), Force Majeure, Measure for Measure, Sweat (Donmar Warehouse), Jitney (Leeds Playhouse/West End), The Living Newspaper, Glass! Kill! Bluebeard! Imp! (Royal Court Theatre), All My Sons, The American Clock (The Old Vic), Love and Information, Desire Under the Elms (Sheffield Theatres), Barber Shop Chronicles (National Theatre/ Australia/ New Zealand), Mary Stuart, They Drink it in the Congo (Almeida Theatre), The Rolling Stone (Royal Exchange Theatre/WYP/Orange Tree Theatre), The Odyssey: Missing Presumed Dead (ETT /Liverpool Everyman), Bordergame (National Theatre of Wales), Muscle and Serious Money (Chapter Cardiff). His television credits include Grace, Foundation, The One That Got Away, The Day of The Jackal, Classified, The English, Andor, Manhunt: The Nightstalker, Black Earth Rising, Death in Paradise, Birds of a Feather Christmas Special, Strikeback, Unforgotten and Stella; and for film, Ear For Eye, Ashens and the Quest for the Game Child, The Adventurer: Curse of the Midas Box, The Machine, Elfie Hopkins and the Gammons, Daddy’s Girl, Starter for Ten and Francis.

Creative Team

Dan McCabe

Playwright
Dan McCabe

Playwright

Dan McCabe’s play The Purists premiered at The Huntington Theater in Boston where it won the Elliot Norton Award for Best Production and The Elisabeth Osborn Award for Best Play. Other plays include Blame the Parents and Reptilian. He is co-writing the screenplay for the forthcoming James Baldwin biopic, with Billy Porter portraying the author and civil rights activist.

Amit Sharma

Director
Amit Sharma

Director

Amit Sharma is an international award-winning director of theatre and television. Before joining the Kiln Theatre as Associate Director, he was previously Deputy Artistic Director of Birmingham Rep, Associate Artistic Director at the Royal Exchange, Manchester, and Associate Director at Graeae Theatre Company where his journey into theatre began. Sharma directed the critically acclaimed and sell-out run of Retrograde at the Kiln; and has also directed two productions at the National Theatre – The Solid Life of Sugar Water (Graeae Theatre Company/Theatre Royal Plymouth co-production) and The Boy With Two Hearts (also Wales Millennium Centre). He also co-directed Prometheus Awakes, one of the largest outdoor productions featuring Deaf and disabled artists as part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad (Graeae Theatre Company/ Greenwich+Docklands International Festival/ Stockton International Riverside Festival/La Fura Dels Baus); and Aruna and The Raging Sun in Chennai, India as part of UK/INDIA Year of Culture 2017. Sharma is a BAFTA nominated director, for his two films which were part of the Criptales season on BBC and BBC AMERICA. He also co-directed the award-winning BBC and NETFLIX television drama Then Barbara Met Alan (Best Single Drama, 2023 Broadcast Awards). He began his training at Graeae Theatre Company with Missing Piece 1. His other theatre credits include One Under (Graeae Theatre Company/Theatre Royal Plymouth), Aruna and the Raging Sun (Graeae Theatre Company/ The British Council), Cosmic Scallies (Graeae Theatre Company/Royal Exchange Theatre), and Iron Man (Graeae Theatre Company/international tour). His other television work includes Hamish, and Thunderbox.

Tom Piper

Set Designer
Tom Piper

Set Designer

Tom Piper
Set Designer
For Kiln/Tricycle: Girl on an Altar, White Teeth, The Wolf with Snakeskin Shoes, The House that will not Stand and Red Velvet.

Theatre credits include: The Duchess (of Malfi) (Trafalgar Theatre/Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh); The Scent of Roses, Rhinoceros, Mrs Puntila, Hay Fever (Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh); Macbeth (An Undoing) (Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh/Rose Theatre/Theatre for a New Audience – Scottish Critics Awards for Best Design); Jesus Trilogy (Dublin Theatre Festival); Never Let Me Go (Rose Theatre/Bristol Old Vic/Malvern Theatres/Northampton Theatre/UK Tour); over 50 productions for the RSC, most recently Faith, The Box of Delights, Hamnet, The Tempest (RSC); Medea (National Theatre of Scotland/Edinburgh International
Festival); Cyrano de Bergerac (National Theatre of Scotland); Endgame, King Lear, Hamlet, The Libertine, Nora (Citizens Theatre); iHo, The Haystack (Hampstead Theatre) and Cherry Orchard (Bristol Old Vic).

Opera credits include: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Scottish Opera); Orfeo (ROH/Roundhouse); Rusalka, Eugene Onegin and Don Giovanni (Garsington).

Other work includes: Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red at the Tower of London for which he received an MBE for services to Theatre and First World War commemorations. He has won an Olivier Award for Best Costume Design for The Histories (RSC) and Scottish Critics Award for Best Design for Twelfth Night (Dundee Rep).

Oliver Fenwick

Lighting Designer
Oliver Fenwick

Lighting Designer

For Tricycle/Kiln: Pass Over, When The Crows Visit, White Teeth, Holy Sh!t, The Invisible Hand, The Colby Sisters, Red Velvet (also Garrick Theatre/St Ann’s, New York), Handbagged (also Vaudeville Theatre), A Boy and his Soul, Bracken Moor.

Theatre credits include: Dear Octopus, The Father and the Assassin, Blues for an Alabama Sky, Kerry Jackson, Tartuffe – the Imposter, The Great Wave, Ugly Lies the Bone, The Motherf*cker with the Hat, The Holy Rosenbergs, Happy Now (National Theatre); The School for Scandal, The Magician’s Elephant, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Much Ado About Nothing, The Jew of Malta, Wendy and Peter Pan, The Winter’s Tale, The Taming of the Shrew, Julius Caesar, The Drunks and The Grain Store (RSC); Girls & Boys (Royal Court/Minetta Lane Theatre, New York); Lela & Co, Routes, The Witness, Disconnect (Royal Court); Clyde’s, Sweat, Trouble in Butetown, One Night in Miami, The Vote, Berenice (Donmar Warehouse); Ulster American (Riverside studios); My City, Ruined (Almeida); After Miss Julie (Young Vic); The Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare’s Globe/International Tour); Reykjavik, Genesis Inc., Mother Christmas, Gloria, Occupational Hazards, Reasons to be Happy (Hampstead Theatre); Carmen (WNO); The Sun, The Moon, And The Stars, Noye’s Fludde (Theatre Royal Stratford); To Kill a Mockingbird, Hobson’s Choice, The Beggar’s Opera (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Into the Woods, Sunday in the Park with George (Châtelet Paris); Di, Viv and Rose (Vaudeville Theatre); Bakersfield Mist (Duchess Theatre); The Madness of King George II (Apollo Theatre); The Importance of Being Earnest (Harold Pinter Theatre) and Kean (Apollo Theatre).

Tony Gayle

Sound Designer
Tony Gayle

Sound Designer

Tony Gayle

Sound Designer

For Kiln: Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York) (also Criterion Theatre)

As Sound Designer, theatre credits include: Becoming Nancy (Birmingham Rep); Play On! (Talawa Theatre Company/UK Tour); Shifters (The Duke of York Theatre/Bush Theatre); Next To Normal (Wyndham’s Theatre West End/Donmar Warehouse); Fan Girls (Lyric Hammersmith); Gatsby (American Repertory Theater); The Lonely Londoners (Jermyn Street Theatre); High Times & Dirty Monsters (Liverpool Playhouse); My Neighbour Totoro (RSC/Barbican Theatre – Olivier Award & WhatsOnStage Award for Best Sound Design); Pygmalion, Sylvia (Old Vic); Beneatha’s Place (Young Vic); School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls (Lyric Hammersmith); Greatest Days (UK Tour;) Disney’s AIDA (Holland); Newsies (Troubadour/Wembley Park Theatre); Kinky Boots (New Wolsey Theatre); Playboy of the West Indies (Birmingham Rep); Legally Blonde (Regent’s Park Theatre); The 47th (Old Vic); Running With Lions (Talawa/Lyric Hammersmith); Spring Awakening (Almeida Theatre); The Wiz (Hope Mill Theatre); Get Up, Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical (Lyric Theatre); A Place For We (Talawa/Park Theatre); Blue/Orange (Theatre Royal Bath); And Breathe…(Almeida Theatre); Gin Craze! (Royal & Derngate); The Living Newspaper, Shoe Lady (Royal Court); Poet In da Corner (Royal Court/UK Tour); Beautiful – The Carole King Musical (UK Tour); Salad Days  (UK Tour); American Idiot (UK Tour); Songs For Nobodies (Wilton’s Music Hall/Ambassador’s Theatre); Floyd Collins (Wilton’s Music Hall); The Wild Party (The Other Palace) and Lazarus (King’s Cross).

Other: Black British Theatre Awards Light & Sound Recognition Award – 2019 & 2021; Wise Children Trustee; Stage Sight Co-Director and Founder of The Audio Cartel.

Ruth Badila

Costume Designer
Ruth Badila

Costume Designer

Ruth trained at the University of the Arts, Wimbledon, graduating in 2020. She then landed the role of associate assistant designer at the Kiln Theatre, working and learning from range of amazing creatives, mentored by Tom Piper, until 2022. She hopes to contribute and respond innovatively to the rapid change of the industry, whilst also thinking of ways theatre can become much more accessible and representative. She has recently finished a year-long role at the National Theatre as an assistant designer.

Isabella Odoffin

Casting Director
Isabella Odoffin

Casting Director

Isabella is a casting director from North London.

Theatre includes: Our Country’s Good, Antigone: The Burial at Thebes (Lyric Hammersmith); For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy (Garrick); Beautiful Thing, After the End, Extinct, The Sun, the Moon and the Stars, Sucker Punch (Theatre Royal Stratford East); The Collaboration, Klippies, In A Word (Young Vic); All of Us, Master Harold & the Boys, Three Sisters, Small Island [and remount] (National Theatre); Word-Play (Royal Court); Moreno (Theatre503); J’Ouvert (The Harold Pinter Theatre) and A Taste of Honey (National Theatre Productions Tour).

Film includes: How to Have Sex, On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, September Says, Transamazonia, Leonora in the Morning Light, I Used to Be Famous, Girl, Boxing Day, ear for eye, Blue Story and The Drifters.

Television includes: Supacell, Missing You, Anansi Boys, DI Ray: Season Two and The Last Bus.

Hazel Holder

Voice and Dialect Coach
Hazel Holder

Voice and Dialect Coach

For Kiln: Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York), Mlima’s Tale, Retrograde, The Wife of Willesden, Pass Over, The Son.

Theatre credits include: Blues for an Alabama Sky, Rockets and Blue Lights, Death of England: Closing Time, Death of England: Delroy, Death of England, Small Island, Nine Night, Barber Shop Chronicles, Pericles, Angels in America (National Theatre); Best of Enemies, 2:22 (Noël Coward Theatre); Cock (Ambassador’s Theatre); To Kill a Mockingbird (Gielgud Theatre); Get Up Stand Up! (Lyric Theatre); The Glass Menagerie (Duke of York’s); Constellations (Vaudeville Theatre); Death of a Salesman (Piccadilly Theatre); Caroline, or Change (Playhouse Theatre); Uncle Vanya (Harold Pinter Theatre); Tina: The Tina Turner Musical (Aldwych Theatre); Dreamgirls (Savoy); The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? (Theatre Royal Haymarket); seven methods of killing kylie jenner, ear for eye, A Kind of People, Poet in Da Corner, Grimly Handsome, Pigs & Dogs, Cuttin’ It, Father Comes Home from the Wars (Royal Court Theatre); Mandela, Best of Enemies, Changing Destiny, Fairview, Death of a Salesman, The Convert, The Mountaintop, The Emperor, Cuttin’ It (Young Vic); Clyde’s, The Doll’s House Part II, Marys Seacole, Love and Other Acts of Violence (Donmar Warehouse); Jitney (The Old Vic); Richard II (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse); Guys and Dolls, Girls (Talawa Theatre Company at Soho Theatre/Royal Exchange Theatre); Caroline, or Change (Chichester Festival Theatre/Hampstead Theatre) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare North).

Television, film and audio credits include: Drift, The Silent Twins, Aisha, Death on the Nile (for Letitia Wright); The Anansi Boys, Wool, Small Axe (Steve McQueen anthology); The Power, In the Long Run (for Jimmy Akingbola) and A Visible Man by Edward Enninful (Audible UK).

Robbie Taylor Hunt

Intimacy Director
Robbie Taylor Hunt

Intimacy Director

Robbie is an Intimacy Director & Coordinator and theatre-maker.

As an Intimacy Director for theatre, his credits include: Strategic Love Play, Bury Me (Paines Plough/UK Tour); Animal (Park Theatre/Hope Mill Theatre); Fatal Attractions (Tour) and The Real Ones (Bush Theatre).

As an Intimacy Coordinator, he has worked on productions for Netflix, HBO, Disney, Paramount, Amazon Prime Video, the BBC, Channel 4, ITV and Apple TV, with recent TV credits including: Big Boys, Mary & George, You S4 and Mr Loverman.

Film credits include: Femme, Pearl, and Red, White and Royal Blue. 

As a theatre-maker, he co-created Pansexual Pregnant Piracy and Lesbian Space Crime (both Soho Theatre) with his company, Airlock, and has directed TUNA (Tour), how we love (Theatre Peckham/Arcola Theatre/VAULT Festival) and ERIS (Bunker Theatre).

Imy Wyatt Corner

Kiln-Mackintosh Resident Assistant Direcotor
Imy Wyatt Corner

Kiln-Mackintosh Resident Assistant Direcotor

For Kiln: Pins and Needles.

Imy Wyatt Corner is Resident Assistant Director at Kiln Theatre. She trained on the Drama Directing MA at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

Directing credits include: The Last One (Arcola Theatre); Passing (Park Theatre); Scarlet Sunday (Omnibus Theatre); Duck (Arcola Theatre); BEASTS (Edinburgh Fringe); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (The Grove DIY
Skatepark); Humane (Pleasance Theatre); Walk Swiftly & with Purpose (North Wall Arts Centre/Theatre503); Baby, What Blessings (Theatre503/ Bunker Theatre) and Happy Yet? (Edinburgh Fringe/International Theatre, Frankfurt).

Associate/Assistant Director credits include: Private Lives (Ambassadors Theatre); Relatively Speaking (Theatre Royal Bath/UK Tour); The Dance of Death (Theatre Royal Bath/UK Tour); Love All (Jermyn Street Theatre) and The Straw Chair (Finborough Theatre). She was a Creative Associate at Jermyn Street Theatre 2022/3 and an Associate Artist at Arcola Theatre 2023/4.

Production Team

Alysha Laviniere

Production Manager

Charlotte Ranson

Deputy Production Manager

Constance Oak

Company Stage Manager

Robyn-Amber Manners

Deputy Stage Manager

Daze Corder

Assistant Stage Manager (Book Cover)

Andy Hinton

Sound No. 1

Jasmine Fuller

Sound No. 2

Anna LeClair

Lighting Technician

Ella Purvis

Tech Swing

Lisa Brindley

Wardrobe Manager

Paul Salmon

Production Electrician

Tamykha Patterson

Lighting Programmer

Jamie Taylor

Production Sound Engineer

Production Carpenter

Calum Walker