Premiering in Newcastle before touring, Northern Stage presents an electrifying new production adapted from H.G. Wells’ science fiction classic, featuring a new take on one of the most iconic characters in horror fiction. Exploring themes of exploitation, identity and establishment power and corruption, The Invisible Man questions who is really invisible in Great Britain 2022?
Following the success of The War of the Worlds and The Hound of the Baskervilles, Northern Stage has cast four early career North East actors as part of its ongoing commitment to supporting and developing new talent in the region.
Daniel Watson will play Griffin, the young man with a troubled past who claims to have discovered the power of invisibility. Daniel’s credits include feature film Give Them Wings (Magnificent Films), Isolation (Alphabetti Theatre & The Customs House), The Terminal Velocity Of Snowflakes (Live Theatre), Christmas Crackers (Live Theatre), and Byker Grove (CBBC, Zenith North). Kate Louise Okello plays Kemp. Her recent credits include Breathing Space (Royal Court), Skellig (Nottingham Playhouse), feature film Stan & Ollie (BBC/Fable Pictures/Sonesta/eOne) and Home Front (BBCR4). Jack Fairley and Izzy Ions play multiple roles.
Following UK and Middle Eastern tours of The Tempest (Young Shakespeare Company) in 2018 and an East African tour of Finding Uhuru in 2019, Jack is looking forward to playing back in his hometown at Northern Stage. Izzy trained at Newcastle College and is returning to Northern Stage to make their debut having been in the ensemble for The Snow Queen by Laura Lindow in 2019.
This new adaptation is by Philip Correia from Northumberland, whose first play HYEM (yem, hjem, home), featuring creatives and performers making their professional debut, was performed at Theatre503 in London before transferring to Northern Stage. Phil studied as an actor at LAMDA, and has since worked at the National Theatre, West End, Shakespeare’s Globe, in Newcastle at Live! and the Theatre Royal, in regional theatre, on national and international tours, in film, on television and on video games. He has just finished recording Peter Flannery’s Our Friends in the North for BBC Radio 4.
Phil is passionate about giving young people from the North East a start in the industry, saying, “I’m delighted to be working back home in the North East again and especially to be reconnecting with the abundance of emerging talent based here.”
Director Anna Girvan was born and raised in Newcastle where her passion for theatre was ignited seeing shows at Newcastle Playhouse, attending First Act Theatre and making props for The People’s Theatre. She trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, and is a recipient of the Jerwood Assistant Director Award as well as an RSC Creative Fellow. Her directing credits include Twelfth Night (Southwark Playhouse) and Our Country’s Good (Tobacco Factory Theatres). Anna says, “It’s a total dream to be returning to my roots to direct for Northern Stage and with such an incredibly strong northern cast and creative team. After starting work on this play in 2019 we feel so lucky to finally be able to bring it to fruition in 2022. Philip’s contemporary re-working of HG Well’s classic novella will be sure to surprise, entertain and challenge and I can’t wait to see how audiences respond to it.”
Joining Anna and Phil on the creative team are set and costume designer Aileen Kelly (I Weigh, Mortal Fools/national tour), composer and sound designer Jeremy Bradfield (The Wizard of Oz, Northern Stage), and lighting designer Claire Gerrens who regularly works with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Tickets start at £10; for more details or to book tickets see northernstage.co.uk or call 0191 230 5151. Touring across the North of England from 24 February – 26 March, the show will also be available to watch online from 10-19 February as part of Northern Stage at Home.
