Theatre503 announces the cast and full creative team for Roxy’s Cook’s debut play A Woman Walks Into a Bank with Keith Dunphy (Under Black Rock, Arcola) playing C/A Debt Collector, Giulia Innocenti (Inspector Sands’ Wuthering Heights) playing A/An Old Woman, and Sam Newton (Big Big Sky, Hampstead) playing B/A Young Man. The part of a cat, Sally is played by all three.
The play’s writer Roxy Cook directs the production with Associate and Movement Director Sam Hooper (Bonnie and Clyde, Hayes Theatre Sydney), Set + Costume design by David Allen (Lonely Planet, Trafalgar Studios; Associate to Tom Scutt incl. Cabaret, West End), Lighting design by Joe Price (My Name is Rachel Corrie, Young Vic) and Sound design + composition by Hugh Sheehan (Pennyroyal, Finborough). Casting is by Nadine Rennie CDG. Full creative and production teams in Notes to Editors.
A darkly funny modern fairytale, A Woman Walks Into a Bank was selected from over 1400 submissions from 45 countries to win the 2023 Theatre503 International Playwriting Award. A powerful portrayal of a country in crisis, this wild romp through modern Moscow uses biting humour and absurdism to interrogate the social apathy tearing Russia apart from the inside out.
In the afterglow of an incident-free 2018 World Cup, an old woman walks into a bank in Moscow and is conned into taking out a high interest loan – which she immediately forgets about. A catastrophic series of events is set in motion… with only her cat Sally to bear witness.
Roxy Cook is a writer and director working across theatre and TV. A Woman Walks Into a Bank is her first play. It was selected as the winner of The Carne Prize 2023 Theatre503 International Playwriting Award by a panel chaired by Erica Whyman (Theatre503 Chair) with Alice Birch, Jon Brittain, Diane Borger, Kyo Choi, Iman Qureshi, Winsome Pinnock and Roy Williams. It was also shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Playwriting 2021 and longlisted for the Bruntwood Prize and Verity Bargate Award.
Roxy Cook, playwright and director: “A Woman Walks Into a Bank starts with a true story – something that did really happen to my grandmother in Moscow. The rest is fiction, a sort of modern Russian fairytale I’ve imagined to try and understand the bank manager who conned her and the debt collector who harassed her.
Oligarchs, spies and politicians ARE part of the ‘Russian story’ – but they’re only one part of it. And maybe an act as small as a bank loan can tell us more about Russia than any sexy spy thriller ever can.
I’d love A Woman Walks Into a Bank to take UK audiences on a journey through modern Moscow – but through the eyes of ordinary Russians. Not the brave protestors risking their lives for democracy, or the pro-Putin zombies spraying Z on their cars. But the majority. Disillusioned, disconnected… or just too tired to care.”
Lisa Spirling, Artistic Director, Theatre503: “With A Woman Walks Into A Bank, Roxy takes us on a thrilling journey into a rarely explored, rarely seen, but much talked about world. One that explores uncomfortable truths but done with a twist of dark humour, a touch of absurdity, and a talking cat. Theatre503 couldn’t be prouder to share this world premiere with our audiences and to introduce Roxy’s unique voice to the world.”
This production is generously supported by: Concord Theatricals and Philip and Christine Carne as part of their support of the Theatre503 International Playwriting Award, the Christina Smith Foundation, The Golsoncott Foundation, and The Unity Theatre Trust.
