Actors Touring Company (ATC) have today announced casting for their acclaimed production of Dave Harris’ Tambo & Bones which will return for a national tour from 7 March – 24 May 2025, following its European premiere in a co-production with Stratford East in 2023.
Clifford Samuel (2:22 A Ghost Story, McMafia) will play the role of Tambo and Daniel Ward (Cat on A Hot Tin Roof, Rebellion) will reprise his role as Bones.
Clifford Samuel said: “Stepping into the role of Tambo is both a thrilling challenge and a privilege. Collaborating with such an extraordinary team fuels my passion for the craft. I’m eager to witness how audiences engage with the story and the production we’ve brought to life.”
Daniel Ward added: “The transitory nature of theatre means we do our best as artists to create moments that resonate with people and live long in their memories. Sometimes that happens, often it doesn’t. But with T&B people have never stopped asking me about it. More than just ask – people have wanted to debate, dissect and argue. They have passionately told me all the ways in which the show moved them. They have told me that they have never forgotten the show and never will. What is special about returning is honouring those experiences and what is exciting is the opportunity to create new memories with new audiences that hopefully last a lifetime.”
Directed by Olivier-award-winning Director, Composer and DJ Matthew Xia (Artistic Director and Joint CEO of ATC) Tambo & Bones is an Actors Touring Company, Stratford East and Royal & Derngate, Northampton Co-Production in association with Belgrade Theatre, Leeds Playhouse and Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse.
Tambo and Bones are stuck in a minstrel show.
It’s hard to know what’s real when you’re stuck in a minstrel show.
Their escape plan: get out, get rich, get even.
One of the most talked-about cultural events of 2023, Tambo & Bones is an exhilarating, darkly comic and provocative satire on capitalism and Black performance, that explores the commodification of the Black experience through the mediums of minstrelsy, hip-hop and afro-futurism. Spanning 500 years, Tambo and Bones journey from comedy double-act, to hip-hop superstars to activists in a future America, contending with the alarming repercussions of a nation torn apart by race. Harris’ blistering play laughs through our past, blows the roof off our present and imagines an explosive future for our world and for theatre.
The production will tour to Royal & Derngate, Northampton (7 – 15 March 2025), Liverpool Playhouse (26 – 29 March 2025), HOME Manchester (1 – 5 April 2025), Belgrade Theatre (9 – 12 April 2025), Stratford East (29 April – 10 May 2025) and Leeds Playhouse (14 – 24 May 2025). Tickets are on sale now.
The creative team includes set and costume designers Sadeysa Greenaway-Bailey and ULTZ, who won the 2023 UK Theatre Award for Best Design for the show. The full creative team are Lighting Designer Ciarán Cunningham, Hip-Hop Beats Excalibah*, Sound Designer & Additional Composition Richard Hammarton, Movement Director Kloé Dean,| Video Designer Gino Ricardo Green, Associate Director Dubheasa Lanipekun, Costume Supervisor Ysanne Tidd, Fight Director Sam Lyon-Behan, Original fight choreography Kevin McCurdy, Voice and Dialect Coach Joel Trill, Magic & Illusions Consultant Chris Cox, Production Drama Therapist Wabriya King, Lighting Associate Tom Lightbody, Puppetry Designer Hugh Purves and Assistant Designer Mark Simmons. *WAR produced by Roly Botha and Excalibah and Dollas to Dreams produced by Excalibah and Roly Botha.
Tambo & Bones is the latest in a series of acclaimed productions from ATC, one of the only British theatre companies dedicated to producing international plays and presenting them throughout the UK. ATC’s recently celebrated work includes The Architect (2023), Family Tree (2023) and Bodies of Water (2024).
Matthew Xia, Artistic Director and Joint CEO of ATC said, “I’m so excited that Tambo & Bones – our genre-busting headline-grabbing production – is getting a second outing. Tambo & Bones is a truly audacious satire, both ridiculous and profound, which combines my greatest passions: hip-hop and theatre, to interrogate perceptions of race in the past, present and future. There is truly no experience quite like this show, I can’t wait to see how audiences in Northampton, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Coventry and London respond to this sucker punch of a play.”
