First look images have been released for Braids and Cheer Up Slug, a double bill of plays about young women growing up in the North East, part of Live Theatre’s exciting re-opening.
Braids, the debut play from Newcastle-based Olivia Hannah (Royal Court Writers’ Group North, 2018), was long-listed for the Alfred Fagon Award 2018. Directed by Kemi-Bo Jacobs with design by Anna Orton, the production follows Abeni as she embarks on her college experience.
She’s putting purple braids in Jasmine’s hair and giving her ‘the talk’, opening Jasmine’s mind to new ways of seeing the world and what it means to be the ‘Ambassador of Blackness’. Olivia Hannah is an Associate Artist at Live Theatre where Braids was first commissioned. It is brought to life by Rochelle Goldie (A Series of Light, Amazon Prime) and Xsara-Sheneille Pryce (Tin Star, Sky Atlantic).
Cheer Up Slug is a new play by Live Theatre Associate Artist, Tamsin Daisy Rees (Orange Tree Writer’s Collective 2021) about boundaries and behaviour. Will and Bean have been friends forever. But they’re not kids anymore and the adult world is a scary place. In a tent in County Durham, a Duke of Edinburgh Award trip becomes more complicated than either of them planned.
Director Anna Ryder (Look, No Hands, Pleasance London and Pitlochry Festival Theatre; Spring Revel, RSC) and designer Anna Orton will guide this production acted by Jackie Edwards (The Dumping Ground, Inside Out, BBC) and David Fallon (Scouts! The Musical, BEAM Festival/Hackney Empire).
The double bill is at Live Theatre until Saturday 23rd October.
