As the first day of rehearsals gets underway today, Empire Street Productions (Prima Facie and The Pillowman, West End), Seaview (Stereophonic, Parade and Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, Broadway), and bb² are delighted to announce the full creative team and understudies for the UK premiere of Slave Play by Jeremy O. Harris (Daddy, Almeida Theatre; Euphoria, HBO), directed by Robert O’Hara (OBIE award-winning In The Continuum).
This ground-breaking play about race, identity and sexuality in twenty-first century America will play a strictly limited season from 29 June – 21 September 2024 at the intimate Noël Coward Theatre.
The understudies completing the cast are: Troy Alexander, Dimitri Gripari, Maite Jauregui, Prince Kundai and Malikah Mcherrin-Cobb. They join the previously announced cast which includes Fisayo Akinade (The Crucible, National Theatre; Heartstopper, Netflix), Kit Harington (Game of Thrones, HBO; True West, West End), Aaron Heffernan (Brassic, Sky; Atlanta, FX), Olivia Washington (I Am Virgo, Amazon Prime; Breaking, Bleecker Street) alongside James Cusati-Moyer (Six Degrees of Separation, Broadway; Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Netflix), Chalia La Tour (The Good Fight; Elementary, both CBS), Annie McNamara (Orange is the New Black, Netflix; Iowa, Playwrights Horizons) and Irene Sofia Lucio (The Americans, FX; Wit, Broadway) who will reprise their roles from the original Broadway production.
The full creative team of Slave Play includes Clint Ramos (set design) Dede Ayite (costume design), Jiyoun Chang (lighting), and Lindsay Jones (composition and sound design), Amy Ball (casting), Aundrea Fudge (voice and dialect coach), Claire Warden (intimacy and fight director), Taylor Williams (original US casting) and Wabriya King (drama therapist) Byron Easley (US Choreographer) Jade Hackett (UK Choreographer).
Slave Play was originally staged in 2018 at New York Theatre Workshop before transferring to Broadway’s John Golden Theatre in 2019. The production received 12 nominations at the 74th Tony Awards, breaking the record previously set by the revival of Angels in America.
Jeremy O. Harris is the playwright and creator of Slave Play. Jeremy was nominated for two 2023 Tony Awards for producing The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window and Ain’t No Mo’. His play Daddy opened to acclaim at its UK premiere at the Almeida Theatre in March 2022. In June 2022, Daddy opened at the Tokyo Globe Theatre. Jeremy co-wrote A24’s critically acclaimed Zola alongside director Janicza Bravo. His television credits include HBO’s Euphoria and Irma Vep. As an actor, Jeremy recently appeared on HBO Max’s Gossip Girl and returned as Grégory Duprée in Netflix’s Emily in Paris. He is executive producer of Invasive Species, a new play by Maia Novi which is playing until 30 June 2024 at The Vineyard’s Dimson Theater in New York.
