The Bread and Roses Theatre proudly presents
I and the Village
Written by Darren Donohue | Directed by Rebecca Pryle & Velenzia Spearpoint
Top three winner of The Bread & Roses Playwriting Award 2019/2020
The Bread and Roses Theatre are delighted to have been awarded a grant from the Government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund. This funding has enabled the award-winning pub theatre to recover, reopen and bring an exciting new production to life.
The Bread and Roses Theatre will be reopening on Tuesday 25 May 2021, starting with an in-house produced play, one of three winners of Bread & Roses Playwriting Award (2019) , I and the Village by Darren Donohue. The play will be co-directed by the theatre’s Artistic Director and Managing Director, Velenzia Spearpoint and Rebecca Pryle. This is also made possible thanks to Lambeth Economic Resilience Fund, The Royal Victoria Hall Foundation, Unity Theatre Trust and every single individual who donated to the online appeal.
Artistic Director, Velenzia Spearpoint, said “Myself and the entire team were moved to tears by this play, it opens us up to a hidden part of the world and sheds light on the urgency of the issues behind the Direct Provision Centre. We’re incredibly grateful to everyone who donated and supported our theatre during these trying times, however big or small and every act of spreading the word has made this possible, we can’t wait to share this important story with you!”
I and the Village
Written by Darren Donohue | Directed by Rebecca Pryle & Velenzia Spearpoint
Top three winner of The Bread & Roses Playwriting Award 2019/2020
The Bread and Roses Theatre are delighted to have been awarded a grant from the Government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund. This funding has enabled the award-winning pub theatre to recover, reopen and bring an exciting new production to life.
The Bread and Roses Theatre will be reopening on Tuesday 25 May 2021, starting with an in-house produced play, one of three winners of Bread & Roses Playwriting Award (2019) , I and the Village by Darren Donohue. The play will be co-directed by the theatre’s Artistic Director and Managing Director, Velenzia Spearpoint and Rebecca Pryle. This is also made possible thanks to Lambeth Economic Resilience Fund, The Royal Victoria Hall Foundation, Unity Theatre Trust and every single individual who donated to the online appeal.
Artistic Director, Velenzia Spearpoint, said “Myself and the entire team were moved to tears by this play, it opens us up to a hidden part of the world and sheds light on the urgency of the issues behind the Direct Provision Centre. We’re incredibly grateful to everyone who donated and supported our theatre during these trying times, however big or small and every act of spreading the word has made this possible, we can’t wait to share this important story with you!”
“No one knows we’re here, to them we are invisible”
Starring Chido Kunene, Funke Adeleke, Laide Sonola and Mark Rush, I and the Village explores the consequences of long term confinement in a system designed to be flawed. A story of longing, survival and hope. Other creatives involved are Set and Costume Designer Constance Villemot, Lighting and Sound Designer Chuma Emembolu, Dramaturg and Researcher Matilda Velevitch, Assistant Director Tom Ward, Produced by Natalie Chan with Creative Producer Tessa Hart and Assistant Producer Rosie Sharp.
Living in limbo at an isolated Direct Provision Centre, Keicha and Jeta await decisions on their status to remain in Ireland. Sharing a room, their memories and fantasies seep into the dank walls merging into one story. When eighteen-year-old Hannah joins them she must fight to maintain her sense of identity or risk getting swept up in their reality. Limited in what he can do, kind hearted Carl, battles with his morals and his position as Centre Manager.
Tickets are now on sale, visit here
For press tickets and further information, contact Natalie Chan via natalie@breadandrosestheatre.co.uk or 07432193819
Recommended 16+, contains strong language and adult themes.
Previews: 25th & 26th May 2021 | Press night: 27th May 2021
Tuesday 25th - Saturday 30th May at 7.30pm & Saturday 30th May 2:30pm
Tuesday 2nd - Saturday 5th June at 7.30pm & Saturday 5th June 2:30pm
Tickets: £14 | Concessions: £12 | Running time: 90 minutes
PRAISE FOR PREVIOUS BREAD & ROSES PLAYWRITING AWARD WINNERS
"Funny, moving, powerful new play" ★★★★★ - Remotegoat
"a renewed sense of wonder at the human spirit" ★★★★★ - Breaking the Fourth Wall
"Full of mellow humour and tasty conflict of character" ★★★★ & Top Pick of the Month - LPT Magazine
Starring Chido Kunene, Funke Adeleke, Laide Sonola and Mark Rush, I and the Village explores the consequences of long term confinement in a system designed to be flawed. A story of longing, survival and hope. Other creatives involved are Set and Costume Designer Constance Villemot, Lighting and Sound Designer Chuma Emembolu, Dramaturg and Researcher Matilda Velevitch, Assistant Director Tom Ward, Produced by Natalie Chan with Creative Producer Tessa Hart and Assistant Producer Rosie Sharp.
Living in limbo at an isolated Direct Provision Centre, Keicha and Jeta await decisions on their status to remain in Ireland. Sharing a room, their memories and fantasies seep into the dank walls merging into one story. When eighteen-year-old Hannah joins them she must fight to maintain her sense of identity or risk getting swept up in their reality. Limited in what he can do, kind hearted Carl, battles with his morals and his position as Centre Manager.
Tickets are now on sale, visit here
For press tickets and further information, contact Natalie Chan via natalie@breadandrosestheatre.co.uk or 07432193819
Recommended 16+, contains strong language and adult themes.
Previews: 25th & 26th May 2021 | Press night: 27th May 2021
Tuesday 25th - Saturday 30th May at 7.30pm & Saturday 30th May 2:30pm
Tuesday 2nd - Saturday 5th June at 7.30pm & Saturday 5th June 2:30pm
Tickets: £14 | Concessions: £12 | Running time: 90 minutes
PRAISE FOR PREVIOUS BREAD & ROSES PLAYWRITING AWARD WINNERS
"Funny, moving, powerful new play" ★★★★★ - Remotegoat
"a renewed sense of wonder at the human spirit" ★★★★★ - Breaking the Fourth Wall
"Full of mellow humour and tasty conflict of character" ★★★★ & Top Pick of the Month - LPT Magazine
CAST
JETA | CHIDO KUNENE
Chido Kunene is a Zimbabwean native and has lived in the UK most of her life. She has been acting and in continuous training for over 5years with Institutional Acting in London. Some of her theatre work includes Alfie playing (Vy), Lysistrata playing (Rhoddiphe). Chido is also in a short feature film playing the role of a Healer, titled N'anga that is due to come out this year. Chido is honoured to be playing the role of Jeta as she sees a little of herself in Jeta. 'I believe this is a story that would shed light to those who are blind at how confinement can change one's equilibrium, especially when treated less than humane'
KEICHA | FUNKE ADELEKE
Funke is an actor musician who was a lead singer in a band called London Afrobeat Collective for 4 years where she won the Best Black British award in 2015 after releasing an album called Food Chain. She studied at Royal Central school of Speech and Drama. She is also a member of Clean Break where she won her bursary to study at Central. She has been working in the industry consistently since leaving Central in 2017. She has been in numerous commercials, most notably the Just Eat advert, an R&D with Wretched Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company and Graeae Theatre. She can also be seen in short films Padre and Sweatbox.
HANNAH | LAIDE SONOLA
Laide trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts
Theatre credits include : Take Me Back (Criterion Theatre & UK Tour), The Countdown (Millfield Theatre), The Jungle Book (Tabard Theatre & Sala Umberto Theatre, Rome), Metamorphosis (Hen and Chickens Theatre), Beauty and the Beast (Colour House Theatre)/ Film credits include : Rethinktion, Behind Closed Doors, Deadly Distraction
CARL | MARK RUSH
Mark is an Irish actor who studied at Drama Studio London. He is delighted to be playing the role of Carl in I and the Village and to have the opportunity to work with an incredibly talented cast and creative team to tell this compelling and urgent story. His theatre credits include Napoleon Blown Apart (Arcola), Woyzeck (UK tour & Redbridge Drama Centre), The Waiting Room (Leicester Square Theatre & Arts Theatre), Much Ado About Nothing (St. George's Gardens & UK Tour) Awkward Balloon (Old Red Lion Theatre), Fear and Misery of the Third Reich (Scene Productions) and Romeo & Juliet (Rosemary Branch Theatre). Mark is also the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Wanderers.
THE BREAD & ROSES THEATRE AND COMPANY
A 40- to 60-seat award-winning and innovative fringe theatre above The Bread & Roses Pub in Clapham, which programs a wide-spread variety of productions for local as well as far-reaching audiences. Equality, diversity and artistic quality are at the forefront of the theatre's programming, which features in-house productions as well as many visiting companies. The theatre was launched in November 2014 and is managed by The Bread & Roses Theatre Company (BRTC), who had been using an upstairs function room at the pub since 2012 for their short play night ‘The Platform’. After converting the space into a theatre the BRTC also went on to produce full-scale productions of a new adaptation of August Strindberg’s 'Miss Julie' in 2015, 'Low Level Panic' by Clare McIntyre in 2016, ‘dirty butterfly’ by debbie tucker green and the premiere of their playwriting award winner ‘The Black Eye Club’ by Phil Charles in 2017 and runners-up 'Little Did I Know' by Doc Andersen Bloomfield and The Buzz by Lydia Rynne in 2018.
PLAYWRIGHT | DARREN DONOHUE
Darren Donohue is an award-winning Irish playwright and poet. His plays and readings for the Abbey Theatre include Home Game, The Death of Actaeon, Home-from-Home.
Other plays include, Dayshift (Tramedautore Theatre Festival – Milan, Festival on the Crisis PIIGS – Barcelona), Voices in the Rubble (Rapid Lemon Productions – Washington D.C.), Tuesday Evening (following the news) (Fishamble), A Bucket Full of Fire (Sheer Tantrum/Pandora), The Bird Trap (Three Streets Theatre Company), Revelations, Propelled Upright (Dublin Fringe Festival), Bedlam (Dublin Theatre Festival), Dual Cats with One Crayfish (Irish Repertory Theatre - New York).
In 2020, Darren won the Radius Playwriting Prize, in association with Finborough Theatre and received the Dennis O’Driscoll Literary Award. His work was also shortlisted for the Nick Darke Award, 2020. He is currently a ‘Through the Mill’ Finalist at the Hope Mill Theatre.
Darren was writer-in-residence at Carlow College in 2019 and at the Science Gallery, Trinity College, 2020.
CO-DIRECTOR | VELENZIA SPEARPOINT
Theatremaker Velenzia Spearpoint has over 10 years experience on the fringe theatre scene as a director, performer and producer. As of April 2018 she became Artistic Director at the Bread & Roses Theatre & in January 2019 co-founded the Chapel Playhouse. She is also co-founder of women-led theatre company Get Over It Productions and consistently works with several other companies and theatres across London. Recent credits include, Difficult Conversations (Union Theatre), Hungerland (Bread & Roses Theatre), Lucky 8 (Glass Half Full- Online) & The Scene (Chiswick Playhouse / Podcast).
CO-DIRECTOR | REBECCA PRYLE
Rebecca Pryle is the Managing Director and Co-founder of The Bread & Roses Theatre. Graduating with a BA Hons in Drama before training as an actress at the Maggie Flanigan Studio in New York on a two year Meisner Conservatory program. Rebecca has worked in theatre for the past 12 years as an actress and creative producer and in more recent years as a director. Rebecca has appeared in four of BRTC's full length in-house productions, including 'Miss Julie', 'Low Level Panic', 'Dirty Butterfly' and 'The Black Eye Club', ‘The Vagina Monologues’ several times, ‘Age of Love’ at the Camden Fringe Festival and numerous new writing nights around town with other theatre companies.
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR | TOM WARD
Tom Ward (Bread & Roses Emerging Director 2021) is a theatre director interested in finding new, dynamic ways of telling stories that affect marginalised, vulnerable groups of people/individuals. He has worked internationally (in Beijing and Barcelona as an Assistant) and has been making work on the fringe for the last 3 years. He can’t wait to call The Bread and Roses Theatre home for the year, and he looks forward to building his confidence as an artist, developing his skills, making connections with exciting new writers, and becoming a more effective theatre maker.
PRODUCER | NATALIE CHAN
Natalie is a theatre producer from Hong Kong. Currently she is General Manager for Creative Youth and Associate Producer for The Bread and Roses Theatre. Prior to this she has worked with Spun Glass Theatre, Arch468, The Coronet Theatre and Pleasance Theatre in varying capacities. Natalie started her career as Resident Assistant Producer for Theatre503. Recent highlights include working with BFI Network to deliver fundraising workshops and producing Dumbledore Is So Gay which won the VAULT Festival’s Origins Award 2020.
ASSISTANT PRODUCER | ROSIE SHARP
Rosie Sharp is a producer, actor and writer. Before graduating from Italia Conti in 2019, she co-founded the female-led company Ginger & Blonde Theatre. Writing alongside partner Anna McKelvie, their debut production "IS THAT ALL THERE IS?" sold out at The Bread & Roses in October 2019. Since then the piece has been developed and will be staged at The Old Red Lion in March this year. Since graduating from drama school she has been working with The Young Shakespeare Company, playing Macduff on their theatre tour of Macbeth. Rosie is passionate and excited by new writing. She cannot wait to be part of such an innovative and inclusive theatre and is proud to be The Bread & Roses emerging producer of 2021.
LIGHTING & SOUND DESIGNER & OPERATOR | CHUMA EMEMBOLU
Chuma Emembolu is a Lighting/Sound/Video Designer and a director. He training at the RSC as a designer and has had over ten years of experience designing shows for theatre in the Rep and Fringe. As one of the original directors of Aequitas theatre company he has designed shows around the London fringe circuit. Chuma is a professional member of the Association of Lighting Designers and Equity. An expert programmer working on Avolites, EOS, grand, strand lighting desks and QLab he continues to create innovative, intriguing and unique designs on every show.
SET & COSTUME DESIGNER | CONSTANCE VILLEMOT
Constance is a set and costume designer based in London. What she really appreciates about theatre and performing art in general is the collective effort leading to a performance. She designs simple and poetic spaces to enhance and engage with the audience’s imagination beyond what they can see. Her most recent credits include Love, Genius and a Walk (director Leah Townley, LGW Productions), Tell it Slant (director Erica Miller, Merry Spinsters), Miss Julie (director Gavin McAlinden, Acting Gymnasium), A Doll's House (director Gavin McAlinden, Acting Gymnasium), The Seagull (director Julien Balajas, Tamise en Scene), The Frogs (director Zara Walwyn, Wallfrog LTD), Dare to Dream (director Karen Gillingham, Buckinghamshire Music Trust), Jekyll & Hyde (director Jonny Morton, Chickenshed).
CREATIVE PRODUCER | TESSA HART
Tessa Hart is a culture maker in performance, film and sociocultural fields, who has primarily worked and studied in the UK and Germany. Besides being a co-founder & Executive Director of The Bread & Roses Theatre, Tessa also served as its Artistic Director from 2014 to 2018, when she stepped down to focus on her work in Berlin, where she is currently the Project Director of AfroPolitan Berlin. Tessa is also the Artistic Director of Goblin Baby Co. and holds an MFA in Acting International from East 15 Acting School as well as a BA in Theatre Studies from the Free University of Berlin, where she is currently also completing a PhD.
A 40- to 60-seat award-winning and innovative fringe theatre above The Bread & Roses Pub in Clapham, which programs a wide-spread variety of productions for local as well as far-reaching audiences. Equality, diversity and artistic quality are at the forefront of the theatre's programming, which features in-house productions as well as many visiting companies. The theatre was launched in November 2014 and is managed by The Bread & Roses Theatre Company (BRTC), who had been using an upstairs function room at the pub since 2012 for their short play night ‘The Platform’. After converting the space into a theatre the BRTC also went on to produce full-scale productions of a new adaptation of August Strindberg’s 'Miss Julie' in 2015, 'Low Level Panic' by Clare McIntyre in 2016, ‘dirty butterfly’ by debbie tucker green and the premiere of their playwriting award winner ‘The Black Eye Club’ by Phil Charles in 2017 and runners-up 'Little Did I Know' by Doc Andersen Bloomfield and The Buzz by Lydia Rynne in 2018.
PLAYWRIGHT | DARREN DONOHUE
Darren Donohue is an award-winning Irish playwright and poet. His plays and readings for the Abbey Theatre include Home Game, The Death of Actaeon, Home-from-Home.
Other plays include, Dayshift (Tramedautore Theatre Festival – Milan, Festival on the Crisis PIIGS – Barcelona), Voices in the Rubble (Rapid Lemon Productions – Washington D.C.), Tuesday Evening (following the news) (Fishamble), A Bucket Full of Fire (Sheer Tantrum/Pandora), The Bird Trap (Three Streets Theatre Company), Revelations, Propelled Upright (Dublin Fringe Festival), Bedlam (Dublin Theatre Festival), Dual Cats with One Crayfish (Irish Repertory Theatre - New York).
In 2020, Darren won the Radius Playwriting Prize, in association with Finborough Theatre and received the Dennis O’Driscoll Literary Award. His work was also shortlisted for the Nick Darke Award, 2020. He is currently a ‘Through the Mill’ Finalist at the Hope Mill Theatre.
Darren was writer-in-residence at Carlow College in 2019 and at the Science Gallery, Trinity College, 2020.
CO-DIRECTOR | VELENZIA SPEARPOINT
Theatremaker Velenzia Spearpoint has over 10 years experience on the fringe theatre scene as a director, performer and producer. As of April 2018 she became Artistic Director at the Bread & Roses Theatre & in January 2019 co-founded the Chapel Playhouse. She is also co-founder of women-led theatre company Get Over It Productions and consistently works with several other companies and theatres across London. Recent credits include, Difficult Conversations (Union Theatre), Hungerland (Bread & Roses Theatre), Lucky 8 (Glass Half Full- Online) & The Scene (Chiswick Playhouse / Podcast).
CO-DIRECTOR | REBECCA PRYLE
Rebecca Pryle is the Managing Director and Co-founder of The Bread & Roses Theatre. Graduating with a BA Hons in Drama before training as an actress at the Maggie Flanigan Studio in New York on a two year Meisner Conservatory program. Rebecca has worked in theatre for the past 12 years as an actress and creative producer and in more recent years as a director. Rebecca has appeared in four of BRTC's full length in-house productions, including 'Miss Julie', 'Low Level Panic', 'Dirty Butterfly' and 'The Black Eye Club', ‘The Vagina Monologues’ several times, ‘Age of Love’ at the Camden Fringe Festival and numerous new writing nights around town with other theatre companies.
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR | TOM WARD
Tom Ward (Bread & Roses Emerging Director 2021) is a theatre director interested in finding new, dynamic ways of telling stories that affect marginalised, vulnerable groups of people/individuals. He has worked internationally (in Beijing and Barcelona as an Assistant) and has been making work on the fringe for the last 3 years. He can’t wait to call The Bread and Roses Theatre home for the year, and he looks forward to building his confidence as an artist, developing his skills, making connections with exciting new writers, and becoming a more effective theatre maker.
PRODUCER | NATALIE CHAN
Natalie is a theatre producer from Hong Kong. Currently she is General Manager for Creative Youth and Associate Producer for The Bread and Roses Theatre. Prior to this she has worked with Spun Glass Theatre, Arch468, The Coronet Theatre and Pleasance Theatre in varying capacities. Natalie started her career as Resident Assistant Producer for Theatre503. Recent highlights include working with BFI Network to deliver fundraising workshops and producing Dumbledore Is So Gay which won the VAULT Festival’s Origins Award 2020.
ASSISTANT PRODUCER | ROSIE SHARP
Rosie Sharp is a producer, actor and writer. Before graduating from Italia Conti in 2019, she co-founded the female-led company Ginger & Blonde Theatre. Writing alongside partner Anna McKelvie, their debut production "IS THAT ALL THERE IS?" sold out at The Bread & Roses in October 2019. Since then the piece has been developed and will be staged at The Old Red Lion in March this year. Since graduating from drama school she has been working with The Young Shakespeare Company, playing Macduff on their theatre tour of Macbeth. Rosie is passionate and excited by new writing. She cannot wait to be part of such an innovative and inclusive theatre and is proud to be The Bread & Roses emerging producer of 2021.
LIGHTING & SOUND DESIGNER & OPERATOR | CHUMA EMEMBOLU
Chuma Emembolu is a Lighting/Sound/Video Designer and a director. He training at the RSC as a designer and has had over ten years of experience designing shows for theatre in the Rep and Fringe. As one of the original directors of Aequitas theatre company he has designed shows around the London fringe circuit. Chuma is a professional member of the Association of Lighting Designers and Equity. An expert programmer working on Avolites, EOS, grand, strand lighting desks and QLab he continues to create innovative, intriguing and unique designs on every show.
SET & COSTUME DESIGNER | CONSTANCE VILLEMOT
Constance is a set and costume designer based in London. What she really appreciates about theatre and performing art in general is the collective effort leading to a performance. She designs simple and poetic spaces to enhance and engage with the audience’s imagination beyond what they can see. Her most recent credits include Love, Genius and a Walk (director Leah Townley, LGW Productions), Tell it Slant (director Erica Miller, Merry Spinsters), Miss Julie (director Gavin McAlinden, Acting Gymnasium), A Doll's House (director Gavin McAlinden, Acting Gymnasium), The Seagull (director Julien Balajas, Tamise en Scene), The Frogs (director Zara Walwyn, Wallfrog LTD), Dare to Dream (director Karen Gillingham, Buckinghamshire Music Trust), Jekyll & Hyde (director Jonny Morton, Chickenshed).
CREATIVE PRODUCER | TESSA HART
Tessa Hart is a culture maker in performance, film and sociocultural fields, who has primarily worked and studied in the UK and Germany. Besides being a co-founder & Executive Director of The Bread & Roses Theatre, Tessa also served as its Artistic Director from 2014 to 2018, when she stepped down to focus on her work in Berlin, where she is currently the Project Director of AfroPolitan Berlin. Tessa is also the Artistic Director of Goblin Baby Co. and holds an MFA in Acting International from East 15 Acting School as well as a BA in Theatre Studies from the Free University of Berlin, where she is currently also completing a PhD.