Burning Coal Theatre Company Presents the World Premiere of A GREAT BIG WOOLLY MAMMOTH THAWING

Opening Burning Coal Theatre Company's 2022-2023 season, A Great Big Wooly Mammoth Thawing From The Ice is a world premiere by London based playwright Tatty Hennessy.

Hennessy uses a New York Times article about melting permafrost and the real-life recent discovery of preserved mammoths as inspiration to explore the unexpected sides of climate change and its impacts on personal relationships.

In Alaska an activist named Leah (AC Donahue), a tech giant named Justin (Matthew Hagar), and an oil driller named Jim (Gene Cordon) walk into a bar. They meet up with Jim's son Justin (Ben Apple), a wilderness guide, for an unusual journey through the Yukon. The isolation of the wilderness has a way of making the truth come out. The temperature is rising, and who knows what buried treasures they might find in the glacial wreckage.

Tatty Hennessy is a rising star playwright, director, and dramaturg who is based in London. Her play, A Hundred Words for Snow, won the Heretic Voices monologue

competition and received 4 Offie award nominations. The play was also produced by Burning Coal in 2020. Her other works include Animal Farm, an adaptation of the George Orwell novel of the same name, F Off, written in 2019 with the National Youth Theatre and The Snow Queen for Theatre N16. She has also completed her first script for television, Kitty Kitty.

This play will be directed by Lucy Jane Atkinson, a long-time collaborator and close friend of Hennessy's. Atkinson directed and helped develop the West End Production of Hennessy's A Hundred Words For Snow. She first connected with Burning Coal for last season's 2021 production of I And You by Lauren Gunderson. She recently assistant directed David Eldridge's Middle at London's National Theatre.

Set design by Erin Morales, lighting by Kevin Frazier, costume design by Jane Stein, and sound design by Christy Rose. The cast includes Burning Coal mainstays; the role of Leah will be played by A.C. Donohue (Camelot, Burning Coal), the role of Justin will be played by Matt Hager (Romeo And Juliet, Burning Coal), and the role of Chris will be played by Ben Apple (Churchill's Shorts, Burning Coal). The role of Jim will be played by Gene Cordon in his first performance with Burning Coal.

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