Juma Sharkah & Laura Elsworthy to Join Maxine Peake in THE SKRIKER at Manchester International Festival

Juma Sharkah and Laura Elsworthy will play Lily and Josie respectively in The Skriker at Manchester International Festival. The production will run at Royal Exchange Theatre from 4 July. The ensemble cast will include Sarah Amankwah, Harry Attwell, Alex Austin, Hannah Hutch, Martins Imhangbe, Kate Jackson, Stuart Overington, Beatrice Scirocchi, Andrew Sheridan, Jessica Walker, Leah Walker and Owen Whitelaw. As previously announced, Maxine Peake will play the eponymous role.

This landmark revival of Caryl Churchill's extraordinary collision of ancient fairy story and portrait of a fractured England will be directed by Sarah Frankcom and will feature specially commissioned music by Nico Muhly and Antony.

...long before that, long before England was an idea, a country of snow and wolves where trees sang and birds talked and people knew we mattered...

In a broken world, two sisters meet an extraordinary creature. The Skriker is a shapeshifter; an old woman, a child, a death portent. She is a faerie come from the Underworld to pursue and entrap them, through time and space, through this world and her own.

Sarah Amankwah (Ensemble) is making her first appearance for the Royal Exchange Theatre. Other theatre credits include: The Lion King (Lyceum Theatre); De Gabay (National Theatre of Wales); Tiata Tamba Tamba (Tiata Fahodzi); Shakespeare 365, Spring Shakespeare (Orange Tree Theatre); A Midsummer Night's Dream and Six Characters In Search Of An Author (Aquila Theatre/US Tour); Fair Trade (Latitude Festival); The Early Years and Shadow Companion (Fuse Theatre Company); Rumpelstiltskin & Alice: Through The Looking Glass (Edinburgh Festival Fringe); 24 Hour Plays (Old Vic); Death & The King's Horseman (National Theatre); 'Tis Pity She's A Whore (Globe Theatre) and My Hands Are Tied (Afrocats). Television credits include: Damnation Of Darwin. Film credits include: World War Z.

Harry Attwell (Ensemble) has previously appeared at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Orpheus Descending. Other theatre credits include: The Crucible and The Duchess Of Malfi (The Old Vic); Henry V (Michael Grandage Company); King Lear, Richard II, Hamlet and Twelfth Night (Donmar Warehouse) and Hamlet (Broadhurst Theatre, New York). Film credits include: Genius; Testament of Youth; Maleficent; The Riot Club; Playboy and Paid Arrogance. Television credits include: The Night Manager, Mayday, Davinci's Demons. Radio credits include: Pride and Prejudice.

Alex Austin (Ensemble) has previously appeared for the Royal Exchange Theatre in Yen. Other theatre credits include: Henry V, The Nutcracker and The Greeks Season (Unicorn Theatre); Idomeneus (The Gate Theatre); Pigeons (Royal Court); Hope, Light and Nowhere (Suba Das Company/Underbelly) and Encourage The Others & My City (Almeida Theatre). Film credits include: Life In My Shoes, Legacy, The Christmas Candle, The Hooligan Factory, The World's End and The Swarm. Television credits include: The Interceptor, New Tricks, The Musketeers, Misfits and Holby City.

Laura Elsworthy (Josie) has previously appeared for the Royal Exchange Theatre in the Accrington Pals. Other theatre credits include: Our Town (Almeida Theatre); Macbeth (MIF13/Park Avenue Armory, NYC); The Only Way Is Chelsea's (York Theatre Royal/Soho Theatre); Cooking With Elvis (Derby Theatre); The Kitchen Sink, The Flint Street Nativity and Spacewang (Hull Truck Theatre) and Wedding This, Wedding That (Old Vic Tunnels). Film credits include: Testament of Youth and Cinderella. Television credits include: Doctors and Fresh Meat.

Hannah Hutch (Ensemble) is making her first appearance for the Royal Exchange Theatre. Other theatre credits include: Tis Pity She's A Whore (Shakespeare's Globe); The Crucible (The Old Vic); Sans Salome (Edinburgh Festival Fringe); Flood (National Youth Theatre) and The Lazy Elfe (The Arts Theatre London). Television credits include: Doctors. Film credits include: The Invisible Man.

Martins Imhangbe (Ensemble) is making his first appearance for the Royal Exchange Theatre. Other theatre credits include: Lionboy (UK & International Tour); Das Ding (New Diorama Theatre); Romeo And Juliet (Orange Tree Theatre); Cinderella: A Fairytale (Unicorn Theatre); Street Stories (Royal Opera House); A Human Being Died That Night (Hampstead Theatre); Sold. (Edinburgh Fringe) and What Does It Take (The Albany Theatre).

Kate Jackson (Ensemble) is making her first appearance for the Royal Exchange Theatre. Theatre credits include: The Drowned Man (Punchdrunk). Dance credits include: Faust (Royal Opera House); La Nuit Intime, Maeternal and Designer Body (balleyLORENT); Amazing Kate and Back On Track (Frauke Requart); Electric Hotel (Requart and Rosenberg); Chodzenie, Dual and Roam Stray Dogs (Tom Dale); La Sardina, Nightmares In Black And Green And Beyong The Seven Seas (Maresa von Stockert); Pictures From An Exhibition (Sadlers Wells Productions); Plastic and Chodzenie (30 Bird Productions); 16 Revolutions (Troika Ranch); Import Export (Steve Wright) and The Deep, Methods and Madness and Two Men And A Michael (Gary Clarke). Film credits include: World War Z.

Stuart Overington (Ensemble) is a graduate from the Royal Northern College of Music where he studied Vocal and Opera Studies and Conducting and is making his first appearance for the Royal Exchange Theatre. Opera credits include Company (Capitol Theatre); Il Ritorno D'ulisse (RNCM Opera Theatre); The Dancing Master (Royal and Derngate Theatre, Northampton) and Manon, Owen Wingrave and Tamerlano (RNCM Opera Theatre). Concert credits include appearing as a soloist at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and London Jazz Festival.

Beatrice Scirocchi (Ensemble) is making her first appearance for the Royal Exchange Theatre. Theatre credits include: The Magic Flute (Budapest Festival Orchestra); Run and Missing (Engineer Theatre Collective); The Mystae (The Hampstead); Ecstasy (Theatre Collection); Commedia D'argento (True West); The Missing (Engineer Theatre) The House Of Bernada Alba (The Almeida); Banished, The School For Scandal, Macbeth, To Be Taken With Water, The Seagull and Much Ado About Nothing (Central School of Speech and Drama) and Princess Sharon (Scarlet).

Juma Sharkah (Lily) is making her first appearance for the Royal Exchange Theatre and trained at Arts Ed London. Theatre credits include: Liberian Girl (The Royal Court) and Harvest, Macbeth, Punk Rock, All My Sons and Three Sisters.

Andrew Sheridan (Ensemble) has previously appeared at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Blindsided, Antigone, Jonah And Otto, The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice, Across Oka, Port and The Ribcage. Other theatre credits include: A Breakfast of Eels (The Coronet); Henry VI (Shakespeare's Globe); The Roundabout Season (RNT/Paines Plough); Expectations (GEST); A Thousand Stars Explode In The Sky (Lyric Hammersmith); Holes In The Skin (Chichester Minerva); Skinned (Nuffield/Southampton). Television includes: Peaky Blinders, The Trials Of Jimmy Rose, Homefront, Heartbeat, Kingdom, Cold Blood, Coronation Street, New Street Law, Shameless, Buried, Night Flight, Urban Gothic and Clocking Off. Film Credits include: Control.

Jessica Walker (Ensemble) is making her first appearance for the Royal Exchange Theatre. Theatre credits include: The Importance Of Being Earnest (NI Opera); Sunday In The Park With George (Theatre du Chatelet); Gloria And A Pig Tale (The Mahogany Opera Group); One Touch Of Venus, Julietta and Monteverdi's Orfeo (Opera North); School For Lovers (Glyndebourne and Finnish National Opera); The Mikado (Nationale Reis Opera); Il Re Pastore (Musiektheater Transparant) and Le Nozze Di Fiagaro (Stanley Hall).

Leah Walker (Ensemble) is making her first appearance for the Royal Exchange Theatre. Leah trained at LIPA and is making her professional debut. Credits in training include: Company; A Midsummer Night's Dream; Dorian Gray and Steel Magnolia's (LIPA). She also represented LIPA during the Sam Wanamaker Festival 2015 at Shakespeare's Globe.

Owen Whitelaw (Ensemble) is making his first appearance for the Royal Exchange Theatre. Other theatre credits include: Slope (Untitled Projects Ltd); Unfaithful (Traverse Theatre); In Time Of Strife (National Theatre Of Scotland & Tour); Paul Bright's Confessions Of A Justified Sinner (Untitled Projects Ltd); The Life Of Stuff (Theatre 503); Sleeping Beauty (Citizens Theatre); Wonderland (Vanishing Point, Tour); King Lear (Citizens Theatre); Knives In Hens (National Theatre Of Scotland, Tour); A Puff Of Smoke (Ignition Festival At Tristan Bates Theatre); Peter Pan (National Theatre Of Scotland); The Snow Queen (Carnegie Hall, Dunfermline) 10,000 Metres Deep (Òran Mór); About A Goth (Paines Plough / Òran Mór); Romeo & Juliet (Òran Mór); Mary Queen Of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off, Our Teacher's A Troll (National Theatre Of Scotland); Sleeping Beauty (Carnegie Hall, Dunfermline); Cockroach (National Theatre Of Scotland At Traverse Theatre) 365 (National Theatre Of Scotland); Cotton Wool, Nowheresville (Theatre 503); Rupture (National Theatre Of Scotland); Spangle Baby (Poorboy). Film credits include: Dying Light, Score, 7/11 In Repeat, What Would Ridley Do.

Commissioned and produced by Manchester International Festival and the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester.

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