Actors Touring Company Announces Two Live Productions Planned For Summer and Autumn

As live theatre begins to re-emerge, today leading UK touring company Actors Touring Company (ATC) announces two co-productions for this Summer and Autumn, which reflect the company's commitment to articulating the position of the 'outsider' within our society and to giving voice to those who may not otherwise be heard. Teaming up with GDIF (Greenwich+Docklands International Festival) London's leading outdoor performing arts festival and Young Vic, ATC's Artistic Director Matthew Xia will direct the world premiere of Family Tree by Mojisola Adebayo and in a co-production with Orange Tree Theatre the company will stage the European premiere of Michele Lee's Rice, also directed by Xia.

FAMILY TREE, which runs from 27 to 30 August at Charlton House & Gardens Greenwich (press performance Sat 28 August) as part of Greenwich and Dockland's International Festival, takes as its inspiration the story of Henrietta Lacks, an African American woman, whose cells were harvested and cultivated without her consent after her death from cervical cancer in the 1950s. The so-called HeLa cells have been vital to studying disease and have even contributed to the development of the COVID-19 vaccines. Using the Lacks story as a springboard, this site responsive production is a powerful exploration around the themes of ethics in healthcare, racism, the environment and a woman's right to autonomy over her own body. This staging of Family Tree is co-commissioned and presented by ATC, FESTIVAL.ORG and Young Vic from the co-commission by ATC and Young Vic and is part of the development process for a full theatre run in 2022.

RICE, which runs from 9 October to 13 November at Orange Tree Theatre (press performance: Wed 13 October at 7pm, OT On Screen: 4-5 November, 7.30pm), is the UK première of a powerful new play from Asian-Australian writer Michele Lee, which has won numerous awards including the Australian Writers' Guild Award for Best Original Stage Play. It tells the story of Nisha, a young hotshot executive working for Golden Fields, Australia's largest producer of rice. Ambitious and headstrong, she's determined to become the first female Indian CEO in Australia. She's close to sealing a contract with the Indian government, which would see her company take over India's national rice distribution system. A secret deal worth billions. Working late nights in the office she encounters Yvette, an older Chinese migrant, who cleans up her mess. Yvette has her own entrepreneurial ambitions, but her daughter faces court after protesting against unethical practices of a national supermarket chain. The two form a powerful - if unlikely - bond as they navigate the complexities of their lives and the world at large. Rice brims with wickedly humorous observations on globalisation, politics and family.

MATTHEW XIA says:

"Inspired by the life of Henrietta Lacks, Mojisola, a truly exceptional theatre artist and activist, has created a play which is incisively contemporary whilst holding historical malpractice to account. It's fearless, brutally honest, at turns hilarious, and ultimately transformative. This ritualistic celebration is our way of uplifting, remembering, and learning from these women who were used in the name of medical advancement.

In a similar vein, Michele Lee has written about the lives of those we rarely see - this time in the twilight crossover of high-flying female CEOs and those who clean up after them. Full of insightful observations on ethnicity, gender, migrancy and the politics of global food production, RICE offers a look at the relationships formed by migrants of different generations with their new home, and each other.

I'm really proud of these two plays which centre the experiences of Black and Asian women globally, together they give form to ATC's values and epitomise our mission to platform and promote international and cross-cultural voices."

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