Cast Set For RADIANT BOY at Southwark Playhouse Borough

The full cast has been announced for the world premiere of Radiant Boy at Southwark Playhouse Borough, written by Nancy Netherwood. Joining the previously announced Renée Lamb and Stuart Thompson are Ben Allen and Wendy Nottingham. 

Directed by Júlia Levai, Radiant Boy opens at Southwark Playhouse Borough on 23 May, with previews from 21 May and runs until 14 June.

Júlia Levai said today, “I’m really looking forward to working with this wonderful cast on Radiant Boy. The play explores important themes like faith, identity, and connection, and I’m excited to see how the actors bring their unique energy to the characters. It’s a great opportunity to tell a story that feels both timely and personal, and I’m eager to share it with audiences.”

North-East England, 1983. As a snowstorm rages outside, trainee singer Russell and his mother Maud await the arrival of a young priest who believes Russell is a victim of possession.

Winner of the RSC's 37 plays competition, Radiant Boy is a new play about faith, shame and queerness and finding connection through art.

 Biographies

Nancy Netherwood is a playwright and screenwriter. Her playwriting credits include Warm Lonely Planet (Southwark Playhouse), Goodnight, Mr Spindrift (Old Red Lion Theatre) and Just Like the Films (Royal Court Theatre); and for the screen, Kill Joy Jukebox. Netherwood was a writer in residence at the North Wall for their Catalyst Festival in 2019 and is currently part of the London Library Emerging Writers Programme.

Stuart Thompson plays Russell. His theatre credits include Three Sisters (Shakespeare’s Globe), Ghosts (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse), The Narcissist (Chichester Festival Theatre), Spring Awakening (Almeida Theatre), Living Newspaper (Royal Court Theatre), Did I Wake You? (Young Vic) and A Taste of Honey (National Theatre). His television credits include SAS Rogue Heroes, Starstruck, The Witcher and Unprecedented: Viral. In 2022, Thompson won The Jack Tinker Award for Most Promising Newcomer at the Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards.

Wendy Nottingham plays Maud. Her theatre credits include The Last of the Boys (Southwark Playhouse), Time and Tide (Park Theatre), The Winslow Boy (The Old Vic), Grief (National Theatre), The Shaughraun (National Theatre), The Voysey Inheritance (National Theatre), Total Eclipse (Menier Chocolate Factory), Now This Is Not The End (Arcola Theatre), Rupert Street Lonely Hearts Club (Criterion Theatre), The Way of The World (Lyric Hammersmith), Curtains (Rose Theatre Kingston), Diminished (Hampstead Theatre), Forgotten Voices (Pleasance, Edinburgh), Donkey Heart (Old Red Lion Theatre), One Hour Eighteen Minutes (Sputnik Theatre Company), Celebrity Night at Cafe Red (Trafalgar Studios), Step 9 (of 12) (Trafalgar Studios), In Basildon, The Madness of Esme and Shaz, Ambulance (Royal Court Theatre), Blithe Spirit (Manchester Royal Exchange), Natural Selection (Theatre503), Stoopud Fucken Animals (Traverse Theatre), Cloud Nine (Sheffield Theatres), Abigail’s Party (Ambassadors Theatre/Hampstead Theatre), The York Realist (UK tour/Royal Court Theatre), It's A Great Big Shame (Stratford East), Jane Eyre (Leeds Playhouse), and The Crucible (Young Vic Studio). Her television credits include Peaky Blinders, Mr Selfridge, Crimson Petal and the White, Shakespeare & Hathaway, The Borgias, A Young Doctor's Notebook, Getting On, Spooks, Kingdom, Housewife 49, Extras, The Rise and Fall of Rome, The Golden Hour, Kiss Me Kate, Extremely Dangerous, People Like Us, The People Principle, McCallum, A Wing and a Prayer, The Peter Principle, The Sculptress, Bliss, The Vet, Bramwell, The Wimbledon Poisoner, Kinsey, Shrinks, A Very Peculiar Practice, What's Got Into You, Tumbledown, Precious Bane, and The Short and Curlies. Her film credits include The Last Letter From Your Lover, Ammonite, Mr Malcolm's List, The Children Act, Farming, Madame Bovary, Pudsey the Dog: The Movie, Bigga Than Ben, Atonement, Notes on a Scandal, Babel, Vera Drake, Topsy Turvy, Secrets and Lies, The Short and Curlies.

Renée Lamb plays Steph/The Voice. Her theatre credits at Southwark Playhouse include Ain't Misbehavin’. Other theatre credits include Passing Strange (Young Vic), Cake (Lyric Theatre, The Other Palace), Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World, Malory Towers (UK tours) Be More Chill (The Other Place, Shaftesbury Theatre), Little Shop of Horrors (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre) and SIX (Arts Theatre). Her television credits include This Town and Still so Awkward; and for film, This is the Night Mail.

Ben Allen plays Father Miller. His theatre credits include Macbeth, Noises Off (UK tours), Measure for Measure (Donmar Warehouse), All’s Well That Ends Well (National Theatre), The History Boys (National Theatre), Gently Down the Stream (Park Theatre), Black Superhero (Royal Court Theatre), Folk (Hampstead Theatre), The Cherry Orchard, Hamlet (Theatre Royal Windsor), Present Laughter (Chichester Festival Theatre), Canary (Liverpool Playhouse/Hampstead Theatre/ETT tour), …And Darkness Descended (Punchdrunk), Antony and Cleopatra (Royal Shakespeare Company), Julius Caesar (Royal Shakespeare Company), Oppenheimer (Royal Shakespeare Company), The Shoemaker's Holiday (Royal Shakespeare Company), Night (Propeller), The Taming of the Shrew (Propeller), The Merchant of Venice (Propeller), The Winter’s Tale, (Propeller), Henry V (Propeller), and P.S. Your Cat is Dead (Jimmy Zoole, The AIDS Plays Project). His television credits include Sandman, Vigil, World on Fire, Breeders, Soulmates, Cursed, Barbarians Rising, and Bonekickers; and for film, Another End and The Foreigner.

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