Full Cast Announced For BLACK LOVE Launching Kiln Theatre's 2022 Season

Kiln Theatre's Artistic Director Indhu Rubasingham announces the full company for Chinonyerem Odimba's Black Love. Black Love launches the theatre's 2022 season, transforming the venue into the round. With Book and Lyrics by Chinonyerem Odimba, Music by Ben and Max Ringham, the production opens on 1 April with previews from 28 March and runs until 23 April, following a successful tour as part of Paines Plough's Roundabout season last year. Odimba directs Nathan Queeley-Dennis who reprises the role of Orion, Nicholle Cherrie as Roo and Beth Elliott as Lois - who join the company for the run at Kiln Theatre.

Directed by Chinonyerem Odimba; Designer Richard Kent; Lighting Designer Richard Howell; Sound Designer Joel Price; Video Designer Gillian Tan; Casting Director Jacob Sparrow; Musical Director Candida Caldicot; Associate Musical Director Abdul Shyllon; Costume Supervisor Nathasha Ward; Assistant Director Kaleya Baxe

Following a five-star, critically acclaimed national tour, Black Love comes to Kiln Theatre for a strictly limited run.

Meet Aurora and Orion. Sister and brother. Constellations in time. More than blood. More than just fam.

Inside their small London flat, memories of their parents' Black love surrounds them. When that love is threatened, they must first find understanding and connection before they can begin to find a way back to one another.

An explosion of form-busting storytelling, Black Love celebrates and investigates the Black experience through music, real-life stories and imagined worlds. This 'beautiful ode to black society and home' (The Guardian) is not to be missed.

Black Love originally premiered in July 2021 as part of Paines Plough's Roundabout season co-produced by Belgrade Theatre, Coventry in Association with tiata fahodzi.

Nicholle Cherrie plays Roo. For theatre, her credits include 15 Heroines (Jermyn Street Theatre - streamed online), Girl from the North Country (Gielgud Theatre and Toronto), Richard II (Shakespeare's Globe), Leave Taking (Bush Theatre), Mamma Mia! (Cyprus), and Jesus Christ Superstar (Regent's Park Open Air Theatre). Her television work includes Doctors.

Beth Elliott plays Lois. She was chosen to represent LIPA - where she trained - at The Sam Wanamaker Festival at Shakespeare's Globe. Her theatre credits include All the Little Lights (Barewater Productions) and Cabaret (Treble Theatre Company); and TIE tours of Time Out and Skin Deep with Solomon Theatre Company.

Nathan Queeley-Dennis plays Orion. He trained at East 15 and is a former MonologueSlam winner. For theatre, his credits include A Taste of Honey (National Theatre), Little Baby Jesus (Birmingham REP), Pinocchio (Orange Tree Theatre), Really Big and Really Loud (Paines Plough), Rebel Music (Middle Child), and his own written piece Bullring Techno Makeout Jamz (Bunker Theatre and The Vaults). For television, his work includes Doctors.

Chinonyerem Odimba is a Nigerian British playwright, screenwriter, and poet. Her work for theatre includes The Bird Woman of Lewisham at the Arcola; Rainy Season, and His Name is Ishmael for Bristol Old Vic; Joanne for Clean Break, and Amongst the Reeds for Clean Break and The Yard.

Her work for young people includes a modern retelling of Twist for Theatre Centre and Sweetness of a Sting for NT Connections. More recent work ranges from Medea at Bristol Old Vic, We Too, Are Giants for Kiln Theatre, Unknown Rivers at Hampstead Theatre, Prince and the Pauper at Watermill Theatre, and The Seven Ages of Patience at Kiln Theatre, and Princess & The Hustler' which toured across the UK for Eclipse Theatre/Bristol Old Vic/HullTruck.

Her work has been shortlisted for several awards including the Adrienne Benham and Alfred Fagon awards. In 2015 her unproduced play Wild is De Wind was shortlisted to the final ten for the Bruntwood Playwriting Award. She is the winner for the 2018 Sonia Friedman Award (Channel 4 Playwright Bursary) for a new play 'How to Walk on the Moon'. She is currently working on theatre commissions for Young Vic, Manchester Royal Exchange and Popcorn Productions. For Radio, credits include The Last flag, and Eve as part of This Is Your Country, Now series on BBC Radio 4.

As a director, Chinonyerem has worked for Bristol Old Vic, Theatre503 and Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. She co-directed her play Black Love for Paines Plough, which she brings back to the stage at Kiln Theatre in March 2022 as director. Chinonyerem will be directing When the Long Trick's Over, a new play by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm for HighTide and New Wolsey Theatre in February 2022. Her work has been shortlisted for several awards including the Adrienne Benham and Alfred Fagon awards. Most recently this includes the Writers' Guild Awards shortlist for Best Musical Theatre Bookwriting for Black Love and The Prince and the Pauper.

Ben and Max Ringham's work includes Cyrano De Bergerac (Playhouse Theatre), The Wife of Willesden, NW Trilogy, Pass Over, The Seven Ages of Patience, When the Crows Visit, Ben Hur, A Wolf in Snakeskin Shoes and Multitudes, (Kiln Theatre), The Mentalists, The Man in the White Suit (Wyndham's Theatre), Games For Lovers (Vault Theatre), Anna, Tartuffe (National Theatre), Betrayal, Pinter at the Pinter (Harold Pinter Theatre and Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, Broadway), Berberian Sound Studio, Belleville (Donmar Warehouse), Dick Whittington (Lyric Hammersmith), The Wolves (Theatre Royal Stratford East), King Lear (Duke of York's Theatre and Chichester Festival Theatre), Quiz (Noël Coward and Chichester Festival Theatre), Strangers on a Train, Gaslight (ATG), Parliament Square, Our Town, The Mighty Walzer (Royal Exchange Manchester), Apologia, Lunch and The Bow of Ulysses, Doctor Faustus, The Maids (Trafalgar Studios), Twilight Song (Park Theatre), Gloria (Hampstead Theatre), The Importance of Being Earnest (Theatr Clwyd), Pygmalion (Headlong/West Yorkshire Playhouse/Nuffield Southampton), The Miser (Garrick Theatre), The Pitchfork Disney (Shoreditch Town Hall), The Dresser, Jeeves and Wooster (Duke of York's Theatre), After Miss Julie (Theatre Royal Bath), Deathtrap (Salisbury Playhouse), The Government Inspector (Birmingham Rep), Raz (Assembly Theatre/Riverside Studios), Queen Anne (RSC/Theatre Royal Haymarket), and La Musica, Ah, Wilderness! (Young Vic).

Kiln Theatre has been granted the use of Society of London Theatre & UK Theatre's See It Safely mark. The mark certifies that they are complying with the latest Government and industry COVID-19 guidelines, to ensure the safety of their staff and audiences. Ticket holders can find out more here [https://officiallondontheatre.com/see-it-safely/] about the measures that have been put in place ahead of their visit, and what they will need to know beforehand.

Box Office: 020 7328 1000

www.KilnTheatre.com

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