Photo Flash: SAN DOMINO Celebrates Opening Night at Tristan Bates Theatre

Final casting is announced for musical drama San Domino by Tim Anfilogoff and Alan Whittaker, based on Mussolini's infamous persecution of homosexuals.

San Domino is the story of a group of men sentenced to five years confinement for degeneracy on the island fortress of San Domino, with actor-musicians conjuring up an intimate tragi-comic world of love, loss and the struggle just to survive.

San Domino runs from Tuesday 5 to Saturday 30 June at Tristan Bates Theatre, 1A Tower St, Covent Garden WC2H 9NP.

Cast: Hannah Genesius (A Christmas Carol, Barbican Theatre/BBC Radio 4, Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare in the Squares, The Great Divide, Finborough); David Gibbons (Seasons of Larson, Lyric Theatre, I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking it on the Road, Jermyn Street Theatre); Callum Hale (The Merry Wives of Windsor, RSC outdoor venue, The Dell); Matthew Hendrickson (San Domino, Arcola, Dickens Abridged, original West End cast of The Reduced Shakespeare Company); Alexander Hulme (Split Ends, Phoenix Arts/Cockpit Theatre, The Last Tycoon, Tabard); Andrew Jardine (The English Heart, Etcetera Theatre, Teeth 'n' Smiles, Stockwell Playhouse); Christopher Laishley (Anyone Can Whistle, The Cherry Orchard, Fear and Misery of the Third Reich, all Union Theatre); Ross McKenna (San Domino is his professional debut); Grant Neal (West End: Chicago, Adelphi, Cambridge and Garrick, Into The Woods, Royal Opera House, Imagine This, New London, Evita, Adelphi, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, London Palladium) Fergal Newton (this is his professional debut); Roger Parkins (Next Time I'll Sing To You, Orange Tree, The Glass Protege, Park Theatre, Soggy Brass, Southwark Playhouse); Andrew Pepper (Assassins, Pleasance, London, the Scarecrow in Philip Pullman's The Scarecrow and his Servant, Southwark Playhouse, Mary Poppins, Prince Edward Theatre); Mark Stewart (Dracula, Lion and Unicorn Theatre, Julius Caesar, Saatchi Gallery/ Chelsea Theatre, San Domino, Arcola).

One night in 1939, Carlo, Claudio and their friends are arrested. Condemned without a trial, they arrive on San Domino: a prison island solely for gay men. Mussolini's regime had unwittingly created a part of Italy in which men were expected to be openly gay. For all the indignity and squalor of prison life, men previously forced to live in the shadows now have no need to hide who they are. But in the background war is looming...

Creative team: Book & Lyrics Tim Anfilogoff, Composer Alan Whittaker, Director Matthew Gould, Musical Director and Orchestrations James Cleeve, Lighting Design Mitchell Reeve, Design and Costumes Faye Bradley.

Produced by TKD Productions & M. Green Productions.

THE CREATIVE TEAM

TIM ANFILOGOFF - Book & Lyrics

Tim and Alan been friends for many years, playing in a band together and have been writing and producing musical theatre for the last five years. Their work includes A Body to Diet For which ran at the Edinburgh Fringe festival and The Golden Age which was workshopped at the Etcetera Theatre. They are currently working on a new musical The Truth about the Congo in parallel with Tim's drama The Man who Killed Ota Benga. Tim has also written a follow up drama to San Domino entitled 'The Other Island' which was previewed at Camden's Etcetera Theatre. Tim's comedy, The Meaning of Lunch was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and a pilot for a comedy drama series With a Little Help from My Friends was broadcast by the BBC. Tim wrote the screenplay for the Down Flew the Doves, a film with songs by singer and composer Tim Prottey-Jones.

ALAN WHITTAKER - Composer

Alan's musical theatre credits include A Body to Diet For, which ran at the Edinburgh Fringe festival and The Golden Age, which was
workshopped at the Etcetera Theatre and Liberty City (written by Amy Bilton) which workshopped at the Hen & Chickens Theatre. He is currently working on a new musical 'The Truth about the Congo' with Tim. In addition to working on musicals with Tim, Alan is a songwriter/composer who has released five studio albums, two with Sally Rivers, and played in various bands over the years.

MATTHEW GOULD - Director

Matthew has been directing plays, musicals and opera for a number of years. Most recently he adapted comedienne Janice Day's book about getting over breast cancer for her one-woman show, which premiered at the Epsom Play house, directed the radio recording of Adolf Killed my Sweetheart for ALL FM radio and explored at The King's Head Shakespeare's hidden messages of love in the new play Pricked Out by Nicholas de Jongh. The musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood at the Arts Theatre, London, a UK tour of the dark and moving musical The Secret Garden and the harrowing one man monologue The Anorak by Canadian writer Adam Kelly Morton. He then directed A Body to Diet For which premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival along with the rst UK production of the classic Azerbaijani play My Favourite
Madman. Matthew was at the 2013/14 and 2015 Arcola Grimeborn Festival in Dalston, London with the world premiere of a new opera The Miller's Wife, the musical 13 Days and actor/musician musical San Domino. This was followed by a season of new Asian writing for Yellow Earth and a season of News Revue at The Canal Café in Maida Vale, London and a run of a new play about the actress Valerie Hobson at the Jermyn Street Theatre. Hello, Norma Jeane, The Glass Protégé and The Secondary Victim all had very successful runs at Park Theatre in London. After a successful collaboration with producer Mitchell Green on the musical Pete 'n' Keely in May 2017. Matthew then directed the European premiere of the play The Gulf by Audrey Cefaly with Mitchell Green again as producer.

James Cleeve - Musical Director and Orchestrations

Recent projects have included: MD'ing the European premiere of Yank! The Musical in Manchester and its transfer to Charing Cross Theatre London, National Tours of The Sound of Music (Assistant MD) and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (keys), and working as Music Director for the New Zealand Young Shakespeare Company at The Globe.Other MD credits include: Elegies (Associate MD, Criterion West End), Ushers (Arts Theatre, West End), The Lambeth Singing Festival (Royal Festival Hall), Avenue Q (Windsor Theatre Royal), A Class Act (Landor), San Domino (Arcola), The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Arts Theatre), The Sound of Music and Oliver! (Windsor Theatre Royal), and numerous West End cabarets with performers including Christine Bovill, Dusty Limits, Rachel Tucker and Wendi Peters.On keyboards/accordion, gigs include: Top Hat (Aldwych and National Tour), Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris (Charing Cross Theatre), Victor/Victoria (Southwark Playhouse), Singin' in the Rain (National Tour) and Cabaret (National Tour), as well as guest entertainer appearances with P&O. Outside of theatre, James runs his own company leading community choirs and vocal workshops, and regularly works as a choral leader with the Southbank Centre, The Young Vic and leading national opera companies. He is currently writing a new musical. To find out more, take a look at www.jamescleeve.co.uk.

MITCHELL REEVE - Lighting Designer

Theatre credits include: From Stage to Screen (UK Tour),The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (The New Theatre), Peter Pan (The Quad), I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking It On the Road (Jermyn Street Theatre), Blown Youth (New Wimbledon Studio Theatre), The Empire Builders, The Right Ballerina (Hen & Chickens), The Doppel Gang, Pete 'n' Keely, Held (Tristan Bates Theatre), Lovestuck (Cockpit Theatre), Teaching a Dillo To Cross The Road (Brockley Jack Theatre) The Secondary Victim (Park Theatre). Associate Lighting Designer:
Lady Windermere's Fan (UK Tour). Upcoming: The Gulf (Tristan Bates Theatre).

FAYE BRADLEY - Designer

Faye completed an M.A. in Theatre Design at The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. She was a finalist for the Linbury Prize for Stage Design and her designs were exhibited at The National Theatre. Faye completed a traineeship with the English National Opera and received a bursary from the Royal Opera House and shadowed designer Robert Jones. She designed the set and costumes for a touring production of Handel's Xerxes, Rinaldo and most recently Alcina directed by Jenny Miller for the Longborough Festival Opera. She will be returning to design Ariadne Auf Naxos in 2018. The opera Cosi Fan Tutte directed by Paul Higgins that Faye designed won an Off West-end Award for Best Opera Production. Faye designed the costumes and an adaptive set for three touring productions for the White Horse Theatre
Company, the set and costumes for Ulla's Odyssey, directed by Valentina Ceschi for Opera Up Close, the set for Telescope directed by Matthew Gould at Testbed 1 and for The Tales Of Malik-Mammed directed by Andy McQuade at the Chelsea Theatre. She also designed Flight of The Lawnchair Man directed by Justin Joseph for the Edinburgh Fringe, Oedipus Retold directed by Robert Gillespie at Tristan Bates Theatre, Festen at The Space directed by Danielle McIlven, The Anorak at the Lion and Unicorn directed by Matthew Gould, TRASH at The White Bear, directed by Timothy.J.Howe, 4.48 Psychosis at The Drayton Theatre, directed by Sebastian Miller, Silent Prayer of Poetry at The Edinburgh Fringe, directed by Eiko Sasaki, The Yalta Game at The Alma Tavern Theatre, directed by Timothy.J.Howe, the set for The Good Soul of Szechuan at Bristol Old Vic Studio directed by Partick Sandford, and the costumes for Time and The Conways at Circomedia directed by Jenny Stephens. www.fayebradleydesign.com

There are 4 post show Q&A's:

Friday 8 June Join the writers with Gianfranco Goretti and Tommaso Giartosio - authors of La Cità e L'isola (the City and the Island): the history of Italian fascists' imprisonment of homosexuals from Catania on San Domino.

Saturday 9 June Join the cast and creative team after the matinee performance hosted by the founder of WhatsOnStage.com, StageFaves.com and MyTheatreMates.com Terri Paddock.

Saturday 23 June Join the cast and creative team after the matinee with Sarah Day - author of Mussolini's Island and science writer for the Geological Society.

Tuesday 26 June Join the cast and creative team hosted by Peter Tatchell, campaigner for human rights, democracy, global justice & LGBTI.

San Domino first previewed to an enthusiastic audience at the Courtyard Theatre then played to a full house at Arcola Theatre's Grimeborn Festival in 2014.

The writers said: "We hope our attempt to capture the humour and
tragedy of San Domino will inspire you the way the story of the 45 gay men rounded up in Catania one night in 1939 inspired us."

Photos by Rachael Cummings

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