Cast Announced For 45North's A GIG FOR GHOSTS At Soho Theatre

45North announced the cast for the world premiere of Fran Bushe's A Gig for Ghosts, winner of the Tony Craze Award 2019. Directed by Ria Parry (co-director of North Wall), the show is performed by Hanora Kamen, Rori Hawthorn, and Liz Kitchen.

Combining bold new writing by Fran Bushe (Ad Libido) with original live music by singer-songwriter Becky CJ, A Gig for Ghosts is a gig theatre show that tells a big, warm, folk-music filled, queer love story about loss, loneliness and ghosts.

Freshly arrived in London, Lily is ready to live the life she's always dreamt of. Step one: find a girlfriend. Worn down by London, Amy finds it hard to make real connections, because she mostly works with people without a pulse. Today they both have plans to not end up alone. In a busy city where it is too easy for things and people to be lost and forgotten, three women come together to make sure that nobody falls through the cracks.

Jessica Rose McVay, Emily Carewe + Charlie Lees-Massey (45North leadership team) says: ''We are thrilled to be able to bring this brilliant, funny, heart-warming show to Soho Theatre. For us, it is the culmination of two years of development, not only on the script, but on who we are as a company. The production has a 100% female and non-binary team, and reflects our values of accessibility as we move to make as many performances as possible accessible to all. A Gig for Ghosts reflects how visceral our sense of community, connection and loss can be. We couldn't be happier to be working with this fantastic team of artists to bring it to life.'

A Gig for Ghosts exemplifies 45North's commitment to ensuring a minimum of 75% of its teams are female or non-binary artists. This aims to compensate for theatre production companies that don't have such targets in place, in an industry yet to overcome issues of under-representation.

Fran Bushe is an award-winning writer, comedian and performer. She has had sold-out runs at Soho Theatre, and has been a resident artist at Pleasance Theatre, Arts Depot and Theatre Deli. The Diary of My Broken Vagina was produced by Channel 4 as a Comedy Blap and her book My Broken Vagina was published in 2021 by Hodder & Stoughton. A Gig for Ghosts won The Tony Craze Award in 2019 and Fran will be a writer in residence at Soho in Autumn this year.

Becky CJ is a singer and song-writer, and has released a number of EPs independently. During lockdown in 2021, she became a TikTok sensation for creating power ballads based on real message exchanges sent on the dating app Tinder. A Gig for Ghosts is her debut as a composer for theatre.

Ria Parry is co-Director of North Wall Arts Centre in Oxford. Her recent credits include E8 by Marika Mckennell (Fringe First and Stage Award winner, North Wall and Edinburgh Fringe), The Girl Who Never Looked Up (National Theatre), Albion by Chris Thompson (Bush), and Jane Wenham: The Witch of Walkern by Rebecca Lenkiewicz (Out of Joint).

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