BOY Makes World Premiere Tonight at the Almeida Theatre

The cast is Mohammad Amiri, Osmain Baig, Ruby Bridle, Emilio Doorgasingh, Terina Drayton, Aeran Fitzgerald, Frankie Fox, Ellie Mai Gallagher, Bayleigh Gray, Zainab Hasan, Duramaney Kamara, Asiatu Koroma, Wendy Kweh, Lev Litvinov, Georgie Lord, Angel Loren, Teann McDonnell, Eugenie-Alexia Mulumba, Sarah Niles, Demi Papaminas, Imogen Roberts, Abdul Salis, Morgane Tapia, Peter Temple and Matthew Wellard.

A boy.
At a bus stop.
Easily missed.

Master of observation, Leo Butler casts a sharp eye over contemporary London and picks out someone for us to follow. Someone easily missed amongst the crowd.

Following last year's ground breaking production of Game, the innovative director-designer team Sacha Wares and Miriam Buether return to the Almeida to bring this ambitious exploration of austerity era London to life. They are joined by an award-winning creative team and an exciting company of young actors, as well as supernumeraries recruited from the borough of Islington. For many of the cast Boy will mark their stage debut.

Written by Leo Butler, who has quietly established himself as one of the UK's most talented political playwrights, Boyis an important new play about coming of age in twenty first century London.

For Boy, Sacha Wares is joined by a formidable creative team, including two powerhouse contemporary designers, Miriam Buether for set design (Game, Wild Swans, Sucker Punch, My Child, Generations), and Ultzfor costume (Jerusalem, Hobson's Choice, Fallout, Pied Piper), who will be collaborating with each other for the first time. Further creative credits include movement by Leon Baugh, lighting by Jack Knowles and sound by Gareth Fry.

Ruby Bridle's previous credits include Gypsy for Chichester Festival Theatre and Matilda for the RSC; Emilio Doorgasingh's previous credits include Dara at the National Theatre and The Kite Runner for Nottingham Playhouse; Zainab Hasan previously performed on the Almeida Stage in ICU, written, produced and performed by Young Friends of the Almeida in 2013 as part of Almeida Projects. Her other credits include Henry V for the Donmar Warehouse and at St Ann's Warehouse, New York. Wendy Kweh's credits include Chimerica for the Almeida in the West End and You for Me For You at the Royal Court; Georgie Lord's credits includeTipping the Velvet at the Lyric, Hammersmith; Sarah Niles' credits include Catastrophe (Channel 4), The Crucible at the Old Vic and Table for the National Theatre; Demi Papaminas' credits include Emil and the Detectives at the National Theatre; Abdul Salis' credits includes Paines Plough's Roundabout season, Love, Actually, War Horse for the National Theatre in the West End and Don Juan in Soho for the Donmar Warehouse; Peter Temple's credits include The Sisterhood at Belgrade Theatre, Coventry; Matthew Wellard's credits include The Miser for Watermill Theatre, Newbury.

Leo Butler's playwriting credits include Alison! A Rock Opera at the Royal Court, King's Head Theatre and the Spread Eagle Theatre, Could You Please Close The Door Please at the FIND Festival and Schaubuhne, Berlin, Sixty-Nine at The Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh Festival, Juicy Fruits at Paines Plough, Traverse Theatre and Royal Exchange, Come to Where I'm From at Paines Plough and Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, The Early Bird at the Queen's Theatre, Belfast and Finborough Theatre, I'll Be The Devil which was produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Tricycle Theatre, Heroes which toured for the National Theatre, Devotion at the Theatre Centre and Do It!, Airbag, Faces in The Crowd, Lucky Dog, Redundant and Made of Stone at the Royal Court Theatre. Leo's screen credits includeJerusalem the Golden and Self Made. Leo Butler won the George Devine Award in 2001 for Redundant and was the Writer's Tutor for the Royal Court's Young Writers programme from 2006 - 2014. Leo has had plays performed in countries across the world, including South Africa, Hungary, Russia, the United States, Brazil and Australia.

Sacha Wares is Associate Director at the Young Vic and was previously Associate Director of the Royal Court from 2007-2013. Her other previous director credits include Wild Swans and Generations at the Young Vic, Sucker Punch, My Child and Credible Witness at the Royal Court, Random at the Royal Court and UK Tour, Trade at the Swan Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company and Soho Theatre, Platform at the Institute of Contemporary Arts London, A Number for the Theatre Project, Tokyo, Guantanamo: "Honour Bound to Defend Freedom" at the Tricycle Theatre, Ambassador's Theatre and Lafayette Theater, New York, Bintou at the Arcola Theatre, Six Degrees of Separation at the Sheffield Crucible and Pera Palas at the Gate Theatre.

A small room with an international reputation, the Almeida began life as a literary and scientific society - complete with library, lecture theatre and laboratory. From the very beginning, its building existed to investigate the world. Today, the Almeida makes bold new work that asks big questions; of plays, of theatre and how we live. It brings together the most exciting artists to take risks, to provoke, inspire and surprise its audiences, to interrogate the present, dig up the past and imagine the future. Whether new work or reinvigorated classic, whether in its theatre or elsewhere, the Almeida makes work to excite and entertain with extraordinary live art, every day.

Founded by Pierre Audi in 1980, his successors were Jonathan Kent and Ian McDiarmid in 1990, and Michael Attenborough in 2002. Productions including Hamlet with Ralph Fiennes in 2005, Rufus Norris'Festen, Ruined by Lynn Nottage and most recently Chimerica, Ghosts and King Charles III have given the theatre international renown.

In summer 2013, Rupert Goold joined the Almeida as Artistic Director. His first production as Artistic Director was American Psycho: A new musical thriller, which opens March 2016 on Broadway. In 2014 the Almeida productions of Ghosts and Chimerica won eight Olivier Awards including Best Actress, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Best New Play, Best Director and Best Revival and enjoyed transfers to the West End and Broadway respectively. This was followed by King Charles III, which then transferred to the West End at the Wyndham's Theatre and won the Olivier Award for Best New Play in 2015. King Charles IIIopened on Broadway on November 1, is currently on a national UK tour, and will open in Sydney in March 2016.

In summer 2015, the Almeida presented Almeida Greeks, which included three major new productions of Oresteia, Bakkhai and Medea, the latter of which was directed by Goold, with a festival of events, performances, talks and readings running alongside.

He co-directed The Iliad and The Odyssey with Almeida Associate Director Robert Icke. Involving more than 60 readers, The Iliad reached an audience of over 50,000 people across the world, watching online, or in person at the British Museum and the Almeida Theatre. The Odyssey followed the huge success of The Iliad, and involved an army of artists in various locations around London, four of which audiences could attend. As with The lliad, both theatrical events were live streamed throughout and achieved ground-breaking levels of online engagement.

Other notable productions include: 1984 by George Orwell in a new adaptation created by Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan who won Best Director at the 2014 UK Theatre Awards for 1984; and The Merchant of Venice, directed by Rupert Goold and originally produced for the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2011.

Rupert Goold was Artistic Director of Headlong from 2005 until 2013 where his work included The Effect, ENRON, Earthquakes in London and Decade. Other theatre credits include The Last Days of Judas Iscariot at the Almeida, Macbeth at Chichester Festival Theatre, in the West End and on Broadway and No Man's Land at The Gate and in the West End. In 2014 he directed Made in Dagenham at the Adelphi Theatre. He was Associate Director at the Royal Shakespeare Company from 2009 to 2012 and was Artistic Director of Northampton Theatres from 2002 to 2005. He has twice been the recipient of the Laurence Olivier, Critics' Circle and Evening Standard Awards for Best Director. For television he has directed Macbeth and Richard II for the BBC and Neal Street Productions, the latter of which was nominated for a BAFTA. His first feature film, True Story, which stars James Franco and Jonah Hill for Plan B and Fox Searchlight, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2015.