Eva Fontaine and Susie McKenna Will Lead the UK Premiere of Tanya Barfield's BRIGHT HALF LIFE at the King's Head Theatre

Eva Fontaine and Susie McKenna pair up for the UK Premiere of Bright Half Life by award winning American playwright Tanya Barfield, directed by Steven Kunis, twice nominated for Best Director at the Off West End Theatre Awards. Depicting queer love in the richest and most original of ways, Bright Half Life is an intensely romantic and moving play depicting love that is complicated and ever-changing.

What if life came with a rewind button? Jumping across time, Bright Half Life tells the four-and-a-half-decade story of Vicky and Erica, who meet, fall in love, start a family, and traverse the highs, lows, joys, and fears that come from sharing your life with someone else. Author of the ground-breaking Pulitzer Prize-nominated play Blue Door, Tanya Barfield writes a contemporary classic about love, heartbreak, skydiving, and the infinite moments that make up a relationship.

Tanya Barfield is a recipient of a PEN/Laura Pels Theater Award, a LAMDA Literary Award, a Lilly Award recognizing extraordinary women in theatre, the inaugural Lilly Award Commission and a Helen Merrill Award. In 2016, The Profile Theatre devoted their entire season to her work. In 2020, in addition to TV writing, Barfield will succeed Marsha Norman as co-director of The Juilliard School's Playwrights Program.

Eva Fontaine's recent theatre work includes Mike Bartlett's The 47th (Old Vic), Sticks and Stones (Tristan Bates); Emilia (Vaudeville, West End), Le Morte D'Arthur and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Scoop Amphitheatre). On TV she is best known for her role as Faith Walker in the BBC soap opera 'Doctors' and as Dr Hamley in 'Emmerdale'.

Susie McKenna is an actor, writer and director. She has appeared as Mama Morton in Chicago (Cambridge Theatre); Emma Goldman in Ragtime (Piccadilly Theatre); Eudora and Felicia in Witches of Eastwick (The Prince of Wales Theatre); Jennyanydots and Grizabella CATS New London Theatr , Mirror Mirror Girl in Follies (London Palladium); Wicked Stepmother in Cinderella (Hackney Empire); Vanity in Mother Goose (Hackney Empire) Broad Bean in Jack & The Beanstalk (Hackney Empire). National Tours include Hair, Rocky Horror Show, In the Midnight Hour along with playing Sara Jane Moore in Assassins (Derby Playhouse); Doreen in Saturday Night & Sunday Morning (Nottingham Playhouse); Linda in Blood Brothers (Leicester Haymarket) and Nancy in Oliver (Nottingham Playhouse ). For 8 years Susie was Creative Director of the Hackney Empire, where she also directed the renowned annual Christmas Pantomime. She is currently an associate artist at Kiln Theatre.

Steven Kunis is Greek-American director for theatre and opera, currently based in London. He is the founding artistic director of Panorama Productions, a new company committed to international collaboration through the arts of theatre and music. His credits include Straight White Men (Southwark Playhouse Theatre), Rocky Road (Jermyn Street Theatre); Refugee Orchestra Project UK Launch (LSO St Luke's); Afterglow (Waterloo East Theatre); and The Demon (Cutler Majestic Theatre, Boston). Steven has received several recognitions for his theatrical work, including two nominations for Best Director at the Off West End Theatre Awards.

Dramaturg & Assistant Director Krysianna Pappadakis is a Greek born -theatre director and playwright based in London. Her credits include Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again at The Space. Movement director Maria Koripas has worked with various companies including Opera Circus, Palace Opera, European Chamber Opera, English Touring Opera, Floral Opera and Abbey Opera. She began her career as a dancer and worked for The Royal Opera, Covent Garden and English National Opera at the London Coliseum, in productions directed by many leading directors.

Set & costume designer Cara Evans's credits include Instructions For A Teenage Armageddon at Southwark Playhouse and Pericles at Jackson's Lane Theatre. Offie nominated Lighting designer Alex Lewer has been the technical director of critically-acclaimed theatre company DELIRUM since 2010. Alex recently designed Clybourne Park, at the Park Theatre. Sound designer Asaf Zohar is a composer for film, television, dance and theatre. His recent credits include Paines Plough's Sorry, You're Not A Winner by Samuel Bailey and Romeo & Juliet at Southwark Playhouse.

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