Full Cast Announced For World Première Of Julia Pascal's New Play 12:37

Pascal Theatre Company has announced the full cast for the world première of 12:37 at Finborough Theatre, the new play from award-winning writer and director Julia Pascal. Pascal directs Alex Cartuson (Paul Green), Ruth Lass (Minnie Green/Shoshana Liebovicz), Danann McAleer (Harry Cohen/Jonathan Stein), Lisa O'Connor (Eileen O'Reily/Rina Goldberg) and Eoin O'Dubhghaill (Cecil Green). The drama opens at Finborough Theatre on 1 December, with previews from 29 November, and runs until 21 December.

At 12:37pm on 22 July 1946, the King David Hotel in Jerusalem was bombed. Ninety-one people were killed, forty-six wounded. The explosion was carried out by right-wing Zionists, targeting the headquarters of the British in Palestine.

Two Irish Jewish brothers journey from Dublin to combat antisemitism on the streets of East London. Their Irish nationalism propels them towards Jewish nationalism in the common struggle against British Imperialism.

12:37 raises complex and controversial questions around Jewish violence, homeland and national identity in a stunning new play that is both a hard-hitting historical epic and an intimate family drama.

Alex Cartuson plays Paul Green. His theatre credits include Eureka Day (The Old Vic), My Friend Peter (Arts Theatre), War Horse (UK and international tour), The Importance of Being Earnest (UK tour) and Richard III (UK and France tour). For television, his credits include The Moment and the Birmingham Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony; and for film: Being Brunel and The Crime.

Ruth Lass plays Minnie Green/Shoshana Liebovicz. Her theatre credits include Bach & Sons (Bridge Theatre), Crooked Dances (RSC), Equus (Theatre Royal Stratford East/UK Tour); Great Apes (Arcola), A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (Hull Truck), Hospital At The Time of The Revolution (Finborough Theatre), The Rest Is Silence (Riverside Studios), Wagner Dream (Barbican), The Tempest (Barbican), Hamlet (Riverside Studios), The Girl on The Sofa (Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh International Festival), Martin Yesterday (Manchester Royal Exchange), The House of Bernarda Alba (Young Vic), Uganda, Live Like Pigs (Royal Court), The Skryker (National Theatre), Les Juste, Hecuba (The Gate), And All Because The Lady Loves (Soho Theatre), The Dybbuk (New End Theatre/international tour). For television, her credits include: C.B. Strike - Lethal White, Silent Witness, Houdini and Doyle, Eastenders, White Teeth, Holby City, Coupling, High Stakes, Trial & Retribution, Antigone, Casualty and The Bill; and for film: Disobedience, The Book of Gabrielle, Mad Cows, Fill Up and Indian Summer.

Danann McAleer plays Harry Cohen/Jonathan Stein. His theatre credits include Dr Semmelweis, King Lear (Bristol Old Vic), The Hamlet Voyage (Bridewell Theatre), Richard II (The Vaults/Turbine Theatre), Under the Greenwood Tree (Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham), A Midsummer Night's Dream, Our Country's Good (The Tobacco Factory), Frankenstein (Arnos Vale Cemetery, Bristol), Penny Dreadful (Arts Mansion, Bristol), The Comedy of Errors, The Tempest (international tour) and Don Quixote (Wigmore Hall). For television, his credits include The Show Must Go Online; and for film: Is That All There Is?, Living in Crime Alley, Seven Days that Made The Führer, Conversations with Strangers and Watch Over Me.

Lisa O'Connor plays Eileen O'Reily/Rina Goldberg. Her theatre credits include This is a Blizzard (UK tour); and for television: Call the Midwife.

Eoin O'Dubhghaill plays Cecil Green. His theatre credits include Sruth Na Teanga (Galway Airport), Nóra, Song Of The Yellow Bittern (An Taibhdhearc), Dear Ireland - End Meeting and Baoite (Abbey Theatre, Dublin). His television credits include Ros na Rún (as series regular Fiach Ó Tuairisg), Grace Harte (as series regular Danny), Harry Wild and Aifric; and for film: Out of Innocence and Monster.

Julia Pascal trained as an actor before starting her career as a playwright and theatre director. She performed at The National Theatre, RSC, Nottingham Playhouse and Royal Court. Her adaptation of Dorothy Parker's prose and poetry as a Platform Performance, which ran for two years, marked her as the first female director at The National Theatre. As a director, she has toured Harold Pinter's The Caretaker for the British Council. For The Orange Tree she was Associate Director where her productions included the plays of Bertolt Brecht and Fay Weldon. Her stage writing exposes hidden Jewish and other diaspora stories as well as highlighting women's unrepresented lives. Twenty-one of her stage plays have been produced in the UK and internationally. These include the Tricycle Theatre commission Crossing Jerusalem and The Holocaust Trilogy, which includes her adaption of Solomon Anski's The Dybbuk. In 2019, Blueprint Medea premiered at the Finborough Theatre. This re-visioned classic is inspired by Kurdish women soldiers fighting for national identity. Pascal's plays have been produced at the Lyric Theatre, Riverside Studios, Arcola Theatre, Park Theatre, Tricycle Theatre, New End Theatre, Finborough Theatre and Edinburgh Festivals. In New York, she has presented work at Theatre for the New City and the Lincoln Centre's Director's Lab. Her awards include a Fellowship from the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts, Arts Council England, the BBC Alfred Bradley Prize, Cockayne Grants for the Arts, Moondance Columbine Prize, the Goethe Institute and the European Association for Jewish Culture. She was a finalist in The Judith Royer Award for Excellence in Playwriting and has just been offered a grant from the Jewish Historical Society England. Pascal has also written for television and radio. She is currently working on the community play Dancing, Trailblazing, Taboo!, on the life of Eleanor Marx for The Bloomsbury Festival, in collaboration with London Contemporary Dance School. For 2023, Pascal is developing a new drama, As Happy as God in France, which reveals reluctant histories in the lives of Hannah Arendt and Charlotte Salomon. With Mary Luckhurst, she is currently co-writing The Doctoress. After gaining her doctorate from the University of York, Pascal became a Research Fellow at King's College, London.

To post a comment, you must register and login.