Full Cast and Creative Team Announced For LOTUS BEAUTY at Hampstead Theatre

Hampstead Theatre has announced the full cast and creative team for the world premiere of Satinder Chohan's new play, Lotus Beauty. Directed by Pooja Ghai, Lotus Beauty will run at Hampstead Downstairs, in association with Tamasha Theatre Company, from 13 May until 18 June 2022.

Lotus Beauty follows the intertwined lives of five multigenerational women. The cast features Anshula Bain (Tartuffe, Birmingham Rep; (This Isn't) A True Story, Almeida Theatre); Souad Faress (The Archers, BBC; Game of Thrones, HBO), Zainab Hasan (The Welkin, National Theatre; Shakespeare Trilogy, Donmar Warehouse), Ulrika Krishnamurti (Pink Sari Revolution, Curve Theatre/Belgrade Theatre/West Yorkshire Playhouse; Made in India, Tamasha Theatre Company), Kiran Landa (Line of Duty, BBC; Extinct, Theatre Royal Stratford East).

Ghai will be joined by designer, Rosa Maggiora; lighting director, Matt Haskins; sound designers, The Ringham Brothers; dialect coach Gurkiran Kaur and assistant director, Cassia Thakkar.

Satinder Chohan, playwright of Lotus Beauty, said:

"I am so excited to be sharing Lotus Beauty with audiences soon. It is a play inspired by the resilient women and vibrant beauty salons of my hometown in Southall."

Pooja Ghai, director of Lotus Beauty, said:

"Lotus Beauty is both funny and poignant. Satinder's play shines a lens on the beauty and complexity of being a migrant and a South Asian woman in modern day Britain. I am so excited to work with our wonderful cast, creative and technical teams to bring the story to life."

Lotus Beauty invites us into Reita's salon where clients can wax lyrical about their day's tiny successes or have their struggles massaged, plucked or tweezed away. But with honest truths and sharp-witted barbs high among the treatments on offer, will the power of community be enough to raise the spirits of everyone who passes through the salon doors?

"Women come, women go. We pamper them, preen them, make them beautiful. Make small talk. Never know what's really under their skin."

Satinder Chohan makes her Hampstead debut. Previous credits include Zameen (Kali Theatre), Kabaddi Kabaddi Kabaddi (Pursued By A Bear/Kali Theatre), Half of Me and Made in India (Tamasha).

Artistic Director of Tamasha, Pooja Ghai directs her first production at Hampstead. A former Associate of Theatre Royal Stratford East, previous credits include Lions and Tigers (Globe Theatre), Approaching Empty (Tamasha, Kiln Theatre, Live Theatre), Rapunzel, Counting Stars and The House of in Between (all Stratford East).

The world premiere of The Fever Syndrome, Alexis Zegerman's thrilling portrait of a brilliantly dysfunctional family, is currently on Hampstead Theatre's Main Stage until 30 April. Directed by Roxana Silbert, Hampstead's Artistic Director, The Fever Syndrome features Lisa Dillon, Jake Fairbrother, Alexandra Gilbreath, Robert Lindsay, Sam Marks, Bo Poraj and Alex Waldmann. They are joined in the cast by Nancy Allsop and Charlotte Pourret Wythe.

The UK premiere of Ché Walker's Wolf Cub is running at Hampstead Downstairs until 7 May. Blending poetic beauty with brutal honesty, Wolf Cub is a visceral odyssey written and directed by Ché Walker. Clare Latham performs in this one-person play.

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