Munashe Chirisa, Tyler Luke Cunningham, and More Will Lead STOP AND SEARCH

Arcola Theatre in association with Maya Ellis today announce the full cast for the world première of Gabriel Gbadamosi's Stop and Search. Artistic Director of the Arcola Mehmet Ergen directs Munashe Chirisa (Akim), Tyler Luke Cunningham (Lee), David Kirkbride (Tone), Shaun Mason (Tel) and Jessye Romeo (Bev). The production opens on 14 January, with previews from 9 January, and runs until 9 February.

A driver picks up a young man crossing Europe. Two police officers work a surveillance case. A passenger directs her taxi to the edge of a bridge. Three conversations grow increasingly uneasy.

From award-winning writer Gabriel Gbadamosi comes a visceral new play, exploring a time of distrust where the lines blur between conversation and interrogation. Stop and Search explores our deep ambivalence about the ways we police each other.

Gabriel Gbadamosi is an Irish-Nigerian poet and playwright. Stop and Search marks his London stage debut. His theatre credits include Eshu's Faust (Jesus College, Cambridge), Hotel Orpheu (Schaubühne, Berlin), Shango (DNA, Amsterdam); and for radio, The Long, Hot Summer of '76 - winner of the first Richard Imison Award. Gbadamosi's novel Vauxhall won the Tibor Jones Pageturner Prize and Best International Novel at the Sharjah Book Fair.

Munashe Chirisa plays Akim. His theatre credits include Doctor Faustus, Water, Bread and Salt, All of Us, The Blue Room (UK tour) and So You Think I'm Crazy (Ovalhouse).

Tyler Luke Cunningham plays Lee. His theatre credits include Summer in London (Theatre Royal Stratford East), The Butch Monologues (UK tour) and The Night Before Christmas (Chickenshed). His television credits include Boy Meets Girl.

David Kirkbride plays Tone. His theatre credits include Under Milk Wood (Northern Stage), Pinocchio, Othello (National Theatre), The Crucible (UK tour), Rathband (Tristan Bates Theatre), Robin Hood and Marian, Larksong, Unearthed, The Gift (New Vic Theatre), Shrapnel: 34 Fragments of a Massacre (Arcola Theatre), The Muddy Choir (Theatre Centre), Luna Park (The Albany), Titus Andronicus (Dundee Rep Theatre) and The Machine Gunners (Polka Theatre). His television credits include Privates.

Shaun Mason plays Tel. His theatre credits include One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Romeo and Juliet (Sheffield Theatres), All's Well That Ends Well (Shakespeare's Globe), Oliver Twist (Regent's Park Open Air Theatre), Black Lives Black Words (Bush Theatre), Feed the Beast (Birmingham Rep/New Wolsey Theatre), A Clockwork Orange (Citizens Theatre), Macbeth, Billy Wonderful (Liverpool Everyman), A Midsummer Night's Dream and Council Depot Blues (Liverpool Royal Court). His television credits include Snatch, Cilla and Good Cop.

Jessye Romeo plays Bev. Her theatre credits include Big Guns (The Yard), The Islanders (Whitechapel Gallery), Itch and Scratch (Hackney Showroom) and Martyr (Unicorn Theatre/Bristol Old Vic/Traverse Theatre). Her television credits include Curfew, In the Long Run and Stan Lee's Lucky Man.

Artistic Director of Arcola Theatre Mehmet Ergen is an award-winning director. His theatre credits for the company include Richard III, Bliss, The Cherry Orchard, Drones, Baby, Drones, An Enemy of the People, The Cradle Will Rock, Clarion, Shrapnel: 34 Fragments of a Massacre, Don Gil of the Green Breeches, Mare Rider, Sweet Smell of Success, The Painter, Macbeth, Fool for Love, Betrayal, Ashes to Ashes, Water's Edge, Dumb Show, Lost in the Stars, In The Jungle of the Cities and Piano. Other theatre credits include King Lear (Southwark Playhouse). Ergen is also Artistic Director and founder of Arcola Istanbul and was previously Artistic Director of Southwark Playhouse, which he co-founded in 1993.

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