The Almeida Theatre Today Announces Two New Almeida Young Company Shows

The Almeida Theatre today announces two new Almeida Young Company shows.

Following the success in 2017 of the acclaimed From The Ground Up at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Shoreditch Town Hall, the Almeida Young Company returns to present two new plays, Cacophony by Molly Taylor and the 18-25 year old company, inspired by ideas in Jon Ronson's book, So You Think You've Been Publicly Shamed, and Loki and Cassie: A Love Story by Luke Barnes, featuring the 14-18 year old company.

The two productions run from Thursday 26 - Saturday 28 July in the Almeida Theatre and tickets are now on sale.

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CACOPHONY

By Molly Taylor and the Almeida Young Company (18-25)

Direction: Michael Bryher; Design: Khadija Raza

Sound Design: George Lumkin; Lighting Design: Katie Nicoll

Video Design: Robin Fisher; Assistant Director: Germma Orleans-Thompson

Thursday 26 - Saturday 28 July

"When public shamings are delivered like remotely administered drone strikes nobody need think about how ferocious our collective power might be. The snowflake never needs to feel responsible for the avalanche." Jon Ronson

Created by the Almeida Young Company and written by Molly Taylor, Cacophony tells the story of a young woman's rise to fame after speaking up at a protest outside a controversial rape trial.

Weaving a complex web of fame and shame, Cacophony explores the power social media has to liberate brave new voices and, just as quickly, bring them crashing to earth. Inspired by the ideas in Jon Ronson's book, So You Think You've Been Publicly Shamed.

Molly Taylor is a playwright and theatre-maker. Recent projects include Shell and Davey at the Start and the End (VAULT Festival), See Me Now (Young Vic), And Yet It Moves (Young Vic Taking Part), The Neighbourhood Project (Bush Theatre). Her one-woman show Love Letters to the Public Transport System was produced by the National Theatre of Scotland and won the Adelaide Critics Circle Award 2018. In August she will be presenting a new piece, Extinguished Things, at Summerhall for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2018.

Performed by members of the Almeida Young Company (18-25): David Bankole, Simeon Blake-Hall, Eddie Boyce-Rogers, Samson Cox-Vinnell, Timothy Dennett, Hannah Donelon, Charlotte Dylan, Annie Hawkins, Tiwalade Ibirogba Olulode, Lao Lee, Lauren McGarvey, Khanyiso Mtwana, Helena Morais, Corey Peterson, Ben Quashie, Ashley Rose and Lucy Shafi.

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LOKI AND CASSIE: A LOVE STORY

By Luke Barnes

Direction: Michael Bryher; Design: Khadija Raza; Music: Grace Savage

Sound Design: George Lumkin; Lighting Design: Katie Nicoll

Video Design: Robin Fisher; Assistant Director: Germma Orleans-Thompson

Thursday 26 - Saturday 28 July

"This is a story about a boy and a girl...or a girl and a boy, depending on how you look at it."

Loki and Cassie live in an ordinary town. Populated by average people. But they are anything but normal.

When they first meet across the dining-hall sparks begin to fly, starting a fire which threatens to engulf the whole school.

An explosive new play written by Luke Barnes for the Almeida Young Company, with music by Grace Savage, Loki and Cassie: A Love Story, takes an unflinching look at masculinity, teenage relationships and the darkest corners of modern society.

Luke Barnes's stage credits include All We Ever Wanted Was Everything (Paines Plough Roundabout with Middle Child), No One Will Tell Me How To Start A Revolution (Hampstead Theatre), Bottleneck (Soho Theatre with HighTide), Chapel Street (Bush Theatre and Edinburgh Fringe Festival), Weekend Rockstars (Battersea Arts Centre and Hull Truck with Middle Child), Ten Storey Love Song (Hull Truck with Middle Child), The Saints (Nuffield Southampton Theatres), The Class (The Unicorn with National Youth Theatre), Eistedfodd (HighTide), A Wondrous Place (Manchester Royal Exchange), The Jumper Factory, Fable and Men In Blue (Young Vic,Taking Part), Lost Boys New Town (National Youth Theatre) and Katie Johnstone (Orange Tree Theatre). For television his work includes Minted in Manchester.

Michael Bryher is a theatre maker, director and facilitator. He trained at LAMDA and has worked as an actor for companies including Kneehigh, The RSC, and dreamthinkspeak. In 2013 he was a finalist for the JMK award. He also runs Dumbshow, and over the last seven years has toured his work nationally and internationally. He has recently edited a volume of auditions monologues for young people for Nick Hern Books, and will be making a Christmas show for the Nuffield Theatre Southampton in 2018.

Performed by members of the Almeida Young Company (14-18): Louis Barras-Hargan, Molly Branston, Kate Butler, Artemas Cowley, Ruth Gracia Balosa, Arianna Granata, Louis Irvine, Jakaya Jenkins, Chelsea Hines Rivera, Darmonelle Johnson, Jake Turner-Chan and Max Wilson.

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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 beginning, the building existed to investigate the world. Today, the Almeida makes brave new work that asks big questions: of plays, of theatre and of the world around us. It brings together the most exciting artists to take risks; to provoke, inspire and surprise audiences; to interrogate the present, dig up the past and imagine the future. The Almeida makes argument for theatre as an essential force in an increasingly fragmented society.

Founded by Pierre Audi in 1980, his successors were Jonathan Kent and Ian McDiarmid in 1990, and Michael Attenborough in 2002. In summer 2013, Rupert Goold joined the Almeida as Artistic Director. Under his leadership, notable productions have included American Psycho: a new musical thriller (transferred to Broadway); Ghosts (transferred to the West End and won three Olivier Awards); Chimerica (transferred to the West End and won five Olivier Awards); 1984 (transferred to West End, Broadway and Australia); King Charles III (transferred to the West End, won the Olivier Award for Best New Play, transferred to Broadway, toured the UK and Sydney, and was adapted for BBC television) and Oresteia (transferred to the West End and won the Olivier Award for Best Director). 2017 saw West End transfers for Hamlet, directed by Robert Icke (also screened on the BBC) and Ink, directed by Goold, and Icke's new adaptation of Mary Stuart recently finished a West End run. The Almeida was named London Theatre of the Year at the 2018 Stage Awards.

In summer 2015, the Almeida presented Almeida Greeks, which included three new productions of Oresteia, Bakkhai and Medea, and live durational readings of The Iliad and The Odyssey which were both live streamed achieving ground-breaking levels of online engagement.

In May 2017, the Almeida launched Figures of Speech, a major digital film project interrogating the vitality of speech and rhetoric, and what visionary leadership sounds like. The third series of films was launched in March 2018 at www.speech.almeida.co.uk. The Almeida is grateful to the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and a range of generous individual supporters for making this project possible.

3000 £5 tickets are available to audiences aged 25 and under each year for Almeida productions.

The Almeida Theatre is a registered charity and is dependent on the support of individuals, companies, trusts and foundations. Our small auditorium, even when sold out, only provides 40% of the funding we need to operate. We therefore need to raise more than £2m each year to realise our artistic ambitions, reach new audiences, and secure the financial future of the theatre.

The Almeida is grateful to its Principal Partner Aspen, in its third term as the Almeida's most significant corporate supporter. Aspen was established in 2002 and is a leading global insurance and reinsurance company. www.aspen.co

The Almeida is grateful for the support of Arts Council England.

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