Cast announced for bilingual Rent production at Curve, Leicester

Casting has been announced for a bilingual reinterpretation of the award-winning musical Rent.

Featured as part of the venue’s new work festival, the workshop production, playing early next month, will reappraise Jonathan Larson’s acclaimed rock opera through the lens of the isolation and prejudice faced by deaf and hearing communities during the 1980s AIDS crisis.

Set to appear will be both deaf and hearing actors, who will present scenes and numbers from the musical in British Sign Language (BSL) and English. These include standards such as “La Vie Boheme” and “Seasons of Love”.

The cast is composed of Nadeem Islam (The Father and The Assassin) as Mark, with Melad Hamidi (Les Misérables) singing the role. Mia Ward (Robin Hood) will play Maureen, with Annabelle Terry (The Owl Who Came For Christmas) singing the role. Cherie Gordon (Boat Story) will play Joanne, with Charlotte St. Croix (The Wizard of Oz) singing the role. Chris Fonseca (Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two) will play Collins, with Kofi Dennis (The Wiz) singing the role. Adam Jay Price (Grease the Musical) will play Roger and Alim Jadavji (EastEnders) will play Angel, Chaya Gupta (Hansel And Gretel) will play Mimi and Nitai Levi (Masters of the Air) will play Benjamin Coffin III.

The show is to be directed by Lilac Yosiphon, with musical direction from Ben Garnett. Curve resident creative Stacey McCarthy is choreographer and movement director, while Deepa Shastri is BSL consultant and creative associate. Curve’s lighting technician Rhys Parker and assistant head of sound and video Angel Rossell De Pablos will provide lighting and sound design respectively. Visual/narrative support comes from Eleanor Field and creative captions are by Edalia Day.

The show will run for a select of performances between 7 and 9 March 2023.

Watch more information about this story presented via BSL: