Jarnéia Richard-Noel to guest star in Tamzin Cook’s ”Ghostlight”

Jarnéia Richard-Noel (Six) is set to appear in a guest star role in Ghostlight at the Union Theatre.

The two one-act plays, written by Tamzin Cook, are set in two iconic West End theatres during lockdown, where the ghostly residents “tell us about their lives and deaths while trying to work out if the end is nigh.”

Act one (entitled The Nanny and the Snitch) at the Palace Theatre follows Victoria, a nanny from the 1920s, and Arthur, a teenager forced into a gang, who died in the ’60s after being accused of snitching.

Act two (The Unknown Solider) is set in the Dominion Theatre, where an Aftrican American hero from the Second World War dwells, after falling in love with a British air force officer.

Ghostlight is directed by Cook alongside Vicky Critchlow and Lewis Asquith and features lighting and sound design by Harvey Sound and set designs by Cook and Critchlow (who also serves as assistant producer).

Cook said: “Lockdown was incredibly hard for all of us. I desperately missed theatre and being around creative people at my job in a Musical Theatre Academy. Ghostlight was written as a homage to West End Theatre and to all the people who work and perform in them. While our featured ghosts are fictional, many of the additional characters are real. Getting to research legends of Soho and its environs was a highlight of this project and I hope the audience will recognise some of the characters.

“Although these pieces are in part historical, I also wanted to explore contemporary themes. Gangs, police corruption, glass ceilings, homophobia, racism and conversion therapy are discussed through the experience of the characters.

“So come hear stories from the West End when it was dark.”

Presented by Tamzin Cook Creative, Ghostlight runs at the Union Theatre from 27 October to 5 November 2022.

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