Royal Court Hope Raine Tribes Will Chase Rabbit

Nina Raine‘s new play, Tribes will open in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs at the Royal Court on 19 October 2010 (previews from 14 October), with a cast including Jacob Casselden, Kika Markham, Stanley Townsend, Michelle Terry, Harry Treadaway and Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

Tribes, which tells the story of a deaf boy in an unconventional family, promises to be a “dissection of belonging, family and the limitations of communication.” The play is directed by Roger Michell whose recent work includes Rope at the Almeida, the 2008 production of Female of the Species at the Vaudeville Theatre and Betrayal at the Donmar Warehouse. His film credits include the 2002 Ben Affleck and Samuel L Jackson thriller, Changing Lanes.

Raine’s debut play Rabbit premiered at the Old Red Lion Theatre in 2006 and transferred to the Trafalgar Studios before being produced as part of the Brits Off-Broadway festival in New York. The work won Raine the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright as well as the Critics Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright in 2007. She also trained as a director on the Channel Four/Jerwood Spaces Young Regional Theatre bursary at the Royal Court Theatre going on to win a TMA Best Director Award for her production of Unprotected at the Liverpool Everyman and the Edinburgh Festival in 2006.

Jacob Casselden plays the 18-year-old Billy, the family’s deaf son. His previous credits includes a BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and short film, Nectar. He is joined in the cast by Stanley Townsend (Christopher) who has been recently been seen in the National Theatre productions of Phedre and Gethsemane as well as television appearances in the BBC’s Ashes to Ashes and Waking the Dead.

Kika Markham plays Billy’s mother, Beth. Her credits include Bufonidae at the Bush Theatre and the West End production of Song at Twilight for which she was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress. The rest of the cast has been announced as Michelle Terry (Sylvia) who recently appeared in London Assurance, Alls Well that Ends Well and England People Very Nice at the National Theatre, Harry Treadaway (Daniel) who was recently seen in Mark Ravenhill‘s Over There and Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Ruth) who was nominated for Outstanding Newcomer at the Evening Standard Awards for her role in 2nd May 1997 at the Bush.

Tribes is designed by Mark Thompson with lighting by Rick Fisher and sound by John Leonard.