Full cast announced for The Children’s Theatre Partnership and Royal & Derngate, Northampton’s co-production of Unexpected Twist. Which will arrive at Blackpool’s Grand Theatre Tue 23 to Sat 27 May.

This new play with music, will star Kate Donnachie (Aladdin) as Desree, Alex Hardie (Frankenstein: How To Make A Monster) as Gazz, Rosie Hilal (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child) as Miss Cavani, Drew Hylton (Annie) as Shona, Nadine Rose Johnson (Frankenstein: How To Make A Monster) as Rosie, Polly Lister (The Worst Witch) as Nan/Lorraine, Alexander Lobo Moreno (GrimeBoy) as Tino, James Meteyard (Coriolanus) as Pops, Liyah Summers (Our Lady Of Kibeho) as Rasheda, and Thomas Vernal (The Book of Mormon) as Dad.

Unexpected Twist is a re-telling of the Charles Dickens classic, Oliver Twist, by one the best-loved figures in the children’s book world, Michael Rosen. Adapted for the stage by BAFTA award-winning playwright Roy Williams (Soul, Sucker Punch), with original music by rising R&B star Yaya Bey and BAC Beatbox Academy’s Conrad Murray, also musical director, Unexpected Twist is a thrilling new production from the producing partnership behind Holes and The Jungle Book, that will tour the UK following its Northampton premiere. Unexpected Twist will be the final production James Dacre (Olivier Award-nominated Our Lady Of Kibeho) directs in Northampton during his artistic leadership of Royal & Derngate.

Shona and her class are studying Oliver Twist. She’s new in school and keeps finding herself in trouble – much like Oliver himself! When she’s given a new phone by a stranger, she begins to suspect there’s something fishy about the new kids she’s met…

This brand-new play brings to vivid life the worlds of both Shona and Oliver, as their stories twist together, unexpectedly!

Michael Rosen (Writer) said: “I have always been a huge lover of theatre and the dramatic arts. I believe in the power and value of live performance and rate it as an equal to all the other literary activities. I can’t describe what a thrill it is for me to know Unexpected Twist is going to be a play. I’ve already seen a draft script and it leapt off the page. I could immediately ‘see’ it as being a funny, tough, edgy, contemporary, powerful show. I am desperate to see it.”

Unexpected Twist has design by Frankie Bradshaw (Two Trains Running) and choreography by Olivier Award-winning Arielle Smith (Jolly Folly), lighting design by Rory Beaton (Death Drop, For Black Boys), sound design by Leigh Davies (Matilda) with casting by Annelie Powell CDG.

The creative team also includes Sarah Stacey (Associate Director), Gurkiran Kaur (Voice Coach) and Kate Waters (Fight Director). Production Management is by Martin Thompson (Northampton) and Ben Arkell (Tour) with Lisa Lewis (Company Stage Manager – Northampton), Neil Bull (Company Stage Manager – Tour), Karen Habens (Deputy Stage Manager), Sara-Jayne Smith (Assistant Stage Manager), Charles Parry (Sound No 1) and Molly English (Head of Wardrobe) completing the team.

Book now for Unexpected Twist

Blackpool’s Grand Theatre

Tue 23 to Sat 27 May

Click to BOOK NOW

NOTES FOR EDITORS

CAST

Kate Donnachie (Desree)’s stage credits include: The Last Man, Return To Elm House and Frankenstein: How To Make A Monster (Battersea Arts); Aladdin (Lyric Hammersmith); Arthur/Merlin (Iris Theatre); Crongton Knights (Pilot Theatre); Sirens (Zoo Co); Home To Vote (The King’s Head Theatre) and She Had A Ticket In Her Mind (St John’s Mill Theatre Company).

Alex Hardie (Gazz)’s stage credits include: Frankenstein: How To Make A Monster and Pied Piper (UK Tour) and Aladdin At Sea (P&O Cruises).

Rosie Hilal (Miss Cavani)’s stage credits include: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Palace Theatre); Becoming Berenice (Forge/Voila Europe); Macbeth (Stafford Shakespeare); Brideshead Revisited (ETT/York Theatre Royal); The Hard Problem (The National Theatre); The Oresteia, Measure For Measure, Anthony & Cleopatra, Holy Warriors (Shakespeare’s Globe); The Hypochondriac (Globe, Wanamaker Theatre); All’s Well That Ends Well, As You Like It, Hamlet (Royal Shakespeare Company)and Occupied (Theatre 503).

Her screen credits include: My Mother’s Wedding (CAA Media Finance); All the Light We Cannot See (Netflix); No Return (ITV1) and London Road (BBC/National Theatre).

Drew Hylton (Shona)’s stage credits include: Meet Me In St Louis (Grange Park Opera) and Annie The Musical (West End).

Nadine Rose Johnson (Rosie)’s stage credits include: Frankenstein: How To Make A Monster (Battersea Arts); Tortoise (The Bunker Theatre, London); Beatbox Car (Edinburgh Fringe); #50 Days (MT Fest2021); Utopia (RCC) and Black List (Tandanya)

Polly Lister (Nan/Lorraine)’s stage credits include: Jekyll & Hyde (Derby Theatre/Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch); One Man Two Governors, Hound Of The Baskervilles (Bolton Octagon); Abigail’s Party (UK Theatre Award Winner – Best Performer); Fallen Angels, The Memory Of Water, Blue Room, Hayfever, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Our Country’s Good, Private Lives (Theatre By The Lake, Keswick); Beauty and the Beast, Playhouse Creatures, Votes For Women, Table, 101 Dalmatians, The Snow Queen, The Borrowers, As You Like It (New Vic, Stoke); Blue Stockings (Storyhouse, Chester); The Wizard Of Oz (Leeds Playhouse); The Worst Witch Live! (Olivier Award Winner for Best Family Show, Theatre Royal Northampton/ UK Tour/West End);  Saint Joan (National Theatre); Great Expectations, Solace Of The Road, Cooking With Elvis (Derby Theatre); Little Voice, Di and Viv And Rose, The Snow Queen (Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough); A Christmas Carol (Hull Truck); Much Ado About Nothing (Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds & Mercury, Colchester); To Sir With Love (Birmingham Rep) and Romeo & Juliet (English Shakespeare Co).

Her screen credits include include: Doctors (BBC); Coronation Street (ITV); Emmerdale (ITV);

Martina Cole’s Lady Killers (Free At Last TV); Casualty (BBC); The Murder of Stephen Lawrence (Granada Television); Polterheist (BBC) and London Unplugged (BBC).

Alexander Lobo Moreno (Tino)’s stage credits include: Rapsody (Edinburgh Fringe); Grimeboy (Birmingham Rep) and Excluded (Intermission Youth Theatre).

His screen credits include: Casualty (BBC); Love, Death and Robots (Episode: ICE for Netflix); Yodel Boiz (Channel 4).

James Meteyard (Pops)’s stage credits include: Electrolyte (Pleasance, Edinburgh Fringe/UK & Ireland Tour); Coriolanus (Rose Theatre, Bankside); After Party (The Pleasance, Islington); Troilus and Cressida (Edinburgh Fringe) and Macbeth (Broadway Theatre).

His screen credits include: Dr Frost (Mini-Nightmares) and Dystopian: Lovesong (Superhero Studios).

Liyah Summers (Rasheda)’s stage credits include: A Christmas Carol, Henry VI Part One Rehearsals Project and Maydays (RSC); Private Peaceful (UK Tour); Who Cares (Lung Theatre); Our Lady Of Kibeho (Theatre Royal Stratford East); The Old Curiosity Shop and The Velveteen Rabbit (Everyman Theatre Cheltenham) and The Elephant Man (Bristol Old Vic).

Thomas Vernal (Dad)’s stage credits include: The Book of Mormon (UK & International Tour); Splinter (The Other Room); The Book of Mormon (UK & International Tour); Revealed (Rites of Passage Productions) and The Wizard of Oz and One Love – The Bob Marley Musical both for Birmingham Rep.

His screen credits include: Murder in Provence (ITV); Silent Witness (BBC); Seaview (Strictly Arts); The Bar (Michael Ellis Films); Second Wind (AW Broadcast)and The Hunt for Love (Luke Rufo Films).

MICHAEL ROSEN (WRITER)

Michael Rosen is one of Britain’s best loved writers and performance poets for children and adults. His first degree in English Literature and Language was from Wadham College, Oxford and he went on to study for an MA at the University of Reading and a PhD at the former University of North London, now London Metropolitan. He is currently Professor of Children’s Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London where he co-devised and teaches critical approaches to reading on an MA in Children’s Literature, having done the same at Birkbeck, University of London. He has taught on MA courses in universities since 1994. He was the Children’s Laureate from 2007-2009 and has published over 200 books for children and adults, including the recent bestseller Many Different Kinds of Love and On The Move.

ROY WILLIAMS (STAGE ADAPTATION)

Roy Williams began writing plays in 1990 and is now arguably one of the country’s leading dramatists. In 2000 he was the joint-winner of The George Devine Award and in 2001 he was awarded the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright. He was awarded an OBE for Services to Drama in the 2008 Birthday Honours List and was made a fellow of The Royal Society of Literature in 2018.

His plays include: The Fellowship (Hampstead Theatre); Go, Girl (Lyric Hammersmith); Death Of England (Dorfman Theatre, National Theatre); Death Of England: Delroy (Olivier Theatre, National Theatre) both co-written with Clint Dyer, The Firm (Hampstead Theatre, Downstairs); Soul: The Untold Story Of Marvin Gaye (Royal & Derngate/ Hackney Empire); Antigone (Pilot Theatre/UK Tour); Wildefire (Hampstead Theatre); Advice For The Young At Heart (Theatre Centre); an adaptation of The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner (Pilot Theatre/ UK Tour); Sucker Punch (Royal Court Theatre, nominated for Olivier Award for Best Play), Kingston ’14 (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Category B (Tricycle Theatre); Angel House (Eclipse Theatre, UK Tour); Days Of Significance (RSC); Joe Guy (Tiata Fahodzi); There’s Only One Wayne Matthews (Polka Theatre); Baby Girl (NT Connections); Absolute Beginners (Lyric Hammersmith); Little Sweet Thing (Nottingham Playhouse); Slow Time (NT Education); Fallout (Royal Court Theatre); Sing Yer Heart Out For The Lads (NT); Clubland (Royal Court Theatre); The Gift (Birmingham Rep/Tricycle Theatre); Local Boy (Hampstead Theatre); Souls (Theatre Centre); Lift Off (Royal Court); Starstruck (Tricycle, Winner of John Whiting Award, Alfred Fagon Award & EMMA Award for Best Play); Josie’s Boy (Red Ladder Theatre Co); The No-Boys Cricket Club (Theatre Royal, Stratford East). He also contributed to the Royal Court’s Peckham The Soap Opera.

His work for screen includes the BAFTA nominated Death Of England: Face To Face (co-written with Clint Dyer for Sabel Productions/National Theatre/Sky Arts), BAFTA nominated Soon Gone: A Windrush Chronicle (Douglas Road Productions/BBC4); Fallout (Company Pictures/ Channel 4, Screen Nation Award for Achievement in Screenwriting); Offside (BBC, Winner of BAFTA Children’s Film & TV Award for Best Schools Drama) and Babyfather (BBC). For Film he has co-written Fast Girls (DJ Films).

YAYA BEY (MUSIC)

Enigmatic, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter, Yaya Bey, is a multi-hyphenate artist who “effortlessly mingles the personal and political with enthralling freshness,” as described by Pitchfork. Bey’s most recent album, Remember Your North Star has received critical acclaim and is her most expansive work to-date.

As a New York native of African American and Caribbean descent, Yaya’s new LP showcases her experimental approach to R&B, Hip Hop, Jazz, Reggae and Afrobeat.

​​CONRAD MURRAY (MUSIC)

Conrad Murray is a theatre maker, director, musician, writer and composer. As Artistic Director, he has led the BAC Beatbox Academy for the last decade, innovating and pioneering hip hop/ beatbox theatre.His last major production Frankenstein: How to Make a Monster got 5-star reviews from The Stage, The Guardian and others and won the Off West End award, Total Theatre award, and pick of the fringe at the Adelaide fringe festival.  It was adapted into a BBC film in 2020.

Pilots’ Crongton Knights (Musical Director / composer) was picked as one of the top theatre shows of the year by the Guardian in 2020.

He was chosen as part of the Stage’s top 100 people in their 2020 list which highlighted his show High rise eState Of Mind with his theatre company Beats & Elements, and a finalist in The Arts Foundations theatre makers category.

Current projects include – new BAC Beatbox Academy hip hop theatre show for kids based on the Pied Piper for Battersea Arts Centre 2023. He was recently Beatbox Coach on Giles Terera’s The Meaning Of Zong for the Bristol Old Vic.

In 2022, his first published works were published by Bloomsbury/Methuen Drama, Making hip hop theatre and three original texts Beatbox & Elements – A Hip Hop Theatre Trilogy.

He has collaborated and/ or made work for various venues and institutions including Battersea Arts Centre, The National Theatre Studio, The Lyric Hammersmith, Mountview School of Theatre Arts, The Tate, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Camden People’s Theatre, Roundhouse, Theatre Royal Stratford East, UCL, The Courtyard Theatre.

JAMES DACRE (DIRECTOR)

James has been Artistic Director of Royal & Derngate for the past ten years, during which time he has produced more than 120 shows of which 60 have toured both nationally and internationally and 42 have transferred to London and been recognised with Olivier, Evening Standard, WhatsOnStage and The Stage awards. The venue has been twice shortlisted for Regional Theatre of the Year by The Stage (2022 and 2016) and chosen as 2020 Outstanding Theatre of the Year by Michael Billington. Its touring productions have been seen by a further million people nationwide and made over 500 venue visits across the UK and abroad, winning three UK Theatre Awards. They have been broadcast to yet wider audiences on Sky Arts, BBC, On Demand and in cinemas.

Recent directing includes Joe Penhall’s Blue/Orange with Giles Terera and Michael Balogun, The Two Popes by Anthony McCarten with Anton Lesser and Nicholas Woodeson, subsequently adapted into the 2020 Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominated film; Arthur Miller’s The Hook (UK Theatre Award for Touring); Roy Williams’ Soul with Adjoa Andoh, which transferred to Hackney Empire; and the 2020 Olivier Award nominated Our Lady of Kibeho, James’s third collaboration with playwright Katori Hall since premiering her first play The Mountaintop with David Harewood and Lorraine Burroughs, which won the 2010 Olivier Award for Best New Play.

Previous work includes four productions at Shakespeare’s Globe – As You Like It (World Tour and UK Theatre Renee Stepham Award), David Eldridge’s Holy Warriors, King John (UK Theatre Award for Best Touring Production) and a short film of Othello (Complete Walk) as well as King James Bible at the National Theatre; The Accrington Pals (UK Theatre Best Design Award) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at Manchester’s Royal Exchange; Ella Hickson’s Precious Little Talent (Evening Standard Award nomination, London Theatre Festival Best Play Award) at Trafalgar Studios; Amy Herzog’s 4000 Miles (Pulitzer Prize) at Bath Theatre Royal; Dan O’Brien’s The Body of an American (Horton Foote Prize for Outstanding New American Play, Evening Standard Best New Play Award Nominee) at The Gate; and new plays by Dawn King, Mike Poulton, Alistair Beaton, Amanda Whittington, Nanna Mwaluwko and Molly Davies, amongst others.

FRANKIE BRADSHAW (DESIGNER)

Frankie has worked across the UK in the West End and in venues including the National Theatre, the Donmar Warehouse, the Young Vic, the Royal Exchange in Manchester and Nottingham Playhouse.

In 2019 she won the Stage Debut award for Best Creative West End Debut with director Lynette Linton for their partnership on creating Sweat at the Gielgud in 2019. Frankie was also a Linbury Prize Finalist in 2015, a Jerwood Young Designer in 2017.

She was a winner of the Off West-End Award for Best Set Design in 2016 for Adding Machine (Finborough Theatre) and was nominated for the Off West-End Award for Best Set Design in 2017 for Assata Taught Me (Gate Theatre).

Frankie has run workshops and educational projects for the Bush Theatre, English Touring Theatre and Whitecard Collective. She took part in the Donmar on Design Festival in 2018.

RORY BEATON (LIGHTING DESIGN)

Rory is a freelance lighting designer working in the UK and internationally. He has previously been nominated for a Knight of Illumination Award for his work on Così fan Tutte at Opera Holland Park. He is also a recipient of the Michael Northen Award, presented by the Association of Lighting Designers. Previous projects include: Death Drop: Back in the Habit (Garrick, West End); For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy & Jews. In Their Own Words. (Royal Court, London); I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (London Coliseum / Broadway HD); Lovely Ugly City (Almeida); Spike (UK Tour); Half Empty Glasses, A Sudden Violent Burst of Rain, The Ultimate Pickle (Paines Plough); Merchant of Venice 1936 (Watford Palace/Home Manchester); Spike & Kiss Me Kate (Watermill); Dishoom! (UK Tour); Summer Holiday, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice (Bolton Octagon); Edward II (Arts Theatre, Cambridge); Macbeth, La Bohème, Elizabeth I, The Marriage of Figaro, Dido & Aeneas, Amadigi, Idomeneo, Radamisto (English Touring Opera); West End Producer – Free Willy! (Cuffe & Taylor); 60 Miles by Road or Rail (Royal & Derngate); The Blonde Bombshells of 1943, Summer Holiday, A Christmas Carol (Pitlochry); 70 Års Opera (Danish National Opera); A Christmas Carol (Belgrade / Chipping Norton); Little Women, L’amico Fritz, The Cunning Little Vixen, Così fan Tutte, L’arlesiana, Manon Lescaut, Le Nozze di Figaro (Opera Holland Park); Boat, The Best Day Ever (Company 3). Rory has also designed projects with Blenheim Palace and The British Library. www.rorybeaton.co.uk

LEIGH DAVIES (SOUND DESIGNER)

Credits include: Greatest Days – The Official Take That Musical (P&O Cruises); Sleeping Beauty, As You Like It, Jack and the Beanstalk (Queens Theatre, Hornchurch); Indecent Proposal (Southwark Playhouse); 1st Luv (The Big House); The Worst Witch (Royal & Derngate Theatre, UK Tour and West End – Olivier Award winner for Best Family Entertainment);  Potted Panto (Southwark Playhouse and Garrick Theatre); Mancoin (Vaults Festival, London); Spring Awakening (Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester); Cover My Tracks (Old Vic & UK Tour); Monologues, King Lear (Old Vic); Edward II (Cambridge Arts Theatre); The Two Gentleman of Verona (Shakespeare’s Globe & UK Tour); Alice in Winterland, A Christmas Carol, The Wind in The Willows, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Snow Gorilla (Rose Theatre, Kingston); Hetty Feather (West End, UK Tour and Asolo Theatre, Florida); Bonnie and Clyde – The Musical (Arts Ed); 24 Hour Musicals (Old Vic Theatre).

As Associate Sound Designer: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Southwark Playhouse); Matilda the Musical (Head of Sound, West End, Broadway, UK Tour, Australia); Wah! Wah! Girls (Kneehigh, Sadlers Wells Theatre); 24 Hour Plays (Musical Section, Old Vic Theatre).

ANNELIE POWELL CDG (CASTING)

Annelie is a Casting director with over 15 years of experience, who trained at the Oxford School of Drama after receiving a scholarship, quite unbelievable to someone from a state school, whose only contact with theatre was a Tuesday night kids class in a dusty village hall. Recently she has worked with theatres such as The Royal Shakespeare Company, Almeida, Northampton Royal and Derngate, Theatre Royal Stratford East, Leeds Playhouse, Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Hull Truck, Hampstead Theatre, The Bush, ETT and Headlong as well as with producers such as Jonathan Church, CTP for Fiery Angel, Francesca Moody, and Inspector Sands and her work ranges from musicals to drama’s to comedies. She is also prolific in her Film and T.V casting work.

THE CHILDREN’S THEATRE PARTNERSHIP (CTP) WITH BLACKPOOL GRAND THEATRE

CTP was established in 2010 to produce and tour bold, ambitious and imaginative theatre for young people, families and schools. Their aim is to excite and engage new and diverse audiences, often introducing them to the theatre for the first time, bringing communities to their local theatres, inspiring a lifelong love of theatre and supporting the UK’s most talented artists.

CTP has successfully produced and toured five shows and brought two to the West End. CTP has developed a network of supportive large-scale venues, reaching over 500,000 people. Previous CTP productions include Animal Farm directed by Robert Icke, the Olivier Award-winning Goodnight Mr Tom which enjoyed a successful West End run and three UK tours, a West End and UK tour production of Swallows and Amazons, a UK tour of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, a UK tour of Michael Morpurgo’s Running Wild, followed by a UK tour of The Jungle Book.

The Children’s Theatre Partnership is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and is managed by Fiery Angel.

In 2019 Children’s Theatre Partnership commissioned Blackpool Grand Theatre to develop and lead a national education programme. Leaders in this field, Blackpool Grand are nominated for the 2023 The Stage Awards, Community Project of the Year in respect of their ground-breaking ‘Story-Led Resilience Programme’. First developed at Blackpool Grand in 2017, this programme underpins and provides rigour to their national resources and regional projects, including those that have accompanied the CTP tours of ‘Holes’, ‘Animal Farm,’ and ‘Unexpected Twist’. Celine Wyatt FRSA, Blackpool Grand’s Head of Creative Learning & Development said: “These wonderful stories are brought to life by CTP and have offered a rich vein of opportunities for The Grand’s ‘Story-Led Resilient Practice’, enabling 1000’s children and young people nationally to step into the shoes of compelling characters who are on their own resilient journey, and then encouraging them to explore and find ways to strengthen their own resilience”.

Editor’s Note: Acknowledgements

‘Story-Led Resilience Programme’ © Blackpool Grand Theatre, 2019

‘Story-Led Resilient Practice’ ™ © Blackpool Grand Theatre, 2017

(‘SLR Practice’ -Celine Wyatt 2017, adapted 2020)

All Rights Reserved

LISTINGS

UNEXPECTED TWIST

WRITTEN BY MICHAEL ROSEN

ADAPTED FOR THE STAGE BY ROY WILLIAMS

WITH MUSIC BY YAYA BEY and CONRAD MURRAY

DIRECTED BY JAMES DACRE

SET AND COSTUME DESIGN BY FRANKIE BRADSHAW

LIGHTING DESIGN BY RORY BEATON

SOUND DESIGN BY LEIGH DAVIES

CHOREOGRAPHY BY ARIELLE SMITH

CASTING BY ANNELIE POWELL CDG

Workshop Images: Available to download HERE

Artwork: Available to download HERE

Cast Graphic: Available to download HERE

Headshots: Available to download HERE

Website: https://unexpectedtwistonstage.co.uk

Twitter: @TWISTonstage

Instagram: @twistonstage

Facebook: UnexpectedTwist