The Ridiculous Darkness

Anthony is a theatre-maker and dramaturg whose directing credits include Over to You (Tamasha Theatre/Rich Mix), Dreamless Sleep (Bunker), Loyalty and Dissent (Tamasha Theatre/Rich Mix/ National Archives), Welcome to England (Young Court, Royal Court), Detox (Artistic Directors of the Future), Pandora (Peckham Pelican/Zedel/New River Studios), Coma (Southwark Playhouse), Something to Say (St James Theatre), Plunder (Fresh Direction, Young Vic), Camp (Etcetera Theatre/Bussey Building), One for the Road and New World Order (Site- specific).

His credits as assistant director include Ear for Eye directed by debbie tucker green (Royal Court), Much Ado About Nothing directed by Matthew Dunster (Shakespeare's Globe), Father Comes Home from the Wars, Parts 1, 2 and 3 directed by Jo Bonney (Royal Court), and Parallel Macbeth directed by Caroline Byrne (Young Vic). Anthony trained at National Youth Theatre, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and through the Young Vic Director's Program. He was a finalist for the JMK award in 2017. Anthony is the Associate Artist at the Gate Theatre.

Rosie Elnile studied Design for The Stage at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. She was the first Resident Design Assistant at The Donmar Warehouse from 2015 until 2016. 

As Designer, her theatre credits include: Big Guns (The Yard Theatre), The Convert (Gate Theatre), Macbeth (Mountview Academy of Theatre), Hard C*ck (Spill Festival), The Half Of It (RADA Festival) and Loaded (Jacksons Lane Theatre).  

As Assistant Designer, other theatre credits include: Elegy (Donmar Warehouse), Jesus Christ Super Star (Regents Park Open Air Theatre), The Barber Of Seville Design (Opera North).

Shannon graduated from Guildhall School of Music and Drama specialising in Stage and Costume Management. She has worked in theatre, opera, tv and film and is also ASM Dep on Thriller Live in the West End. 
Upcoming productions: Dismantle this Room (Royal Court Theatre, London), American Dream (Young Vic Theatre, London) and Ivan and the Dogs (Young Vic, London)
Productions worked on: Othello (Dubai Opera House, Dubai),  Fierce Sisters (New Place, Stratford-upon Avon), Othello (UK Tour), Annie (Belgrade Theatre, Coventry), MA Collaborative Project (Frantic Assembly), Napoleon Disrobed (UK Tour), A Christmas Tale (Kenton Theatre, Henley-on-Thames), Frau Welt (Hackney Showroom, London), Mumburger (Old Red Lion Theatre, London), The Ugly One (Park Theatre, London), The Diary of a Teenage Girl (Southwark Playhouse, London), Go Between (Taking Part Project, Young Vic Theatre, London), The Mountaintop (Young Vic Theatre, London), La Traviata (West Green House Opera, Hampshire), How Lion Became King of Tinga Tinga Land (UK Tour), 42nd Street (Belgrade Theatre, Coventry), Hamlet (Rose Playhouse, London), Love Labours Lost (Rosemary Branch Theatre, London), Dead Sheep (Park Theatre, London), The Ballad of Rudy (UK Tour), Rachel (Finborough Theatre, London), West End Eurovision (Dominion Theatre, London), Big Noise Festival (Peckham Rye, London) Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Longborough Festival Opera). 
TV includes:
Downton Abbey (Ealing Studios, London)
Film includes:
The Take (Bastille Day)- Feature film and The Infiltrator- Feature film 
www.linkedin.com/in/shannon-martin-0b4

Shannon wants to thank everyone at The Gate Theatre for having her on this production. 

Joshua works as a Lighting and Projection Designer across theatre, dance, opera, music, film & art installation. He was nominated for Knight of Illumination Award 2017 for his work on Removal Men. 

Previous credits at the Gate include: The Iphigenia Quartet, In the Night Time (Before the Sun Rises), Medea, I’d Rather Goya Robbed Me of My Sleep Than Some Other Arsehole, No Place Like Home. 

Recent credits include: La Tragédie De Carmen (Royal Opera House, Wilton’s Music Hall); Frau Welt (Hackney Showroom); Cosminc Scallies (Royal Exchange & Graeae); How I Hacked My Way Into Space (UnLimited Theatre, Tour); Bullish (Milk Presents); The Shape of Pain (China Plate Theatre; Fringe First Winner); Burning Doors (Belarus Free Theatre); Bodies (Royal Court); Nest (Brighton & Take Off Festivals); How My Light is Spent (Royal Exchange); The Bear & The Proposal (Young Vic); Scarlett (Hampstead and Theatr Clywd); Years of Sunlight (Theatre 503); The Twits (Curve Theatre, Leicester); Removal Men (The Yard Theatre, Knight of Illumination Nomination); Broken Biscuits (Paines Plough); The Future (Company Three); Contractions (Sheffield Crucible); Julie (Northern Stage); We’re Stuck! (China Plate); Giving (Hampstead);  The Rolling Stone (Orange Tree Theatre); The Glass Menagerie (Nuffield Theatre, as Video Designer); The Merchant of Venice, Wuthering Heights, Consensual (Ambassadors Theatre); The Crocodile (Manchester International Festival); One Arms (Southwark Playhouse); The Trial Parallel, A Streetcar Named Desire Parallel (Young Vic); Amadis De Gaulle (Bloomsbury Theatre); Beckett Season (Old Red Lion); The Deluge (UK Tour, Lila Dance); Usagi Yojimbo (Southwark Playhouse); Pioneer (UK Tour, Curious Directive); Thumbelina (UK Tour, Dancing Brick).

More info at: www.joshuapharo.com

Theatre includes The Way of the World (Donmar); The Children (Royal Court/Broadway); Dry Powder, Sex with Strangers, Labyrinth (Hampstead); Ophelias Zimmer (Schaubühne, Berlin/Royal Court); Hogarth’s Progress (Rose, Kingston); Macbeth (Tobacco Factory); Humble Boy, Blue/Heart, The Distance (Orange Tree, Richmond); Miss Julie (Theatre by the Lake/Jermyn Street); The Gaul (Hull Truck); Cookies (Theatre Royal Haymarket); Jane Wenham (Out of Joint); Waiting for Godot (Sheffield Crucible); My Eyes Went Dark (Traverse & 59E59, New York); A Kettle of Fish (Yard); CommonWealth (Almeida); Creve Coeur (Print Room); Cuzco, Wink (Theatre503); Spamalot, The Glass Menagerie (English Theatre, Frankfurt); The Cardinal, Kiki's Delivery Service (Southwark Playhouse); Mrs Lowry and Son (Trafalgar Studios); Martine, Black Jesus, Somersaults (Finborough); The Habit of Art, Monogamy, Teddy, Toast, Fabric, Invincible (National Tours).
 
Opera includes Miranda (Opéra Comique, Paris); Scraww (Trebah Gardens); Vixen (Vaults/International Tour); Carmen:Remastered (ROH/Barbican).
 
Radio includes Home Front (BBC Radio 4). Associate Artist of The Faction and Silent Opera.

Seke Chimutengwende works in dance as a performer, choreographer and teacher. He has performed for companies such as DV8 Physical Theatre and Lost Dog and has performed and taught improvisation internationally since 2006. He has choreographed four works for his company Seke Chimutengwende & Friends and has recently collaborated with Alexandrina Hemsley on duet Black Holes which premiered at The Place in June, 2018. His new solo Plastic Soul, premiered at The Yard Theatre in January 2019.

Elisa is a designer, artist and horticulturalist, working in live art, dance, music, installation and theatre. She trained in performance practice and design at Central Saint Martins. She is interested in challenging the boundaries around art and performance and is just about to embark on residency in Berlin with choreographer Jessica Nina Barlow. She is also a regular collaborator with RashDash.

Haylin Cai is a theatre director and actress. She graduated from East 15 Acting School with a Theatre Directing MA degree in 2017, after finishing her BS Psychology degree in China. She recently acted in Lost and Found and Nature's Revenge. She also worked as an assistant director for Andorra and Na, a dramaturg and assistant producer for The Beautiful Game. She also choreographs, plays the cello and writes theatre reviews.

Wolfram Lotz, born in Hamburg in 1981, grew up in the Black Forest. He studied Literature, Fine Arts and Media in Konstanz before enrolling for Literary Writing at the German Literature Institute in Leipzig. He writes theatre and radio plays, poetry and prose and has already been the recipient of numerous awards including the Audience Prize of the play competition at the Berlin Theatertreffen 2010 as well as the Kleist Foerderpreis 2011 for Der Grosse Marsch. The original Burgtheater production of The Ridiculous Darkness  (Die Laecherliche Finsternis) was invited to Theatertreffen Berlin as well as Muehlheimer Theatertage in 2015. Theatre Heute Magazine named him as ‘Emerging Playwright of the year’ in 2011 and ‘Dramatist of the Year’ in 2105.

Nina Segal is a playwright and dramaturg.  Her plays includes: In the Night Time (Before the Sun Rises) (Gate Theatre; Teatro Belli, Rome; Atlantic Amplified Series, NYC; Orange Tree Theatre), Big Guns (Yard Theatre), Danger Signals (New Ohio, NYC), There Is No Threat (Yard Theatre, Live Drafts), and Dismantle This Room (Bush Theatre; Royal Court).  Plays in development include: Extended Universe (Boundless Theatre), and The History of Love (David Luff Productions).

Daniel Brunet is a director, performer, producer and translator. Born in Syracuse, New York in 1979, he studied theatre and film at Boston College. He moved to Berlin in 2001 with the support of a Fulbright Scholarship and began a career as a freelance theatre maker. Brunet founded THE LAB at English Theatre Berlin during his 2003/2004 directing residency. He was the Associate Director/Associate Producer of German Theatre Abroad in Berlin and New York from 2005 to 2008. His directorial work has been seen at venues including Forum Freies Theater, Düsseldorf, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin and Performance Space 122, New York. Recent work includes the 2013 documentary theatre piece Echter Berliner !!!! Ihr nicht Fuck You which Brunet directed, devised and performed in, the world premiere of the play Schwarz gemacht by Alexander Thomas in 2014, the bilingual performance Knick-Knack to the Future | Ruckzuck in die Zukunft, created with the artist collective copy & waste and invited to the 2015 steirischer herbst festival and the world premiere of Amy Evan’s play The Most Unsatisfied Town (April 2016). Brunet has received a Literature Fellowship in Translation from the National Endowment of the Arts, amongst other awards, for his translations of German plays by writers including Wolfram Lotz, Dea Loher, Falk Richter, Roland Schimmelpfennig and Heiner Müller. His translations and essays have been published in PEN America, The Mercurian, Asymptote, Theater, TheatreForum, Contemporary Theatre Review, alt.theatre and MiGAZIN. Brunet became Producing Artistic Director of English Theatre Berlin | International Performing Arts Center in 2012.