Albion

by Chris Thompson
World premiere

A Bush Theatre Production

God bless this country, God bless karaoke and God save the Queen

It’s Saturday night at The Albion, a proper East End boozer and the unofficial home of the English Protection Army. Get your names in early: it’s karaoke night and it’s gonna be big.

Little brother Jayson’s out front smashing it on the mic but behind the scenes the leadership of the EPA is falling apart. Paul knows the public won’t listen to a bunch of hooligans but his deputy Kyle wants a fight. Christine’s sure that the key to success is in the company you keep and the language you speak.

This is England and it’s time to take it back.

Chris Thompson’s explosive play examined the turbulent rise of the new far right in modern day Britain. When they embrace diversity, just how far can the far right go?

Chris Thompson’s debut play Carthage premiered at the Finborough Theatre in 2014. In his previous career as a social worker, Chris worked with young people in sexual health, child protection and with young offenders. A Channel 4 Playwright Scheme winner, Albion was his first commission from the Bush Theatre.

Ria Parry is Joint Artistic Director and co-founder of Iron Shoes, previously an Associate Company at the Bush Theatre. A winner of the Leverhulme Bursary for Emerging Directors, Ria was Resident Director at the National Theatre Studio. In 2011 she directed the critically acclaimed Mad about the Boy by Gbolahan Obisesan (Bush Theatre and national tour).

Albion was sponsored by the Simon Gray Award.

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Mail on Sunday
Hard-hitting and politically charged
WhatsOnStage
Captivating and tantalising
The Upcoming
Provocative and prescient
TimeOut
Blisteringly topical
Reviews Gate
Raucous
The Guardian
Tony Clay is scorching
Evening Standard
See this play!
The British Blacklist

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Cast

Delroy Atkinson

Delroy’s theatre credits include I Can't Sing! X Factor the Musical (London Palladium), Dick Whittington (Theatre Royal Stratford East), All My Sons (Royal Exchange Theatre), The Amen Corner (Royal National Theatre), Aladdin (Theatre at The 02), The Harder They Come (Theatre Royal Stratford East & Festival Jamaica 50), Wah Wah Girls (Sadler’s Wells), Shrek (Dreamworks/Theatre Royal), Avenue Q (The Gielgud), The Harder They Come (Toronto / Miami Tour), Lost in the Stars (Royal Festival Hall), Come Dancing (Theatre Royal Stratford East), Porgy and Bess (Andrew Fell Ltd), Jerry Springer The Opera (National Theatre), Bombitty of Errors (New Ambassadors Theatre), Rent (Prince of Wales Theatre), Five Guys Named Moe (National Tour), Lautrec (Shaftesbury Avenue), The Enchanted Pig (The Young Vic), Twelfth Night (Nuffield Theatre), Our Country’s Good (Nuffield Theatre), Poison (Tricycle Theatre), The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe (WYP), Treasure Island (Nuffield Theatre), Let The Music Play (Hackney Empire), Requiem (CMP).

TV Credits include Small Island (BBC), My Family (BBC), After You’ve Gone (BBC), No Heroics (ITV), Moonmonkeys (BBC), The Bill (Thames TV). Film credits include Still Crazy, Did You Get The Bag?, Rivers of Blood, Fish Out of Water.

Dharmesh Patel

Dharmesh’s theatre credits include England Away (National Tour), Too Clever By Half (Manchester Exchange), The Snow Queen (Trestle), King Lear (RSC), Hamlet (RSC), Comedy of Errors (RSC), As You Like It (RSC), Romeo and Juliet (RSC), American Trade (RSC), The Grain Store (RSC), Morte Arthur (RSC), Happy and Married? (Freedom Studios), Satyagraha (Improbable/New York), Beauty and the Beast (Lyric, Hammersmith), Satygraha (Improbable/ENO), Coast (Contact, Manchester), Too Close to Home (Lyric, Hammersmith and Tour), Accidental Death of an Anarchist (Octagon, Bolton), Slow Time (National Theatre), Silent Cry (Red Ladder).

Nicola Harrison

Nicola’s theatre credits include Time and the Conways (Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh), Decade (Theatre 503), Fewer Emergencies (The Print Room), Fen (Finborough Theatre / NT Studio), Apart From George (Finborough Theatre), The Glass Menagerie (Royal Lyceum), Stooped Fucken Animals (Traverse, Edinburgh), Angel Among The Trees (Nottingham Playhouse), Snow White (New Victory Theatre, Broadway NYC), The Last Valentine (Almeida Theatre), and Wake (King’s Head Theatre).

TV credits include Doctors (BBC), My Mad Fat Diary (Tiger Aspect Productions), Hollyoaks ( Lime Pictures for Channel 4), May Day (Kudos TV), Emmerdale (ITV), Black Mirror – The Entire History of You (Zeppotron Ltd for Channel 4), Misfits (Clerkenwell Films Ltd for E4), Micro Men (BBC), Medea (BBC) and Hampstead Heath, The Musical (BBC).

Film credits include Close, Heaven on Earth, My Brother The Devil, The Impossible, Control, Forwhatevergoodbye, All You Can Eat, and Dysfunction.

Paul Ham

Paul’s theatre credits include Titus Andronicus (Shakespeare’s Globe), Fortune’s Fool (The Old Vic), Guns, Love and Chemistry (Define Choice), The Lights (Define Choice), Accomplice (Menier Chocolate Factory), Battle Acts! (Laughing Horse @ The Three Sisters), Lush Life (Canal Café Theatre).

TV credits include Eastenders (BBC), and Beautiful People (BBC). Film credits include Anna Karenina.

Steve John Shepherd

Steve’s theatre credits include Bomber’s Moon (Park Theatre), Piaf (Donmar Warehouse and West End), Fives Wives of Maurice Pinder (National Theatre), and Sing Yer Hearts Out For The Lads (National Theatre).

TV credits include playing Michael Moon in Eastenders (BBC), Waking the Dead (BBC), Lunch Monkeys (BBC3), Taggart (Scottish Television), On Expenses (BBC), Being Human II (Touch Paper Television), Material Girl (Carnival Television for Channel 4), Plus One (Kudos / Channel 4), Cold Blood (Granada Television Ltd), Bad Mothers Handbook (ITV), Bonkers (BBC), Lilies (BBC), Dalziel & Pascoe (BBC), New Tricks (Wall to Wall for BBC), Last Chancers (Angel Eye Scotland), Real Men (BBC), Spine Chillers (BBC), The Knock (LWT), Forgive and Forget (Scottish Television), An Unsuitable Job For A Woman (Ecosse Films), Maisie Raine (Fair Game Films Ltd), and This Life (World Productions/BBC2).

Film credits include Romance, The Best Man, Too Much Too Young, Layer Cake, Boudicca, Spy Hole, Star Wars Episode II, Now You See Her, Me Without You, From Hell, Greenwich Mean Time, RPM, I Want You.

Natalie Casey

Natalie’s theatre credits include 9 To 5 (UK Tour), Abigail’s Party (Royal Theatre Bath), Legally Blonde (The Savoy Theatre), The Invisible Man (Menier Chocolate Factory), Oklahoma (Chichester Festival), Well (Apollo Theatre / Trafalgar Studios), The Flint Street Nativity (Playhouse Theatre Liverpool), Hobson’s Choice (Watermill Theatre), and Vagina Monologues (Palace Theatre Manchester).

Television credits include Dave Shakespeare, Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, Chopratown and Hollyoaks.

Tony Clay

Tony graduated from Arts Educational School of Acting in 2013. For television, his work includes Foyle’s War; and for film, The Second Coming and An Ordinary Life.

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