F*ck the Polar Bears

by Tanya Ronder

A smart and funny new play about a family who have the world at their feet. Will they stamp all over it?

Gordon and Serena have worked hard to get where they are. He’s on the verge of a massive promotion at an energy giant. She’s preparing for a move into the house of their dreams. The family appear to be cooking on gas.

But behind their perfect front door, light bulbs are blowing, the drains keep blocking, and a phone inexplicably refuses to charge. Not to mention that daughter Rachel’s adored toy polar bear is nowhere to be found.


Hot on the heels of critically acclaimed work at the National Theatre (Dara, Liolà, Table) Tanya Ronder has been commissioned by the Bush Theatre to write this funny and surreal new family drama about the power of the individual in a world obscured by politics.


This production is sponsored by the Simon Gray Award.
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Director
Designer
Casting
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Writer

Cast

Bella Anne Padden
Bella is 8 years old and plays Rachel. She joined Alphabet Kidz in early 2015. She has danced with Associates dance school from the age of 2. Later this year she will be performing in the Tunbridge Wells Christmas production of Cinderella.
Eléa Vicas
Eléa is 8 years old and plays Rachel. Eléa is a student at Stagecoach in Primrose Hill. She recently appeared as Alice in the film The Prowler, a psychological thriller written by author M. J. Arlidge and has completed a short film with her younger brother to be shown on TV this Christmas. Eléa has also appeared in several commercials including KLM and Cheerios. Her hobbies include writing stories, drawing, yoga, singing and dancing.
Jon Foster
Jon plays Daniel. His theatre appearances include: Dear Elizabeth; The Unknown Island; Idomeneus; Trojan Women; Dream Story; Mud (Gate Theatre); Every Day I Make Greatness Happen (Hampstead Theatre); Othello (The Globe); F*ck The Polar Bears (Bush Theatre); Buckets (Orange Tree); All I Want (UK Tour); Cheese (fanSHEN); A Beginning, A Middle and an End; Tenet (Greyscale); Invisible (Transport Theatre); The Alchemist (Firehouse Creative); A New Way To Please You; His Fall; Speaking Like Magpies; Thomas More (RSC); How To Tell The Monsters From The Misfits (Birmingham REP); Long Time Dead (Paines Plough); After Haggerty (Finborough Theatre); Food (Traverse Theatre); Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Babayaga Theatre Company); Free From Sorrow (Living Pictures); Romeo and Juliet (Creation Theatre Company); Oliver Twist (Instant Classics); The Melancholy Hussar (Etcetera Theatre); Two Gentlemen of Verona (Pentameters Theatre); Treasure Island (Palace Theatre); The Bear (The Bear). His film and TV credits include: Sanditon (Red Planet Ltd); Prime Suspect 1973 (Noho for ITC); Fortitude (Tiger Aspect); Da Vinci’s Demons (BBC Worldwide and Starz); The Great Fire (Ecosse Films); New Tricks (Wall to Wall Television for the BBC); Rev (Big Talk Productions); Mrs Biggs; Come Rain Come Shine (ITV); Abroad (Abroad Films); Eastenders; Silent Witness; The Last Enemy (BBC); Law and Order (Kudos); The Bill (Thames Television); Clone (Roughcut); The IT Crowd (Talkback); Instinct (Granada); The Rabbi and The Tooth (Zoe Griesdale-Sherry Productions); Alba (Rabblewise Films); Tides (Elation Pictures); Nice Guy (Red Bike Films); Love’s Kitchen (Eyeline Entertainment). Radio includes: The Duchess of Malfi (BBC World Service).
Salóme R. Gunnarsdóttir
Salóme plays Blundhilde. Originally from Iceland, F*ck the Polar Bears will be Salóme’s London theatre debut. Other theatre work includes The Crucible, Spamalot, Assumblywomen and Óvitar, all at the National Theatre of Iceland. Film and television credits include The Lava Field: Hraunið (Pegasus Pictures), Stelpurnar 5 (Saga Films), Autumn Lights, Bakk (Mystery Island), Paris of the North, Megaphone (Zik Zak Filmworks). She has most recently filmed the role of Toma in Legends for Fox 21.
Andrew Whipp
Andrew plays Gordon. His theatre credits include Now This Is Not the End (Arcola), Farragut North (Southwark Playhouse), The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (Belgrade Theatre), Macbeth (Shakespeare’s Globe), Celebration, Arcadia (Gate Theatre, Dublin), Before the Flood (Royal Court), Much Ado about Nothing (Stafford), Best Men (The Sticking Place), The Misanthrope (Bury St Edmonds), King Lear (Shakespeare’s Globe) and The Child (Gate Theatre). Television includes Death in Paradise, A Song for Jenny, Holby City, EastEnders, Heartbeat, Doctors (all BBC), Suspicion (Discovery ID), Critical (Leftbank/ Sky), Spotless (Tandem & Canal Plus), Outlander (Sony, Starz & Leftbank), When Harvey Met Bob (BBC/ RTE), Not Going Out (Avalon/BBC), City Lights (ITV) Love Lies Bleeding (Granada) and Emmerdale (ITV).
Susan Stanley
Susan plays Serena.  She most recently played the title role in Portia Coughlan (The Old Red Lion, nominated Best Female Performance, Offies 2015). Other theatre credits include The Separation (Theatre503), Almost Maine (Park Theatre), The Separation (Project Arts Centre, Dublin), The Last Confessions of a Scallywag (The Mill at Sonning) and Bedbound (The Lion and Unicorn). Film credits include Hotel Amenities (Atraco Perfecto Productions, Best Actress, Malaga Film Festival, 2013), Shadows in the Wind (Atraco Perfecto Productions), This Chair is Not Me and The End of the Nine Till Five (dir. Andy Taylor Smith), Timelarks (directed by John Edwards) and Resurrecting the Streetwalker (Ozgur Uyanik). Susan is Co-Founder of theatre company Pixilated.

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