James Lance and Joshua Silver. Of Kith and Kin. Photo: Helen Murray
Daniel and Oliver are about to have their first baby. With their best friend, Priya, acting as surrogate, they’ve turned the study into a nursery and the bottles are sterilised. All that’s missing is the bundle of joy they’ve been pining for.
But when Daniel’s chaotic mother gatecrashes the baby shower with a few home truths, the cracks in Daniel and Oliver’s relationship begin to show. Are they as ready for this as they think they are? And more importantly, is Priya?
Everyone knows you can choose your friends. Chris Thompson’s gripping new comedy takes us to the heart of what happens when we choose our family too.
A co-production with Sheffield Theatres.
Chris Thompson’s plays include Albion (Bush Theatre) and Carthage (Finborough Theatre). Carthage won a Pearson Playwrighting Award and was nominated for Best New Play and Most Promising New Playwright in the OFFIE awards. Chris was the Channel 4 Playwright in Residence at the Finborough Theatrein 2014. In 2013 he took part in the Kudos / Bush Initiative and the Royal Court invitation studio writers group.
Ella trained at Rose Bruford. She was an original sound operator of Complicite’s The Encounter, a Co-Sound Designer of Robert Wilson and Mikhail Baryshnikov’s Letter to a Man and the Sound Designer of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s cello concerto. Her theatre sound design credits include Peter Pan Goes Wrong (Mischief, West End), No Place for a Woman (Theatre 503) Three Generations of Women (Broken Leg Theatre, Greenwich Theatre), The Life (English Theatre Frankfurt), The Bunker Trilogy, The Frontier Trilogy and The Capone Trilogy (Jethro Compton, Edinburgh Fringe and international touring), Empty Vessels (Rosemary Branch Theatre), Sirenia (Jethro Compton, Edinburgh Fringe), The Ballad of Robin Hood, Klippies (Southwark Playhouse), In Lambeth (Spellbound Productions, Southwark Playhouse), Chicken Dust (Finborough Theatre), Carroll: Berserk (Spindrift Theatre, Drayton Arms Theatre), A Study in Scarlet (Tacit Theatre, Southwark Playhouse), Titus Andronicus (Hiraeth, Arcola), Romeo and Juliet (Hiraeth, Upstairs at the Gatehouse, Theatre Uncut, Young Vic), The Revenger’s Tragedy and Henry V (Old Red Lion Theatre). As Associate Sound Designer, her credits include Othello (Frantic Assembly), JOHN (DV8) and The Cripple of Inishmaan (Noel Coward Theatre).
James Perkins’ theatre design credits include: While We’re Here (Bush Theatre); Sweet Charity and Little Shop of Horrors (Royal Exchange, Manchester); Skylight (Clwyd Theatr Cymru); Pilgrims (Hightide, Clwyd Theatr Cmyru, Yard Theatre); The Last Five Years (New Wolsey Theatre); German Skerries, Jess and Joe (The Orange Tree Theatre), The Gathered Leaves (Park Theatre); Breeders (St James Theatre); Shiver, Lost in Yonkers (Watford Palace Theatre); Ciphers (Bush Theatre/Out Of Joint); 1001 Nights (Unicorn Theatre/Transport Theatre); Liar Liar (Unicorn Theatre); Girl in the Yellow Dress (Salisbury Playhouse); Microcosm (Soho Theatre); Dances of Death (Gate Theatre); The Fantasist’s Waltz (York Theatre Royal); Stockwell (Tricycle Theatre); Carthage, Foxfinder, Events While Guarding The Bofors Gun, Trying (Finborough Theatre); The Only True History of Lizzie Finn, Floyd Collins (Southwark Playhouse); The Marriage of Figaro (Wilton’s Music Hall); The Life of Stuff, Desolate Heaven, Threads, Many Moons (Theatre503); The Hotel Plays (Grange Hotel); St. John’s Night, Saraband (Jermyn Street Theatre); Pirates, Pinafore (Buxton Opera House); Matters of Life and Death (Contemporary Dance UK Tour); Iolanthe, The Way Through The Woods (Pleasance Theatre, London); The Faerie Queen (Lilian Baylis, Sadler’s Wells); The Wonder (BAC). James created Story Whores. He is an associate of Forward Theatre Project and one third of paper/scissors/stone.
Prema trained at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She has designed the lighting across the UK for over one hundred and fifty drama and dance productions and installations, including: East is East (Northern Stage), Wipers (Leicester Curve and UK tour), With a Little Bit of Luck (Latitude Festival), Murder, Margaret and Me (York Theatre Royal), Spring Awakening (National Youth Music Theatre), Hercules (Nottingham Playhouse and UK tour), Made in India (UK tour), Jefferson’s Garden (Watford Palace Theatre), The Great Extension (Theatre Royal Stratford East), Snow Queen (Derby Theatre), The Electric Hills (Liverpool Everyman), Mighty Atoms (Hull Truck), Everything Is Possible: York Suffragettes (York Theatre Royal), Sufi Zen (Royal Festival Hall), Dhamaka (O2 Arena) and Maaya (Westminster Hall).
Prema also designed the lighting for the launch of a figure in the A-List party area at Madame Tussauds, London, which is open to the public throughout the year. She has been appointed as a Trustee for York Citizens’ Theatre Trust, York Theatre Royal.
Robert Hastie is Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres. He was born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire.
He most recently directed Julius Caesar, the opening production in his inaugural season at Sheffield Theatres. Previous directing credits include, Breaking the Code (Royal Exchange, Manchester), Henry V (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, the inaugural production in Artistic Director Tamara Harvey’s first season at Theatr Clwyd.
As an Associate Director of the Donmar Warehouse, his work includes My Night With Reg by Kevin Elyot (also West End – Hastie was nominated for Best Newcomer at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards; and the production was nominated for Best Revival at the Olivier Awards), and Splendour, by Abi Morgan. Hastie recently completed the first stage of the Donmar Warehouse’s ten year long My Mark project with Michelle Terry, undertaking and filming interviews in schools nationally to document the views of those eligible to vote for the first time in the 2025 general election. His other directing credits include Carthage, Events While Guarding The Bofors Gun (both Finborough Theatre), Sunburst (Holborn Grange Hotel), Sixty-Six Books: In The Land Of Uz, Middle Man, David and Goliath, Snow In Sheffield and A Lost Expression (Bush Theatre).
As an actor, his work included productions with the National Theatre, RSC, Chichester Festival Theatre, Glasgow Citizens Theatre, Cheek by Jowl, Frantic Assembly, Northampton Royal & Derngate, Headlong, Birmingham Rep, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Lyric Hammersmith, Derby Playhouse, Playful Productions, Liverpool Playhouse, as well as the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield.
Vicky’s credits as Casting Director include Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, I Want My Hat Back, New Views 2015-2017 (National Theatre), Run the Beast Down (Finborough Theatre), Breaking the Code (Royal Exchange), Henry IV (Donmar Warehouse / St Ann’s Warehouse in New York), Constellations (Singapore Rep Theatre), House and Amongst the Reeds (Clean Break), Archipelago (Lighthouse, Poole), Dinner with Friends (Park Theatre) and Debris (Southwark Playhouse). As Co-Casting Director, her credits include The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui, Versailles (Donmar Warehouse) Shakespeare Trilogy (Donmar Warehouse / St Ann’s Warehouse), Persuasion, Twelfth Night (Royal Exchange) and Dedication (Nuffield, Southampton). As Casting Consultant, her credits include Low Level Panic, Each His Own Wilderness, buckets (Orange Tree Theatre) and Blue Heart (Bristol Tobacco Factory / Orange Tree Theatre). Vicky is currently Associate Casting Director at the Manchester Royal Exchange and was previously Casting Associate at the Donmar Warehouse until 2015.
