Francis Lovehall, Kedar Williams-Stirling and Emeka Sesay in Red Pitch. Image by Craig Fuller.
Experience the full-throttle power of one of the hit productions of our anniversary year performed by the original cast. Kedar Williams-Stirling, Emeka Sesay and Francis Lovehall play three football-obsessed teens in director Daniel Bailey’s “energetic, artfully staged production” (Evening Standard).
‘The way they’re changing endz is nuts.’
Red Pitch. South London. Three lifelong friends Omz, Bilal and Joey are playing football. Like they always have. Living out dreams of football stardom. Beyond their football pitch, local shops are closing, old flats are being demolished as new flats shoot up, some residents struggle to stay while others rush to leave.
When a small football pitch has been a home from home, a place you’ve laughed, fought and forged friendships, what happens when it’s under threat?
The fast-paced and sharp-edged play by Tyrell Williams tells a powerful story of gentrification versus regeneration and the impact of this relentless change on London’s communities.
★★★★★ “Remarkable. A next-level coming-of-age story.” The Stage
★★★★★ “a masterclass in comedy and authenticity” North West End
WON Best New Play, Off West End Awards
WON Most Promising Playwright, Evening Standard Theatre Awards
WON Best Writer, The Stage Debut Awards
WON Most Promising Playwright, Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards
WON George Devine Award
NOMINATED for a further seven Off West End Awards, including Best Production, Best Performance Ensemble and Best Director.
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Red Pitch Pre-Show Information
Ali is a Lighting Designer working across dance, theatre and opera. She trained at RADA and is the Young Associate Lighting Designer for Matthew Bourne’s Romeo and Juliet. Ali regularly lights for London Contemporary Dance School. She is an Associate Tutor at RADA.
Recent lighting design credits include:
Theatre: Protest (Fuel, Imaginate and Northern Stage); Notes from a Small Island (Watermill); If You Fall, Beautiful Evil Things (both Ad Infinitum at Bristol Old Vic); Titus Andronicus (Globe); One off (Live Theatre); Othello, Brief Encounter (Watermill); Samskara (Yard); Red Pitch (Bush); Orlando, The Marriage of Alice B Toklas and Gertrude Stein (Jermyn Street); Small Change (Both Barrels and Clapham Omnibus); Sugar (Open Clasp, BBC iPlayer); Don’t Forget the Birds, Rattlesnake (Open Clasp at Live Theatre); Fix (Pleasance); Cash Cow (Hampstead).
Dance: Happyendingfication (Yami Löfvenberg); Crabs in a Barrel (Jamaal O’Driscoll); Inscribed in ‘Me’ (Alethia Antonia); Happy Fathers’ Day (Dani Harris-Walters); Deuce (Iona Brie).
Opera: A Kind Man (New Palace Opera at Hoxton Hall); La Nonne Sanglante (Gothic Opera at Hoxton Hall).
As Associate Lighting Designer: Lava (Bush), The Half God of Rainfall (Kiln / Birmingham Rep); Hot Mess (Candoco Dance).
Amelia Jane Hankin trained in Architecture and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art then RSC. Amelia has designed a variety of theatre ranging from new writing, devised, touring theatre, immersive, site-specific, community and theatre for young people. Amelia is an Associate Lecturer at the RCA and co-founded the Office for Speculative Spatial Design in 2020.
Design credits include: Mlima’s Tale (Kiln); Richard III, The Night Before Christmas, Rudolf (Liverpool Playhouse); Let The Right One In, Mountains (Royal Exchange); Drowntown (Barbican); Holes (Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds); The Wave, (This Isn’t) A True Story (Almeida); Christmas in the Sunshine, The Wolf The Duck and The Mouse (Unicorn); Unknown Rivers (Hampstead); Sing Yer Heart Out For The Lads (Chichester); One Under (Graeae); Blue Orange (Birmingham Rep); The Comedy of Errors (RSC); The Fishermen (Trafalgar Studios); Gastronomic (Curious Directive); PowerPlay (Historic Royal Palaces); Good Dog (UK Tour); Fake It ‘Til You Make It (UK and Australian tour) and We Are You (Young Vic).
Studio AJH is based in Hackney, London.
Daniel joined Bush Theatre as the Associate Director in 2019. He was Associate Director at Birmingham Repertory Theatre, originally joining The REP as part of the Regional Theatre Young Director Scheme and where his work has included artist development programmes; for writers, theatre-makers and directors.
Directing work includes: Blue/Orange, Concubine, Stuff, I Knew You, Abuelo, Jump! We’ll Catch You, Made In India/Britain and Exhale. He has previously been Resident Director at the National Theatre Studio, Associate Artist at Theatre Stratford Royal East and Resident Assistant Director at The Finborough Theatre.
Daniel studied Modern Drama at Brunel University before participating in the Young Vic’s Introduction to Directing. His previous theatre directing credits include: My Darling Wife (Talawa Theatre Company), Pre Judgment Day and Covered (New Heritage Theatre).
Daniel was also Assistant Director on King Lear (Talawa/Manchester Rx/Birmingham Rep) Back Down, Anita and Me, (Birmingham Repertory Theatre), Silent Planet and Rachel (Finborough Theatre), Inherit The Wind(New Vic).
His film director credits include: On Belonging (Young Vic), Malachi(S.E.D), Floating On Clouds (Kingdom Entertainment Group) and Y.O.L.O. Therapy (S.E.D).
Deirdre O’Halloran is the Literary Manager at the Bush Theatre, working to identify and build relationships with new writers, commission new work and guide plays to the stage.
At the Bush she’s dramaturged plays including Olivier Award winners Baby Reindeer by Richard Gadd and The P Word by Waleed Akhtar, Lava by Benedict Lombe and An Adventure by Vinay Patel.
Deirdre was previously Literary Associate at Soho Theatre, where she worked as a dramaturg on plays including Girls by Theresa Ikoko and Fury by Phoebe Eclair-Powell. She led on Soho Theatre’s Writers’ Lab programme and the biennial Verity Bargate Award.
As a freelancer, Deirdre has also been a reader for Out of Joint, Sonia Friedman Productions and Papatango.
Dickson Mbi was born in Cameroon and grew up in London where he studied at Lewisham College and London Contemporary Dance School. He is a world-renowned dancer in the Hip Hop dance community and best known for his popping skills which is integral to the work that he creates today. Dickson has featured in multiple TV campaigns including Balmain x H&M (2016), Audi e Tron (2014), and was the face for Lucozade Revive (2012). Over the course of his career, he has worked with award-winning artists such as Russell Maliphant, Boy Blue Entertainment, Robbie Williams, Corrine Bailey-Rae, Black Eyed Peas and choreographed the Leave A Trace music video for CHVRCHES.
He is an award-winning choreographer and has been commissioned by several theatres, festivals and arts organisations. In 2018, Sadler’s Wells commissioned a documentary, Street to Stage, about Dickson’s artistic journey for BBC4’s Danceworks series. Later that year, Sadler’s Wells commissioned him to create work for their elderly company – The Company of Elders. In the following year, Dickson was commissioned by BBC Young Dancer to create the winning choreography UNSTRUNG performed by Max Revell.
As a leader in his community, Dickson focuses on fostering the future generations of dancers with his partner Brooke Milliner in their battle crews Prototype and FIYA HOUSE. As a choreographer, Dickson enjoys making works for other companies as well as presenting his own works under Dickson Mbi Company.
Emily Mei-Ling Pearce graduated from her studies in stage management at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in 2019 and has since cultivated a varied freelance career for both stage and screen.
In the last few years, she has worked on several critically acclaimed plays including Olivier Award-nominated A Place for We (Park) and Paradise Now, alongside the George Devine Award-winning Red Pitch (both at Bush Theatre).
Other theatre credits include The Secret Life of Bees (Almeida); Only An Octave Apart (Wilton’s Music Hall); Treason in Concert, Kinky Boots in Concert, Chess the Musical in Concert (Drury Lane); Lotus Beauty (Hampstead); Pippin (Charing Cross).
She has also worked in a number of television roles, working on talent competition shows The Big Blow Out (Channel 4) and The Piano (Channel 4).
After graduating with a degree in Interior Design from Liverpool John Moores University, Georgia worked on Misfits S3 (Channel 4), and as a costume trainee on Monroe (ITV) before deciding that Set Design was
something to be explored. Georgia’s set and costume credits include: Elephant (Bush Theatre), Covered (New Heritage Theatre at Paddington Arts Centre), Superdrug’s YouTube channel Christmas campaign 2017, I knew you
(Birmingham Repertory Theatre), days of significance (Questors Theatre). In 2018, Georgia had the opportunity to create concept designs and illustrations for Designer Tim McQuillen-Wright for Secret Cinema’s Blade Runner. In 2021 Georgia designed sets for the Bush Theatre’s, Project 2036 which included: Pawn (by Devon Muller), One Day (by QianEr Jin) and LimBo (by Latekid). In August 2021, Georgia returned to Bush to design the set and costume for the Young Company introductory performance Back Up! (Devised and Directed by Katie Greenall)
Writing and illustration: Georgia illustrated the first children’s book fromThe adventures of series, as well as working as a digital design content creator for My Trauma, My Healing with Simone Powderly. During the last year, Georgia has written and illustrated her first children’s book and created a range of illustrations as part of a diversity and inclusion campaign.
Gurkiran Kaur is a voice, accent and dialect coach from London. She holds a BA Drama and Theatre Studies (Royal Holloway), completed actor training (The Bridge Theatre Training Company) and has a MA Voice Studies (The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama). Gurkiran works at a number of drama schools and has coached a number of graduate productions and showcases. Gurkiran is part of The Voice And Speech Teaching Associations’ EduCore Leadership Team and serves as a Junior Board Member. Gurkiran honours Ancient practices to approach voice work and believes in serving the people in the space ensuring inclusivity, equity and accessibility.
Credits: Extinct (Stratford East); Queens of Sheba (Soho Theatre & Nouveau Riche); NW Trilogy (Kiln); How To Save The Planet When You’re A Young Carer And Broke (Boundless); Best of Enemies (Young Vic & Headlong); Chasing Hares (Young Vic & Uncut); I Wonder If (Young Vic); Red Pitch, Favour, The P Word, Paradise Now, Sleepova, A Playlist For The Revolution (Bush); Lotus Beauty (Hampstead & Tamasha); Henry VIII (Globe); Offside (Futures Theatre); Marvin’s Binoculars, Anansi The Spider (Unicorn); The Climbers (Theatre By The Lake); Finding Home (Curve); The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (Noel Coward); Silence (Donmar & Tara); A Dead Body In Taos (Fuel); Unexpected Twist (Royal & Derngate); Wuthering Heights (China Plate); I Wanna Be Yours (Melbourne Theatre Company); The Empress, Falkland Sound (Royal Shakespeare Company); Brassic FM (Gate); A Poem For Rabia (Tarragon Theatre, Toronto); The Full Monty (Everyman, Cheltenham & Buxton Opera House); Good Karma Hospital (ITV & Tiger Aspect Productions) and Hotel Portofino (ITV, PBS & Eagle Eye).
Kala Simpson’s stage management credits include: Red Pitch (Bush); Female Shorts (Hoxton Hall); Beauty and the Beast (Queen’s Theatre); End of Hope (Soho); Room (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Five Guys Named Moe (Spiegeltent Festival Square).
Kev is an Equity registered Fight Director and Choreographer of 24 years, professional stage combat tutor of 31 years, Director, Actor and an Action performer. Kev teaches at The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and has also taught at universities in Oklahoma and Missouri as well as being a guest instructor on workshops in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Canada, America. Kev is also co-founder of The Academy of Performance Combat.
Theatre includes: Victoria’s Knickers, Typical (Soho); The Wife of Willesden (Kiln); Drifter’s Girl (Garrick); Hamlet (Young Vic); West Side Story (Royal Exchange); The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Chichester Festival Theatre / Lyric Hammersmith); The Long Song (Chichester Festival Theatre); Grown Ups (Mischief Theatre, UK Tour)
TV and Film includes: The Pact season 2, The A List season 2, Hollyoaks, Set Fire To The Stars, John Carter Of Mars, Season Of The Witch, Protein, Canaries, Scopophobia, The Lady Of Heaven.
Music videos include: Off Bloom, “Shut Up and Let Me Walk”; Formation, “A Friend”; Kayla, “Mojito”; Circles, “I See Monstas”; Louis Mattrs, “War With Heaven”.
Khalil Madovi is a 25-year-old music artist, composer, writer, actor and filmmaker. He emerged in 2012 with a hit TV series and has since embarked on a diversified career in arts and entertainment, working with the likes of Channel 4, Amazon Studios, Warner Bros. and more. After composing for and featuring in Can I Live?, a new piece of experimental theatre in collaboration with Complicité and the Barbican, in 2021, he went on to design for Bush Theatre’s critically acclaimed Red Pitch, for which he received an Offie nomination.
Other credits include: The Poison Belt (Jermyn Street); This Is What The Journey Does (Old Vic) and Bola Agbaje’s Gone Too Far! (National Youth Theatre). The BAFTA winning south London native is currently shooting his self-written and directed visual album, A Cold Hearted Summer, which is due for release in 2024.
Ricardo Da Silva is a Choreographer, Movement Director and Rehearsal Director, dancer and a spoken word artist.
Theatre as Movement Director: Red Pitch (Bush); I Wonder If (Young Vic); Christmas in the Sunshine (Unicorn); We Need New Names (Brixton House).
Ricardo’s performance experience fluctuates amongst different styles from working with different choreographers such as Kenrick ‘H20’ Sandy MBE, Wayne McGregor CBE, Joseph Tonga, Dickson MBI, Hofesh Shechter, Jonzi D, Alexandra Seth, Ivan Lewis, Gary Nurse, Robert Hilton and many more.
Tabitha is a production manager for eStage working in theatre and opera, with a particular interest in new writing. She trained at LAMDA in Production and Technical Arts as a Leverhulme arts scholar.
Credits as Production Manager include: All of Us, Barrier(s), Connections 2022 (National); Blue Mist (Royal Court); Turandot (Arcola); Only an Octave Apart (Wilton’s Music Hall); Paradise Now!, Favour, Red Pitch, Old Bridge, Overflow (Bush); Animal, Winner’s Curse, The 4th Country (Park); Faun (Cardboard Citizens); The Boys are Kissing, Moreno (Theatre503); The Dancing Master (Buxton Opera House).
As Deputy Production Manager: The Pillowman (West End); Raising Icarus (Birmingham Rep)
Tyrell Williams is an award-winning writer and director for theatre, film and television.
When initially presented at Bush Theatre in 2022, his first play Red Pitch, directed by Daniel Bailey, completed a sold-out run and Tyrell won the George Devine Award, Stage Debut Award for Best Writer, Evening Standard Award for most promising playwright and Red Pitch was awarded Best New Play at the OffWestEnd Awards 2023.
Red Pitch is currently in development for a screen adaptation with Fudge Park and he has written an episode of an unnamed Apple TV+ series .
Tyrell has been named one of Deadline’s 5 rising writers to watch in 2023, and is currently on attachment to the National Theatre Studio.
In 2015, Tyrell co-created, co-wrote and directed the viral web series #HoodDocumentary which has had over 4million views on YouTube. Following its online acclaim, #HoodDocumentary eventually went on to be commissioned for BBC Three which Tyrell directed and co-wrote. Tyrell was on the BAFTA Elevate scheme 2018 and was a Broadcast Hotshot in 2016.
