Full cast announced for world première of Samuel Bailey's SHOOK

Director George Turvey; Set and Costume Designer Jasmine Swan; Lighting Designer Johanna Town; Sound Designer Richard Hammarton.

The production opens on 1 November at Southwark Playhouse, with previews from 30 October, and runs until 23 November 2019. Following the run at Southwark Playhouse, the production tours to Hope Street Theatre, Liverpool (26 November), Theatr Clwyd (27 - 28 November), Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough (30 November) and Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury (4 - 7 December).

“He’ll look different. My little boy. When I get out. Like… to the picture I’ve got in my head. Be like meeting him all over again. Be a whole new start.”

Instead of GCSEs, Cain, Riyad and Jonjo got sentences. Locked up in a young offenders’ institution, they trade sweets, chat shit, kill time – and await fatherhood.

Grace’s job is to turn these teenagers into parents, ready to take charge of their futures. But can they grow up quickly enough to escape the system?

Winner of the 2019 Papatango New Writing Prize from a record 1,406 entries, Samuel Bailey’s debut full production tenderly and honestly examines the young men society shuts away.

Samuel Bailey was born in London and raised in the West Midlands. He began writing plays in Bristol and developed work with Bristol Old Vic, Tobacco Factory Theatres and Theatre West before moving back to London. He is an alumnus of the Old Vic 12 and Orange Tree Writers’ Collective. Shook was originally supported by the MGCfutures bursary programme, and will be his debut full production.

Josef Davies plays Jonjo. His previous theatre credits include Hangmen (Royal Court Theatre, Wyndham’s Theatre), The 306 (National Theatre of Scotland), and Junkyard (Headlong). For television, his credits include Chernobyl, World on Fire, Silent Witness, Shakespeare and Hathaway, The Bisexual, Curfew, Call The Midwife, and Uncle. For film, 1917, The King, Dumbo, Undercliffe, and The Limehouse Golem.

Josh Finan plays Cain. His previous theatre credits include Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and The Merry Wives of Windsor (RSC), The Nutcracker (Theatr Clwyd), Champ (Tobacco Factory Theatres), E15 (Lung Theatre, Northern Stage), The Barricade (Theatre503), Takeover – Pancake Day (Bunker Theatre), and Dolly Wants to Die (Lung Theatre, Edinburgh Festival Fringe - Underbelly Theatre). For television, his credits include Guerrilla; and for film, Surge, Hellboy, and The Current War.

Andrea Hall plays Grace. Her previous theatre credits include Ares (Vaults Festival), The Wild Duck (Almeida Theatre), The Notebook of Trigorin (Finborough Theatre), Hyacinth Blue (Clean Break), Talkin’ Loud (Theatre503), Abena’s Stupidest Mistake (The Drill Hall), Parting Shots (Bootleg Theatre), Large Tales (Nottingham Playhouse), The Palace of Fear (Leicester Haymarket), and Johnny Dollar (Bloomsbury Theatre). For television, her credits include Unforgotten, The Child in Time, Broadchurch, Flack, Humans, Joe All Alone, Apple Tree House, Trauma and Thirteen.

Ivan Oyik plays Riyad. He graduated from Guildford School of Acting in 2019. His previous theatre credits include Blue Orange (Birmingham Rep – for which he was nominated for The Stage Debut Award for Best Actor in a Play) and Red Pitch (Ovalhouse).

George Turvey co-founded Papatango in 2007 and became the sole Artistic Director in January 2013. Credits as director include Hanna (Papatango, UK tour), The Annihilation of Jessie Leadbeater (Papatango at ALRA), After Independence (Papatango at Arcola Theatre, 2016 Alfred Fagon Audience Award, and on BBC Radio 4), Leopoldville (Papatango at Tristan Bates Theatre), and Angel (Papatango at Pleasance London and Tristan Bates Theatre).

Turvey trained as an actor at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts (ALRA) and has appeared on stage and screen throughout the UK and internationally, including the lead roles in the world première of Arthur Miller’s No Villain (Old Red Lion Theatre and Trafalgar Studios) and Batman Live World Arena Tour. As a dramaturg, he has led the development of all of Papatango’s productions. He is the co-author of Being A Playwright: A Career Guide For Writers, published by Nick Hern Books.

About Papatango

Papatango is a charity who discover and champion new playwrights by running free, open-application opportunities.

The Papatango New Writing Prize is free to enter and open to any resident of the UK or Ireland. It is assessed anonymously by a reading team which identifies as at least 50% female and is at least 25% BAME. All entrants receive personal feedback on their scripts, an unmatched commitment to supporting aspiring playwrights. The 2019 Prize assessed and gave personal feedback to 1,406 plays. The winner is guaranteed a full production, publication, royalties and commission. The Prize was the first UK award to make such a commitment, changing the landscape for new writing. Writers discovered through the Prize have won BAFTAs, OffWestEnd and Royal National Theatre Foundation awards, premiered in over 20 countries, and worked with the RSC, National Theatre, BBC and HBO.

As well as the Prize, Papatango offers a yearly Resident Playwright scheme, taking an emerging playwright through commissioning, development and production of a new play. Previous Residents have won an Alfred Fagon Audience Award, adapted their play for BBC Radio Four, been commissioned by Headlong, the Tricycle Theatre, and the North Wall Arts Centre, and seen their work tour nationwide with Papatango.

Papatango also run GoWrite, an extensive programme of free playwriting workshops, performances and publication for children and adults across the country. Each year it provides free face-to-face training or productions for over 4000 budding writers at state schools, regional venues and community centres, launching plays that have gone on to be staged at Hampstead Theatre, the Vaults Festival, Old Red Lion Theatre, Arcola Theatre, Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds, Luton Hat Factory and the Quarry Theatre, Bedford. GoWrite also provides £5000 in bursaries to enable in-need writers nationwide to access opportunities.

This year Papatango launched WriteWest, a playwriting programme across south-west England which provides free training, performances and seed funding for grassroots writers and producers.

Papatango’s first book, Being A Playwright: A Career Guide for Writers, was published in autumn 2018 by Nick Hern Books. It topped Amazon’s best-seller list in the playwriting category, and has been described as a “phenomenon for playwriting good…a bible for playwrights” by Steve Waters and “enlightening…an excellent tool for playwrights” by Indhu Rubasingham.