The Politics in The House of Shades | Beth Steel and Stephanie Bain in conversation

Almeida Literary Manager Stephanie Bain speaks to playwright Beth Steel about the politics behind her new play The House of Shades.

The House of Shades
by Beth Steel
Directed by Blanche McIntyre
https://almeida.co.uk/shades

Nothing cuts into us like the family knife.
The Webster House.
1965. 1979. 1985. 1996. 2019.
Death silences no one, least of all the dead.

Blanche McIntyre (Hymn) directs the world premiere of Beth Steel’s revelatory new play which spans five decades of the lives, and deaths, of the Webster family.

Inside their home, set against the ever-changing industrial landscape of working-class Britain, some chase dreams of a brighter future and others are haunted by the nightmares of the past.

BAFTA and Olivier Award-nominated actor Anne-Marie Duff (His Dark Materials, Sex Education) returns to the Almeida to lead the cast as the Webster family matriarch.

Beth Steel won Most Promising Playwright at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards. Both The House of Shades and Wonderland were shortlisted for The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.

The House of Shades is a recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New Play Award.

CREATIVES
Writer: Beth Steel
Director: Blanche McIntyre
Set Designer: Anna Fleischle
Costume Designer: Liam Bunster
Lighting Designer: Richard Howell
Sound Designer: Gregory Clarke
Video Designer: Isaac Madge
Movement Director: Polly Bennett
Casting Director: Annelie Powell
Associate Designer: Liam Bunster
Dialect Coach: Esi Acquaah-Harrison
Fight Director: Kevin McCurdy
Costume Supervisor: Natasha Prynne
Assistant Director: Emily Ling Williams

CAST
Gus Barry
Anne-Marie Duff
Beatie Edney
Kelly Gough
Michael Grady-Hall
Emily Lloyd-Saini
Carol Macready
Stuart McQuarrie
Mark Meadows
Daniel Millar
Issie Riley
Emma Shipp

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The Almeida Theatre exists to launch the next generation of British artists onto the world stage. We make argument for theatre as an essential force in an increasingly fragmented society.

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