Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks’ visceral family portrait reveals a divided nation.
“Sometimes the alien is right in your own home. Sometimes right in your own blood. And you’ve got to build a wall around it.”
Grace lives with her husband Vet, a patrol officer on the Texas-Mexico border. When Vet is awarded a medal for his service, Grace invites his estranged son Buddy to join them at the ceremony. But Buddy arrives armed with resentment, an agenda and (several) hand grenades. Can Grace heal the rift, and contain the threat?
Suzan-Lori Parks’ (Topdog/Underdog; Father Comes Home From The Wars, Parts 1, 2 & 3) explosive 2010 play gains timely new resonance as the world watches its own borders. Award-winning director Femi Elufowoju jr directs the UK premiere.
-
Running time
2 hours 20 minutes (including interval) -
Age guidance
15+ -
Content warnings
"The seething tensions are palpable, the performances breath-taking, and the lighting and set design truly remarkable"– A Young(ish) Perspective
"This is an incredibly accomplished piece of theatre"– The Spy in the Stalls
"I cannot recommend it highly enough"– North West End
"Superbly played state of the nation play...a thrilling theatrical experience"– Reviews Gate
"An incredibly gripping and crucial piece of theatre"– Broadway World
Production photos
Rehearsal photos
The Company
-
Ellena Vincent
Grace
Ellena Vincent
Grace
Theatre includes: Sylvia (The Old Vic); Hamilton (West End); Aladdin (Lyric Hammersmith); 20th Century Boy (UK tour); Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax (The Old Vic); One Love (Birmingham Rep); The Book of Mormon (West End); Jane Eyre (National Theatre); Little Shop of Horrors (Royal Exchange Manchester); Avenue Q (UK tour/South Korea).
Television includes: Coronation Street, EastEnders, Doctors.
-
Peter De Jersey
Vet
Peter De Jersey
Vet
Peter is an Associate Artist for the RSC.
Theatre includes: The Score (Theatre Royal Bath), The Threepenny Opera (National Theatre), Coriolanus (Donmar Warehouse), Sixty-Six Books (The Bush Theatre), Vernon God Little (Young Vic), House of Games (Almeida), Wuthering Heights (No1 Tour), The Illusion (Royal Exchange), Someone To Watch Over Me (Theatre Clwyd), War and Peace (National Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Regents Park Open Air Theatre), Richard III (Regents Park Open Air Theatre), Macbeth (US Tour), Romeo and Juliet (US Tour), Hamlet (Cheek By Jowl), Macbeth (Odyssey), Trolius & Cressida (National Theatre), Darker Face of Earth (National Theatre)
RSC Includes: The Tempest, Cymbeline, Imperium: Parts 1 and 2, Imperium Plays, Anthony & Cleopatra, Merry Wives of Windsor, The Odyssey, As You Like It, Richard II, Troilus & Cressida, King Lear, A New Way To Please You, Last Days of Don Juan, Sejanus, Believe What You Will, Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Television includes: Sandman, Midsomer Murders XXII, The Underground Rail Road, Wheel of Time, Warrior Nun, Line of Duty, Catastrophe, Doctor Foster, Atlantis, Exposed, The Smoke, Doctor Who, The Bible, Broadchurch, Lightfields, The Hollow Crown: Richard II, Silk, The Choir, The Bill, Rough Justice, Urban Gothic – Cry Wolf, Trial & Retribution IV, Doctors, Holby City, Walking The Dead, Dalziel & Pascoe, This Time With Alan Partridge, Sugar Rush II
Film includes: The Bank Job, Out of Depth, Hamlet, Heads of State
-
Daniel Francis-Swaby
Buddy
Daniel Francis-Swaby
Buddy
Theatre credits include: Little Women (HOME, Manchester); Going For Gold (Chelsea Theatre); Kanye The First (Hightide); Twelfth Night (Royal Exchange); On Fleek (Royal Court); Les Blancs (National Theatre); Milk Milk Lemonade (Ovalhouse); Der Rosenkavalier (Glyndebourne); The History Boys (Mercury Theatre, Colchester); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Custom/Practice); White Meat, Dark Meat, Breast or Thigh? (Off Cut Festival); Three Little Pigs and Other Twisted Tails (Tall Tales Theatre Company) and DNA (Hull Truck/UK Tour). Film and TV credits include: Rumplestiltskin, Alex Rider, Small Axe, 4Stories: Tell Me, The Overcoat, Jus Soli, Waking Up, Disenchanted, The Days Inbetween, Loved One and Exposed.
-
Suzan-Lori Parks
Writer
Suzan-Lori Parks
Writer
Suzan-Lori Parks is a multi-award-winning American writer and the first African-American woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Topdog/Underdog which recently enjoyed its twentieth anniversary Broadway revival. The production won both the 2023 Tony Award, (Best Revival Of A Play) and the Outer Critics Circle Award. Just last year, in 2023, Parks also had three new works which all received world premieres: at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Sally & Tom (Steinberg New Play Award finalist) at Joe’s Pub in New York City, Plays for the Plague Year (winner of The Drama Desk Award for Best Music in a Play), and, at the Public Theatre, Parks world-premiered a musical adaptation of the 1972 film The Harder They Come (winner: Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical.)Parks’ other notable works for theatre include: The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess (Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical), Unchain My Heart: The Ray Charles Musical, White Noise, The Book of Grace, In the Blood, The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World, The America Play, Father Comes Home From The Wars Parts 1,2,&3 and Fucking A. Parks’ marathon writing “diary play” 365 Days/365 Plays— her first project in which she wrote a play a day for an entire year—was produced at more than seven hundred theaters worldwide, creating one of the largest grassroots collaborations in theater history.A MacArthur “Genius” Fellow, Parks’ novel Getting Mother’s Body is published by Random House. She also writes extensively for the screen — most recently, as the scriptwriter for the film The United States vs. Billie Holiday and as the showrunner/executive producer/head writer for the television show Genius: Aretha.In 2023 Parks was named among “TIME MAGAZINE’S 100.” Other notable accolades and awards include the prestigious Gish Prize for Excellence in the Arts, grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. She is also a recipient of a Lila-Wallace—Reader’s Digest Award, a CalArts/Herb Alpert Award in the Arts, and a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship.In November 2022, Parks was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame. She is Writer in Residence of the Public Theater, a professor at New York University, and an alumna of New Dramatists and of Mount Holyoke College where she studied creative writing with James Baldwin, who encouraged Parks to begin writing for the theatre. In her spare time, Parks also writes songs and fronts her band Sula and The Joyful Noise. -
Femi Elufowoju jr
Director
Femi Elufowoju jr
Director
Elufowoju jr was the founding artistic director of tiata fahodzi. His latest venture, the Elufowoju jr Ensemble, conceived the stage adaptation of Lola Shoneyin’s The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives. For Arcola Theatre, Elufowoju jr directed Hoard by Bim Adewunmi and Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie a co-production with Watford Palace Theatre. He made his opera directing debut with Verdi’s Rigoletto for Opera North. He directed and wrote a new libretto Der anonyme Liebhaber (based on the life of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges) for Konzert und Theater St Gallen.
Recognitions
Olivier Nomination – Outstanding Production in an affiliate theatre (Iya-Ile, the first wife) Offie Nomination & Winner – Best Director (The Secet Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives) South Bank Sky Arts Nomination & Winner – Best Opera Production (Rigoletto) Was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to drama.
-
Will Fricker
Co-Set and Costume Designer
Will Fricker
Co-Set and Costume Designer
Will has designed for numerous theatres and theatre companies across the UK. These include The Theatre Royal Stratford East, The Chickenshed, The Park Theatre, Hampstead Theatre, Redshift Theatre.
Will has worked for many designers and been the associate designer on several franchises taking shows on their behalf to many countries. These include Girl from the North Country, WarHorse and School of Rock.
-
Rae Smith
Co-Set and Costume Designer
Rae Smith
Co-Set and Costume Designer
Rae Smith’s recent Theatre designs include Hansel & Gretle (The Globe); Drive Your Plow Over The Bones Of The Dead (Complicité); A Doll’s House: Part 2 (Donmar); Kae Tempests’ Paradise And Translations (National Theatre); Uncle Vanya (Pinter Theatre: South Bank Sky Arts Award) And Rosmersholm (Duke Of York’s) Both Olivier Nominated For Set Design; Girl From The North Country (Us Tour, Belasco On Broadway, Public Theatre New York, Guilgud, Noël Coward Theatre And Old Vic Theatre); Barber Shop Chronicles (Bam, Roundhouse, National Theatre And World Tour); The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe (The Bridge And Leeds Playhouse); The Night Of The Iguana (Noel Coward); This House (The Garrick, National And Uk Tour) And Neil Bartlets’ Stella (Brighton Festival, Hoxton Hall And Holland Festival).
Other designs for Theatre include Warhorse (Tony And Olivier Awards); Wonder.Land, The Light Princess And Pillars Of The Community (All National Theatre).
Opera includes Die Lustigen Weiber Von Windsor (Volsoper); Rigoletto (Opera North, Winner Of Southbank Sky Arts Award For Most Outstanding Opera); Nozzi De Figaro (Aix En Provence); Pelleas And Mellisande (Scottish Opera); Cavalleria Rusticana And Pagliacci (Metropolitan Opera, New York); Terry Gilliam’s Benvenuto Cellini (Eno); Rusalka (Glyndebourne) And The Ring Cycle (Grand Prix Winner For Outstanding Achievement In Opera, Opera Du Rhin, Strasbourg).
-
David Howe
Lighting Designer
David Howe
Lighting Designer
Previously at the Arcola: Richard III, Sweet Smell of Success, Cherry Orchard, The Lower Depths, Clarion
West End lighting designs include: The Mind Mangler, Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol, Magic Goes Wrong, Mischief Movie Night, Mischief Movie Night In (Streaming seasons), A Comedy About a Bank Robbery, McQueen, Quartermaine’s Terms, Bette and Joan, Birdsong, My Trip Down the Pink Carpet, Sweet Charity, Mrs Warren’s Profession, Private Lives, A Christmas Carol, The Norman Conquests, The Last Five Years, Tick Tick Boom!, Maria Friedman Re-Arranged, Rent, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Pageant, Forbidden Broadway, and La Cage aux Folles. Opera includes productions for British Youth Opera, Philadelphia Opera, Royal Opera, and many European companies. Ballet; The Scandal at Mayerling (Scottish Ballet)
Broadway and Off-Broadway, The Mind Mangler, Private Lives, The Norman Conquests trilogy and Primo.
UK national tours include: Good Luck Studio, The Mind Mangler, The Dance of Death, Magic Goes Wrong, A Comedy About a Bank Robbery, Mischief Movie Night, Finding My Voice, Million Dollar Quartet, Dead Sheep, Bette and Joan, Chin Chin, 42nd Street, The Man from Stratford, Oklahoma!, Little Shop of Horrors, Singin’ in the Rain, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Our House, Fiddler on the Roof, South Pacific, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Me and My Girl and Carousel.
Recent other international designs; Sister Act, Miss Saigon, Fiddler on the Roof, Oliver in Copenhagen, many other productions in Europe, Canada, USA, Middle East, and Asia.
-
Simon McCorry
Composer & Sound Designer
Simon McCorry
Composer & Sound Designer
Simon McCorry has been creating music and sound design for theatre & contemporary dance for 20 years, working with companies such as Headlong, Old Vic Productions, Tiata Fahodzi, House of Absolute, Javaad Alipoor Company & Fabula Collective. He often uses the cello in his work, processing & combining it with electronics and found sound.
Selected Productions include: Composer ‘Everything Would Be Nonsense’ as part of ‘Human’ choreographed Travis Clausen-Knight, Fabula Collective, The Pit, New National Theatre, Tokyo 2021. Composer ‘I the Storm’ as part of ‘Momentum’ choreographed – Travis Clausen-Knight. Fabula Collective. Sadler’s Wells, London, 2022. Sound Designer ‘Things Hidden Since The Foundation of The World’, Javaad Alipoor Company, HOME, Manchester; BAC, London, 2022; Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh Festival, 2023. Composer/Musician ‘In The Middle of Nowhere’ choreographed & performed Satoko Fukuda, The Place, London, 2020. Sound Designer/Composer ‘Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran’, Javaad Alipoor Company, HOME, Manchester; Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh Festival 2019, Various International festivals including Sundance. Composer/Musician ‘Orlando Warrior’ choreographed Julia Cheng. ‘House of Absolute’, South Bank, 2017. Sound Designer ‘Hotel Cerise’ directed Femi Elufowoju Jr, Theatre Royal Stratford, 2016. Sound Designer ‘Boi Boi Is Dead’ directed Lucian Msamati, Tiata Fahodzi, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, 2015.
-
Kemi Durosinmi
Assistant/Intimacy & Fight Director
Kemi Durosinmi
Assistant/Intimacy & Fight Director
Kemi Durosinmi is a multidisciplinary Performer and Creative Artist whose portfolio extends across film, TV, theatre, stage, commercial, corporate, and community projects.
In theatre, as a Choreographer and Movement Director, her credits include: BECOMING (Stratford Circus Theatre), THE LITTLE PRINCE (Fuel & English Touring Theatre), THE GLASS MENEGERIE (Arcola Theatre & Watford Palace Theatre) and THE SECRET LIVES OF BABA SEGI’S WIVES (Arcola Theatre), Which received an OFFIE nomination for Best Choreography.
Commercial experience includes working with brands such as: NIKE, Ivy Park x ASOS, 1Xtra Live, and WOMAD Festival.
Assistant Choreographer credits include: GAME OF THRONES (HBO), VIVA FERRARI-Ferrari World (Drive Productions), BRITAINS GOT TALENT (ITV) and ZALANDO-Christmas Never Out of Fashion (Zalando)
Action & Stunt Performance credits are: WICKED (Universal Pictures), SUPERCELL (Netflix), HOLLYOAKS (Lime Pictures) & SNOW WHITE (Walt Disney Pictures).
-
New Wolf Productions
Production Manager
New Wolf Productions
Production Manager
New Wolf Productions are Theatrical Architects that specialise in harnessing the power of an idea and transforming it into a spectacular and immersive experience. As visual storytellers, New Wolf thrive on pushing the boundaries of traditional Theatre production. Serving the Theatre and Immersive experience markets, New Wolf masterfully connects the dots of a vision to create powerful and compelling stories. Some the stories we’ve enjoyed telling include, Diary of a CEO Live – Tour , Allegiance – Charing Cross Theatre, Tallys Blood – UK Tour, Operation Mincemeat – Southwark Playhouse, Captain Sandy Live – Lyric Theatre, Preludes – Southwark Playhouse, Disruption – The Park Theatre, Walworth Farce – Southwark Playhouse, Education Rita – Perth Theatre and Concert Hall and Snow Queen – Trinity Theatre.
-
Caitlyn Keaney
Costume Supervisor
Caitlyn Keaney
Costume Supervisor
Caitlyn’s most recent work includes costume supervision for Silent Uproar’s production of Dead Girls Rising. As a costume supervisor Caitlyn has worked with students at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and Trinity Laban across a wide range of productions. Stand outs include; Mosquitos, The House that Will Not Stand, and Swive.
-
Josette Shipp
Stage Manager
Josette Shipp
Stage Manager
Josette trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Her most recent work includes working at the Watermill Theatre on their Youth production of Wendy and Peter Pan.
As Stage Manager on Book and Deputy Stage Manager, Josette has led productions at the Arcola Theatre, in plays and opera, The Watermill Theatre and as part of the Summer Shakespeare productions at LAMDA. As an Assistant Stage Manager, she has been part of teams at the Watermill Theatre, Propeller productions and Reading Rep Theatre.
As a former Women’s representative at LAMDA, Josette is passionate about speaking up for the female and LGBTQIA+ community.
-
Oliwia Rokowska
Assistant Stage Manager
Oliwia Rokowska
Assistant Stage Manager
Oliwia is a freelance stage manager based in London. Originally from Poland, she is interested in creating accessible theatre, and highlighting migrant voices. Oliwia has a background in video production, and trained in television production at University of Westminster.
Recent credits include: various Minding the Gap productions at Kiln Theatre, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) at Kiln Theatre, Charley’s Aunt at City Academy, Sputnik Sweetheart at Arcola Theatre.
-
Josh Mathieson
Dialect Coach
Josh Mathieson
Dialect Coach
Josh is a voice and accent coach and theatre director with a Masters in Voice Studies from Royal Central. He has directed both in the UK and internationally and regularly coaches voice and accent on theatre productions, in addition to private coaching. Josh wrote and directed the award-winning short film Things That Grow (2020) and currently teaches voice and text at ArtsEd in London. Josh is an associate director on the West End production of Agatha Christie’s Witness for the Prosecution, directed by Lucy Bailey.
Voice coaching credits include: Ada (National Youth Theatre), It’s A Wonderful Life (Reading Rep), Romeo and Juliet (OVO), SAW: The Experience (London), Billie the Kid (Workshop), Apologia (Questors), Sleepy Hollow (UK Tour), Grimm Tales (Chichester Festival Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (Guildford Shakespeare Company), Beast Quest (Hampton Court Palace), Scrooge and the Seven Dwarves (Theatre503), The Happy Theory (The Yard), Seussical (Pleasance), Swish (Discover), The Snow Queen, Beauty and the Beast, Peter Pan, Alice in Winterland, The Railway Children, Hansel and Gretel (Rose Theatre)