July 2011. A far right terrorist has just massacred sixty-nine people, most of them students attending a Norwegian Labour Party Youth’s summer camp on the island of Utoya.
Gunnar and Malin have sent their daughter to the island, and desperately seek contact. On the farm next-door to the perpetrator’s, Petter and Inga realise their suspicions about him are well founded. At Central Command, Alf and Unni must decide on the best course of action in response to the attack.
A searing reflection on the domestic effects of societal trauma, Utoya offers a timely consideration of how tragedy can both bind people together and pull them further apart. This production is a UK Premiere from leading Italian writer Edoardo Erba.
Thursday 22nd August: Translations Shaping Theatre Across Borders – Post Show Q&A
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Running time
75 minutes -
Age guidance
14+ -
Content warnings
"Erba’s razor-sharp script […] and Sarah Stacey’s direction provides the perfect mix of crystal clear and mildly disorienting storytelling."– Always Time for Theatre
"This fascinating, multi-layered play by Edoardo Erba is crisply directed by Sarah Stacey and beautifully performed by Kate Reid and Marco Young"– The Spectator
"Sarah Stacey, ratcheting up the tensions between the blackouts that move us from one pair to the next”– Broadway World
"Utoya is well-crafted, well-produced, well-acted. It asks some important questions."– Green Room Review
The Company
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Kate Reid
Kate Reid
Kate is a Northern Irish-English writer-performer who trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School (2016-2018). Theatre credits include: The 4th Country (Park Theatre); A Girl, Standing (Theatre503); Refract (King’s Head Theatre); January (White Bear Theatre); Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons (Wardrobe Theatre); Measure for Measure (Cambridge Arts Theatre). Workshops include: Touching The Void (Bristol Old Vic); BOD (Young Vic); The Cleaner (Traverse Theatre). Screen credits include: The Other Half for Ranga Bee Productions (Dave Channel); Screening for Airlock Films. She was a finalist for both Pleasance Theatre’s Charlie Hartill Award (2020) and Sister and South Of The River Productions’ Screenshot Award for writer-performers at the Royal Court (2021). She is represented by Laura Stokes at The Artists Partnership. www.katereid.co.uk
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Marco Young
Marco Young
Marco trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Stage credits include: Sorry We Didn’t Die at Sea, Another America (both Park Theatre), The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (Pitlochry Festival Theatre), My Cousin Rachel (Bath Theatre Royal & UK Tour), The Stranger on the Bridge (Salisbury Playhouse/Tobacco Factory & SW Tour), Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet (both Guildford Shakespeare Company), A Girl, Standing, (Theatre503), Me & My Left Ball (Tristan Bates), Measure for Measure, Henry V (both Cambridge Arts Theatre). Workshops: Lasagne (King’s Head), HighTide Rising (HighTide Theatre). TV includes: Big Boys S2 (Channel 4/Roughcut). Video Game: Company of Heroes 3 (Relic Entertainment).
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Edoardo Erba
Writer
Edoardo Erba
Writer
Edoardo Erba is an Italian playwright, screenwriter, novelist, stage director and university professor (Pavia University, National Academy Silvio D’Amico and Belle Arti University of Rome).
His plays include Porco Selvatico (1991), The Night of Picasso (1991), Blinde Curve (1992), Marathon (1993), The Family Vice (1993), Smallpox (1998), The man of my Life (1999), The Salesmen (1999), Déjà-vu (1999), Without Hitler (2001), The Builders (2002), Good News (2002), Animals in the Fog (2005), Italian Drama (2006), Margarita and the Cock (2006), Michelina (2008), The Trouts (2009), Travelling with Albert (2010), All the Best (2011), VeraVuz (2014), Italy 2010 (2014), Utoya (2015), Nine (2015), The Mistress of the B&B (2017), Rosalyn (2017), Maurice IV (2019), The Invisible Husband (2021), The Honest Ghost (2022).
His plays have been performed at Italian festivals (including Venice Biennale, Taormina Film Fest, Montepulciano and Todi Festival) and in Italy’s most renowned theaters.
Erba has won the most prestigious awards for Italian dramaturgy (Olimpici del Teatro, Riccione, Idi, Candoni and Salerno) and the Robinson Award for his first novel Ami.
Marathon, his most famous and successful work, has been translated in 17 languages. The script won the Candoni Award in 1992 and was then represented for the first time in Parma in 1993. After that, the play was staged in London (translation by Colin Teevan), Edinburgh, Wellington (NZ), Sydney, Boston (translation by Israel Horowitz), Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Rio De Janeiro, Zagreb, Sofia, Tel-Aviv, Mumbai, Hong Kong and Tokyo. -
Sarah Stacey
Director
Sarah Stacey
Director
Sarah is a theatre director specialising in new writing. She trained on the Birkbeck Theatre Directing MFA (including residencies at Royal & Derngate and BOVTS) and was a 2023 JMK finalist. Her directing work includes Beasts: Why Girls Shouldn’t Fear The Dark (Edinburgh Fringe, Fringe First Winner), If. Destroyed. Still. True. (Hope Theatre) and One Kiss (Belgrade Theatre). She has also directed new writing at Jermyn Street Theatre, Southwark Playhouse, The Bunker, The Arcola, Royal & Derngate and Theatre Royal Stratford East. As an associate & assistant director her work includes A Midsummer Night’s Dream (RSC), Unexpected Twist (UK Tour), The Two Popes (UK Tour), and the Olivier nominated Our Lady of Kibeho (Theatre Royal Stratford East). She also works as a dramaturg on plays in development, and is a reader for the Papatango and Bruntwood prizes.
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Marco Young
Translator
Marco Young
Translator
Marco is a British-Italian translator and actor. He trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and the University of Cambridge. His translation of Sorry We Didn’t Die at Sea by Emanuele Aldrovandi ran for a month Off West End at Park Theatre in September 2023 and was published by Salamander Street Press. An excerpt of his translation of Nalini Mootoosamy’s Bleach Me will be published in Asymptote Journal (upcoming edition, Spring 2024). His translation of Suburban Miracles by Gabriele Di Luca was showcased at Camden People’s Theatre in January 2023, and his translation of Alarms! by Emanuele Aldrovandi received a rehearsed reading at Omnibus Theatre in July 2023. He has translated texts by Stefano Massini and Davide Enia, and recently completed a commission for award winning playwright Fabio Pisano for a first English translation of his new play Spezzata, Rapsodia (per intercessione del Silenzio). He was a mentee on the 2022-23 Foreign Affairs Theatre Translator Mentorship Programme, and a member of Mercury Theatre Colchester’s Producer Development Programme 2022-2023.
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Runa Røstad Augdal
Norwegian Cultural Consultant
Runa Røstad Augdal
Norwegian Cultural Consultant
Runa Røstad Augdal is a director, writer and actor and has recently achieved her MFA in Theatre Directing from East15 Acting School. Originally from Trondheim, Norway, Runa received her bachelor’s degree in drama and theatre from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology where she received an internship with The Giraffe Theatre Company who advocate and focus on teens and adults with disabilities through inclusive theatre practices and performances. She was assistant director of Bard in the Yard, which was performed all over the UK to great public and critical acclaim (The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent). Before being accepted in the East 15 MFA Theatre Directing program, Runa established a theatre company (Dragvollrevyen) with fellow colleagues and directed their first show Kaste stein I glasshus which was nominated to participate in the semi-finals of the Norwegian Championship of Satire Theatre (NM I Revy).
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Jamie Lu
Sound Designer
Jamie Lu
Sound Designer
Jamie is a London-based scenographer and an award-nominated sound designer.
Previous work at the Arcola includes: Utoya, Spin, Gentlemen, The Apology, We Started to Sing, Broken Lad.
Jamie’s theatre credits as sound designer include: English Kings Killing Foreigners, A Gig for Ghosts (Soho Theatre); The Poetess (EdFringe25): Big Big Sky, The Haunting (New Vic Theatre); Puppy (King’s Head); The Society For New Cuisine, Argos Archives, George, Tiger (Omnibus Theatre); Still Here (Tour and Jack Studio Theatre); Take the Stage 2024 (Donmar Warehouse); Autumn, Sorry We Didn’t Die at Sea (Park Theatre); Abigail’s Party (Northern Stage and tour); Midnight Tattoo (Drayton Arms); Foreverland, I’m Gonna Marry You Toby Maguire, Smoke, Tokyo Rose (Southwark Playhouse); The Government Inspector (Marylebone Theatre); Mother’s Day, Grills, Declan (Camden People’s Theatre); Ada (National Youth Theatre); Transit (The Space); Shakespeare’s R&J, Hedda Gabler (Reading Rep); 1984 (Cockpit); Going For Gold, Road (Chelsea Theatre); Burnout (R&D, Vault Festival and tour); Iphigenia (Hope Theatre); fester (Bridge House Theatre); Paradise Lost (Shipwright); The Unicorn, What The Heart Wants, How To Build a Wax Figure (Edinburgh Fringe 2022); The Blue House (Blue Elephant Theatre); Dirty Hearts (Old Red Lion Theatre). D.O.A., A Report to an Academy, Butterfly, The Most Beautiful Woman in the World (Baron’s Court Theatre); Apollonia, Flowers for Algernon, Black Mary Poppins (Focustage/Chinese Tour); Paper Crown (Corbett Theatre/Bloomsbury Festival); Wild Duck (West Side Theatre, ET Space, China); The Sound of Music (Chinese Tour); Sink (Courtyard Theatre/Edinburgh Fringe/Southbank Centre China Changing Festival); String (Lion and Unicorn Theatre).
As Assistant Sound Designer: Henry V (Donmar Warehouse).
As Scenographer: A Thousand Papercuts Skin Deep (Baron’s Court Theatre), A Report to an Academy·Live (online).
Sound design for Audio play: The Dream Machine (Fizzy Sherbet).
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Catja Hamilton
Lighting Designer
Catja Hamilton
Lighting Designer
Catja is a freelance Lighting Designer and Co-Director of Airlock Theatre. She is a former Creative Associate at Jermyn Street Theatre and Resident Designer at NDT Broadgate. Her previous credits include: Talawa Firsts on Tour (Talawa Theatre), Pansexual Pregnant Piracy (Soho Theatre), Scarlet Sunday (Omnibus Theatre), The Pursuit of Joy (Jermyn Street Theatre), The Wolf, The Duck, and The Mouse (Unicorn Theatre), Passing (Park Theatre), Rip Van Winkle (Hoxton Hall), The Importance of Being… Earnest? (UK tour), Sorry We Didn’t Die At Sea (Park Theatre), Birthright (Finborough Theatre), Agrippina (Jackson’s Lane), The Oyster Problem (Jermyn Street Theatre), SNAIL (VAULT Festival), Acid’s Reign (VAULT Festival), Lesbian Space Crime (Soho Theatre), Cassandra (UK tour), Time and Tide (UK tour), Another America (Park Theatre), Paradise Lost (The Shipwright), The Anarchist (Jermyn Street Theatre), An Intervention (Riverside Studios), Lizard King (UK tour), The 4thCountry (Park Theatre).
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Caitlin Mawhinney
Set and Costume Designer
Caitlin Mawhinney
Set and Costume Designer
Caitlin was nominated for Best Designer at The Stage Debut Awards 2022 and awarded the Evening Standard Future Theatre Fund for Visual Design in 2021. She was recently a JMK Finalist, Creative Associate at Jermyn Street Theatre, and a Resident Designer at New Diorama Broadgate. Hailing from Yorkshire, Caitlin works across the country and designs from her studio in East London. Recent credits as Designer include: Everyday Non-sense (Southbank Centre), Pansexual Pregnant Piracy (Soho Theatre), No More Mr Nice Guy (Nouveau Riche), Camp Phoenix (Zest Theatre), Pop Music, Ladies Unleashed, Teechers Leavers 22’ (Hull Truck Theatre), The Cyclops, The Island of The Sun (National Theatre Public Acts), Dream School (The Space), Acid’s Reign (VAULT Fest), The Anarchist (Jermyn Street Theatre), My Voice Was Heard But It Was Ignored (Red Ladder Theatre Co./UK Tour).
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Fae Hochgemuth
Production Stage Manager
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Megan Gibbons
Marketing Manager and Media Content
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Mariano Gobbi
Artwork, Photo and Videographer
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Riva Theatre
Producer
Riva Theatre
Producer
Riva Theatre is a new London-based theatre company co-founded by Marco Young and Daniel Emery, focused on bringing plays from abroad to UK stages. Riva’s first production, of award winning Italian play Sorry We Didn’t Die at Sea, by Emanuele Aldrovandi, ran at Park Theatre in September 2023 to critical acclaim, following a first staging at Seven Dials Playhouse in July 2022. It was the first contemporary Italian play to receive a full Off West End run for over 20 years. Riva Theatre hosted a reading of Emanuele Aldrovandi’s Alarms!, translated by Marco Young and directed by Daniel Emery, at Omnibus Theatre in 2023.
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ZAVA Productions
Co-Producer and General Manager
ZAVA Productions
Co-Producer and General Manager
ZAVA Productions is a UK theatre production company founded in 2022. They champion emerging writers and specialize in developing and producing original plays and musicals that reflect and question the society we live in. They are particularly interested in supporting inspiring works focusing on female voice and minority, ethnicity and gender discrimination, giving audiences the chance for a new awareness and perspective. They are dedicated to promoting Italian playwrights and composers to create a cultural exchange aiming to support and share stories that reflect universal experiences and enrich connections between Italian and international cultures. Productions includes: Hide and Seek, VAULT Festival, February 2022 and Park Theatre, March 2023, Miss I-Doll workshop presentation, July 2023 Seven Dials Playhouse.
This production is supported by
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Unity Theatre Trust
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Maria Björnson Memorial Fund
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Comites Londra
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Isituto Italiano di Cultura Londra
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WellTax
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Anglo Norse Society
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Cambridge Online Tutors
Supported by: Supported by: Sue Whitley OBE, Guy Stobart, Sue Heathcote and Bill Heathcote, Buvini Kularatne, WellTax, Anglo-Norse Society, Maria Björnson Memorial Fund, Com.It.Es di Londra, Italian Cultural Institute, Unity Theatre Trust, Cambridge Online Tutors, Marc and Rachel Polonsky and Sir Ian McKellen.