A Frantic Assembly and Theatre Royal Plymouth Production,
co-produced with Curve
Chizzy Akudolu, Charlotte Bate, Polly Frame, Caleb Roberts, Simone Saunders and Andrew Turner will star in the world premiere of I Think We Are Alone.
Frantic Assembly today announced the full casting for I Think We Are Alone, a major new play by Sally Abbott (The Coroner, Vera), co-directed by Kathy Burke (Lady Windermere’s Fan, The Retreat) and Scott Graham (Fatherland, Things I Know to be True). The work will premiere at Theatre Royal Plymouth on 3rd February and tour to venues including Theatre Royal Stratford East, The Lowry, Nuffield Southampton, Bristol Old Vic, and Leicester Curve in Spring 2020. The production sits at the centre of a year of programming celebrating 25 years of Frantic Assembly.
Chizzy Akudolu (Edmond De Bergerac, Holby City), Charlotte Bate (On The Other Hand We’re Happy, Daughterhood), Polly Frame (Solaris, After Edward & Edward II), Caleb Roberts
(She Ventures and He Wins, Richard III), Simone Saunders (Hang, Jane Eyre) and Andrew Turner (Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, Coronation Street) will perform in this delicate and uplifting new play about our fragility, resilience and need for love and forgiveness.
Two sisters (Charlotte Bate & Polly Frame) are estranged and bicker over text. Their brittle and aggressive language is pushing them further apart when what they really want is to meet, clear the air and talk about the events that happened when they were young girls and haunt them still.
Josie (Chizzy Akudolu) is not allowing grief to get in the way. All of her focus is on what is best for her son, Manny (Caleb Roberts). She desperately wants him to fly but can she let him go?
There is a person shaped hole in Graham’s heart (Andrew Turner) and it is driving him to some dark places. When a stranger returns an act of kindness both find themselves opening up and connecting in a way that might just bring a bit of light in.
I Think We Are Alone is a bittersweet and funny take on our ache to connect with those voices we need to hear again, those arms we need to feel around us and those faces we need to see again. It is about letting go and holding on to what we love the most.
The production is designed by Morgan Large with lighting by Paul Keogan, sound by Ella Wahlstrom and casting by Will Burton.
Chizzy Akudolu’s theatre credits include Edmond De Bergerac (Birmingham Rep), The Rec Room (Triforce), and The Vagina Monologues (UK Tour).
Her television credits include Strictly Come Dancing (BBC), Hetty Feather Christmas (BBC), Death in Paradise (BBC), Shakespeare and Hathaway (BBC), Tracey Beaker Breaks the News (BBC), Sorry I didn’t know (Triforce), Holby City (BBC), Meet The Pranksters (Gallowgate), Silent Witness (BBC), Mongrels (BBC), Twenty Twelve (BBC), The Inbetweeners (Channel 4), Unzipped with Miranda Hart (BBC), and Scoop (CBBC)
Charlotte Bate trained at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Her theatre credits include On The Other Hand We’re Happy, Daughterhood and Dexter And Winter’s Detective Agency (Paines Plough/Theatre Royal Stratford East), Blackthorn (West Yorkshire Playhouse And Edinburgh Festival), The Rivals (The Watermill Theatre), King Lear (The Orange Tree Theatre), Watership Down (The Watermill Theatre) and Romeo And Juliet (Sheffield Crucible).
Charlotte's television credits include Casualty (BBC), White House Farm (ITV) and Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams (Channel 4).
Polly Frame trained at Bristol University.
Her theatre credits include Solaris (Edinburgh Lyceum/ Lyric Hammersmith), Sometimes Thinking (Frantic Assembly), After Edward and Edward II (Globe Theatre), Thick as Thieves (Clean Break Theatre), On The Exhale Fringe First Winner (Traverse Theatre), Jekyll & Hyde (English Touring Consortium), A Short History Of Tractors In Ukrainian (Hull Truck), Frankenstein & Hedda Gabler (Northern Stage), Henry V (Regent's Park Open Air Theatre), The Odyssey (English Touring Theatre), Mermaid (Shared Experience), Arcadia (Tobacco Factory), Twelfth Night (Filter Theatre), Pastoral (Soho Theatre), After Miss Julie (Young Vic), The Crossing 66 Books (Bush Theatre), The Comedy Of Errors (Stafford Shakespeare Festival), Earthquakes in London (RNT), The Count of Monte Cristo (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Macbeth (Chichester, West End & Broadway), A Response to Twelfth Night (Filter), Cleansed (Arcola)
Polly’s television credits include Doctors (BBC), Casualty (BBC), Man Down (Channel 4), The Tunnel (Kudos Film & Canal), Coronation Street (ITV), Holby City (BBC), The Curse of the Hope Diamond (Blink Films), Silent Witness (BBC), EastEnders (BBC), Bunny Town (BBC 2 Thumbs Up / Disney), Sea of Souls (Carnival Films / BBC), Accused (BBC), Life Begins (ITV), New Tricks (Wall to Wall), Meet the Magoons (Channel 4), The Giblets (ITV), Servants (BBC) and her film credits include Macbeth (Illuminations), Half Light (Half-Light Productions), Duplicity (Galleon Films).
Caleb Robert’s theatre credits include She Ventures and He Wins (The Young Vic), Richard III (Headlong), Double Dealer (Orange Tree), King Lear (West End/Chichester Festival).
His television credits include A Very English Scandal (BBC).
Simone Saunders’ theatre credits include Hang (Sheffield Crucible); Chicken Soup (Sheffield Crucible); Darkness Darkness (Nottingham Playhouse); Jane Eyre (National Theatre); American Trade, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, The Grain Store, The Winter’s Tale, Julius Caesar (Royal Shakespeare Company); Carnival (Talawa Theatre Company); The Red Ladies (National Theatre).
Her television credits include Doctors (BBC) and Casualty (BBC).
Andrew Turner’s theatre credits include Connection (Harrogate), Dancehall (Cast Doncaster), Cat in the Rain, Dumb Waiter (Chief Theatre Company), Twelfth Night (Northampton Royal), The White Album, Sam's Game (Nottingham Playhouse), Fields of Gold (Stephen Joseph Theatre), The Dark (Donmar) and Bintou (Arcola).
His television credits include Father Brown (BBC), Mount Pleasant (Sky), The Musketeers (BBC), Coronation Street (ITV), Doctors (BBC), Bad Debt (Peter Bullock Productions), Holby City (BBC), Blue Murder (Granada), Casualty (BBC), Snuff Box (BBC), The Somme (Darlow Smithson), Waking the Dead (BBC), and Dalziel and Pascoe (BBC).
Andrew’s film credits include Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (Warner Bros) and Is Anybody There? (BBC Films)
