Cast announced for Mustapha Matura’s Meetings playing at the Orange Tree Theatre, directed by JMK Award Winner Kalungi Ssebandeke.
Martina Laird plays Jean. Martina is a familiar face from TV shows including Casualty and Dreamland, alongside notable theatre credits for the RSC, Shakespeare’s Globe and Donmar Warehouse. She is joined by fellow RSC star Kevin N Golding as Hugh and Bethan Mary-James (Trouble in Butetown) as Elsa.
Suited, booted, and stuffed with American burgers and fries, Hugh walks out of a meeting and buys a mango on the street. To the bemusement of his high-flying wife Jean, Hugh becomes obsessed with the foods of his Trinidadian childhood and hires a cook, Elsa, to indulge his nostalgic passion. Mustapha Matura’s razor-sharp comedy is about identity, belonging and the cost of progress.
Meetings premiered at Hampstead Theatre in 1982; the OT’s production marks the first major UK revival, opening on 18 October with previews from 14 October and running until 11 November.
Mustapha Matura’s razor-sharp comedy is about identity, belonging and the cost of progress.
Kalungi Ssebandeke is a director, writer and actor. He recently directed Attempts on Her Life by Martin Crimp for the newly formed drama school Bristol School of Acting founded by Stuart Wood with co-artistic director Nancy Medina, the incoming Artistic Director of Bristol Old Vic Theatre. Following his performance in 2019’s Blood Knot and his OT playwriting debut Prodigal for Inside/Outside in 2021, Kalungi returns to the OT as the winner of the prestigious 2023 JMK Award with Meetings.
Martina Laird plays Jean. Her theatre credits include The Animal Kingdom (Hampstead Theatre), 15 Heroines (Jermyn Street Theatre),King Hedley II, Bad Blood Blues (Theatre Royal Stratford East), All’s Well That End’s Well, Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare’s Globe), Shebeen (Nottingham Playhouse), Coriolanus, The White Devil, Three Hours After Marriage, Troilus and Cressida (Royal Shakespeare Company), Julius Cesar, Henry IV, The Tempest, Othello (Donmar Warehouse), Who Cares, Breath Boom (Royal Court Theatre), Moon On a Rainbow Shawl (Tawala Theatre Company/National Theatre), The House That Will Not Stand (Kiln Theatre), Hopelessly Devoted(Birmingham Rep), All The Little Things We Crushed (Almedia Theatre), Mules, Arabian Nights (Young Vic Theatre), The Five Wives of Maurice Pinder (National Theatre), and Hyacinth Blue (Lyric Theatre). Her television credits include Dreamland, Unforgotten, Shakespeare and Hathway, The Bay, Eastenders, Jericho, The Dumping Ground, London’s Burning and Casualty (as series regular Comfort Jones); and for film, The Little Mermaid, Boxing Day, Summerland, and Fedz.
Kevin N Golding returns to the Orange Tree to play Hugh – he previously appeared in Mustapha Matura’s Play Mas. His other theatre credits include Witness For The Prosecution (London County Hall), Shakespeare in Love (UK tour), Sad (Omnibus Theatre), Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, King Lear, Cymbeline, Venice Preserved, The Provoked Wife (Royal Shakespeare Company), Kuene and The King(Royal Shakespeare Company partnership with Fugard Theatre), Sense of An Ending (Theatre 503), The Sting (Wilton’s Music Hall), Home Sweet Home (Freedom Studios), Throats (Pleasance Theatre), Fan The Flame (Theatre Royal Stratford East), Othello (White Bear Theatre), Nina And Shaz (Brockley Jack Theatre), Otieno (Southwark Playhouse), How To Cook a Country (Riverside Studios), Reality Chokes(London Ensemble Theatre Company), Macbeth (Northcott Theatre), The Exchange (Jermyn Street Theatre), and Children of The Crown, and Mother Courage and Her Children (Nottingham Playhouse).
Bethan Mary-James plays Elsa. Her theatre credits include Trouble in Butetown (Donmar Warehouse), The Meaning of Zong (Bristol Old Vic/The Barbican), The Methyr Stigmatist (Sherman Theatre), Antigone (National Theatre Wales), Much Ado About Nothing (Tobacco Factory), This Beautiful Village (Abbey Theatre Dublin), Henry II (Minster of St Mary the Virgin Church), Pride and Prejudice (Nottingham Playhouse/York Theatre Royal), The Revengers Tragedy (West Yorkshire Playhouse), All My Sons (Royal Exchange Theatre), and Moon On a Rainbow Shawl (National Theatre). Her television credits include Sisters, Friday Night Dinner, The Collection, Cuffs, Stella, and Public Enemy; and for film, Belle.
Don’t miss out on limited tickets from £15, with previews from 14 October.
