Full cast announced for a small and quiet light

We are excited to announce the full cast for a small and quiet light today. Opening on 28 September this year, the production previews from 21 September and runs until 24 October.

A new play by Stephanie Street, a small and quiet light is a co-production with Chichester Festival Theatre. It will first premiere at Chichester’s Minerva Theatre from 21 August – 12 September, before running here at the OT later this fall.

Co-directed by Diyan Zora and Elin Schofield, a small and quiet light is based on the life of Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan (1914-1944), an extraordinarily courageous woman who paid the ultimate price for her heroic fight against fascism.

Joining Priyanga Burford (The Vortex CFT, The Seagull Barbican, An Enemy of the People West End – Olivier nomination, Steeltown Murders) as Noor are: Kiah Arya (making her professional debut); Léa des Garets (George Criterion Theatre, Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare’s Globe); Caoilfhionn Dunne (TV’s How To Get To Heaven from Belfast, Industry); Amanda Hadingue (The Tempest Shakespeare’s Globe, Drive Your Plow Complicité); Tripti Tripuraneni (After the Flood, The Cherry Orchard ETT); and Paksie Vernon (The Narcissist CFT, People Places and Things National Theatre).

October 1943. In a small office on the Avenue Foch in Paris, a Gestapo interrogator is questioning a young woman who has been known by many different names: Babuli, Jeanne-Marie, Nora, Madeleine.

As one of the secret agents of Britain’s Special Operations Executive – and the first female radio operator to be sent undercover into France (from RAF Tangmere, just outside Chichester) – she has evaded capture far longer than most. But now she has been betrayed.

As she faces the fate she has dreaded so long, memories crowd in – a beloved father, a thwarted lover, a gruelling journey to war, and an endless longing for her childhood piano. What has led her here?

Stephanie Street’s plays include The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Sisters. As an actor, her Chichester credits include Our Generation and Quiz, and, at the National Theatre, Coriolanus, Behind the Beautiful Forevers and Nightwatchman which earned her a WhatsOnStage Award nomination for Best Solo Performance. Her recent TV work has included NDA, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, The Lady, Joan, Until I Kill You and Breathtaking.

Diyan Zora, who previously directed Mom, How Did You Meet The Beatles? at CFT and, more recently, Roots(Almeida) and English (RSC, Olivier Award nomination) co-directs with Elin Schofield, currently Associate Director at the Donmar Warehouse and whose work includes Scissors at Sheffield Theatre for which she won the UK Theatre Award for Best Director.

The designer is Anna Yates, lighting designer Ryan Joseph Stafford, composer Nicola T Chang, sound designer Tingying Dong, movement director Adi Gortler, fight director Sam Lyon-Behan and casting director Jacob Sparrow; Priyanga Burford (Dawn Chorus Films) is consultant producer.

Tickets now available on our website and box office.