WHY THIS PLAY
“I want to be noticed, seen, heard, felt! I want them to know I’m alive!”
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ORPHEUS DESCENDING took Tennessee Williams over a decade to write - the longest he spent on any of his works - and wasn't particularly successful when it premiered in 1957. We believe this is because the play was, in some ways, far ahead of its time.
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In the dark underbelly of a 1950s Southern American town, the story follows a mysterious young man and charming drifter named Val who meets Lady, an Italian immigrant storekeeper and wife of the local Ku Klux Klan grand wizard. The world around them is grey, ashen, violent, more dead than alive. It certainly doesn't like people who don't fit in. When Val's presence unleashes a maelstrom of passion, discord, desire and retribution, Val and Lady find goodness in each other but, in doing so, have awakened the bloodthirsty monster that is the status quo.
As a company committed to the staging of classics that resonate with our current sociopolitical climate, we believe ORPHEUS DESCENDING has never been more important to share with modern audiences.​
ABOUT
RUNNING TIME: 2 hours 15 (including a 15 minute interval)
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AGES 16+
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CONTENT CONSIDERATIONS: Themes of racism, sex, violence, death, murder.
CAST
Jonathan Aarons
VAL XAVIER / Fight Captain
Jonathan Aarons is a graduate of the University of San Diego (MFA, 2021) and LAMDA (MA, 2022). His theatre credits include Little Women, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, and Thinking Shakespeare (The Old Globe); Mewling and Puking (Hen and Chickens Theatre); and Strange Orbits (Hope Theatre). Other work includes voiceover for Cartier and Coca-Cola.
Madison Coppola
LADY TORRANCE
Madison is New York based actor with a new home base in London. With a recent graduates degree from LAMDA, Madison’s extensive experience, from performing in numerous regional shows, global adverts, off broadway premiers, international tours and feature films has led her now to this beautiful and exhilarating play. Madison is thrilled to be working with such a dedicated and supportive company and looks forward to seeing the brilliant work they will continue to put into the world.
Alex Holliday
SHERIFF TALBOT
I am a recent graduate from LAMDA and I am thrilled to be a part of this production of Orpheus Descending. The tone, the atmosphere and the world that we have created is one that I personally am very proud of, as well as this amazing ensemble put together by the Conjure team. I hope you enjoy it.
Yaw Osafo-Kantanka
UNCLE PLEASANT
Yaw is a Ghanaian American creative: writer, actor, spokenword artist & a recent graduate from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. His work focuses on African identity, immigration, family & self-love. Yaw finds joy in being a professional laugher and a rooted dancer with specialty in Afrobeats and West African tribal dance styles. On stage, Yaw becomes his stories, channels language through time and space to give the audience a cathartic experience.
Grace Wallis
VEE TALBOT / Producer
Grace was born and raised in California. After studying Human Biology and Environmental Communication at Stanford University, she trained at LAMDA. She has performed at the Orange Tree Theatre, the Roman Theatre of St Albans, the Williamstown Theatre Festival, and the American Shakespeare Center. She has worked with the Public Theater, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and Shakespeare & Company.
Josh Beckman
JABE TORRANCE
Josh graduated from the MFA in Professional Acting at LAMDA last summer where and is enjoying all the twists and turns graduate life has to offer. This will be his first Tennessee Williams play and he is excited and honoured to be working with Conjure in their debut production.
Daisy Hargreaves
CAROL CUTRERE
Daisy Tallulah Hargreaves graduated from LAMDA in 2024. Her recent credits include: Call The Midwife (BBC/Netflix), Pink (Orange Tree Theatre), The Revlon Girl (OSO Arts Centre), The Housetrap (Guildford Shakespeare Company), Salome’s Wish (Audible).
Brock Looser
DOLLY HAMMA / Producer
Brock is honored to work with Anna and this incredible team, after completing her MFA at LAMDA earlier this year. Theatre credits include As You Like It, The Winter’s Tale, Twelfth Night (Great River Shakespeare), Pericles (San Francisco Shakespeare), with films at HollyShorts, London Women Film Festival, Chicago Horror, and more. She is a Producer at BraveMouse, with her solo show too much of water premiering at Camden Fringe this summer. BFA from NYU Tisch. Love to my fam! brocklooser.com
Madeleine Paulson
SISTER TEMPLE / WOMAN
Madeleine Paulson is an actress known for Peeky (2021). She graduated from the BA Acting at LAMDA (the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art) 2024, and was awarded "Best Supporting Actress in a Feature Film" from the Phoenix Film Critics Society at the 2021 Scottsdale International Film Festival. She grew up in both Los Angeles, California and Bristol, England.
Madeleine has been acting since she was a little girl and is most passionate about Shakespeare, Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams.
Madeleine Bloxam
EVA TEMPLE / Photographer
Madeleine Bloxam is an actor and singer from Virginia, by way of New York City, now based in London after completing her MA in Classical Acting at LAMDA. Recent stage work includes In the Dark (London). She is especially excited to bring in a fresh take on an American classic to London, alongside a brilliant international ensemble.
Carly Helms
NURSE PORTER
Carly is a Charlotte, North Carolina native who now lives in London. She is a recent graduate of LAMDA, and is thrilled to be a part of this production. She is currently co-producing and later performing in “We Have Not Long to Love”, a trio of short plays by Tennessee Williams, which will play at the Camden People’s Theatre August 7-9 as a part of the Camden Fringe. In a city far from home, she feels incredibly lucky to be working on plays that hit close to home.
Alexandra Montalbano
BEULAH BINNINGS /
Assistant Movement Director
Alexandra is an actor, dancer and movement director who recently completed her MFA at LAMDA. Along with her theatrical credits in New York City, she has danced on stage at Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater and in Lincoln Center’s Dance on Camera Festival. She currently assists Nancy Meckler in her continued direction of the Olivier nominated A Streetcar Named Desire ballet.
Benjamin Raymant
DAWG HAMMA / DAVID CUTRERE / Movement & Assist. Fight Captain
From western Canada, Benjamin has performed on stage all over the world, as well as a dancer and singer. He initially trained in Music Dance Theatre in the USA, then pursued Acting at LAMDA. He and his wife now live happily in London in their tiny flat by the river. He loves food, travel, and formula 1. Enjoy the production! Favorite stage credits are, You Me Bum Bum Train (West End) | Jason in Sweat (dir. Dawn Walton OBE) | Brutus in Julius Caesar (dir. Lawrence Evans) | Laertes in Hamlet (dir. Karen Tomlin) | Jim Hawkins in Treasure Island (Hale Center Theater-Utah) | Rapunzel’s Prince in Into the Woods (dir. Dalyn Vail Baylis).
CREATIVE TEAM
Anna Barkan
Director / Conjure Productions Co-Founder
Anna Barkan is a Russian Director and Acting Teacher, who studied at the prestigious Vakhtangov Theatre School in Moscow and at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. She is a co-founder and the Artistic Director of Conjure Productions. She also holds an MA in Actor Training & Coaching from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London, where her research included working with International multilingual casts. Anna’s practice is rooted in the Stanislavsky System and the Michael Chekhov technique. She has been teaching and directing at LAMDA for nearly 4 years. For over 20 years, Anna worked as an actor on stage, film and TV in Russia and the UK and formed CHAIKA Theatre company where she directed and produced premieres of lesser-known Russian classics in original translations. Previous credits include 'White Nights' (New End Theatre), 'Darkness' (Chelsea Theatre), 'Feast During the Plague' (Edinburgh Fringe Festival). Directing credits at LAMDA include 'The House of Bernarda Alba', 'The School for Scandal', 'The Storm', 'Three Sisters', 'Cherry Orchard', 'The Seagull' and 'The Lower Depths'. Anna is very excited to bring Tennessee Williams's masterpiece 'Orpheus Descending' to the Cockpit Theatre as the debut production of Conjure Productions with a group of very talented recent LAMDA graduates amongst the cast and creative team.
Aidan Gibson
Sound Designer
Aidan is a current 3rd Year at LAMDA on the Production and Technical BA. He has worked on around 30 productions for LAMDA and is a current freelance technician working at various venues in London.
Jana Lakatos
Costume & Set Designer
Jana is a freelance designer specializing in set, costume & puppetry. With a degree in Design for Performance from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, Jana has designed for theatre and opera, with an emphasis on visual storytelling.
Her designs focus on the amalgamation of art and function, exploring shapes and patterns to exhibit a surreal sense of reality. Recent design credits include 99 Sleepless Nights of Painting Basquiat (2025), Something Found (2025), Biography of a Constellation (2024), Opera Double Bill: Gianni Schicchi & La Bella Dormente Nel Bosco (2024) & A Female Perspective (2024). Website: lakatosdesigns.com
Nicoletta Bonanni
Movement Director
Nicoletta ‘Key’ Bonanni is a movement specialist for dance, theatre and screen, with a particular interest in education and creation. She is a researcher, folklore lover, educator, choreographer, movement coach/director, performer and writer, who has fulfilled many different roles within the performing art scene and within community settings, in a variety of work environments and countries such as UK, Kosovo, Senegal, Italy, Mexico, Switzerland, Greece and Granada. Her practice intends to share and celebrate an integrated vision of the body-mind-consciousness system through movement. She integrates approaches without hierarchies, sharing a mindful yet courageous creative process both in rehearsal and through her teachings.
She has taught in a variety of dance organisations, Universities and drama schools in London, and she is now an interim associate movement tutor at LAMDA, teaching and movement directing across several courses.
In 2023, she was one of the performance directors of the award winning role play video game ‘Bulder’s Gate III’.
She has recently movement and intimacy directed Woyzeck at The National Theatre of Gjakova, Kosovo, directed by Zana Hoxha and she is about to begin rehearsing ‘Dance Nation’ at LAMDA, directed by Lucy Curtis.
Anna Hampton
Assistant Director
Anna Hampton is a director of new plays and twentieth century classics. Upcoming projects include The Underneath at the Edinburgh Fringe and The Unbelievers at the Royal Court (as assistant director). Recent projects include Machinal at the Orange Tree Theatre, It's Casual at the Canal Cafe Theatre, Soultide at the Camden Fringe, Dogs and Trees at LAMDA, and Berlusconi at Southwark Playhouse Elephant (as assistant director). Anna graduated with an MA in Directing from LAMDA in 2023.
Ruth Norwood
Assistant Designer / Hair & Makeup
Ruth Norwood graduated from Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in 2024 with skills in costume design, costume construction, Wardrobe and WHAM. Her Costume design credits include The Richard Burton Company’s Production of ‘Carrie The Musical’ (2024) and The American Drama Group Europe’s Production of ‘The Great Gatsby’ (2024). When she is not designing she works at Stitches Academy as a teaching assistant.
Anastasia Bunce
Executive Producer / Assistant Director / Conjure Productions Co-Founder
Anastasia is a theatre and film director based in London who specializes in directing new writing and modern classics. She is the Artistic Director of Patch Plays, a company devoted to staging new work that explores animal ethics and climate change. She recently assisted Alex Howarth on the Off-Broadway Musical 'Life Line'.
Anastasia trained in MA Theatre Directing at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. Recent credits include 'The Inseparables' (Finborough Theatre), 'Blood On Your Hands' (Southwark Playhouse), the critically acclaimed Off West End Award finalist comedy 'Meat Cute' (Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh Fringe Festival), 'Darkie Armo Girl' (**The Stage, Finborough Theatre). 'Summer and Smoke' (Exeter Phoenix). A life long fan of Tennessee Williams, she is very excited to be co-producing and assistant directing 'Orpheus Descending' with a very talented cast and crew.
David Jarzen
Voice & Dialect Coach
David Jarzen (He|Him|His) is an actor, singer, teaching artist, and advocate originally from Alexandria, Virginia in the United States. Having trained at Point Park University as a musical theatre actor, he moved to London in 2020 to further a career in Voice and Speech. Graduating in 2022 with a Master of Fine Arts in Voice Studies from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, David teaches Voice across the undergraduate and postgraduate pathways at LAMDA.
David is a certified teacher of Knight-Thompson Speechwork, a panlingual approach to accent teaching and coaching. He is currently completing his training to be a Designated Linklater Teacher. He proudly teaches the Linklater Voice Method at the place it was created some 70 years ago.
David is thrilled to have taught at many leading drama schools across London including Mountview, East 15, Rose Bruford, Collective Acting Studio, and Central. He enjoys researching developmental psychology as it relates to masculinity and the voice. David is an advocate for inclusive theatre practices and prides himself on his dedication and research in Anti-Racist, Equitable pedagogy.
David continues to support actors and productions around London and is a proud part of the Voice Team atMatilda the Musical currently playing at the Cambridge Theatre on the West End.
David is a proud member of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association where he is a member of the Junior Board.
Elis Perrotta
Stage Manager
Elis is just graduating in Production and Technical Arts for Stage and Screen at LAMDA, specializing in Stage and Production Management. She has previously studied drama and worked as an actress, giving her a dual perspective on the industry and a deep passion for the arts!