Casting announced for Decades: Stories from the city at Leeds Playhouse

Leeds Playhouse has announced the six actors who will perform in their Decades: Stories from the city season as they reopen their doors for their 50th anniversary celebrations.   

They will perform short monologues by a heavyweight group of writers including Poet Laureate Simon Armitage who will be joined by Leanna Benjamin, Kamal Kaan, Alice Nutter, Maxine Peake and Stan Owens. 

All the writers have strong connections to the Playhouse, so have each taken a particular decade from across the Playhouse’s lifespan covering the 1970s to the 2020s tracing the city’s changes over that time. 

Isobel Coward will star in Alice Nutter’s Nicer Than Orange Squash, Eva Scott is in Maxine Peake’s Don’t You Know It’s Going To Be Alright and Cassie Layton performs Kamal Kaan’s And After We Sailed a Thousand Skies.    

Akiel Dowe makes his professional debut in Pie In The Bus Stop by Stan Owen as does Nicole Botha in Leanna Benjamin’s The Unknown. 15 year old Connor Elliott makes his first appearance at Leeds Playhouse in Simon Armitage’s The Bodyguard.

As this is their first set of shows after lockdown they have recruited a strong cast of directors including Leeds Playhouse’s Artistic Director James Brining who is joined in the rehearsal spaces by Associate Director Amy Leach and RTYDS Resident Assistant Director Sameena Hussain, Evie Manning of Common Wealth Theatre, Theatre State’s Tess Seddon and theatre director Amanda Huxtable

The productions can be experienced live at the theatre, either as six pieces in one evening or in two sets of three. The show will also be available online via Playhouse: At Home. All performances will include creative audio description.    

Decades runs in Leeds Playhouse Courtyard Theatre and At Home from Wednesday 19th – Saturday 29th May

Available online At Home Monday 24th May – Saturday 5th June

Book online at www.leedsplayhouse.org.uk or over the phone 0113 213 7700