Poet and spoken-word artist Kate Tempest is to première her latest play Hopelessly Devoted at the newly-refurbished Birmingham REP space The Door before it goes on a short tour.
After her debut Wasted in 2012, Kate Tempest was described as “one of the most exciting young writers working in Britain today”.
Earlier this year Kate, 26, became the first person under 40 to win the Ted Hughes Award for innovation in poetry, winning the accolade for Brand New Ancients, an hour-long story set to an orchestral backing.
Hopelessly Devoted is the story of Chess who is in prison facing a long sentence. Her cell mate Serena is given parole, leaving Chess facing total isolation.
Music producer Silver finds a powerful voice in Chess, but to harness her talent Chess has first to face her past.
Kate Tempest recently performed to women in Holloway prison, an experience that inspired Hopelessly Devoted.
She said, “I wanted to connect with these women. And I felt this familiar fire that I used to feel when I was rapping—this eagerness and this sense of the importance of telling and being heard.”
The cast for Hopelessly Devoted includes Amanda Wilkin who plays Chess. Her theatre credits include Gabriel and The Tempest at Shakespeare’s Globe, Arabian Nights at the Watermill Theatre, The Bacchae and Blood Wedding at Northampton Royal and Derngate and Marat/Sade and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the RSC.
Martina Laird plays Silver. Best known for playing Comfort Jones in BBC1’s Casualty, her extensive work includes Sophia Adams in Moon on a Rainbow Shawl at the National; The Five Wives of Maurice Pinder, also at the National; Bianca in Othello at the Donmar Warehouse; and The White Devil, Three Hours After Marriage and Troilus And Cressida at the RSC.
Her television credits include Rachel in London’s Burning and Michelle in Shameless.
Completing the cast and playing Serena is Gbemisola Ikumelo. Theatre credits include Death and The King’s Horseman at the National Theatre and Duck at the Unicorn Theatre.
Hopelessly Devoted is directed by James Grieve, co-artistic director of Paines Plough who also directed Kate Tempest’s Wasted.
Musical director is Tom Attwood and lighting designer Simon Bond.
Hopelessly Devoted runs in The Door from Thursday (19 September) until Saturday 5 October. It will then tour to venues across the West Midlands throughout October as well as touring nationally next spring.