A new play featuring “bingo, brass and a bucketload of memories” is Derby Theatre’s big main house production for autumn 2024.
Welfare by British-Armenian playwright Abi Zakarian, who was born in Derbyshire to a family of miners, tells the story of the Derbyshire Miners’ Holiday Camp in Skegness, where colliers went to convalesce and later have a break when it was turned into a holiday camp for Derbyshire miners and their families.
Welfare will take audiences on a trip through the decades, following the fortunes of the camp through the highs and lows of history, meeting a family across the generations and exploring how time and change affect communities and individuals alike.
The cast includes four actors who have appeared at Derby Theatre before. John Holt-Roberts played Adam Aquarius in Deborah McAndrew’s Robin Hood and The Major Oak in 2023, Toad in Toby Hulse’s adaptation of Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows in 2022 and Tweedle Dee in Mike Kenny’s adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland in 2017.
Oraine Johnson was Little John in Robin Hood and The Major Oak. Jo Mousley played Sandra in Paul Allen’s Brassed Off in 2023 and all the female parts in Jim Cartwright’s Two in 2018.
Ivan Stott has appeared in several Derby Theatre productions, playing Baloo in Neil Duffield’s adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book in 2019 and Colonel Redfern in John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger in 2016.
The cast also includes Olivia Egbunike, Mya Fox-Scott, Tiana Maria Harrison who hails from Derbyshire, Andrew Westfield, Rhys Wild and Hanna Winter.
A community company will join the professional cast of actors and will feature Charlotte Bennett, Jo Blackwood, Samantha Bosworth, Ali Bramwell, Gregory Butler, Esme Carpenter, Candice Condon, Philip Cox, Kal Dhindsa, Drew Green, Bry Griffiths, Alfie Handford, Abena Halliday-Fox, Adrees Hussain, Assis Jabang, Shannon John, Olivia Kenyon, Luci Mahon, Bwalya Mulenga, Jeremy Nelson, Andi Parkin, Jennifer Salt, Heather Slonimski, Georgia Snyders, Iyisha Williams, Kirsty Williams and Marnie Wilson.
“Derbyshire’s finest brass band”, Derwent Brass, who were on stage during the 2023 production of Brassed Off and who were winners of the 2024 Royal Philharmonic Society Inspiration Award, will provide the music.
Derby Theatre’s artistic director Sarah Brigham directs. The creative team includes Neil Irish (designer), Kelvin Towse (musical director and sound designer), Laura Ryder (assistant director), Arnim Friess (lighting designer), Jon Beney (movement director), Anita Gilbert (voice coach) and Ellie Collyer-Bristow CDG (casting director).
Welfare will run from Saturday 28 September until Saturday 12 October. Press night will be Tuesday 1 October.