Clifford Samuel will play Tambo and Daniel Ward will reprise his role as Bones in Dave Harris’s Tambo & Bones, which will return for a national tour from March until May 2025.
Dave Harris’s play is an Actors Touring Company, Stratford East and Northampton Royal & Derngate co-production in association with Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre, Leeds Playhouse and Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse. It had its European première in a co-production with Stratford East in 2023.
Samuel said, “stepping into the role of Tambo is both a thrilling challenge and a privilege. Collaborating with such an extraordinary team fuels my passion for the craft. I’m eager to witness how audiences engage with the story and the production we’ve brought to life.”
Ward added, “the transitory nature of theatre means we do our best as artists to create moments that resonate with people and live long in their memories. Sometimes that happens, often it doesn't. But people have never stopped asking me about Tambo & Bones. More than just ask—people have wanted to debate, dissect and argue.
“They’ve passionately told me all the ways in which the show moved them. They’ve told me they’ve never forgotten the show and never will. What’s special about returning is honouring those experiences. What’s exciting is the opportunity to create new memories with new audiences that will hopefully last a lifetime.”
Directed by ATC’s artistic director Matthew Xia, Tambo & Bones is “an exhilarating, darkly comic and provocative satire on capitalism and black performance that explores the commodification of the black experience through the mediums of minstrelsy, hip-hop and afro-futurism”.
Xia said, “Tambo & Bones is a truly audacious satire, both ridiculous and profound, which combines my greatest passions, hip-hop and theatre, to interrogate perceptions of race in the past, present and future. There’s truly no experience quite like this show. I can’t wait to see how audiences in Northampton, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Coventry and London respond to this sucker punch of a play.”
Tambo and Bones journey over 500 years from comedy double act through hip-hop superstars to activists in a future America, contending with the alarming repercussions of a nation torn apart by race.
The creative team includes set and costume designers Sadeysa Greenaway-Bailey and ULTZ, lighting designer Ciarán Cunningham, hip-hop beats Excalibah, sound designer and additional composition Richard Hammarton, movement director Kloé Dean, video designer Gino Ricardo Green, associate director Dubheasa Lanipekun, costume supervisor Ysanne Tidd, fight director Sam Lyon-Behan, original fight choreography Kevin McCurdy, voice and dialect coach Joel Trill, magic and illusions consultant Chris Cox, production drama therapist Wabriya King, lighting associate Tom Lightbody, puppetry designer Hugh Purves and assistant designer Mark Simmons.
Tambo & Bones will open at Royal & Derngate, Northampton from Friday 7 until Saturday 15 March 2025. It will then tour to Liverpool Playhouse (26–29 March), HOME Manchester (1–5 April), Belgrade Theatre (9–12 April), Stratford East (29 April–10 May) and Leeds Playhouse (14–24 May).