Stephen Adly Guirgis'

Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train

Writer
Stephen Adly Guirgis

Director
Vik Sivalingam

Location
The Linbury Studio Theatre

Dates
Wednesday 9 June at 7:30pm
Thursday 10 June at 2pm
Thursday 10 June at 7:30pm
(live-streamed)
Friday 11 June at 2pm

About the show

“I’m juss a ordinary man, I ain’t no martyr, and if that’s God’s plan for me, the you know what? F*** the damn plan! And thass how I know, all right?!”

Locked up in Rikers Island, a young man awaits his trial. He’s accused of attempting to murder a cult leader, and he does not deny pulling the trigger. He doesn’t even see the issue. He was saving a friend after all. But when the Reverend Kim dies, the American justice system has little appreciation for his reasoning.

At the mercy of sadistic guards, fellow inmates and the conceit of his own lawyer, redemption seems out of reach.

Stephen Adly Guirgis is a member of LAByrinth Theater Company in New York. His plays have been produced on five continents and include Our Lady of 121st Street, which was one of ten chosen for Best Plays of 2003 (the annual chronicle of US theatre); Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train, winner of an Edinburgh Fringe First Award in 2001, the Detroit Free Press Best Play of the Year, and the Barrymore Award, originally produced by LAByrinth in New York and subsequently off-Broadway, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Donmar Warehouse, London, in 2002; In Arabia, We'd All Be Kings, first produced by LAByrinth and voted one of the Ten Best Plays of 1999 by Time Out New York: it had its European premiere at the Hampstead Theatre, London, in 2003 and was a Critics Pick in Time Out London; and The Last Days of Judas Iscariot which premiered at the Public Theater, New York in 2005, directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman. He lives in New York City.

Vik Sivalingam received his MFA in Theatre Directing from Birkbeck, University of London and his PG Award in Teaching Shakespeare from The University of Warwick (in association with the Royal Shakespeare Company).

Vik has been associated with LAMDA since 2015 as a freelance director. In his current position, he directs and teaches across a range of LAMDA’s acting programmes. Public productions directed include Rotterdam, In Arabia We’d All Be Kings, Wild Honey, Posh, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. Professional directing credits include the UK premieres of The Ice Cream Boys by Gail Louw, There or Here by Jennifer Maisel, Home by Sam Art Williams and Half and Half - The Curry Musical by Tim Reilly. International directing credits include Much Ado About Nothing in NY and The Tempest at the Rio Olympics.

Contains very strong language, strobe, smoke and haze, themes of an adult nature, scenes of a distressing nature, including racism.

The play is being presented with no change to the content as conceived by the playwright, and by licensing stipulations, which includes racial and homophobic slurs.

If you would like further information, please contact the box office.

Photos: Alex Brenner

Creative Team

Director
Vik Sivalingam

Designer
Amanda Mascarenhas

Sound Designer
Marie Zschommler

Choreographer
Victoria Mantey

Movement Director
Heriberto Montalban

Voice Coach
Aundrea Fudge

Cast

Valdez
Iwan Bond

Angel
Kené Chelo Ortiz

D’Amico
Elliot Nolan

Mary Jane
Clara Rozzi

Lucius
Kieran Taylor-Ford

Production Team

Production Manager
Tiago Stricker

Stage Manager on the Book
Alix Mayhew

Technical Stage Manager & Chief Electrician
Claudia Penna Rojas  

Technical Stage Manager & Lighting Designer
Calum Priestley

Production Sound Engineer
Vadim Wilkie

Costume Supervisor
Georgia Rose

Costume assistant
Izzy Ribbeck

Photos: SRTaylor Photography