Emilia

Writer
Morgan Lloyd Malcolm

Director
Ameera Conrad

Location
The Sainsbury Theatre, LAMDA

Dates
Monday 14 February at 7:30pm
Tuesday 15 February at 7:30pm
Wednesday 16 February at 7:30pm
Thursday 17 February at 2pm**
Thursday 17 February at 7:30pm*

* This performance will be livestreamed.

Please note the livestream has changed to Thursday 17 February at 7:30pm. Our Box Office will be in contact with those who had previously booked.

** The matinee performance on 17 February will be a relaxed performance. Find out more.

About the show

'In 1611 Emilia Bassano penned these words to her 'Vertuous Reader', as part of a volume of radical, feminist and subversive poetry. It was one of the first published collections of poetry written by a woman in England. The little we know of Emilia Bassano is restricted to the possibility that she may have been the Dark Lady of Shakespeare's Sonnets - and the rest of her story has been erased by History'.

The running time is to be confirmed and will include an interval.

View the Cast List

Morgan is a playwright and screenwriter. Morgan was commissioned by The Globe to write Emilia which became a hit show in summer 2018 before transferring to the West End in 2019, winning three Olivier awards. Morgan is adapting three of her plays for film, including Emilia, and is working on a number of TV projects ranging from a book adaptation for Moonage and Gaumont to a comedy drama for Merman Films. She has worked extensively with Clean Break, a feminist theatre company working with women with experience of prison. Her commission Typical Girls, a play set in a women’s prison featuring the music of The Slits, ran at the Sheffield Crucible in Autumn 2021. Her new play Mum also recently ran at Plymouth Theatre Royal and Soho Theatre.

Morgan’s previous plays Belongings and The Wasp were both produced at the Hampstead Theatre and Trafalgar Studios. Belongings was shortlisted for The Charles Wintour Most Promising Playwright Award.

Ameera Conrad (she/they) is a theatre maker and performer born in Cape Town, South Africa. They are the Associate Director for Actors’ Touring Company and LAMDA, and an Associate Artist for the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain. Her directing credits include Gloria (LAMDA), Rice (Associate, Orange Tree Theatre), Family Tree (Associate, GDIF&ATC), In These Four Walls, Totally Over You, Kate Spencer Did A Good Thing (all ArtsEd, London), Pipeline (Assistant, Arcola Theatre) The Royale (Guildhall School of Music and Drama), co-curating The Fall during its tour from 2017-2018 (Edinburgh International Festival Fringe, Royal Court Theatre, St. Ann’s Warehouse, South African State Theatre, Galway International Arts Festival, Melbourne Arts Centre, Festival Arts Bordeaux, and Studio Theatre), Towers (Guildhall School of Music and Drama), Reparation (South African National Arts Festival). She is an alumnus of the 2017 Lincoln Center Theater Director’s Lab, and a recipient of the Theatre Arts Admin Collective’s Emerging Theatre Director Bursary. She has won a Fleur du Cap Encore Award, Scotsman Fringe First Award, and The Stage Edinburgh Award. They have also won the Filipa Bragança award for best emerging solo performer at the Edinburgh Fringe (2019) and the Western Cape Department of Sports and Culture award for their contributions to theatre in South Africa (2018).

Contains themes of an adult nature, strong language, themes of racism, misogyny, sexual harassment, themes of child loss, suicide and domestic violence.

Creative Team

Director
Ameera Conrad

Associate Director
Georgia Green

Assistant Director
Madison Gerringer

Designer
Sandra Falase

Movement Director
Ruth Phillips

Lighting Designer
Georgina Heaton

Sound Designer
Kirsty Robson

Vocal Coach
Tess Dignan

Cast

Lord Henry Carey / Judith / Priest
Zoë Birkbeck

Margaret Johnson / Mary Sidney / Hester
Kate Barrington

Emilia 2
Phoebe Ellabani

Lady Helena / Lord Howard / Eve
Kira Guess

Emilia 1
Miya James  

Susan Bertie (Countess of Kent) / Mary / Bob / Lord Collins / Lady Anne
Lara Levy  

Lady Katherine / Desdemona (Othello)
Ellie McKay

Emilia 3
Sera Mustafa  

Lady Margaret Clifford / Midwife / Man 1
Talia Pick

William Shakespeare / Man 2
Emma Shipp  

Lord Alphonso Lanier / Emilia (Othello)
Orla Tagg

Lady Cordelia / Flora / Dave
Ami Tredrea

All other parts to be played by the company.

Production Team

Stage Manager
Emily Compton

Deputy Stage Manager
Imogen Hassam

Assistant Stage Managers
Cara Dickens
Jennifer Garland

Production Manager
​​​​​​Alyssia Jones

Chief LX
Daisy Simmons

Deputy LX / Programmer
Rob Brown

Production Carpenter
Rebecca Harris

Production Sound Engineer
Callum Watson

Deputy PSE / Livestreaming Manager
Stephanie Siraut

Livestreaming Supervisor 
Joe Tomlinson

Lighting Crew
Ciara Brady
Stephanie Leeson
India Mae
Abhinav Mishra
Poppy Morley

Sound Assistants
Summer Collier
Jasmin Meara Wall

Construction Crew
Chloe Alexander
Jorge Clarkson
Kit Fowler