Having received its UK premiere at the Orange Tree Theatre last year, Michele Lee’s award winning Australian drama Rice explores the interweaving worlds of Nisha – a highflying executive of Golden Fields, Australia’s largest producer of rice and Yvette, a cleaner at the company fuelled with ambition herself, however faced with challenging circumstances as her daughter faces court after participating in a protest. An observation on ambition, family, gender and cultural heritage, RICE offers a rich narrative placing the experiences of a company’s first Indian female CEO and a chinese migrant to the fore. Currently on a UK tour, the show’s next stop is at Stephen Joseph Theatre from Friday 4th until Saturday 5th March, before playing at the Crucible Theatre (7th to 9th March), Unity Theatre Liverpool (17th to 19th March), Theatre Royal Bath (24th to 26th March) HOME Manchester (29th to 30th March), Northern Stage Newcastle (1st to 2nd April) before concluding at York Theatre Royal (13th to 14th April). Taking on the role of Nisha – Anya-Jaya Murphy and Yvette – Angela Yeoh, both performers tell us more about starring in the production.
Announced during the height of the pandemic, Theatre503’s International Playwriting Award winner Pravin Wilkins would have been due to have had his pertinent play Moreno staged shortly after. However, due to the unpredictability of what was happening globally at the time, would have to wait for this to finally happen. Nearly two years post the announcement, Moreno receives its much deserved debut – a piece following American footballer Luis Moreno’s struggle to overcome injury whilst battling whether to use his platform to take a stand post Civil Rights Activist Colin Kaepernick’s 2016 monumental decision to do so on the world’s stage. Ahead of the production, which will be staged from 1st March at Theatre503, Pravin tells us more about how it feels to have won the playwriting award, his inspirations for the play and his hopes for the future!
