Cast and Creatives – The Vanishing Room

Theatre credits include: Les Liaison Dangereuse, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet, Merry Wives of Windsor (Royal Shakespeare Company); Ugly Lies The Bone, Deep Blue Sea, The Children’s Hour (Royal National Theatre); Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (Apollo Theatre); Handbagged (Gielgud Theatre); Then There Were None (England Theatre), Electra (Old Vic); Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, Peter Pan (Sheffield Crucible); Private Lives, Rookery Nook, Noises Off, A Little Hotel On The Side (Royal Lyceum Edinburgh). TV credits include: The Bill, Midsomer Murders, Foyles War, Young Frankenstein, Grace, Ten Percent. Film credits include: Indian Summer, The Consequence, Lillian.

Peter trained at Drama Centre London. He is an associate artist at Hackney Showroom. Recent theatre includes: War and Culture, Then Silence, A Dashing Fellow (New Diorama Theatre); Secret Life of Humans (The English Theatre Frankfurt); 80,000 Suspects, We The Young Strong (Bloomsbury Theatre); The Incident Room (New Diorama Theatre/Edinburgh Festival);  Woman From Mars (Jermyn Street Theatre); Sexbox (The Place); Frau Welt (Nominated: Best Male, TBC Award, Best Director, Off-West End Awards, Hackney Showroom, Edinburgh); Words and Music (Hackney Round Chapel); Nosocomial (Camden Peoples’ Theatre); Fatzer: Downfall of an Egotist (Northwall); Splendid’s (Jamie Lloyd Company); Frau Welt: Masterclass and Frau Welt: Farewell to the Theatre (Hackney Showroom); The 39 Steps (Vienna); Love Me Do (Watford Palace Theatre); Remembrance of Things Past (92 Street Y, New York City); Afraid of the Dark (Charing Cross); All Saints (Kings Head); Deathwatch (Roundhouse); Woman From Mars, The Interval (Arcola) and The Criminals (Platform Theatre). 

Television credits include: This is Gay (BBC/Baby Cow), The Baby (HBO/Sky), Pennyworth (HBO Max), Summer Lane Drive, Escape from Sobibor (PBS). Film credits include: feature Femme (BBC Film) which premiered at the 2023 Berlinale; Femme (short, Winner: Best Short Film BIFA 2022, Nominated: Best Short film BAFTA 2022); Dog Run, Ballet of the Nations. Peter is also a writer and theatre maker. He wrote dance-theatre piece Venus, commissioned by Impermanence, which premiered at the Bristol Old Vic and Wilton’s Music Hall in May 2023. He created, and performs as, drag alter-ego Frau Welt, a delusional grande dame of theatre. His solo show Frau Welt, co-written with Oliver Dawe, played to critical acclaim at Hackney Showroom in 2017 before transferring to the Edinburgh Festival. Her cabaret night, Masterclass, has gained a cult following in London.

This is Christopher’s second visit to The English Theatre Frankfurt. He appeared  as Colonel Pickering in Pygmalion in 2017. He is best known in the UK for his performance as Reg Deadman in the BBC series Goodnight Sweetheart through the 1990s.

He has worked in theatres all around the UK and also with The Royal Court (including Three Birds Alighting on a Field); The Royal Shakespeare Company (The History Cycle in 2000 and Cardenio, The City Madam and The Marat/Sade in 2011), the National Theatre (including The Shape of the Table) and in London’s West End (including Democracy and Twelve Angry Men). He recently acted in The Indian Queen, a semi opera with music by Purcell and script by Dryden in Lille, Caen, Antwerp & Luxembourg.

As a director, Christopher has done productions with students at The London Drama Centre & other London conservatoire drama schools. For his own company A27, Christopher adapted and directed a musical version of Goldoni’s Mirandolina where the audience were served an Italian meal while the action proceeded around them. He has also adapted, directed and  produced a short film – Lady Macbeth.

Theatre credits include: The Tempest (Royal Shakespeare Company); Assembly: The Teachers Play (Almeida); Anthem (Bush Theatre); Very Special Guest Star (Omnibus); Disco Balls and Dupattas (Camden People’s Theatre); Unite: It’s Not As Simple As Black and White (New Vic); Mercury Fur (Theatre Oikos). Television includes: Sister Boniface Season 2 (BBC).

Annabel trained at The Oxford School of Drama. Theatre credits include: The Upstart Crow (Gielgud/Apollo, West End); Turn of the Screw (Mercury Theatre/UK Tour); The Dark Room (Theatre 503); The Last Ones (Jermyn Street Theatre); Spitfire Sisters, Manifesto and The Lighthouse (The Space Theatre).

Television credits include: Rosamunde Pilcher: Wedding Anniversary (FFP New Media). Film credits  include: You Look Fine (BFI Future Festival & Très Court International Film Festival Award Winner 2022). Radio credits include: Road to Oxford (BBC Radio 4).

Anant is an actor from Madhya Pradesh, India. He has toured with shows across north India with the Delhi based Atelier Repertory Company before coming to further his training and experience in London. He received a Masters in Acting at East 15 Acting School, London and was subsequently awarded an endorsement by the Arts Council, England under the Global Talent Scheme. 

Anant is fresh off of making his professional UK stage debut with the year- long national tour of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and now makes his German stage debut with The Vanishing Room. 

Theatre credits include: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (UK & Ireland Tour 2022-23); Swipe Right, Rang Parsai, Khusar Phusar (Atelier Repertory Company); High School English, Midsummer Night’s Rave (Car Crash Productions); Twelfth Night, Stories of a Dish, The Florron’s Cake (Little Lion Theatre Company). Film credits: Living; Shootiyapa.

Described by The Stage newspaper as one of theatre’s radical thinkers, David is a theatre director, playwright and founding Artistic Director & CEO of London’s New Diorama Theatre. In 2023, David was announced as the new Artistic Director & CEO of the Royal Court Theatre, London, one of the world’s leading new writing theatres. 

The recipient of several Peter Brook Awards, David has previously won the Off-West End Award for Best Artistic Director, the Enfant Terribles Prize, the Writers’ Guild Award for Drama and, under his leadership, New Diorama has won Fringe Theatre of the Year multiple times at The Stage Awards, most recently in 2022 and the Critics Circle Empty Space Award in 2023. Productions commissioned at New Diorama have transferred all across the world, this year Spitlip’s Operation Mincemeat and Nouveau Riche’s For Black Boys Who Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy have both run in the West End, the latter nominated for two Olivier awards – including Best New Play. 

David is currently listed as one of The Stage’s 100 most influential people currently working in UK theatre – with productions he has written and directed being performed across the UK and all around the world. His recent productions include Secret Life of Humans and The Incident Room, co-written with Olivia Hirst – both of which secured Off-Broadway transfers, are published by Nick Hern Books. 

Olivia is a writer, actor and artistic director of Lost Watch Theatre. She has previously collaborated with David Byrne on the hugely successful productions of The Incident Room (co-writer) and Secret Life of Humans (performer) touring to Edinburgh, London, Frankfurt and New York. With Lost Watch, shows include Left My Desk, Goodstock and Shorts and Socks Included (all at New Diorama). Other credits include The Green Knight (UK tour); The Golden Fleece (Sheffield Theatres); The Annex (Leeds Playhouse) and Hopscotch (Royal Court Pimlico Project). Olivia trained on the Contemporary Theatre Course at East 15. Her debut work Play for September won the 2013 NDSF Emerging Artist Award. 

Sayeedah is a Director and Production Manager. The Vanishing Room is her first collaboration with ETF.  She has previously collaborated with David Byrne and the New Diorama Theatre on the phenomenally received For Black Boys… by Ryan Calais Cameron, which transferred to The Royal Court Theatre and then on to the Apollo Theatre in London’s West End. 

Whilst working as New Diorama Theatre’s in-house Production Manager Sy has collaborated on shows throughout the past season(s) including:  After the Act, Little Scratch and War and Culture. Other work with New Diorama Theatre includes the award-winning Broadgate a year-long initiative, which saw 20,000 sq ft of creative space provided to over 8,800 independent and freelance artists free of charge over 12 months. Other credits include: Rare Earth Mettle,  Eye for Eye (Royal Court Theatre); Death of a Salesman (Young Vic Theatre). In the West End; Umm Kulthum and The Golden Era (London Palladium); Don Juan in Soho, Heisenberg  and Hangmen (Wyndham’s Theatre); Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time (Geilgud Theatre). 

Anna is a stage designer for theatre and opera based in London and a graduate of Wimbledon College of Art. Credits include: Accidental Death of An Anarchist (Lyric Hammersmith / Theatre Royal Haymarket); For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy (Royal Court Theatre / Apollo Theatre); The Power of Paternal Love (Barber Opera); The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs, Soft Animals, Fury (Soho Theatre); Dead Man Walking, Miss Fortune, The Telephone (Guildhall School of Music and Drama); The Memory of Water, Cash Cow, Paradise, The Hoes (Hampstead Theatre); Dust  (New York Theatre Workshop); Four Minutes Twelve Seconds, The Kitchen Sink, Jumpers for Goalposts (The Oldham Coliseum); The Sweet Science of Bruising (Wilton’s Music Hall); Our Country’s Good, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Tobacco Factory Theatres); Twelfth Night, Collective Rage, Dear Brutus, The Cardinal, School Play (Southwark Playhouse); Rasheeda Speaking (Trafalgar Studios); Schism (Park Theatre); Rattle Snake (Live Theatre Newcastle, York Theatre Royal, Soho Theatre); Sex Worker’s Opera (set only, National Tour and the Compagnietheater, Amsterdam); Arthur’s World (The Bush Theatre); Hippolytos (Victoria and Albert Museum); Hamlet (The Riverside Studios). Anna was selected to represent the UK as an emerging designer at World Stage Design in Taipei.

Welsh Lighting Designer Charlie has lit theatre and opera in the UK and Internationally. Opera includes: La Bohème (Norwegian National Opera); Gianni Schicchi (Canadian Opera Company); Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, Götterdämmerung (Longborough Festival Opera); Tristan i Izolda (Polish National Opera); La Bohème, Gianni Schicchi, Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica, Lisbon Floor, The Yellow Wallpaper (Copenhagen Opera Festival); Romeo et Juliette (Malmö Opera, Savonlinna); Cinderella, Poppea (English Touring Opera); Aida, Fidelio (Dorset Opera 40th Anniversary Season); Mansfield Park, The Magic Flute, The Marriage Of Figaro, The Beggar’s Opera, Savitri, Riders to the Sea, L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, Venus and Adonis, Actéon, Ava’s Wedding, Dialogues Des Carmelites (Royal Birmingham Conservatoire); Street Scene (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland); Dubai – Rostov – New York (National Opera Studio).

Theatre credits include: Derren Brown – Underground & Showman, Cool Rider, The Blues Brothers, Dracula (West End); REDD (Barbican); Mixtape, Tango After Dark (Sadler’s Wells); Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Unmasked (The Other Palace); Passion (Hope Mill); Avenue Q, Gobsmacked!, The Producers, Seussical, James and the Giant Peach (International Tour); Little Shop Of Horrors, The Lady Vanishes, Posh (UK Tour); Secret Life of Humans (The English Theatre Frankfurt); 71 Coltman Street (Hull Truck); 3am (Curve, Leicester); The Snow Queen (Rose, Kingston); Macbeth (Theatre Severn); A Little Night Music (Royal Birmingham Conservatoire); Bat Boy (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland); The Burnt Part Boys (Park Theatre); Love On Trial, And Crocodiles Are Hungry At Night (Bilimankwhe); Into The Woods (Lowry, Manchester).

Immersive Theatre includes: Inside Pussy Riot, The Time Portal, Capturing The Future, The Golden Needle – Hong Kong (Les Enfants Terribles); An Alien Encounter, The Rainforest at Christmas (Eden Project); The Fabulous Fund Fair (London Fashion Week); Goosebumps Alive (The Vaults).

Yaiza Varona is an award winning composer and sound designer based between London and Madrid. She divides her time between writing music and curating sound design for the media (theatre, film, television, installations, libraries, etc) and some personal projects, among them immersive sound works. Built around experimental music and bold sound design, both are weaved in complex sonic languages. Her unique sound is deeply rooted in History, non traditional instrumentation, and a strong use of sound design and the spoken word as musical elements.

Theatre credits include: After the Act (New Diorama/Edinburgh Traverse); The Band’s Visit (Donmar Warehouse); Two Palestinians Go Dogging (Royal Court); Le Belle Sauvage: The Book of Dust, A Christmas Carol (Co-Design with Luke Halls, Bridge Theatre); The Incident Room, Secret Life of Humans (New Diorama); The Writer (Almeida); Occupational Hazards (Hampstead Theatre); The Effect, Looking Through Glass (The Other Room); A Good Clean Heart (Wales Millennium Centre/Tour).

Opera includes: La Traviata (Paris Opera, Wiener Staatsoper); Silent City (Matera, Capital of Culture); Ariodante (Royal College of Music); Pelléas et Mélisande, The Tales of Hoffmann (English Touring Opera). Credits as Associate Designer: Disney’s AIDA (AFAS Circustheater, Scheveningen); Frameless Gallery (Marble Arch, London); The Poem Pavillion (UK, Expo 2020); Masterclass – Es Devlin, Forest of US (SUPERBLUE, Miami); Talking Heads, Alys Always, My Name is Lucy Barton (Bridge Theatre); Den Glade Enke 2.0, Hobbitten (Royal Danish Theatre); Micheal Kohlhass (Schaubühne, Berlin); Mary Poppins, Frozen, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (West End); The Lehman Trilogy (National Theatre/New York/West End/Los Angeles); The Great Wave, Ugly Lies the Bone (National Theatre); Epic Iran, Alice: Curioser & Curioser, The Singing Tree (V&A Museum); The Band (Berlin/West End/Tour); Local Hero (Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh); Shipwreck (Almeida); Pelle Erobreren (Østre Gasværk Teater); Girls and Boys (Royal Court/New York); Desire Under the Elms (Sheffield Theatre). Zakk is an Associate at Luke Halls Studio.