Martins Imhangbe (David) and Anjana Vasan (Jyoti) © Helen Murray
“I’m not much now, I know, but I will be. So pick me Jyoti and I swear I will make us the greatest adventure you ever have.”
On a stormy night in 1954, a woman doomed to marry one of five men discovers the wildcard choice might just be the person she’d been hoping for all along. An Adventure follows headstrong Jyoti and her fumbling suitor Rasik as they ride the crest of the fall of Empire from the shores of post-Partition India to the forests of Mau Mau Kenya onto the industrial upheaval of 1970s London and the present day.
But what happens when youthful ambitions crash hard against reality? When you look back at the story of your time together, can you bear to ask yourself: Was it all worth it?
Witty, charming and full of fearless historical insight, An Adventure is an epic, technicolour love story from one of the country’s most promising young writers about the people who journeyed to British shores in hope and shaped the country we live in today.
This world premiere will be directed by Bush Artistic Director, Madani Younis (The Royale, Leave Taking).
Anna is a Jerwood Young Designer and her work is supported by an MGCfutures Bursary.
Recent theatre includes: EAST (Kings Head Theatre – Offie nominated for Beat Production), Deadly Dialogues (Edinburgh 2017), Life According to Saki (Edinburgh, Fourth Street Theatre New York – Winner of the Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award), A New Coat for Christmas, Snowflakes, Jane Eyre and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Oxford Playhouse), and After October (Finborough Theatre – nominated for best costume at the Off West End Awards). Other selected work includes: Three Writers Walk Into a Forest (Theatre503), Obamaology (Finborough Theatre), Two Roads (Vault Festival), Twelfth Night(Southwark Playhouse, The Dell Stratford, Saitama Theatre, Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, Yvonne Arnaud), The Sorcerer (Buxton Opera House), Bound (Pegasus Theatre), and Ghosts (Greenwich Theatre).
Anna was Lead Costume Supervisor on Turner Prize winning we’re here because we’re here (National Theatre). She works regularly at the National Theatre in the costume and props departments, most recently as props buyer on The Lehman Trilogy, Amadeus, Angels in America, and St George and the Dragon and was part of the V&A’s inaugural Salisbury Gallery exhibition Opera: Passion, Power and Politics.
Deborah originally trained at École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq and is a core member of Theatre Ad Infinitum, developing and performing original work with them since 2007.
Previous work as a movement director includes: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Sheffield Crucible), Stan (Art with Heart), A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (Hull Truck Theatre), The Twits (Curve, Leicester and Rose Theatre, Kingston), Bucket List (Bristol Old Vic), Light (Barbican & London International Mime Festival), Ballad of the Burning Star (international tour), Translunar Paradise (Barbican & International tour), Declaration (Lowry Theatre), Bassett (Sheffield Crucible), Kristin Lavransdatter (North Wall) and Breakin’ Convention (Sadler’s Wells).
Forthcoming shows: Orpheus (Salzburg Festival), Infidel (Theatre Royal Stratford East), Mary Poppins (Ronacher Theater, Vienna).
Previous work includes: Beauty and the Beast (Young Vic), Danny Boyle’s Frankenstein (Olivier, National Theatre) – Olivier Award nomination 2012, Backbeat (Duke of York’s Theatre), The Mysteries and The Good Hope (Cottesloe, National Theatre), The Railway Children (Waterloo International Station and Roundhouse Theatre Toronto) – Olivier Award nomination 2011, Fatal Attraction (Theatre Royal Haymarket), Backbeat (Duke Of York’s), Phoenix and Babylon (BigHouse Theatre), 1 hour 18 minutes (Sputnik Theatre), FEAR (Bush Theatre), His Teeth (Only Connect Theatre), The Wiz (Birmingham Rep and West Yorkshire Playhouse), Baby Doll (Albery Theatre), Alex (Arts Theatre, UK and international tour), Happy Now? (Hull Truck Theatre), Old Times, A Doll’s House (Donmar Warehouse), Bad Man Christmas (HMP Wormwood Scrubs), The Wizard Of Oz and Sandi Toksvig’s Christmas Cracker (Royal Festival Hall), Singular Sensations (Haymarket Theatre), Twelfth Night, A Slice of Saturday Night (Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch), The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore, Treasure Island, The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, Kindertotenlieder, Then Again, Angela Carter’s Cinderella, Cause Celebre, Mrs Warren’s Profession, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Lyric Theatre Hammersmith), Moti Roti Puttli Chunni, Running Dream and Mike Leigh’s It’s A Great Big Shame (Theatre Royal Stratford East)
As Associate Sound Designer: The Pajama Game (Shaftesbury Theatre) All That Fall (59E59 Theatre New York), Matthew Bourne’s Early Adventures (UK tour), Dorian Gray (Orchard Theatre, Tokyo), Mary Poppins (UK national tour, Circustheater Scheveningen and US tour), My Fair Lady (UK and US national tours), Acorn Antiques (UK national tour), The Witches (UK national tour), Return To The Forbidden Planet (UK national tour), Soul Train (UK tour).
Ed also tours regularly with Van der Graaf Generator, and has previously toured with Ryuichi Sakamoto, Blue Man Group, The John Tams Band, Evelyn Glennie, and Talvin Singh.
Lily has been designing costumes for film and theatre for the last three years. She graduated from the University of Manchester in 2014 with an upper second class honours in History of Art.
Her television credits include: ITV, The BBC and Channel 4, she has also designed the costume for many short independent films and music videos. She has additional skills in costume supervision and construction, scenic art, prop making, set building and hair and make up. Her theatre credits include: The Other Palace, Bush Theatre, Punchdrunk, The Arcola, The Park Theatre, The Peacock, Black Heath Halls, Tricycle Theatre, Battersea Arts Centre, Finborough Theatre, Theatre 503, Waterloo East, Waterloo Vaults, Hackney Empire, Southwark Playhouse, Oxford Playhouse, Edinburgh Fringe festival, The Bridewell Theatre and Secret Cinema.
Louise is a highly skilled Video & Projection Designer specialising in video for Theatre and Live events. She trained in Motion Graphic Design at Ravenbourne College.
Recent Theatre and Live Events include: Br’er Cotton, The Swallowing Dark (Theatre 503), Rothschild & Sons, The Ugly One, The Trial of Jane Fonda (Park Theatre), Inside Pussy Riot (The Saatchi Gallery), Bananarama (Really Creative Media, UK Tour), Luv Esther (UK Tour), Gok Wan: Naked and Bearing all (UK Tour), Legally Blonde (Korea/Monte Carlo), Rudimental, (Really Creative Media, V Festival), A Thousand Faces; Art Sung, Alma Maler (Wilton’s Music Hall), Worst Wedding Ever (Salisbury Playhouse), Dracula (Resorts World, Singapore), The Island Nation (Arcola Theatre), Merch Yr Eog (Theatre Genedlaethol), Bugsy Malone, Legally Blonde (Leicester Curve), Ray Mears Tales Of Endurance, An Evening With Ray Mears (UK Tour), Box Of Photographs (Polka Theatre), Chwalfa (Pontio), Monster In The Maze (Barbican), Fugee & Wasted, Gods & Monsters (Southwark Playhouse), Merchant Of Venice (Almedia Theatre), Flashmob (UK Tour), The Waterbabies (Ed Curtis), The Prodigals (The Belgrade), Fallujah (Cockpit Theatre), The Handyman (UK Tour), 1936 (Lilian Baylis Theatre), Romeo & Juliet (Headlong, National Tour), Opera Holland Park (Corporate Party), Queen With Adam Lambert (World Tour), The Flying Dutchman (English National Opera), Aida (Royal Albert Hall), Straight To You Tour (USA Tour), Hairworld (Paris). Content Manager (Nokia, Internal Web Video Communications).
Animator credits include: Friendly Fires (Really Creative Media, Brixton Academy), Alice’s Adventures In Underground (Vaults Festival), The End Of Longing (The Playhouse), Pippin (The Mernier Chocolate Factory), Reasons To Be Cheerful (Graeae and New Wolsey Theatre).
Madani took over as Artistic Director of the Bush Theatre in 2012. He directed the critically acclaimed UK premiere of The Royale in 2015 which was revived in 2016. In 2013 he won the Groucho Club Maverick Award for the theatre, following the most successful season in the theatre’s history which played to 99% capacity. Also for the Bush Theatre he has directed The Principles of Cartography as part of Black Lives, Black Words, Zaida and Aadam as part of This Place We Know, Perseverance Drive and Chalet Lines.
Madani is currently working as a member of the Mayor of London’s Cultural Board.
Prior to his appointment at the Bush Theatre, he was Artistic Director of Freedom Studios in Bradford, Yorkshire where his work included the site-specific work, The Mill – City of Dreams. He has also worked nationally and internationally as a theatre director, writer and practitioner. He was previously Director of Red Ladder Theatre Company’s Asian Theatre School where he directed included Silent Cry, Free World and Streets of Rope.
He originally trained in film, and his debut short film Ellabellapumpanella, commissioned by the UK Film Council, was screened at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2007. He was the recipient of the Decibel Award at the South Bank Awards show in 2006.
Rosanna Vize trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School as a theatre designer. She has worked regularly as an assistant to Anna Fleischle and was the resident design assistant for the RSC from Sep 2014 – Sep 2015. She was a Linbury Prize Finalist in 2013 working with English Touring Opera and is currently one of the Jerwood Young Designers.
Theatre includes: King Lear (Shakespeare’s Globe, Dir: Nancy Meckler), The Phlebotomist (Hampstead Theatre), Hedda Gabler (Sherman Theatre), The Earthworks & Myth (Royal Shakespeare Company), The Almighty Sometimes (Royal Exchange Manchester), Yous Two and The Phlebotomist (Hampstead Theatre), Henry I (Reading Between the Lines), Girls (Soho Theatre, Hightide & Talawa Theatre), FUP, Noye’s Fludde (Kneehigh Theatre), Dark Land Lighthouse, St Joan of the Stockyards, A Thousand Seasons Passed, The Tinder Box, The Last Days of Mankind, Talon (Bristol Old Vic), Diary of a Madman, The Rise and Shine of Comrade Fiasco (Gate Theatre), Infinite Lives, Coastal Defenses (Tobacco Factory Theatres), Banksy: The Room in the Elephant (Tobacco Factory Theatre and Traverse Theatre), Edward Gants Amazing Feats of Loneliness, Wicked Lady (Bristol Old Vic Theatre School), The Picture of John Grey (The Old Red Lion), Measure for Measure (Oxford School of Drama).
Opera includes: Don Giovanni (Hampstead Garden Opera), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (RSC & Garsington Opera).
Vinay’s debut play, True Brits, opened at the Edinburgh Fringe 2014, transferred to the Bush Theatre and went on to headline the 2015 Vault Festival. His latest play An Adventure will premiere at the Bush Theatre in September 2018.
Vinay’s television debut Murdered By My Father was commissioned for BBC3 and later repeated on BBC1. It won the Royal Television Society award for Best Single Drama before going on to be nominated for three BAFTAs and Vinay was named a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit for his work.
He has since written for ITV, Channel 4 and the BFI, as well as contributing to the bestselling collection of essays, The Good Immigrant. Vinay is currently developing work for the National Theatre, Paines Plough and the BBC.
Twitter: @VinayPatel
Aysha Kala is playing Joy/Sonal. Her previous theatre work includes Obsession at the Barbican, Frogman at Shoreditch Town Hall, Punk Play and Farragut North at Southwark Playhouse, Djinns of Eidgah at the Royal Court, Khadija is 18 at the Finborough Theatre and Much Ado About Nothing for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Aysha has also appeared in two series of Indian Summers for Channel 4; Vicious and Shameless. Her film work includes Second Coming and Jadoo. Aysha was named a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit of 2015. Aysha trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.
