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Old Bridge

by Igor Memic
Papatango Theatre Company in association with the Bush Theatre present the winner of the 2020 Papatango New Writing Prize
Old Bridge

‘One day all you care about is music, fashion, and boys. The next day there’s no food. Piece by piece your world starts to change so you change with it.’

Mostar, Yugoslavia, 1988. Mili, a boy from out of town, dives from the famous Old Bridge. Mina, a local girl, watches. As he falls, she begins falling for him.

Mostar, Bosnia, 1992. In a town of growing divisions, Mina and Mili never doubt that their future lies together. But nor can they imagine the dangers that future will bring.

This love story is a bold, fresh and contemporary take on real events. An epic story exploring the impact of a war that Europe forgot and the love and loss of those who lived through it.  

Winner of the 2020 Papatango New Writing Prize, Old Bridge is a beautiful, heart-wrenching play by British-Bosnian writer Igor Memic. 

Looking for show information and contents guidance?
Old Bridge Pre-Show Information

★★★★ “VIVID” WhatsOnStage
★★★★ “A STRIKING DEBUT” Evening Standard
★★★★★ “FIVE STUNNING CENTRAL PERFORMANCES”
The Upcoming
★★★★ “POWERFUL AND MOVING” The Reviews Hub
★★★★ “POIGNANT” Broadway World

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Sound Designer
Movement Director
Georgina Lamb
Writer
Igor Memic

Igor Memic is originally from Mostar. He grew up in London after leaving Yugoslavia in 1992 and studied at the University of Liverpool and the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Old Bridge marks his professional debut.

Stage Manager
Lois Sime

Lois Sime (she/her) trained in Stage Management as Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Previous credits include: The Last Word (Marylebone); For Tonight (Adelphi); Brassed Off (Aberystwyth Arts Centre); You Bury Me (Paines Plough); Mother Goose (Hackney Empire).

Programmer
Matthew Carnazza
Designer
Oli Townsend
Producer
Papatango

Papatango is a multi-award-winning new writing company which provides pathways into theatre, especially playwriting, for people who might otherwise be at risk of cultural exclusion. Every year Papatango’s free opportunities provide training, production, publication and funding for over 4000 grassroots theatre-makers in every region of the UK and Ireland. Artists given their breakthrough with Papatango have gone on to win BAFTAs, OffWestEnd, Critics’ Circle, Royal National Theatre Foundation and Alfred Fagon awards and be nominated for The Times Breakthrough Award, The Stage Debut Award and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, while Papatango productions have won OffWestEnd awards, toured nationally and transferred worldwide. Papatango’s motto is simple: all you need is a story. www.papatango.co.uk

Director
Selma Dimitrijevic

Selma Dimitrijevic is a director and writer and artistic director of Greyscale. Her directing credits include Baroness And The Pig (Shaw Festival), joey (gobscure/Greyscale), Hedda Gabler, This is Not a Love Story (Northern Stage – also writer), The Gamblers (Dundee Rep – also writer), Gods Are Fallen And All Safety Gone (Almeida /UK tour/International tour – also writer), Dead To Me (Edinburgh Festival Fringe/UK tour), A Prayer (Almeida/Northern Stage/Hull Truck Theatre – also writer), A Beginning, A Middle And An End (Tron Theatre/tour), Harmless Creatures (Hull Truck Theatre), Tonight David Ireland Will Lecture, Dance and Box (Oran Mor/tour), What Would Judas Do? (Almeida/Northern Stage), and Incident at the Border, Cyrano de Bergerac and Waterproof (Òran Mór); and as a dramaturg, Sting’s musical The Last Ship (UK and USA tour). Further writing credits in opera and theatre include Berenice, To See The Invisible, Dr. Frankenstein, Night Time, Game Theory, and Re:Union. Her plays have been translated and performed around the world. She is Jerwood Artistic Adviser and Unlimited Ally.

Associate Lighting Designer
Simisola Majekodunmi
Production Manager
Tabitha Piggott

Tabitha is a production manager for theatre and opera, with a particular passion for new writing. She trained at LAMDA and is now a production manager with eStage.

Her credits include Connections 2022, Barrier(s) (National Theatre); Red Pitch, Overflow (Bush Theatre); Old Bridge (Bush Theatre/Papatango – winner of the Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Affiliate Theatre); Moreno (Theatre503); The 4th Country (Park Theatre); and The Dancing Master (Buxton Opera House).

Intimacy Director
Yarit Dor

Cast

Susan Lawson-Reynolds
Susan Lawson-Reynolds plays Emina. Her previous theatre credits include Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Palace Theatre), People, Places and Things (Headlong/National Theatre/UK tour), Disgraced (English Theatre Frankfurt), To Kill a Mockingbird (Regents Park Open Air, UK Tour, Barbican), No Rhyme (Brockley Jack Studio), The Scottsboro Boys (The Young Vic), A Clockwork Orange, Hansel and Gretel, The Snow Queen, Da Boyz, Aeroplane Man, Jack and the Beanstalk, (Theatre Royal Stratford East), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Novello Theatre), The Harder They Come (Playhouse Theatre/Barbican/Theatre Royal Stratford East/ Adrienne Arts Centre, Miami/ Canon Theatre, Toronto), Anansi & The Magic Mirror, Anansi Trades Places, Ska By Day (Talawa), and Grace and the Don (Arts Theatre). Susan’s television appearances include Suspicion (Keshet Productions/Apple TV), The Sandman (Netflix), and Michael Jackson: Man In The Mirror. Film includes Why Wouldn’t I Be? (Broken Flames Productions), Masaryk, London Road, and White Liar (Short). Susan’s Associate Director credits include Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin (Theatre Royal Stratford East) and choreography credits include Ska By Day (Talawa/Greenwich). Susan was Associate Choreographer on The Wiz (Birmingham Rep/West Yorkshire Playhouse) and Assistant Choreographer on Mattesson’s Fridge Raiders Hank Marvin (Rattling Stick Films) and The Harder They Come (Playhouse Theatre London, Theatre Royal Stratford East, Barbican, Adrienne Arts Centre Miami, Canon Theatre Toronto).
Dino Kelly
Dino Kelly plays Mili. Dino is about to appear in Invasion (AppleTV+). Dino's credits include Peaky Blinders (BBC), Inside No.9 (BBC), Don't Forget The Driver (BBC), The Good Liar (Warner Bros), Pandora (CW), Berlin Station (Paramount Pictures/Channel 4), Silent Witness (BBC), Cliffs of Freedom (Phaedra Films), The Hellenes (Pilot), Heimebrane (NRK Drama) and Mallorca Files (BBC).
Emilio Iannucci
Emilio Iannucci plays Sasha. Emilio graduated from Royal Central School of Speech & Drama. His screen credits include feature film Death of Stalin, Channel 4’s Traitors and web series Gloss. Recent theatre credits include Around the World in 80 Days, Hello and Goodbye and The Book of Dragons at York Theatre Royal, Romeo and Juliet, Richard III, Macbeth and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Rose Theatre in York, Peter Pan at The Mercury Theatre, Tall Stories' The Snow Dragon (UK Tour), and Twelfth Night and Henry V at The Pendley Shakespeare Festival. He is a co-founder of the physical theatre collective ‘Vantage Point’ who debuted with their show This Might Be It at the Theatre N16.
Rosie Gray
Rosie Gray plays Leila. Rosie is a British/Irish actor and theatre-maker and a co-director of Barrel Organ theatre company. She studied English and Creative Writing at Warwick University and trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Theatre credits include Andromeda (Nottingham Playhouse & CPT), Anyone’s Guess How We Got Here (Royal Exchange/UK tour), Julius Caesar (Bristol Old Vic), Our Town (Circomedia), Some People Talk About Violence (New Diorama/UK tour) and Nothing (Lyric Hammersmith). Film appearances include Hurricane (currently streaming on Netflix), The Writer’s Retreat, Redisplacement, and Lara & Bath Salts. Rosie was Assistant Director on Damsel Productions’ Grotty (Bunker Theatre).
Saffron Coomber
Saffron Coomber plays Mina. Saffron trained at RADA. She was nominated for ‘Best West-End Debut’ at The Stage Debut Awards 2019 for her role in Emilia. Her theatre work includes Leopards (Rose Theatre), Emilia (West-End), Sonnet Sunday (Globe) and A New and Better You (Yard Theatre). On television Saffron has appeared in The Deceived (New Pictures/Virgin Media/C5), Strike: Lethal White (BBC), Small Axe (BBC/Amazon), Flack (Hat Trick/Pop TV), Cuffs (Tiger Aspect/BBC), Eastenders (BBC), Youngers (BBC), Holby City (BBC), Tracy Beaker: Series 1 – 3 (BBC), Runaway (CBBC) and The Bill (Talkback Thames). Her films include Viral (Original Theatre Company), Electricity (Stone City Films) and Dustbin Baby (BBC). Her radio appearances include Writ in Water (BBC), Delete (Wireless Theatre Company), The Archers (BBC), CANE (BBC), Bird in The Hand (BBC) and the Radio Drama Company (BBC). Saffron was the recipient of the Carleton Hobbs Bursary for the BBC in 2018.

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