Annabel Baldwin and Ayoola Smart in rehearsal for Paradise Now! at Bush Theatre. Photo by Helen Murray.
“It doesn’t happen all the time. That you really connect with someone. It’s rare to meet someone like you.”
Gabriel Dolan’s never been up to much. That’s what everyone says.
Until she meets Alex, a young, ambitious woman who sells essential oils for a multi-level marketing company called Paradise, and overnight, she is drawn into a bright new floral-scented world.
In Paradise, you’re your own boss. In Paradise, you could make a fortune. Embraced by a new community of women just like her, Gabriel rises through the ranks of the company like a shooting star.
But when she gets to the top, it doesn’t quite feel like she thought it would.
Paradise Now! is a funny and raging new play about ambition, exploitation and the search for connection in a fractured world. Written by Margaret Perry (Collapsible) in an exciting collaboration with director Jaz Woodcock-Stewart (Civilisation).
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Paradise Now! Pre-Show Information
Selected credits include: Things I Can Laugh About Now (Brixton House), The High Table (Bush Theatre), Joan of Leeds (New Diorama), The Wolf of Wall Street Immersive Experience (Site Specific, LDN); Confirmation (Pleasance, Edinburgh); Strange Fruit (Bush Theatre); Hot Mess: Bezzie Mates (Soho Theatre); Bottom (Soho Theatre); Counting Sheep (The Forge, Vaults), Dangerous Giant Animals (Theatre Row, NYC).
Aida trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Previous credits include: DSM on Dance of Death (Arcola Theatre), SM on Book on The Animal Kingdom (Hampstead Theatre), CSM on The Walk (Good Chance Theatre), SM on Book on The Cutting Edge (Arcola Theatre), DSM on #WeAreArrested (Arcola Theatre), SM on Book on Meet Me at Dawn (Arcola Theatre), ASM on While the Sun Shines (Orange Tree Theatre), ASM on Blood Knot (Orange Tree Theatre), ASM on The Borrowers (Tobacco Factories Theatre, Bristol).
Deirdre O’Halloran is the Literary Manager at the Bush Theatre, working to identify and build relationships with new writers, commission new work and guide plays to the stage.
At the Bush she’s dramaturged plays including Olivier Award winners Baby Reindeer by Richard Gadd and The P Word by Waleed Akhtar, Lava by Benedict Lombe and An Adventure by Vinay Patel.
Deirdre was previously Literary Associate at Soho Theatre, where she worked as a dramaturg on plays including Girls by Theresa Ikoko and Fury by Phoebe Eclair-Powell. She led on Soho Theatre’s Writers’ Lab programme and the biennial Verity Bargate Award.
As a freelancer, Deirdre has also been a reader for Out of Joint, Sonia Friedman Productions and Papatango.
Dubheasa Lanipekun (she/her) is a multidisciplinary theatremaker, filmmaker and photographer. She was most recently a Sundance Institute fellow on the Ignite programme with Adobe, winning a place with her debut short film Blue Corridor 15 (Dazed, ICA, BBC). Her work is motivated by finding the social truth within drama. She is interested in work that revolves around the theme of liberation. Her practice is grounded in a deep interest in the politicised lives of people. As Director her work includes: Bone (Omnibus Theatre); Deb & Joan (The Canal Café Theatre); Blind Date (Katzpace); A.I. In Wonderland (University of Warwick). As Assistant Director: Handbagged (Kiln Theatre); WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT GRIEF [R&D] (Donmar Warehouse); I Know My Husband Loves Me (The Union Theatre). Training includes: Directors In Practice Programme (StoneCrabs Theatre); Springboard (Young Vic Theatre); Ifeyinwa Frederick Scholarship Soho Theatre’s Writers Lab; Script Panel (Royal Court Theatre).
Hazel Low (they/them) is a performance designer working across theatre, live art and spatial design. They are particularly interested in work that is multidisciplinary, challenges form, and inherently collaborative.
Recent credits include: Splintered (Soho); Brilliant Jerks (Southwark Playhouse); Paradise Now! (co-designed with Rosie Elnile, Bush Theatre); Bogeyman (Pleasance, Edinburgh Fringe); The Blue House (Blue Elephant); Who Killed my Father (co-designed with Blythe Brett, Tron); The Magic Flute (co-designed with Rosie Elnile, Royal College of Music); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Latimer Estate).
As well as design for Live Performance, Hazel also took part in the Prayer Workshops led by Rosie Elnile and the Gate Theatre where they conceptualised ‘Myth of Binary and Body’, a digital installation exploring how we costume trans bodies, a piece of work they are still developing. Hazel was also design associate on NDT Broadgate in 2020, where they helped conceptualise and action the ideals and aesthetics of the space, and were one of Broadgate’s resident designers when it was open.
Jasmin Kent Rodgman is a British-Malaysian Artist & Composer. In 2018/19 she was a British Council PRS Musician in Residence, living and composing for two months in Lanzhou, China. In 2017/18, she was a London Symphony Orchestra Jerwood Composer, writing new music as well as producing and curating for their 2018 Season.
Her music and live productions have been performed across the UK and internationally with partners such as London Fashion Week, World Music Festival Shanghai, Edinburgh International Festival, Wilderness Festival, the Roundhouse, Shoreditch Town Hall, Barbican, Oxford Playhouse and the Royal Albert Hall. Her film scores have featured at festivals such as Sundance, SXSW, Toronto International Film Festival and the London Short Film Festival.
Previous work and commission include: Britannicus (Lyric Hammersmith – Composer and Sound Designer) Red Ellen (Northern Stage – Composer & Sound Designer), Prisoner C33
(BBC & Pioneer Productions – Composer), Dorian ( Reading Rep – Sound Designer), Missing Julie (Theatre Clywd – Composer and Sound Designer), Nanjing, Feature Film – Composer, Harm (BBC Film – Composer and Sound Designer) with a live production at Bush Theatre, London and a new 2021 digital commission for Music Theatre Wales. Nineteen Ways of Looking (Chinese Arts Now), At Home with the World (Bagri Foundation), Culture Mile (London Symphony Orchestra.
Jaz Woodcock-Stewart is a director working in Theatre and Performance. Her play Civilisation was the winner of the Jury Prize at the European Festival for Young Stage Directors at Dresden Staatsschauspiel. She was also nominated by the National Theatre to create Something New at Performance Laboratory Salzburg 2019. She is the Artistic Director of award-winning arts company, Antler Associate Company at the Bush Theatre 2017-18. Jaz is an associate artist at Brixton House. As Director, Jaz’s productions include Electric Rosary (Royal Exchange), Gulliver’s Travels (Unicorn) Civilisation (New Diorama, HOME Manchester, Hellerau), Madrigal (RCSSD), Fen (Lamda), Learning Piece (The Place) Something New (Performance Laboratory Salzburg, Thomas Bernhard Institut/NT/Mitos21) Lands (Bush Theatre), Mother Courage (East 15 Acting School), The Bacchae (East 15 Acting School), Wifmon (National Theatre Studio) and If I Were Me(Underbelly/Bush Theatre/Soho Theatre)
Polly previously worked as the Casting Associate at the Royal Exchange Theatre for five years. She is currently an Associate at Theatr Clwyd.
THEATRE CREDITS INCLUDE: Antigone, Peter Pan, A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist, To Kill A Mockingbird tour, Running Wild tour (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Chasing Hares, The Secretaries (Young Vic); First Touch (Nottingham Playhouse); Life of Pi (Sheffield Theatres & West End); Waldo’s (Extraordinary Bodies/Bristol Old Vic); Pretty Shitty Love, Milky Peaks, Missing Julie, Celebrated Virgins, Curtain Up and For the grace of you go I (Theatr Clwyd); Shandyland (Northern Stage); One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Tribes (Sheffield Theatres); Our Lady of Kibeho, Soul, Merlin, Peter And The Starcatcher (Royal & Derngate); Two Trains Running (ETT and Royal & Derngate); Approaching Empty (Kiln, Tamasha & Live Theatre); The Lovely Bones (Royal & Derngate, Birmingham Rep and Northern Stage); All’s Well that Ends Well (Shakespeare’s Globe); The Caretaker (Bristol Old Vic); The Government Inspector, Tommy, Our Country’s Good (Ramps on the Moon); The Island Nation (Arcola); Brideshead Revisited, A View from the Bridge, Sherlock (York Theatre Royal); Anita & Me, Peter Pan, Of Mice and Men, A Christmas Carol, 101 Dalmatians, What Shadows, Folk, Winnie And Wilbur, Back Down, Feed the Beast, I Knew You (Birmingham Rep); The Kitchen Sink, Educating Rita (Hull Truck Theatre); Sweet Charity, Wit, The Ghost Train and Little Shop of Horrors (Royal Exchange Theatre).
Ruth Best was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1987. She is an interdisciplinary artist living between Berlin, London, and Mexico City. Ruth’s disciplines include painting, sculpture, digital sculpture, and costume. After earning a BA (Hons) in Fashion Design in 2010, she worked in the international fashion industry for ten years as a Designer and Pattern Cutter. She has worked for The Royal Court Theatre in London, and as a Costume Director at Siciliano Ballet Company Berlin and Kiez Oper, Berlin. Ruth received an artist grant from KulturProjekte, Germany 2020. She received a position at the University of the Underground in 2021, where the project she developed was selected by the Moon Gallery and her sculpture is currently on display on the International Space Station.
Sung Im Her studied contemporary dance at Han-Sung University where she achieved MA, then she continued her study in Choreography at P.A.R.T.S. in Belgium. Since then she has been working with Jan fabre, Les ballets C de la B, Alias, Needcompany, Abattoire Ferme as a performer.
And in parallel, she has created Philia (2012), En-trance (2013) and Tuning (2014). In 2016, she moved to London and was selected for Testbeds Catalyst, a year-long programme for mid-career artists. In 2019, she created two new works: ‘NUTCRUSHER’ and ‘W.A.Y’. Both works were commissioned by the Korean Arts Council and premiered at the ARKO Arts Theater in Seoul. In 2020, NUTCRUSHER was selected for Aerowaves’ The Twenty21 and presented in Belgium, Netherland, Luxembourg, UK and Korea In 2022, Nutcrusher has been invited to be part of Horizon Showcase 22 and presented during Edinburgh festival. Recently, Sung Im Her was invited to create a piece for Korean National Contemporary Dance Company and also continue to create with her international collaborators in Europe and Asia.
Tabitha Piggott is a production manager for eStage working in theatre and opera, with a particular passion for new writing. She studied Production and Technical Arts at LAMDA as a Leverhulme Arts Scholar, and was production manager on Papatango and Bush Theatre’s Olivier Award winning Old Bridge in 2021. Credits include: All of Us, Barrier(s), Connections 2022 (National Theatre); Only an Octave Apart (Wilton’s Music Hall); Favour, Red Pitch, Old Bridge, Overflow (Bush Theatre); Fefu and her Friends (Tobacco Factory Theatres); Raising Icarus (Birmingham Rep); The Winner’s Curse, The 4th Country (Park Theatre); The Boys are Kissing, Moreno (Theatre503); The Dancing Master (Buxton Opera House).
Tayla Hunter is a 2022 Stage Management graduate from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. She is really interested in working on a range of shows and productions as she starts her professional career, but she especially wants to work on BAME productions. She is open to working in film and television. Tayla has most recently worked as an ASM on The P Word (Bush Theatre), Lotus Beauty (Hampstead) and A Place for We (Park/Talawa, Olivier Award nominated and Offie Award winner for Best Ensemble).
