Francis Lovehall, Kedar Williams-Stirling and Emeka Sesay in Red Pitch. Image by Craig Fuller.
‘The way they’re changing endz is nuts.’
Red Pitch. South London. Three lifelong friends Omz, Bilal and Joey are playing football. Like they always have. Living out dreams of football stardom. Beyond their football pitch, local shops are closing, old flats are being demolished as new flats shoot up, some residents struggle to stay while others rush to leave. When a small football pitch has been a home from home, a place you’ve laughed, fought and forged friendships, what happens when it’s under threat?
★★★★★ “Remarkable. A next-level coming-of-age story.” The Stage
The fast-paced and sharp-edged new play from Tyrell Williams (#HoodDocumentary) tells a powerful story about gentrification or regeneration and the impact of this relentless change on London’s communities. It’s “smart, sophisticated new British playwriting at its best” (The Plays The Thing).
Don’t miss out on the return of the knockout cast Kedar Williams-Stirling (Sex Education), Emeka Sesay (Top Boy) and Francis Lovehall (Small Axe), in director Daniel Bailey’s “energetic, artfully staged production” (Evening Standard).
How does it work?
Red Pitch – Online is streaming worldwide, so you can watch it from anywhere. The performance will begin promptly at 2:45pm or 7:45pm. The film will be available to watch on demand for 48 hours from the date and time selected. You can read our FAQs on online performances here.
Each online performance is a filmed live show that will be streamed to audiences. It can be watched on your laptop, tablet, mobile device – or you can mirror the show to your smart TV. Find out more.
Looking for show information and content guidance?
Red Pitch Pre-Show Information
Amelia Jane Hankin is a London-based Designer who trained in Architecture and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art then RSC. Amelia has designed a variety of theatre ranging from new writing, devised, touring theatre, immersive, site-specific, community and theatre for young people.
Design credits include Holes (Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds); Road (Northern Stage); Let The Right One In (Royal Exchange Theatre); Drowntown (Barbican), The Night Before Christmas (Leeds Playhouse) The Wave, (This Isn’t) A True Story (Almeida); The Wolf, The Duck and The Mouse (Unicorn Theatre); Unknown Rivers (Hampstead); Sing Yer Heart Out For The Lads (Chichester Festival Theatre); One Under (Graeae), Blue/Orange (Birmingham Rep); The Comedy of Errors (RSC); The Fishermen (Trafalgar Studios); Gastronomic (Curious Directive); Mountains: The Dreams of Lily Kwok (Royal Exchange Theatre/National tour); PowerPlay (Historic Royal Palaces); Good Dog (UK Tour); Rudolf (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Fake It ‘Til You Make It (UK and Australian tour) and We Are You (Young Vic).
Six-time World Hip Hop Champion Brooke Milliner has been one of the leading influences on the international Popping circuit for 15+ years.
As one of the top Popping dancers in the world, Brooke has extensive accolades under his belt including multiple world titles and featuring in countless stage shows, films & commercials such as Street Dance 3D (2009) and Old Jamaica campaign (2021).
In 2021, Brooke featured on BBC’s Dancing Nation and received a commission from Birmingham International Dance Festival to create a brand new screendance film Don’t Play With L(kn)ives, produced by Motion Dance Collective.
Committed to supporting the next generation of dance talent, Brooke set up world-renowned Popping collective Fiya House in 2012 alongside Co-Director Dickson Mbi. For 10 years, they have provided a platform for dancers to showcase their talent, network with other artists, & promote growth for the UK Hip Hop scene through classes, bespoke training intensives & large-scale international battle events.
Daniel Bailey is a director, dramaturg and writer for stage and screen. He is currently Associate Artistic Director at the Bush Theatre, London, having joined the team in 2019 alongside Artistic Director Lynette Linton. Prior roles include Associate Director at Birmingham Rep Theatre (after initially joining as part of the Regional Theatre Young Director Scheme), Resident Director at the National Theatre Studio, Associate Artist at Theatre Royal Stratford East, Resident Assistant Director at The Finborough Theatre, and on the Young Vic’s directing programme.
His directing work at the Bush Theatre includes the upcoming Lenny Henry’s August in England (co-directed with Lynette Linton) which opens spring 2023, Red Pitch by Tyrell Williams (Stage Debut Award Winner 2022) and Temi Wilkey’s The High Table (Stage Debut Award winner 2020). I Wonder If (presented with YV Taking Part) had a run at the Young Vic Theatre in late 2022 before going on a community tour, and Daniel was the Creative Associate on the UK Premiere of Bootycandy at Gate Theatre.
His work at Birmingham Rep includes Joe Penhall’s Blue Orange; Concubine; Stuff; I Knew You; Abuelo, Jump! We’ll Catch You; Made In India/Britain; and Exhale. His previous directing work includes plays with Talawa Theatre Company, Manchester Royal Exchange, New Heritage Theatre, and the New Vic.
His film and TV director credits include: Dropped (Mothers Best Child); On Belonging (Young Vic); Malachi (S.E.D); Floating on Clouds (Kingdom Entertainment Group) and Y.O.L.O. Therapy (S.E.D).
Dickson Mbi was born in Cameroon and grew up in London where he studied at Lewisham College and London Contemporary Dance School. He is a world-renowned dancer in the Hip Hop dance community and best known for his popping skills which is integral to the work that he creates today. Dickson has featured in multiple TV campaigns including Balmain x H&M (2016), Audi e Tron (2014), and was the face for Lucozade Revive (2012). Over the course of his career, he has worked with award-winning artists such as Russell Maliphant, Boy Blue Entertainment, Robbie Williams, Corrine Bailey-Rae, Black Eyed Peas and choreographed the Leave A Trace music video for CHVRCHES.
He is an award-winning choreographer and has been commissioned by several theatres, festivals and arts organisations. In 2018, Sadler’s Wells Theatre commissioned a documentary, Street to Stage, about Dickson’s artistic journey for BBC4’s Danceworks series. Later that year, Sadler’s Wells commissioned him to create work for their elderly company – The Company of Elders. In the following year, Dickson was commissioned by BBC Young Dancer to create the winning choreography UNSTRUNG performed by Max Revell.
As a leader in his community, Dickson focuses on fostering the future generations of dancers with his partner Brooke Milliner in their battle crews Prototype and FIYA HOUSE. As a choreographer, Dickson enjoys making works for other companies as well as presenting his own works under Dickson Mbi Company.
Emily Mei-Ling Pearce trained at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama graduating with a BA Honours in Stage Management.
Theatre credits include: The Secret Life of Bees (Almeida); Paradise Now!, Fair Play, Red Pitch (Bush); Only An Octave Apart (Wiltons); Treason in Concert, Kinky Boots in Concert, Chess the Musical in Concert (Theatre Royal Drury Lane); Lotus Beauty (Hampstead); A Place For We (Park); Pippin (Charing Cross).
TV credits include: The Big Blow Out and The Piano (both Channel 4).
Gurkiran Kaur is a voice, accent and dialect coach from London. She received her BA in Drama and Theatre Studies from Royal Holloway, University of London before training as an actor at The Bridge Theatre Training Company. She has an MA in Voice Studies from The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and is part of Freelancers Make Theatre Work’s Dawn Chorus collective. Gurkiran works at a number of drama schools and with private and corporate clients. She is part of The Voice and Speech Teaching Associations’ EduCore Leadership Team and serves as a Junior Board Member.
Theatre credits for the Bush: August in England; Paradise Now!; The P Word; Favour; Red Pitch.
Other coaching credits include: Extinct (Stratford East); Queens of Sheba (Soho); NW Trilogy (Kiln); How to Save the Planet When You’re a Young Carer and Broke (Boundless Theatre); Best of Enemies and Chasing Hares (Young Vic/Headlong); Lotus Beauty (Hampstead / Tamasha); Henry VIII (Globe); Offside (Futures Theatre); Marvin’s Binoculars (Unicorn); The Climbers (Theatre by the Lake); Finding Home (Curve); and Good Karma Hospital for Tiger Aspect Productions.
Heather Basten is an English casting director based in London, and a member of the Casting Directors Guild (UK), and the Casting Society of America (USA). In 2021 she was recognised as a Screen International Star of Tomorrow.
As well as casting Fair Play for The Bush Theatre, Heather has also cast the upcoming 6-Ep musical TV series Jungle for Amazon Studio and Dreaming Whilst Black for the BBC. She has most recently cast the Stone Age-set film The Origin, which is the newest sophomore feature from UK producer Oliver Kassman (Saint Maud).
Heather is currently casting a new exciting slate of green-lit films across the BFI, Blumhouse, Film 4 and the BBC, and casting more theatre for The Bush. Heather is assisted by Fran Cattaneo.
Kala Simpson‘s stage management credits include: Female Shorts (Hoxton Hall), Beauty and the Beast (Queen’s Theatre), End of Hope (Soho Theatre), Room ( Theatre Royal Stratford East), Five Guys Named Moe (Speilgeltent Festival Square).
Kev McCurdy is an Equity registered Fight Director / Choreographer, Director, Actor and an Action performer. He is also co-founder, one of the Examiners and Chairman of The Academy of Performance Combat. Kev’s been stage combat teaching for 29 years and professionally fight choreographing across all fields for 22 years. Kev is also an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.
Theatre includes: Victoria’s Knickers, Typical (Soho); The Big I Am, Romeo & Julius, Rapunzel In Space, Our Lady In Blundellsands (Liverpool Everyman); Anthony & Cleopatra, Macbeth, I’m Not Running, The Great Wave, Home, Mosquitoes (National Theatre); Eyam, Othello, Henry IV pt 1, The Two Noble Kinsmen (Shakespeare’s Globe); West Side Story, A Streetcar Named Desire, Frankenstein (Royal Exchange); An Officer And A Gentleman (UK tour), West Side Story, A Streetcar Named Desire (Curve); Miss Saigon (Prince Edward Theatre / UK & European tour); Les Misérables (Sondheim Theatre & UK tour); Phantom Of The Opera (Her Majesty’s Theatre); Hamlet, Uncle Vanya, Mary Stuart, The Wild Duck (Almeida Theatre); Glory (Dukes Theatre & UK tour); Only Fools and Horses (Theatre Royal Haymarket); A Jew In Malta, Othello, The Whip (RSC); The Wife of Willesden, Holy Shit, White Noise, Pass Over, The House That Did Not Stand (Kiln Theatre); Sylvia, The Crucible (Old Vic); The Comedy About A Bank Robbery (Criterion Theatre & UK tour); Shebeen (Nottingham Playhouse / Stratford East); All About Eve (Noel Coward Theatre); Hela, American Nightmare (The Other Room / Theatre503); Romeo & Juliet (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); The Weir, Wuthering Heights (ETT); Drifter’s Girl (Newcastle Theatre Royal / Garrick Theatre); Hamlet, A Dolls House, Barbarians (Young Vic); The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Chichester Festival Theatre / Lyric Hammersmith); The Long Song (Chichester Festival Theatre); One Man Two Guvnors, Abigail’s Party (Richard Burton Theatre, Cardiff).
TV includes: Eastenders, Doctor Who, Casualty, Torchwood, Hinterland, Stella, Keeping Faith, Hidden / Craith Seasons 1, 2, 3 (S4C/BBC Wales); 15 Days, Pobol Y Cwm, Yr Amgueddfa, Bregus, Enid and Lucy, Mabinogi, Y Golau / The Light (S4C Wales); Hetty Feather (CBBC); Hollyoaks, Camelot (Channel 4); The A-List Season 2 (Netflix).
Film includes: Canaries, Red Handed, Set Fire To The Stars, John Carter of Mars, Season Of The Witch, Assassins in Love, Just Jim, Carmilla, Kenya, Libertè, The Lady Of Heaven, Protein.
Music videos: Off Bloom: “Shut Up and Let Me Walk”; Formation: “A Friend”; Kayla: “Mojito”; Circles: “I See Monstas”; Louis Mattrs: “War With Heaven”.
Opera: Bajazet, Cosi Fan Tutti (Irish National Opera); Don Giovanni, Lulu, Il Trovatore, Macbeth, Woyzzeck (Welsh National Opera); Rigoletto, Berenicé (Royal Opera House).
Khalil Madovi is a 25-year-old music artist, composer, writer, actor and filmmaker. He emerged in 2012 with a hit TV series and has since embarked on a diversified career in arts and entertainment, working with the likes of Channel 4, Amazon Studios, Warner Bros. and more. After composing for and featuring in ‘Can I Live?’, a new piece of experimental theatre in collaboration with Complicité and The Barbican, in 2021, he went on to design for Bush Theatre’s critically acclaimed ‘Red Pitch’, for which he received an Offie nomination. Other credits include Jermyn Street Theatre’s ‘The Poison Belt’, The Old Vic’s ‘This Is What The Journey Does’ and Bola Agbaje’s ‘Gone Too Far!’ with the National Youth Theatre. The BAFTA winning south London native is currently shooting his self-written and directed visual album, ‘A COLD HEARTED SUMMER’, which is due for release in 2024. @KhalilMadovi Khalilmadovi.co
Megan Rarity trained at Arts University Bournemouth in Costume for Performance Design.
Credits include: Indecent Proposal the Musical (Southwark Playhouse); Camp Siegfried (Old Vic); The Two Character Play (Hampstead); Last Easter (Orange Tree); Shedding a Skin (Soho); Garsington Opera Festival 2021 (Wormsley Estate); The Comeback (Noël Coward); Little Shop of Horrors (LAMDA); Cinderella the Musical (Nuffield Southampton); Hedda Gabler (Sherman Theatre); Shook (Southwark Playhouse/UK tour); Valued Friends (Rose Theatre Kingston), Midsummer Nights Party (The Brewery/Old Vic); The Audience (Nuffield Southampton); Blood Knot (Orange Tree); West Side Story (Hartshorn-Hook Productions); Eden (Hampstead); Ubu Karaoke (Kneehigh Theatre Company); Utility (Orange Tree); Mayfly (Orange Tree); A Streetcar Named Desire (Nuffield Southampton); Eugenius! (The Other Palace); Tryst (Tabard); Insignificance (Arcola); Zigger Zagger (National Youth Theatre); Oklahoma! (Bennet Memorial Diocesan School); Posh (Pleasance); The Tempest (The Print Room).
Monaé Robinson is the recipient of the Resident Director Bursary programme at the Bush Theatre, working closely with the Artistic team to bring to life their creative visions. She started her career as a community and cultural arts leader.
Monaé holds a Bachelor’s degree in Theatre & Performance from Goldsmiths University, and is a performance maker that typically focuses on Afrofuturism. In October 2021, Monaé directed OJA as part of Theatre Peckham’s Young, Gifted and Black festival.
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).
Tyrell Williams is an award-winning writer and director for theatre, film and television.
When initially presented at Bush Theatre in 2022, his first play Red Pitch, directed by Daniel Bailey, completed a sold-out run and Tyrell won the George Devine Award, Stage Debut Award for Best Writer, Evening Standard Award for most promising playwright and Red Pitch was awarded Best New Play at the OffWestEnd Awards 2023.
Red Pitch is currently in development for a screen adaptation with Fudge Park and he has written an episode of an unnamed Apple TV+ series .
Tyrell has been named one of Deadline’s 5 rising writers to watch in 2023, and is currently on attachment to the National Theatre Studio.
In 2015, Tyrell co-created, co-wrote and directed the viral web series #HoodDocumentary which has had over 4million views on YouTube. Following its online acclaim, #HoodDocumentary eventually went on to be commissioned for BBC Three which Tyrell directed and co-wrote. Tyrell was on the BAFTA Elevate scheme 2018 and was a Broadcast Hotshot in 2016.
Wabriya King is the Associate Dramatherapist at the Bush Theatre. Wabriya’s practice is to create a space and a format to hold people safely while they navigate their experiences in relation to the theatre’s work. Wabriya has previously worked on productions at Soho Theatre, Theatre Roayl Stratford East, Hampstead Theatre, Royal Court, National Theatre and Paines Plough.
Credits for the Bush include: Shifter’s, Paradise Now!; The P Word; House of Ife; Red Pitch; Overflow; Lava; The High Table.
