August Wilson’s Fences
Tue 10 – Sat 14 NovFees and charges: Please note all orders are subject to a non-refundable £2.50 booking fee. Free events are excluded.
A gripping story of family, race and the American Dream.
“You born with two strikes on you before you come to the plate.”
Troy is a former baseball player who could’ve gone pro. He spends his days collecting garbage and his evenings spinning stories for family and friends. He is funny, charismatic and fiercely proud. He’s also a man with flaws, shaped by a lifetime battling a world that denies his dreams. And the scars run deep.
His wife, Rose, sees America changing. She dares to believe life can be different and dreams that their son, Cory, will have the freedom that Troy never did. But as she works to break the cycles holding her family back, Troy’s frustration and bitterness threatens to tear them apart.
Alive with rhythms of blues and jazz, humour and heartbreak, Fences is August Wilson’s Pulitzer prize-winning masterpiece. Set in the 1950’s, it is a timeless and deeply human portrait of grief, love and what it means to be a family in post-war Black America.
One of the defining plays of the 20th century, it returns to the UK for the first time in over a decade in a vital new production directed by award-winning director Daniel Bailey (Red Pitch, West End).
Cast
Ray can currently be seen in BBC/Netflix’s CHAMPION, playing Beres Champion and in the Amazon hit feature film MY FAULT: LONDON.
Ray Fearon is an award-winning British actor who has worked extensively on stage and in television and film.
His film work includes: Barbie, The Cleaner, Swede Caroline, Coffee Wars, Memory, The Lady of Heaven, The Protege, Origin Unknown; The Foreigner; The Yellow Birds; Beauty and the Beast; The Hooligan Factory; Macbeth; Hamilton; Time Machine: Morlocks; The Therapist; Summer In Cape Town; Lulu and Jimi; The Chef’s Letter; Harry Potter & The Philosopher’s Stone; The Clandestine Marriage and Hamlet.
Television work includes: The Feud (series regular), Netflix/BBC’s Champion (series regular); We Hunt Together, Close To Me, Semi Detached; Red Dwarf; His Dark Materials; Plebs; Fleabag; Snatch; New Blood; Da Vinci Demons (Series regular); Suspects; Moving On; Silk; Death In Paradise; Above Suspicion; Hominid: Neanderthal; Raw (series 2); Missing Karl; Doctors; Coronation Street; Revelations; Keen Eddie; Doctors; Waking the Dead; The Bill; Outside the Rules; As If (Series 2); A Christmas Carol; Band of Gold; Brothers and Sisters; Dressing For Breakfast and Prime Suspect.
In theatre he has worked as a leading actor with the RSC (Associate Artist), Donmar Warehouse, Almeida Theatre, the National Theatre and the Globe to name but a few.
Theatre includes: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, The Winter’s Tale, Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice, The Taming of the Shrew (RSC); Cymbeline (The Globe); Kerry Jackson, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Here We Go; Welcome to Thebes (National Theatre); Tina Turner The Musical (Aldwych); Hamlet (Harold Pinter Theatre); The Hotel Cerise (Theatre Royal Stratford); Iyalode of Eti (Utopia Theatre/Rich Mix/Arcola); In The Next Room or The Vibrator Play (St James Theatre); The Duchess of Malfi (Old Vic); Speechless (Shared Experience); Off the Endz (Royal Court); Mother Goose (Greenwich Theatre); It Felt Empty When the Heart Went at First… (Arcola/Clean Break); Arabian Nights (New Vic); Dionysis Unbound (Bridewell Theatre); 200 Years, Cinderella (Watford Palace); The Wedding Dance (Birmingham Rep/Tour); Restoration (Oxford Stage Company); I Have Before Me… (Calypso); Brezhnev’s Children (BAC).
TV and Film include: Death in Paradise (BBC), Blood of My Blood (Starz/Sony), Black Mirror (Netflix), Jungle (Amazon Prime), In the Long Run (Sky), Elephant, King for a Term (Sky), Partners in Crime (BBC), Doctors (BBC), Gavin and Stacey (BBC), EastEnders (BBC), The Bill (ITV), Holby City (BBC).
Training: Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. (Recipient of the ALW Foundation Scholarship)
Theatre includes: David Heard in Choir Boy (Theatre Royal Stratford East) Rudy in Miss Myrtles Garden (Bush Theatre); Jonathan in Reverberation (Bristol Old Vic); Clifford Bradshaw in Cabaret (Kit Kat Club at the Playhouse Theatre); Jack Kelly in Disney’s Newsies (Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre); David Heard in Choir Boy (Bristol Old Vic); Olunde in Death and the Kings Horseman (Sheffield Crucible); Emmett Forrest in Legally Blonde (Regents Park Open Air Theatre); Benjamin “Benny” Coffin III RENT (Hope Mill Theatre); Paul Stephenson in To the Streets (China Plate & Birmingham Hippodrome); Maugrim in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (UK/Ireland Tour).
Radio includes: Michael in Scratch That: Highlife Romance (Theatre Peckham).
Short films include: Michael in To Run is to Return; Pete in Stray Tales; Joseph in In a Box; Craig in Fart Car; Chris in The Cosmic Order; Shahbaz in Shielders; Jerome in Demons;
Josh is the winner of the Royal Television Society, Best Breakthrough Award 2025 and is Edinburgh TV Festival and MOBO Award nominated actor.
He is best known for his work on Netflix smash hit series, SUPACELL, and the BBC Three and Tubi critically acclaimed series, BOARDERS S1,2 & 3. SUPACELL is rated 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and led the Netflix global streaming charts upon release. Created by Rapman (Blue Story, Shiro’s Story), Josh played ‘Tazer’, opposite Tosin Cole and Adelayo Adedayo. However, it is BOARDERS for which Josh has received his award nominations. The comedy drama set in an upscale boarding school follows Josh as the central lead character, ‘Jaheim’, created by Daniel Lawrence Taylor (Timewasters).
Josh starred in Abdou Cissé’s, FESTIVAL OF SLAPS, which debuted at the BFI London Film Festival 2023 to critical acclaim. The short went on to win a BIFA, for ‘Best British Short Film’ and was nominated for ‘Best British Short’ at BAFTA 2024. In addition to this, Josh recently starred in short films, THE PIGS UNDERNEATH funded by Monkeypaw Productions, and HINDSIGHT, which is soon to be released. Josh has also written and directed his own short film, PLEASURE OVER MATTER which is in post-production.
Additional credits include: A TOWN CALLED MALICE for Sky and NOW TV, opposite Jason Flemying and Martha Plimpton, and playing the role of ‘Wish’ in MOONHAVEN for AMC+.
Simon-Anthony Rhoden trained at LAMDA, graduating with a BA Hons in Acting in 2009. He then went on to train in an advanced, short Musical Theatre course at Associated Studios in 2014.
His stage credits include: Pedro ‘The Harder They Come’ (Stratford East Theatre), Dwayne ‘The Hot Wing King’ (National Theatre), Aaron Burr ‘Hamilton’ (Victoria Palace Theatre), Robert Catesby ‘Treason – Concert’ (Theatre Royal Drury Lane), Lola/Simon, ‘Kinky Boots’ (Adelphi Theatre), Harpo ‘The Color Purple’ (The Leicester Curve), Lance ‘Beauty’s Legacy’ (The Keeper’s Daughter), Jim Conley ‘Parade’ (Edinburgh Fringe).
Screen & Radio credits includes: ‘McKenzie’ (New Pictures/ ITV), ‘The Color Purple – At Home’ (Leicester Curve), ‘Temple 2’ (Sky/Hera), ‘Feel Good’ (Objective Fiction/E4/Netflix), ‘Let it Snow’ (Endor/Sky TV), ‘Quartet for the End of Time’ (BBC Radio 4)
Simon-Anthony won the Broadway World UK Award for Best Long-running West End Show Performer for his role as Lola in ‘Kinky Boots’.
Color Purple won Best Regional Production at the What’s on Stage Awards in 2020.
Simon-Anthony is passionate about the acting industry and is keen to pursue real change in how performers are looked after, through to having a more diverse landscape across the board of the industry.
Along with a few friends, Simon-Anthony also runs a play reading group called ‘XBag’ which looks to explore works by people of colour with stories about people of colour, and in doing so, building a network of creatives that share his passion for story telling with cultural representation.
Theatre: Small Island (Leeds Playhouse, Birmingham Rep, Nottingham Playhouse); Through It All Together (Leeds Playhouse); Animal Farm (Leeds Playhouse and Stratford East Olivier-nominated production), Revealed (Belgrade Theatre; Tobacco Factory); A Child of Science (Bristol Old Vic); Everything I Own (Brixton House); Rockets and Blue Lights (National Theatre, Royal Exchange Manchester); The Honey Man (Northcott Theatre Exeter); A Christmas Carol (Leeds Playhouse); Amadeus, The Amen Corner and The Comedy of Errors (National Theatre); Strawgirl, Antony and Cleopatra and Basil and Beattie (Royal Exchange Manchester); Travels With My Aunt (The New Wolsey Theatre)
TV: The Ballad of Renegade Nell, Odd Squad, The Crown S6, Orpheus in the Record Shop, Doctor Who, Cold Call, Doctors, In the Dark, Coronation Street, The Accused, Our Yorkshire Shop
Recent Radio: The New Sugar, Dream Reality Radio Live
Creatives
Daniel is a director for stage and screen, a dramaturg, and a writer. He was formerly Associate Artistic Director at the Bush Theatre, London, having joined the team in 2019. He made his West End debut in 2024 with the award-winning RED PITCH, which he originally directed at the Bush (2022 and 2023), and for which he received The Stage Debut Award for Best Creative West End Debut.
Other roles include Associate Director at Birmingham Rep Theatre, Associate Artist at Theatre Royal Stratford East, Resident Director at the National Theatre Studio, Resident Assistant Director at The Finborough Theatre, and Artistic Director of New Heritage Theatre. Daniel is also the Chair of Judges for Alfred Fagon Awards.
Other directing work at the Bush Theatre includes Beru Tessema’s WOLVES ON ROAD, Lenny Henry’s AUGUST IN ENGLAND (co-directed with Lynette Linton), and Temi Wilkey’s THE HIGH TABLE (Stage Debut Award winner 2020).
Other Directing credits include the US premiere of RED PITCH (Olney Theatre, Washington DC); THE BOY WITH WINGS adapted by Arvind Ethan David from the book by Lenny Henry (Polka Theatre); I WONDER IF (Young Vic Theatre); BLUE ORANGE; CONCUBINE; STUFF; I KNEW YOU; ABUELO, JUMP! WE’LL CATCH YOU; MADE IN INDIA/BRITAIN; and EXHALE (Birmingham Rep).
Lily Arnold is a theatre designer whose designs include: Emma and The Boy at the Back of the Class (Rose Theatre), Consumed (Paines Plough) Marie and Rosetta (Chichester, Rose Theatre) Hamlet and Hey Christmas Tree! (Chichester), Snow In Midsummer, The Jew of Malta, The Rape of Lucrece, King Lear, The Taming of the Shrew (RSC) The Capulets and The Montagues/ What Dreams May Come (English Touring Opera) God of Carnage, A Doll’s House (Lyric Hammersmith), Room (Abbey, Dublin/Theatre Royal, Stratford East, The Grand Theatre, Princess Of Wales, Toronto), Consumed (Paines Plough / Belgrade Coventry) Toto Kerblammo, Jeramee, Hartleby & Ooglemore (Unicorn), The Girl on the Train, The Importance of Being Earnest (Leeds Playhouse), Pah-La (Royal Court), Things Of Dry Hours (Young Vic),The Remains Of The Day, Rules for Living (Royal & Derngate), Leopards (Rose Theatre, Kingston), Jack and the Beanstalk, Village Idiot, Dick Wittington, Sleeping Beauty (Stratford East), The Unreturning [costume design] (Frantic Assembly), Love Lies Bleeding (Print Room), Henry V (Tobacco Factory), Dublin Carol (Sherman), Broken Biscuits (Paines Plough/Live), Bits of Me Are Falling Apart (Soho), The Solid Life of Sugar Water (National/Theatre Royal, Plymouth), I Cinna (The Poet), Forget Me Not (Bush Theatre), So Here We Are (HighTide/Royal Exchange), Happy New (Trafalgar Studios)
Khalil is an award nominated music artist, composer, writer, actor and filmmaker. In 2024 Khalil was nominated for a Black British Theatre Award for his Sound Design work.
Theatre work as Sound Designer includes Julius Caesar (Tangle Theatre); Two Gentlemen of Verona (RSC); Why a Black Woman Will Never Be Prime Minister (Camden Peoples Theatre); G (Royal Court); Red Pitch (Bush/Soho Place – Offie Nomination for Best Sound Design); No More Mr. Nice Guy (Broadway Theatre, Catford/UK tour); Brenda’s Got a Baby and Metamorphoses (both New Diorama); Divine (Arts Ed); This is What the Journey Does (Old Vic, as part of One Voice: HOME series) and The Poison Belt (Jermyn Street).
Work as Composer and Sound Designer includes Fatherland (Hampstead Theatre); Animal Farm (Theatre Royal, Stratford East/Leeds Playhouse/Nottingham Playhouse); Revealed (Belgrade Theatre, Coventry); Gone Too Far! (Theatre Royal, Stratford East); Sound Clash: Death in the Arena (Pleasance One, Edinburgh Fringe); Revealed (Tobacco Factory, Bristol) and Can I Live? (Barbican).
Touch Tour
Learning Guide
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