*****
'Deeply moving' - Everything Theatre'it’s grippingly, grittily different from your everyday West End fare' - The Telegraph
'an immersive and compelling look at homophobia and love behind bars' - The Stage
Black British Theatre Awards
WINNER: Lady Lykez - Best Book & Lyrics
Nominated: Frank Skully - Best Supporting Male Actor in a Play
Off-West End Award Nominations:
Lead Performance in a play - Dauda Ladejobi
Lead Performance in a play - Graham Mackay-Bruce
Set Design - Sophie Neil
Lighting Design - Joshua Gadsby
Director - Daphna Attias & Terry O'Donovan
Kiss Marry Kill toured the UK from March to May 2024. The limited edition programme playtext if available to buy from Methuen-Bloomsbury.
Jay and Paul are both serving life sentences for homophobic murders. Incredibly, they fall in love and seek permission to marry. Inspired by real-life events, Kiss Marry Kill is a provocative new play that reimagines the first same-sex wedding in a UK prison.
Take a seat and prepare for the action to take place in front, above and around you - in signature Dante or Die style. With live music from rapper Lady Lykez, the production envelops audiences in the private spaces and conversations of a world rarely seen.
Kiss Marry Kill zeroes in on the limits of our compassion, challenging our assumptions and preconceptions around sexuality, and the criminal justice system
CAST
Chaplain & Ensemble Morgan Archer
Jay Dauda Ladejobi
Kerry & Ensemble Lady Lykez
Paul Graham Mackay-Bruce
Governor & Ensemble Frank Skully
Ali & Ensemble Dean Statham
CREATIVE TEAM
Written by Daphna Attias, James Baldwin and Terry O’Donovan
Direction Daphna Attias and Terry O’Donovan
Dramaturg Lisa Goldman
Set and Costume Design Sophie Neil
Lighting Design Joshua Gadsby
Composer and Sound Designer Yaniv Fridel (Soho Sonic) and Ofer (OJ) Shabi
Lyrics and Song Writing Lady Lykez
Movement Direction Ayse Tashkiran
Resident Director Hamza Ali
MFA Movement attachment Luis Odriozola
Additional Sound Design Ben Kelly
Recorded at Soho Sonic Sound Studios
Producer Katherine Webb
Assistant Producer Caitlin Evans
Stage Managers Ellen Swailes,Tom Clutterbuck
Assistant Stage Manager Ava McCarthy
Development Stage Manager Philippa Mannion
Marketing Manager Vic Shead
PR Consultant Cliona Roberts
Photography Greta Zabulyte
Well-being Practitioner Julia Hall
Placements Emily Cox, Amy Cregor, Joey Haiting
Thanks to all our dedicated Board Members
We've been developing this project since 2017, during which time we've immersed oursevles in the UK prison system and how the arts work within the criminal justice system.
We've visited five prisons across the UK, including HMP Parc who hosted pioneering LGBTQ group sessions. We've had invaluable discussions with forensic psychologists who work in prisons, prisoners, governors and landing officers, criminologists and prison educators. We've met with academics Nicola Carr (University of Nottingham) and Ian Feis-Bryce who specialise in criminology and psychology. Nicola has created ground-breaking resarch in the Republic of Ireland about the LGBTQ+ experience within the Irish prison system.
Andy Watson, Artistic Director of Geese Theatre mentored the original 2017 R&D period, helping us to build networks with companies specialsing in arts in criminal justice settings. In 2019 we partnered with Synergy Theatre, who work with prisoners and ex-prisoners to create new theatre, and deliver engagement workshops within prisons. Nine members of Synergy joined us for artistic research and development as our performance ensemble. This experience made us understand that we wanted to create opportunites for people with prison experience to be a part of the touring production, and to build pathways to creativity as a key part of the continued development of the project. In Autumn 2023 we facilitated a 6 week programme at HMP Swaleside and a 10-week course for ex-prisoners hosted by Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
Another element of our research was an exploration of the themes with queer groups. Commissioned by South Street Arts and the University of Reading’s Film, Theatre & Television Department, we created conversations and workshops with LGBTQ+ societies and support groups in Reading. We also and hosted an incredibly vibrant symposium on Sexuality in Theatre where panellists included Leo J.Skilbeck and Travis Alabanza.
As we continue to build the show, this work continues to feed into the final production.
Kiss Marry Kill is commissioned by The Lowry, South Street Arts and Ideas Test, funded by Arts Council England, Cockayne Foundation, PRS Foundation, International Music and Art Foundation, and the Ian Mckellen, Sean Mathias and ATG Productions Producer Fund. In addition the project is supported by Norwich Theatre Royal and Stone Nest. The project was seed funded by IGNITE - York Theatre Royal, with thanks to the National Theatre.
