Pilot Theatre’s award-winning production of Malorie Blackman’s Noughts & Crosses coming to The Lowry in January 2023
Pilot Theatre brings Sabrina Mahfouz’s adaptation of Malorie Blackman’s critically acclaimed young adult novel of first love in a dangerous fictional dystopia – Noughts & Crosses to The Lowry, Salford from 17-21 January 2023.
Noughts & Crosses’ exciting cast will be led by Effie Ansah (The Maladies, Almeida Theatre) and James Arden in their first leading roles as Sephy and Callum; Emma Keele (East is East, Birmingham Rep and National Theatre and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, UK Tour) as Meggie; Nathaniel McClosky (Macbeth, Box Clever Theatre) as Jude; Amie Buhari (Flowers, Channel 4 ) as Jasmine; Steph Asamoah (Billy Eliot, Curve Theatre ) as Minerva; Chris Jack (Brighton Rock, Pilot Theatre and York Theatre Royal and Our Town, Royal Exchange Manchester) as Kamal; Daniel Copeland (Invincible, Orange Tree Theatre and The Jungle Book, Leeds Playhouse) as Ryan; and newcomer Tom Coleman as Nought Man, Andrew Dorn and understudy to Callum and Jude. Daniel Norford (Small Island and The Welkin, National Theatre and The Lion King, UK Tour) will be joining the cast in Spring in the role of Kamal. All actors will also play ensemble roles.
Sephy is a Cross and Callum is a Nought. Between Noughts and Crosses there are racial and social divides. A segregated society teeters on a volatile knife edge.
As violence breaks out, Sephy and Callum draw closer, but this is a romance that will lead them into terrible danger.
Told from the perspectives of two teenagers, Noughts & Crosses is a captivating love story set in a volatile, racially segregated society and explores the powerful themes of love, revolution and what it means to grow up in a divided world.
Noughts & Crosses first toured in 2019 as the first co-production between Pilot Theatre, Derby Theatre, Belgrade Theatre Coventry, Mercury Theatre, Colchester, and York Theatre Royal who in 2018 formed a new partnership to develop, produce and present theatre for younger audiences. The Pilot Theatre production was seen by over 30,000 people on tour with 40 % of the audience being aged under twenty. It went on to win Pilot Theatre the award for excellence in Touring at the 2019 UK Theatre Awards.