Cast announced for Girl in The Machine directed by Genesis Future Director Award recipient Annie Kershaw
1 August 2024
The Young Vic Theatre has announced its casting for Girl in the Machine directed by Annie Kershaw, the 2024 Genesis Future Directors Award recipient. Written by award-winning playwright Stef Smith (The Outrun, Nora: A Doll’s House), it will run in the Young Vic’s Clare Theatre from Wednesday 16 – Saturday 26 October 2024.
Sophie Melville (The Way, Iphigenia in Splott) will play Polly with BAFTA nominated actor Leah Harvey (Foundation, Small Island) as Rowan in this electrifying new production which explores human and technological interaction.
A story of love in a fast-changing world, Girl in the Machine follows partners Polly and Rowen. When Rowen brings home ‘the Black Box’ which promises to cure depression, Polly becomes more and more distant from Rowen and struggles to resist the draw of eternal bliss that the Black Box offers.
The Genesis Future Directors Award provides early-career directors with the opportunity to explore and develop their craft by creating their first fully resourced production at the Young Vic, with mentoring and support from the theatre’s core artistic team including Artistic Director Kwame Kwei-Armah and the current Genesis Fellow Taio Lawson.
John Studzinski, Founder and Chairman of the Genesis Foundation, said:
“The Genesis Future Directors Award – and our other programmes at the Young Vic these past 20 years – have given young directors a much sought-after opportunity to direct their first play in a fully-resourced production at the Young Vic. These productions are shielded from critical review, enabling them to experiment with form and be as creative as they can be. Annie Kershaw joins a cohort of Genesis directors who have gone on to forge rich achievements in their careers. We look forward to seeing her work and wish her every success.”
Since its inception in 2012, the Genesis Future Directors Award has supported 17 emerging directors and theatre-makers. Among them are Diyan Zora, who directed Mom, How Did You Meet The Beatles? at Chichester Festival in 2023; Debbie Hannan, Associate Director at the National Theatre of Scotland; Nancy Medina, Artistic Director of the Bristol Old Vic; Matthew Xia, Artistic Director and joint CEO of Actors Touring Company; Lekan Lawal, Artistic Director of Eclipse Theatre, and Tinuke Craig, who is directing the revival of A Raisin in the Sun touring the UK this autumn.
Annie Kershaw said: “I am more than excited to be directing Stef Smith’s brilliant play with such a great creative team and cast. This production questions how far our reliance on technology will go. What will be the breaking point? With a host of legendary performances between them, Sophie Melville and Leah Harvey are the perfect pairing to help us deep dive into the personal impact of our changing relationship with technology. Considering current advances in AI, this piece is scarily resonant. I’m looking forward to seeing how audiences react.”
Leah Harvey has recently filmed a role in Craig Roberts’ next feature, The Scurry, and a lead role in Sweetpea, See-Saw and Sky’s new drama. They were nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the 2022 BAFTAs for Apple TV+’s Foundation.
Sophie Melville’s stage credits include Cowbois (RSC & Royal Court), Iphigenia in Splott (Lyric Hammersmith, National Theatre, 59E59 New York, Sherman Theatre) and 2066 (Almeida Theatre). Her television credits include The Way, Casualty, The Left Behind, The Missing (BBC) and Call the Midwife (Neal Street Productions).
The creative team consists of designer Khadija Raza, sound designer Odinn Orn Hilmarsson, lighting designer Lucía Sánchez Roldán, movement director Nevena Stojkov, associate sound designer Neil McKeown with casting by Jacob Sparrow.
