WAY TO HEAVEN

      by Juan Mayorga

      translated by David Johnston

      Cast

      Red Cross Representative Jeff Rawle

      Boys Jack Binysh, Jake Briski, Leon Garner, Alexander Main, Abraham Pirry

      Young Couple on Bench Vanessa Ackerman, Daniel Hart

      Second Woman on Bench Claire Lichie

      Girl Emma Pinto

      Gershom Gottfried Richard Katz

      Commandant Dominic Rowan

      Director Ramin Gray

      Designer Miriam Büther

      Lighting Designer Johanna Town

      Sound Designer Ian Dickinson

      Assistant Director Simon Breden

      Casting Amy Ball

      Production Manager Sue Bird

      Stage Managers Susannah Lawrence, Fay Mansfield

      Costume Supervisors Iona Kenrick, Jackie Orton

      Company Voice Work Patsy Rodenburg

      The playwright and translator gratefully acknowledge the support of Jacques Le Ny and the Atelier Européen de Traduction.

      THE COMPANY

      Juan Mayorga (writer)

      For the Royal Court: Voices from Spain season 1997 with Scorched Garden, 1998 International Residency developing Love Letters to Stalin, as part of the 2002 International season, The Good Neighbour.

      Other theatre includes: Más ceniza, El sueño de Ginebra (Cuarta Pared, Madrid); El traductor de Blumemberg (Teatro Nacional Cervantes, Buenos Aires); Cartas de amor a Stalin (Teatro María Guerrero, Madrid); El Gordo y el Flaco (Teatro Adolfo Marsillach, San Sebastián de los Reyes); Animales Nocturnos (Sala Guindalera, Madrid); Últimas palabras de Copito de Nieve (Nuevo Teatro Alcalá, Madrid); Camino del cielo (Teatro María Guerrero, Madrid); Hamelin (Teatro de la Abadía, Madrid).

      Vanessa Ackerman

      Theatre includes: Two Gentlemen of Verona, Julius Caesar (RSC); Mythomania, Paradox (RSC Fringe TOP); Kvetch, Jew of Malta (Teatre della Contradizzione); The Ceremony (Soho). Television includes: The Bill, The Lost Prince.

      Jack Binysh

      Theatre includes: All Our Sons (Bloomsbury).

      Simon Breden

      As assistant director: Tejas Verdes (Gate).

      As director: Slowburn (Etcetera); Yellow Rain (Embassy); Protect Me (Young Vic); The Bear, The Proposal (Landor); Detour (St. Mark’s Church); Yerma; Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me; In The Burning Darkness; The Real Inspector Hound (Burton Taylor Studio); Murder In The Cathedral (St. Peter’s Chapel).

      Jake Briski

      Jake has trained at The Harris Drama School. Way to Heaven is Jake’s theatrical debut.

      Miriam Büther (designer)

      Theatre includes: Platform (ICA); The Wonderful World of Dissocia (Lyceum, Edinburgh); Guantanamo (Tricycle/West End/NY); People Next Door (Traverse/Germany/Balkans/NY); The Dumb Waiter, Victoria Station and Other Pieces (Oxford Playhouse); Bintou (Arcola); Red Demon (Young Vic/Bunkamura Tokyo); Eskimo Sisters (Southwark); Lebensspiele (Three Mills Island).

      Dance includes: Outsight, Tender Hooks (Fundaçâo C Gulbenkian, Lisbon); Toot, Possibly Six (Theatre Maisonneuve, Montreal); Track (Scottish Dance Theatre); Body of Poetry (Komische Oper, Berlin); 7DS (Sadler’s Wells).

      Installations: Lazy Boys and Busy Bodies (KX Gallery, Kampnagel Hamburg); Gedankengebäude in der Kunst (Kunsthaus, Hamburg); Architekturkleider (National Gallery, Sopot Poland).

      Awards include: Linbury Prize for Stage Design 1999, Bursary of Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft 1996.

      Ian Dickinson (sound designer)

      For the Royal Court: The Woman Before, Stoning Mary (& Drum Theatre, Plymouth), Breathing Corpses, Wild East, Shining City (& Gate, Dublin), Lucky Dog, Blest Be the Tie (with Talawa TC), Ladybird, Notes on Falling Leaves, Loyal Women, The Sugar Syndrome, Blood, Playing the Victim (with Told By an Idiot), Fallout, Flesh Wound, Hitchcock Blonde (& Lyric), Black Milk, Crazyblackmuthafuckin’self, Caryl Churchill Shorts, Push Up, Fucking Games, Herons.

      Other theatre includes: Port, As You Like It, Poor Superman, Martin Yesterday, Fast Food, Coyote Ugly (Royal Exchange, Manchester); Night of the Soul (RSC/Barbican); Eyes of the Kappa (Gate); Crime & Punishment in Dalston (Arcola); Search & Destroy (New End); The Whore’s Dream (RSC/Edinburgh); Ian is Head of Sound at the Royal Court.

      Leon Garner

      Way To Heaven is Leon Garner’s theatrical debut.

      Television includes: Watchdog.

      Film includes: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

      Ramin Gray (director)

      For the Royal Court: Bear Hug, The Weather, Ladybird, Advice to Iraqi Women, Terrorism, Night Owls, Just a Bloke, Push Up, How I Ate a Dog. Other theatre includes: The American Pilot (RSC); The Child, The Invisible Woman (Gate); Cat and Mouse (Sheep) (Théâtre National de l’Odéon, Paris/Gate); Autumn and Winter (Man in the Moon); A Message for the Broken-Hearted (Liverpool Playhouse/BAC); At Fifty She Discovered the Sea, Harry’s Bag, Pig’s Ear, A View from the Bridge, Spring Awakening (Liverpool Playhouse); The Malcontent (Latchmere).

      Ramin is an Associate Director of the Royal Court.

      Daniel Hart

      Theatre includes: The Mandate, Peter Pan (RNT); Allport’s Revenge, The Destiny of Me (Finborough); Amadeus (Theatre Royal, York); Wolfgame (Union Theatre); The Browning Version (Derby); The Lie (King’s Head); Madame Melville (Vaudeville); The Station (Soho); Macbeth (Queen’s).

      Television includes: Cambridge Spies, Suffocation, Midsomer Murders, Vanity Fair.

      Awards include: BBC Carleton-Hobbs Award.

      David Johnston (translator)

      Translations include: Lope de Vega’s The Dog in the Manger (RSC/Austin Shakespeare Festival, Texas); Calderón’s The Painter of Dishonour (RSC); Lope de Vega’s Madness in Valencia (Gate/RSC); The Gentleman from Olmedo (Gate/Watermill Theatre, Newbury); The Great Pretenders (Gate); Gil Vicente’s The Boat Plays, Valle-Inclán’s The Barbarous Comedies, Bohemian Lights (Gate); Divine Words (BBC Radio 3); Lorca’s Blood Wedding (Communicado, Bruiser); The Public (BBC); Vargas Llosa’s The Madman of the Balconies (Gate); La Chunga: The Woman of Our Dreams (Lyric, Belfast).

      Original pieces include: El Quijote (Gate), Hambone’s Day, The Shadow of the Wedding and The Priest (BBC), Dark Root, Bitter Flower (Strathclyde Theatre Group), The Poet in the City (Crescent Arts Centre, Belfast).

      Richard Katz

      For the Royal Court: Genoa 01 (with Theatre de Complicite).

      Other theatre includes: Faustus (Northampton); Measure for Measure, Life Game (Improbable), Wind in the Willows, The Skriker (RNT); Strange Poetry, The Noise of Time, Mnemonic (Theatre de Complicite); The Hanging Man, Angel Carter’s Cinderella (Improbable/Lyric); The Golden Ass, A Midsummers Night’s Dream (Globe); Aladdin (Told By An Idiot); Arabian Nights (Young Vic); Don’t Laugh It’s My Life (Told By An Idiot/BAC); King Ubu (Gate); In Savoy (National Studio); Much Ado About Nothing (Thelma Holt tour/West End); The Game Rule (Tandem); All Gods Chillun Got Wings (West Yorkshire Playhouse); The Honest Whore (Boulevard).

      Film and television includes: Absolute Power, Rome, Silent But Deadly, Origins of Evil, Black Books, Start. Afterdeath, People Like Us, Nicholas