Casting announced for AGATHA at The Pleasance Downstairs

Photo credit: Greta Mitchell Photography

Casting has been announced for Agatha, a new production based on real life events that combines spoken word, original music and dialogue to bring personal experience to the stage, playing at The Pleasance, Carpenters Mews from 1-5 March 2022. 

West End, TV and film star Olivia Carruthers will play Agatha, alongside Suzanna Hamilton as Rose, and award-winning writer and actor Gemma Barnett as Jo. Agatha will be directed by Martha Geelan, with music by Katy Hustwick and lighting by Lucy Adams.

Jo has a decision to make. Stuck in the car, she needs someone to tell her what to do; what she wants; why she’s here. Agatha is dead and living her dream life running a blues bar in the afterlife. Set across three generations of women in the same family, this moving production portrays the spikiness of mother-daughter relationships and the most intense love that can be intertwined among the thorns.

Based on real life events, Agatha tells an intergenerational story of women battling lost dreams, coping mechanisms and each other. Writer and performer Gemma Barnett draws on her own family relationships with incredible honesty to present this production.

Director Martha Geelan said: “What strikes me most about this extraordinary piece that Gemma has written, is how deeply it speaks to the complexities of female identity. The trauma, love and expectation that women pass down through generations – it shapes who we are and what we feel we are supposed to want. How do we know how we are making the right decisions? Who do we base our choices on? How do we learn to be the best versions of ourselves?”

Agatha is a resonating reflection of familial relationships and the impact of inherited trauma, bitterness, pride and awe. 

For more information and to book tickets, please click here.