Ambika Mod to play porn addict in ‘funny, unsettling and honest' play at the Royal Court
Ambika Mod is to star as an academic addicted to violent pornography in a new play at the Royal Court in London. Mod, best known for her screen performances in One Day and This Is Going to Hurt, will take on her highest profile theatre role to date in Porn Play, written by Sophia Chetin-Leuner and directed by Josie Rourke.
Billed as 'funny, unsettling and honest', it opens in November at the Royal Court's smaller Jerwood Theatre Upstairs. Chetin-Leuner, whose play This Might Not Be It was set in a mental health unit and staged at the Bush last year, said: 'Ever since I was a teenager, going to see plays at the Royal Court has shaped my ideals and purpose of who I want to be as a writer – so it's a terrifying privilege to have Porn Play debuting here.' The play was shortlisted for Soho theatre's Verity Bargate award in 2022. Chetin-Leuner said she began writing it to explore the effects of pornography on women but that it has 'evolved into something much more delicate and intricate over the years'.
Mod, who studied at the St Albans performing arts school Theatrix, is also an improv and sketch comedian. Last summer she appeared with the comedy troupe the Free Association at the Edinburgh fringe. Her stage productions have included Nassim Soleimanpour's White Rabbit Red Rabbit, a monologue which performers deliver sight unseen.
Porn Play is one of four new premieres announced by the Royal Court. Deaf Republic, which opens in August, is adapted from the poems of Ukrainian-American author Ilya Kaminsky and will be staged by the company Dead Centre, collaborating with the poet Zoë McWhinney. It will be told through spoken English, sign language, creative captioning and puppetry, using an ensemble of deaf and hearing actors.
That will be followed by a co-production with the National Theatre of Greece entitled Cow | Deer created by Katie Mitchell, Nina Segal and Melanie Wilson. A performance with no words, it will evoke the lives of the eponymous animals and is described by the trio as 'an experiment in recalibration … looking beyond the purely human into the more-than-human world'.
Opening in October is a new play by Nick Payne, The Unbelievers, starring Nicola Walker who is currently in the throuple comedy Unicorn in the West End. The Unbelievers will be directed by Marianne Elliott who called it an 'honest exploration of motherhood'. The theatre also announced the return of Soleimanpour's Echo, which had a short run last summer, and a tour for Breach theatre's Section 28 musical After the Act, previously staged at the New Diorama in London when it was run by David Byrne, who took over at the Royal Court in 2024. It was also announced that Tife Kusoro, whose play G drew acclaim last year, will join the theatre on attachment for 18 months and write a new play.
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The Guardian
3 days ago
- The Guardian
William Dudley obituary
The English Stage Company at the Royal Court is world-renowned for having launched a radical phase in English playwriting in the mid-1950s. But equally significant was the concomitant overhaul in British theatre stage design, and William Dudley, who has died aged 78, was one of its outstanding new stars. The age of painted backcloths and front cloths was now the sole preserve of pantomime, and exquisite costumes and furniture were replaced with rough, raw material and free-standing functional objects. The change, rendering stage design more architectural, more 'art school' and certainly more muscularly poetic, had been instigated by Sean Kenny in Oliver! and John Bury at Stratford East and the Royal Shakespeare Company. The transition was supervised by the 'Motleys', three sisters, Margaret and Sophie Harris, and Elizabeth Montgomery, John Gielgud's design collaborators, who launched an influential design course in 1966. Their mantra was design, not decoration. Dudley emerged in Sloane Square, under the aegis of the Motley-influenced great minimalist designer Jocelyn Herbert, consort of George Devine, the ESC founder, alongside such other luminaries as Hayden Griffin, Deirdre Clancy, John Gunter and John Napier. They would all go on to work in the major companies, in new plays, operas and musicals around the world, transforming the idea that mainland Europe had of British theatre design as the province of such throwback decorative geniuses as Cecil Beaton and Leslie Hurry. In a prodigious career, Dudley started at the Court with a stark design for Peter Gill's revival of The Duchess of Malfi in 1971 and embraced a reputation-enhancing design for Mozart's Die Eintführung at Glyndebourne in 1979; Jonathan Pryce's Hamlet at the Court in 1980, where Pryce spoke the words of his own dead father in a medical cabinet setting of skulls; and, in 1985, the triumphant National Theatre staging of the medieval Mystery plays, a trilogy in a Yorkshire dialect version by Tony Harrison, directed by Bill Bryden (a key collaborator in Dudley's career), beneath a glittering constellation of dustbin braziers, domestic utensils and hurricane lamps. Dudley's designs from the get-go were immersive and environmentally organic long before such terms were fashionable and deadly. He was an elfin, impish curly-headed presence in the preparatory theatre, bedecked with tools and flecked with paint, seemingly unmindful of sleep or recreation outside of his obsessive dedication. In 2006, in a collaboration with his future wife, the director Lucy Bailey (they had been together since 1994 and married in 2008), he designed Titus Andronicus, starring Douglas Hodge, one of the most memorable productions seen at Shakespeare's Globe on the South Bank. He transformed the space into a theatre of death, decking the pillars in funereal black and re-energising the whole arena, said Michael Billington, in 'an astonishing makeover.' Bill, as he was generally known, was the son of Dorothy (nee Stacey), a school dinner lady, and William Dudley, a builder and decorator. Born in Islington, north London, he studied at St Martin's School of Art and the Slade. On a Saturday job in the Canonbury bookshop, he stumbled across the amateur Tower theatre nearby in 1963 and found himself painting, then building, sets, while still training. His first design, in 1966 at the Tower, was for Machiavelli's Mandragora, with costumes by Sue Plummer, with whom he worked and lived for the next decade or so. He warmed up for The Mysteries (which opened in the first part of the trilogy in 1977) with other Gill productions – notably Edward Bond's The Fool (1975) about the country poet John Clare, and Gill's own beautiful Cardiff memory play, Small Change (1976), both at the Court, and a stunning National promenade production by Bryden of Flora Thompson's Lark Rise to Candleford (1978, adapted from the novels by Keith Dewhurst). Dudley responded inherently to such a piece of work set in rural communities at the end of the 19th century. His design for Peter Hall's production of The Ring at Bayreuth in 1983 sought a direct naivety in the confection of naked Rhine maidens in a soft tank reflected vertically in a suspended mirror, while Siegfried wandered in an Arthur Rackham-like tawny forest. Dudley was the first designer fully to exploit the amazing double-drum revolve in the new National, when, for Howard Davies's magnificent 1988 revival of Dion Boucicault's Irish melodrama of the 1866 Fenian uprising, The Shaughraun, he conjured the whole of county Sligo, mythical and realistic, with its crumbling ruins, abbey arches strewn with ivy, virgin statues and peasant cottages, with a glittering band of starlit sea beyond. After The Mysteries, his biggest theatre projects were in Glasgow with Bryden. Having commandeered the old Harland and Wolff engine shed in Govan, they produced two of the most spectacular and sensational productions of the past century. The Ship (1990) told the drama of the last great liner built on the Clyde, as the hull slid, literally, from its timber supports away from the audience … who were left to lament and celebrate the end of an era. Then, in The Big Picnic (1994), they recreated the terrible beauty of first world war trench warfare, night-time eeriness, search ights and star shell tracer bullets. The hallucination of the Angel of Mons appeared over the western front, and the audience. The 'show' was rooted in the fate of local Govan lads, with a live soundtrack of anthems and folk rock. In 2004, Dudley's range expanded into designing not only David Hare's brilliant documentary drama, The Permanent Way, about the scandal and tragedy of railway disasters, and a superb revival by Roger Michell of Pinter's Old Times – a mirrored floor and gauze surround expressed exactly the sexual and social ambiguity in the play – but also an ingenious, kaleidoscopically shifting projection setting for Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Woman in White, directed by Trevor Nunn. Personally, I worried about this intrusion of video and CG imagery into design, but Dudley had no fears about it and had taken it one step further in his panoramic designs for Tom Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia (2002), a nine-hour trilogy investigating the seeds of the Russian revolution and the conflict between individual liberty and ideological prescription, directed by Nunn at the National. His last work – before a diagnosis of Alzheimer's – included a wonderfully agile design for Turgenev's Fortune's Fool at the Old Vic in 2013, starring Iain Glen and Richard McCabe, and Bailey's brilliantly conceived 2017 production of Agatha Christie's Witness for the Prosecution in the old County Hall, former home of the Greater London council on the South Bank. Dudley always reminded me of the Artful Dodger. There was something cheeky and subversive about him. He played the accordion, and the spoons; a real north London lad. He won seven Olivier awards – only Judi Dench can match him in that number. He was appointed OBE in 2021. His younger sister, Jeanie, died in 2006. He is survived by Lucy and their sons, Ollie and Billy. William 'Bill' Dudley, theatre designer, born 4 March 1947; died 31 May 2025
Daily Mirror
28-05-2025
- Daily Mirror
Ambika Mod says 'doors are starting to open' as she reflects on One Day success
A year after the sweeping success of her lead role in Netflix's One Day, Ambika Mod has shared her personal insights and experiences about being a brown woman in the film industry Netflix's One Day star Ambika Mod has opened up about her experience navigating the film industry as a woman and those who compare her career trajectory to her former co-star Leo Woodall. The actress shared her candid thoughts after new survey research from Mastercard revealed that women in film feel progress is reversing, but that younger generations are best poised to affect positive change. Speaking at a panel event alongside film director Nisha Ganatra (Freakier Friday), Mod said: 'It's great to see such a positive shift on screen, as the new research from Mastercard reflects. There's a real sense that change is taking hold, and that people are starting to believe in a more equal future for women in film.' 'It's something I've seen in my own experience, progress is happening, and doors are starting to open,' she continued. 'But the findings are also a timely reminder that we're not there yet - especially when it comes to behind-the-scenes roles. If we want lasting change, we need to make sure opportunities exist not just in front of the camera but across every part of the industry.' Following the success of the Netflix miniseries, Mod has gone on to star in the television series The Stolen Girl and hit movie Black Bag, alongside Cate Blanchett, BAFTA award winner Marisa Abela and fellow Netflix alum Regé-Jean Page, and was also named on the 2024 Time100 Next list recognising rising influential leaders. But despite her incredible success, her career trajectory is often compared to her former One Day co-star. Woodall's career has skyrocketed since the series, starring as the lead in Prime Target for Apple TV+ and recently earning a role in the upcoming Anthony Bourdain biopic, Tony. Speaking to British GQ, Mod shared she doesn't have access to the same 'privilege' as Woodall, though their careers are often compared. She said: 'It's mad because we wouldn't be going for the same roles at all, and we're very different people. I think we're going to have very different careers. If I compare myself to someone like Leo, I'm always going to come up short, because there's a privilege there that I don't have access to.' She revealed in the interview that she still struggles not to compare herself to her white peers. 'Being brown is not particularly easy in this industry. You don't get the same opportunities. You don't get the same ascension.' Despite her success on One Day and BBC 's This is Going to Hurt, Mod says she still feels she has to prove herself in a way white actors do not. 'I've been the lead of two very successful, critically-acclaimed TV shows and I still feel like I have to keep on proving myself. A lot of my white peers don't really have to tackle that." Mastercard's Women in Film research also cited that while representation of women on screen has improved, there is more pressure on women to 'prove themselves' than their male counterparts - particularly in behind-the-scenes roles. Still for Mod, the future is bright as ever with a slew of exciting projects on the horizon including two big theatre shows. Mod's one-woman show, Every Brilliant Thing, will soon kick off in the West End and be followed by a performance in Porn Play at the Royal Court. She will also take on a lead role in Sacrifice, the first English-language feature from French director Romain Gavras alongside Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Evans, Vincent Cassell and Charli XCX.
The Herald Scotland
15-05-2025
- The Herald Scotland
Best-selling book One Day to become new Scottish musical
David Nicholls' best-selling novel, which begins and ends in the Scottish capital, will be brought to the stage of the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh next year under plans for its latest in a series of high-profile musical adaptations. Read more: Leading Scottish playwright David Greig, the Lyceum's former artistic director, is adapting Nicholls' book, which has sold six million copies and been translated into 40 different languages to date. The novel explores the twist and turns of the friendship and eventual relationship between the two main characters, Dexter and Emma, over the course of 20 years. The story unfolds after the pair meet for the first time at their Edinburgh University graduation party and revisits their lives each year on the same July day. The Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh will launch a stage musical version of One Day in February. (Image: Will Maidwell) One Day is the first major production to be confirmed by the Lyceum since it appointed a new artistic director, James Brining, who took up his post last month. Greig was approached just over a year ago about a One Day musical by producer Simon Friend, who had spent more than a decade trying to bring an adaptation to the stage. Greig is working with American singer-songwriters Abner Ramirez and Amanda Sudano - the husband-and-wife duo who record under the name Johnnyswim - on One Day, which will initially run at the Lyceum between February and April next year. Author David Nicholls is best known for his book One Day. Picture: Supplied The show will reunite Greig with Olivier and Tony-nominated theatre director Max Webster, who recently worked on stage adaptations of Macbeth and The Importance of Being Earnest, starred David Tennant and Ncuti Gatwa respectively, as well as the award-winning adaptation of Yann Martel's novel The Life of Pi, which was produced by Simon Friend. Greig and Webster previously worked together on a musical adaptation of the children's book The Lorax and also collaborated on a new version of the Shakespearean play The Winter's Tale, which the Lyceum produced in Greig's first season at the helm. The One Day musical is being billed as 'a celebration of love, fate, and the moments that define us forever, with a soaring original score, and the warmth, wit, and raw emotion of the novel that touched millions.' Ambika Mod and Leo Woodall starred in the Netflix series based on the book One Day. Picture: Ludovic Robert/Netflix Among the highlights of Greig's time as artistic director at the Lyceum was an adaptation of writer-director Bill Forsyth's classic Scottish film comedy Local Hero. Greig's previously adapted Alasdair Gray's novel Lanark, the Greek tragedy The Bacchae and Roald Dahl's classic children's book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for the stage. Greig said: 'I was initially approached around this time last year by Simon, who had the rights to do a One Day stage adaptation. He had previously worked with Max and also knew James (Brining) very well from his time at the Leeds Playhouse. 'I felt that One Day was a very Edinburgh story. They needed somewhere to develop the adaptation. We had already done Local Hero and were doing Wild Rose. I felt that One Day would really work in Edinburgh and it would be a lovely musical for the Lyceum to do next. I felt it could be a real win for everybody. 'It has all worked out very well, we're all really thrilled that it's going to be happening at the Lyceum and we really hope we can pull it off.' Greig's final show at the helm of the Lyceum was a musical adaptation of the hit Scottish feature film Wild Rose, about a troubled country singer dreaming of a new life in Nashville. Nicole Taylor, who wrote both the screenplay and stage adaptation of Wild Rose, was also the lead writer of the One Day series. Greig said: 'The One Day series was a phenomenon when it came out, but I didn't watch it. It hadn't long been out when I got the musical gig, so I wanted to be careful that I didn't copy anything. I'm convinced I will adore the series because I adore Nicole's writing, but I felt I needed to keep a bit of distance to keep my mind clear. 'The strange coincidence over the last year was at the same time Nicole was coming to me for advice about how to write a stage musical and I have been going to her for advice about how to write a stage version of One Day.' Greig can trace his One Day roots back to when he and Nicholls studied drama together at Bristol University in the 1980s and both in a student production at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1988. The production of the 17th century tragedy Sejanus His Fall, was directed by Matthew Warchus, who would go on to replace Kevin Spacey as artistic director of The Old Vic theatre in London. Nicholls' time in Edinburgh that summer is said to have inspired the author to write the book, which opens in 1988. He said: 'We performed in the Fringe play in the room on the top floor of a venue on Chambers Street. There were eight of us on stage dressed in our underwear. I've no idea why, but I guess it sold tickets. I think that is when David fell in love with Edinburgh. 'It has felt strangely fated that I would not only get the chance to work on a story with which I've felt a kind of closeness, but also be able to celebrate the Edinburgh-ness of the story and open it at the Lyceum. 'A musical is a chance to reinvent and think about something in a different way. You have to sort of find a logic for its existence. There was something for me about One Day being rooted in the Edinburgh moment when Emma and Dexter meet, but also its ending, on Arthur's Seat.' Greig said he had jumped at the chance to adapt a book which he had 'adored' when he read it, but admitted its episodic structure made it 'tricky' to bring to the stage. He said: 'One of the absolute joys of the book is how it approaches time passing, how it affects us and shapes us, and how were sort of the same people but also totally different as we age. 'David hit on an absolute truth, which is that time is a character in our lives. When I read One Day I totally knew who Dexter and Emma were and what they were experiencing. There is something really lovely about being able to explore that in real-time on stage. 'David writes about romance and love as we experience it in our real lives. It is deeper, stranger and harder.' Greig said both Sudano and Ramirez, who began writing songs together after meeting in Nashville more than 20 years ago, have been 'obsessed' with One Day since they both read the book. He said: 'Abner and Amanda have been one of the huge energies behind the musical happening. They feel the story is very close to them. Their songs are bringing honestly, vulnerability, beauty and heart to the show, which is allowing me as the writer to let the dialogue be as a dry and ironic as it is in the original book. 'Hopefully the show will have everything people want from it. It won't be sloppily sentimental because the book isn't sloppily sentimental, but it will have real emotion.'
