The Sheffield University Theatre Company (SUTCo) production Peace Circle, which will be sent to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this August, have revealed their casting.
The six-person team, made up predominantly of familiar SUTCo names, will take a SUTCo show to the world’s largest Fringe festival for the first time since 2023’s We Are, In Fact, The Problem.
The original script, written and directed by Lucy Singer, will be staged for one week at the month-long event in the Scottish capital.
Announcing the cast on social media earlier today, the team behind the production revealed that “[they] have a cast list” and that the team are “Super excited to work with these incredible actors – they really are something special!”
Leading the cast are Alicia Fitzwilliams (Shakespeare in the Park: As You Like It, Swap the Press) as Becky, Ella Hulford (Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Margaret Beaufort: Kingmaker) as Wendy, and Matthew Heppell (Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Shakespeare in the Park: As You Like It) as Leon.
The trio form the distraught family of Jonah, the victim of an accident caused by Elliot, played by John Wood.
The three find themselves attempting to recover from their grief, hoping that the peace circle method will aid their efforts, whilst Elliot comes to terms with what his actions have done.
Wood will be making his SUTCo debut in the role.
Completing the company are Roberto Rowinski (The Effect, Margaret Beaufort: Kingmaker) as Elliot’s reluctant brother Callum, and Emilia Lodge (The Effect, The Importance of Being Earnest) as Natalia, the facilitator of the process.
The play follows the five participants and their facilitator as they join the Peace Circle, a real-world form of restorative justice, aimed at reconciliation and understanding following a crime or tragedy.
Written by SUTCo member Lucy Singer (The Importance of Being Earnest), she will be joined on the production team by Producer Jasmine Kaur Lee, Assistant Producer Jess Clayton and Production Manager Grace Lowe (The Effect, The Importance of Being Earnest).
Besides Lowe, all members of the team will be making their production team debuts in Peace Circle, with Lee and Clayton seeing their SUTCo debuts with this show.
They will also be joined by SUTCo Secretary Phoebe Cookson as the production’s Company Manager.
The production, which will be primarily staged in Edinburgh in August, will also see some runs in Sheffield, to enable those not at Fringe to see the show, although these are yet to be confirmed.
Sending a show to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival biannually, SUTCo’s latest Fringe production is the latest original script to be platformed this year, following the upcoming It Came From the Ice, written by Luke Hookham.
With the latest SUTCo cast now revealed, and one of the final of 2024/25, preparations are now well underway for the theatre group to return to Edinburgh this summer.
Only a technical team left to find, Singer’s production has officially begun, with the countdown to Fringe already having begun.
SUTCo’s Peace Circle will be playing at theSpace @ Venue 45 in Edinburgh from August 18th to 23rd
