Lyric life

The Lyric Hammersmith Theatre and the Bill Cashmore Award are thrilled to announce Wasted by Chanel Fernandes and Kane Feagan as the winner of the 2022 Bill Cashmore Award which aims to champion a new generation of theatre makers, enabling them to tell stories about the diverse, challenging yet vibrant world in which they are coming of age.

Run in conjunction with the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, the Bill Cashmore Award enables emerging artists to transform a fledgling idea from the page to the professional stage. It was founded by Sasha Bates in 2018 in memory of her husband, actor, playwright, director and entrepreneur Bill Cashmore.

Wasted will headline the Lyric’s seventh annual Evolution Festival in Spring 2023 which provides a platform and career launch pad for young theatre makers producing innovative work for stage and screen.

The play follows the story of two young who women find themselves at the centre of a missing person’s case after their male flatmate does not return after a night out. It explores the lived experience of women in a culture of misogyny which skews the justice system against them.

The winners were chosen following scratch performances at this year’s Evolution Festival, performed by the inaugural members of Springboard, a ground-breaking, free two-year training programme from the Lyric providing unrivalled theatre-based training and development opportunities to nurture the next generation of performers from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds and groups underrepresented in theatre.

Sasha Bates, Founder of the Bill Cashmore Award, said: “Amongst a very strong field of scratch shows, I found myself mesmerised and intrigued by ‘Wasted’. Chanel and Kane drew me into the unsettling yet pervasive world of gender politics, everyday sexism, and power dynamics with undertones of the Me Too movement – contemporary and important issues affecting all of us today. Yet worthy it is not. It’s funny, lively, spirited, and entertaining, delivered via a captivating mystery – the puzzling disappearance of their flatmate.

The Bill Cashmore Award exists to make sure exciting and relevant work like this gets the platform it warrants. Kane and Chanel are deserving winners, possessing the talent, creativity, work ethic and determination to right some wrongs, start some conversations, provoke new thoughts, and entertain us along the way. I can’t wait to see the full-length version and discover where these two young women – the characters in the play, but mainly the creators themselves – are heading.”

Rob Lehmann, Director of Young Lyric, said: “The Bill Cashmore Award is vitally important to champion extraordinary young, visionary artists and, in conjunction with the Lyric, we are proud to provide support, space, time and opportunities for Chanel and Kane to develop Wasted and to hone their skills to help launch their careers in the industry. We are so excited to see how Wasted develops and to stage this new play at the 2023 Evolution Festival where Lyric audiences will get to see innovative, challenging, early new work from the most exciting future theatre makers.”

Kane Feagan and Chanel Fernandes, Bill Cashmore Award 2022 winners, said: “We believe Wasted is an important story to be heard and we hope to tell it by presenting a narrative based on truth, keeping it raw and honest, not pushing any opinions on what is right and wrong, but presenting a world that exists for many of us. It is one that everyone can relate to, being from their own experiences or ones they are familiar with, which centres around female friendship and the influence of a misogynistic society. Being able to develop Wasted into a full-length play will allow us to collaborate with some exciting creative professionals and a leading London theatre. We hope it will bring some exposure for us in the industry and allow us to grow in confidence, while having the privilege to share a story and create an amazing piece of theatre around a story we want to tell.”

Kane Feagan is from West London and a Lyric Springboard trainee. Kane’s theatre credits include Aladdin, The MOB Reformers, Eclipse, Passin’ Thru and The Intervention (Lyric Hammersmith theatre), Mrs Noah (Headlong – workshop/RND), A Walk In The Park (Royal Central). Kane is currently working on The Maladies as part of the Almeida Young Company and a show with the Bush Young Company.

Chanel Fernandes is from West London and a Lyric Springbaord trainee. Chanel’s theatre credits include the role of Kara 1 in A Letter to Lacey (Bush Theatre), Linda Loman in Death of a Salesman (University of Warwick), Ophelia in The Secret Love Life of Ophelia (Greenwich Theatre), and projects with the National Youth Theatre.