Lyric life

The Lyric Hammersmith today is pleased to announce the full casting for the UK premiere of Ferdinand von Schirach’s thrilling courtroom drama Terror, directed by Artistic Director Sean Holmes and designed by Olivier Award-winner Anna Fleischle. Emma Fielding plays Prosecuting Counsel Nelson, John Lightbody plays Christian Lauterbach, Forbes Masson plays Defence Counsel Biegler, Tanya Moodie plays the Presiding Judge, Shanaya Rafaat plays Franziska Meiser and Ashley Zhangazha plays the pilot on trial, Lars Koch.

Guilty. Not Guilty. You Decide.

Enter the courtroom. Hear the evidence. Make your judgement. A hijacked plane is heading towards a packed football stadium. Ignoring orders to the contrary a fighter pilot shoots the plane down killing 164 people to save 70,000. Put on trial and charged with murder, the fate of the pilot is in the audience’s hands.

A worldwide phenomenon that has been stirring debate across the globe and providing opposing results in different countries and cultures.

Full cast includes Emma Fielding, John Lightbody, Forbes Masson, Tanya Moodie, Shanaya Rafaat and Ashley Zhangazha.

See Terror at the Lyric from 14 Jun – 15 Jul.

Ferdinand von Schirach, Writer
Ferdinand von Schirach is a German lawyer and writer. Theatre includes: Terror (Deutsches Theatre, Berlin/national tour/international venues including Japan, Denmark, Slovenia, Switzerland, and Hungary). Books include: Crime, Guilt and The Collini Case. Short stories and essays include: Carl Tohrberg’s Christmas, The Girl Who Wasn’t There and The Dignity is Violable.

David Tushingham, Translator
David Tushingham is a dramaturg and translator. He has worked extensively as a curator for European festivals including the Wiener Festwochen, the Ruhrtriennale, Theater der Welt and the Salzburg Festival, commissioning or co-commissioning works by artists as diverse as Forced Entertainment, Ivo van Hove, theatre-rites, Lemi Ponifasio/MAU and 1927.
As a dramaturg he has been responsible for such high profile world premieres as Simon Stephens’s Pornography, directed by Sebastian Nübling (Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg/Festival Theaterformen) The Book of Disquiet by Michel van der Aa with Klaus Maria Brandauer (Linz 09) and The Forbidden Zone directed by Katie Mitchell with text by Duncan Macmillan (Salzburg Festival/Schaubühne Berlin) as well as Julian Crouch/Brian Mertes’s new production of Jedermann for the Salzburg Festival in 2013, which is still in the repertoire today.
As a translator, David Tushingham specialises in the work of contemporary German playwrights. His most recent translation of Roland Schimmelpfennig’s Winter Solstice (ATC/Orange Tree) was a sell-out hit earlier this year. His other translations include Idomeneus (Gate), The Golden Dragon, Jeff Koons and Arabian Night (ATC), The Woman Before, Mr Kolpert and Waiting Room Germany (Royal Court), Innocence (Arcola), Nordost (Company of Angels), Land Without Words (Edinburgh) and The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (Southwark Playhouse).  He has also adapted Salman Rushdie’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories for the National Theatre.

Sean Holmes, Director
Sean is Artistic Director of the Lyric Hammersmith. For the Lyric: Shopping and F**king, Bugsy Malone, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (UK Tour/Manchester Royal Exchange/Brisbane Festival/Dublin International Festival), Herons, Secret Theatre Shows 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7, Cinderella, Desire Under the Elms, Morning, Have I None, Saved, Blasted – winner Olivier Award 2011, Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre, A Thousand Stars Explode in the Sky, Ghost Stories (also Duke of York’s/Liverpool Playhouse/Panasonic Theatre, Toronto/Arts Theatre), Three Sisters and Comedians. In 2016 Sean directed The Plough and the Stars at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin (also Irish/US Tour). Sean was an Associate Director of the Oxford Stage Company from 2001 to 2006 and has also worked at the National Theatre, RSC, Tricycle, Royal Court, Donmar Warehouse, Chichester Festival Theatre and the Abbey Theatre, Dublin.

Written by Ferdinand von Schirach
Translated by David Tushingham
Directed by Sean Holmes
Set Design by Anna Fleischle
Costume Design by Loren Elstein
Lighting by Joshua Carr
Sound by Nick Manning
Casting by Stuart Burt CDG