Carbon Theatre and Now What Productions in association with Park Theatre present
I Love You, Now What?
By Sophie Craig, Directed by Toby Clarke
From the spark of new love, Ava and Theo’s relationship is coloured by the diagnosis and loss of Ava’s father, causing her world to come tumbling down.
I Love You, Now What? is a brilliantly funny, heart-warming and raw debut play by actor and comedian Sophie Craig, about grief and love’s place within it.
Directed by Toby Clarke, director of the Olivier-nominated, Warheads, the play explores all that is beautiful, ugly and everything in between, finding humour even in the darkest of places.
Included in The Telegraph’s Best Plays of the 2023 Fringe Festivals, this equally “haunting” (★★★★ The Telegraph) and “hilarious” (★★★★★ The Fringe Review) drama sees Sophie Craig (The Adventures of Maid Marian) and Andy Umerah (Ted Lasso) returning as Ava and Theo with Ian Puleston-Davies (Tin Star) joining the cast as Ava’s father.
Proudly working with and supporting Cruse.
PRESS
★★★★ ‘Haunting… bittersweet… an aching filial attendance on the embers of a valued life – two different but vital kinds of love’ The Telegraph
★★★★★ ‘Flawless… A powerful and devastating performance’ Theatre and Art Reviews
★★★★★ ‘Gargantuan belly laugh out loud moments… Electric and hilarious… shook me to my core’ The Fringe Review
Sophie Craig. Photo credit: Eriin Browne.
CAST
AVA | SOPHIE CRAIG
DAD/JOHN | IAN PULESTON-DAVIES
THEO | ANDY UMERAH
CREATIVE TEAM
WRITER | SOPHIE CRAIG
DIRECTOR | TOBY CLARKE
PRODUCER | COURTENAY JOHNSON
LIGHTING DESIGNER | PABLO FERNANDEZ BAZ
COMPOSER | JACK EDMONDS
SET & COSTUME CONSULTANT DESIGNER | BETHAN WALL
MOVEMENT DIRECTOR | SEAN HOLLANDS
DRAMATURG | TOBY CLARKE
PRODUCTION MANAGER | ADAM JEFFERYS
STAGE MANAGER | TJ RODERICK
ORIGINAL SET BUILD | SAM STEWART
ORIGINAL CASTING DIRECTOR | CERI BEDINGFIELD
31 JULY - 24 AUGUST 2024
CAST
Photo credit: Greta Zabulyte
Sophie Craig
AVA
Sophie Craig is a writer, actor and comedian. I Love You, Now What? is her critically-acclaimed debut. It’s sell-out Edinburgh Fringe Festival run in 2023 received an Offie nomination. Sophie has adapted the text for this extended Park Theatre version.
Sophie’s film & TV credits include: Bulletproof (Sky One), The Adventures of Maid Marian (Amazon Prime), The Bay (ITV), The Three Musketeers (Amazon Prime) and Fortunes of War (Apple TV).
Photo credit: Michael Carlo
Andy Umerah
THEO
Andy originated the role of Theo in I Love You, Now What? at The Pleasance Theatre in 2023 and is looking forward to sharing this play with the audience at Park Theatre.
Other theatre credits include: Crackers (Polka Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (East London Shakespeare Festival), The Boy Who Left Home To Find Out About The Shivers (Unicorn Theatre).
TV and film credits include: Infamy (Netflix), Ted Lasso (Apple TV), 4 O’Clock Club (BBC), Reckless The Web Series (Impact 10).
Photo credit: Stephen Cain
Ian Puleston-Davies
DAD/JOHN
Ian’s stage work includes: A Passionate Woman (Harold Pinter Theatre), Everybody Loves A Winner (Royal Exchange), Lebenstraum (Kings Head) and She Stoops To Conquer (Bristol Old Vic).
Ian has appeared in numerous TV and film productions over the years including: Pennyworth (Warner Horizon), Tin Star (Sky Atlantic), The Responder (BBC), Archie (ITVX), D.I. Ray (ITVX), Marcella (Netflix) and Silent Witness (BBC).
CREATIVES
Sophie Craig
WRITER
Sophie Craig is a writer, actor and comedian. I Love You, Now What? is her critically-acclaimed debut. It’s sell-out Edinburgh Fringe Festival run in 2023 received an Offie nomination. Sophie has adapted the text for this extended Park Theatre version.
Sophie’s film & TV credits include: Bulletproof (Sky One), The Adventures of Maid Marian (Amazon Prime), The Bay (ITV), The Three Musketeers (Amazon Prime) and Fortunes of War (Apple TV).
Toby Clarke
DIRECTOR
Toby is a Writer, Director & Acting Coach in Theatre, TV & Film. Directing credits: Warheads by Taz Skylar at Park Theatre (Olivier Nominated), Wasted by Kae Tempest (OFFIE nominated - Best Director), Rep by Toby Clarke (Brixton House).
TV/Film Credits: Queenie (Disney +), Sherwood (ITV), Christy (BBC Ireland) & Get Millie Black (HBO)
Toby is Founder of ALT. Club - an Acting Club for professional Actors.
www.tobyclarkedirector.com
Pablo Fernandez Baz
LIGHTING DESIGNER
Pablo’s recent lighting design credits include Associate Lighting Designer for Gecko Theatre, an internationally acclaimed physical theatre company known for its unique style and innovative stagecraft.
His other credits include the Oliver Award-nominated show Warheads at the Park Theatre; Staged, winner of the Total Theatre Awards for Circus 2019; United Queendom, a site-specific production at Kensington Palace, produced by Les Enfants terribles; Nearly Human by Perhaps Contraption, offie finalist (IDEA 2020); and Valhalla, nominated for OffFest short run 2019.
Bethan Wall
SET & COSTUME CONSULTANT DESIGNER
Bethan is a designer for performance with a background in sculpture who recently completed her MA in Design for Performance at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. She was a recipient of the Linbury Prize in 2023. She is interested in why we are telling a story, and who it is for. In her process, she thoroughly considers where the cultural access points of given performances are, and what role they, and the institutions they are performed in, play in broader society. She weaves performances together with real world events, placing them, and the audience, (culturally) elsewhere.
As Assistant Designer, credits include: Anthropology (Hampstead Theatre), Lyonesse (Harold Pinter Theatre), Grenfell: In the Words of Survivors (The National Theatre), Once on This Island (Regents Part Open Air Theatre), The Good Person of Szechwan (Crucible Theatre), Henry VIII (The Globe), The Trials (Donmar Warehouse), The Contingency Plan (Crucible Theatre), Anna Karenina (Crucible Theatre),
Sean Hollands
MOVEMENT DIRECTOR
Sean Hollands is a Director and Movement Director. He is currently a Creative Associate at The Lost Estate, a Theatre Practitioner for Frantic Assembly, and Associate of the National Youth Theatre of GB. He was the recipient of the Bryan Forbes Director award in 2016 with the NYT.
Movement Direction Credits include: The Great Christmas Feast (The Lost Estate), START (Brixton House), The Gaps They Leave (Poole Lighthouse, Offpiste Theatre), Savannah (Union Theatre), Woyzeck (Theatro Technis), The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (UK Tour 21-22), About Money (Theatre 503), Punk Rock (Theatre Royal Stratford East), All The Beds I Have Slept In (UK Tour), Pizza Shop Heroes (UK Tour), Warheads (Park Theatre, Olivier Award Nominated), The Spalding Suite (LAMDA), START (Mountview), One Minute (The Barn Theatre, Cirencester), The Mighty Atoms (Rose Bruford College), I Like The Way You Move (Theatre Peckham), The Way I See It (Stratford Circus), Monkeybars (Southwark Playhouse), The Moment Before an Explosion (Ovalhouse), DNA (Ambassadors Theatre), Eggshells (Kings Head Theatre).
Adam Jefferys
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Adam is a Lighting Designer and Production Manager from Essex. Recent Work: My Father’s Fable (Bush Theatre), The Bleeding Tree (Southwark Playhouse), The Great Privation (Theatre503), The Olive Boy (UK Tour), Murder In The Dark (UK Tour), Elephant (Bush Theatre), It Is I, Seagull (UK Tour), Soon & Pilot (Both Summerhall Festival), Philosophy of The World (Cambridge Junction), After The Act (New Diorama), War & Culture (New Diorama), Under The Kundè Tree (Southwark Playhouse), Jekyll and Hyde (Derby Theatre), Project Dictator (New Diorama & Edinburgh), Everything Has Changed (Tour & Edinburgh) and Dorian (Reading Rep).
For more of Adam’s work please visit his website: www.adamjefferys.com
TJ Roderick
STAGE MANAGER
TJ is a queer working class creative from the South Wales Valleys and a graduate of Goldsmiths University. Having graduated in 2022, TJ has worked in industry as a stage manager and director, writing and devising for his partnership Woodhouse&Roderick.
COMPOSER | JACK EDMONDS
ORIGINAL SET BUILD | SAM STEWART
ORIGINAL CASTING DIRECTOR | CERI BEDINGFIELD