Director: Jessica Lazar

Musical Director:
Tom Foskett Barnes

Movement Director:
Jennifer Fletcher

Stage Manager:
Catriona McHugh

Assistant Director:
Amber Sinclair-Case
(via King’s Head Theatre Trainee Directors Scheme)

  • ​Set & Costume Designer
    Anna Lewis
  • Lighting Designer: David Doyle
  • Additional Composition and Sound Design:
    Tom Foskett Barnes
  • Production Manager:
    John Rowland, Will McLeod
  • ​Producers: Arcola Theatre, Ellie Keel and Gabrielle Leadbeater for Ellie Keel Productions, Tom Ford for Atticist

  • PR: Kate Morley PR

  • CAST
    ONE / Irene Beverly Rudd
    TWO / Annabella Gabrielle Brooks
    THREE / Anna Bella Eema Natasha Cottriall

“It’s all coming to an end, Mother. I can feel it in the back of my throat.”

Ten-year-old Annabella knows that there are scarier things than the monsters her mother sees lurking in their abandoned trailer park. There are red eviction notices through the door. There are social workers at the window. There’s the new highway looming, drawing ever-closer, threatening disaster.

Frustrated, one day she builds a girl out of mud. The girl comes to life. The girl is Anna Bella Eema…

Pulitzer Prize finalist Lisa D’Amour is one of America’s leading contemporary playwrights. In the London premiere of this dazzling play with music, the forces of gentrification do battle with the untameable power of imagination.

Nominated for three Off-West End Awards – Best Performance Ensemble (Gabrielle Brooks, Natasha Cottriall and Beverly Rudd), Best Design (Anna Lewis) and Best Sound Design (Tom Foskett-Barnes).

‘The spoken simply melts into song, a woman turns into a wolf, a child is made out of mud, the real and the fantastical sit side by side in a weirdly enticing slice of Southern Gothic. …Jessica Lazar’s production brings real inventiveness to something that might be overly static, and the performances are mightily appealing.’

Stagedoor (Lyn Gardner)

Presented at

Arcola Theatre, London, 11 September – 12 October 2019

ANNA BELLA EEMA was nominated for 3 Off West End Awards 2019 (Best Performance Ensemble – Beverly Rudd, Gabrielle Brooks, Natasha Cottriall; Best Sound Design – Tom Foskett-Barnes; Best Set Design – Anna Lewis). Reviews include:

“a startling, unwieldy beast, quivering with barely bridled chaotic energy. Watching it can feel a little like trying to walk a bear on a leash...Jessica Lazar's production has an uncanny, almost alarming clarity to it. There is a propulsive purpose to her direction...Get in, losers, we're going capital-W Weird. Get onboard or you'll be left behind.”

ExeuntAva Wong Davies

“Jessica Lazar’s direction creates a magical atmosphere with sound and additional music by Tom Foskett-Barnes...and three splendid performances.”

British Theatre GuideHoward Loxton

“The Arcola Theatre has a reputation for producing bold new productions with exceptional young creative teams. Anna Bella Eema certainly fulfils expectations... [This] production maintains absolute precision from start to finish with haunting close harmony singing, sharp changes in mood and a final emotional punch.”

Theatre-NewsChloe Billington

“extremely impressive to watch...I belly laughed, had a tear in my eye and came out feeling empowered and moved by the show and those who have created such a masterpiece. I implore everyone to go and watch this beautiful and exciting new piece of theatre.”

At The TheatrePoppy Jay

“a strong cast and innovative direction creates a magical and captivating fairy tale that feels like a solitary beacon on the trailer park of London theatre. ...Yes tricky to follow, but it’s also like falling down an Alice in Wonderland rabbit hole that you don’t want to climb out of.”

Theatre WeeklyGreg Stewart

“Lisa D’Amour’s play is as weird as its title suggests. First seen in Texas in 2001, it is a mixture of ghost story, prose poem and paean to nature. Even if I found much of it impenetrable, I was impressed by Jessica Lazar’s production and the discipline of its performers.”

The GuardianMichael Billington

“The spoken simply melts into song, a woman turns into a wolf, a child is made out of mud, the real and the fantastical sit side by side in a weirdly enticing slice of Southern Gothic. ...Jessica Lazar’s production brings real inventiveness to something that might be overly static, and the performances are mightily appealing.”

StagedoorLyn Gardner