Cast and Creatives announced for
Heart Wall by Kit Withington at Bush Theatre
This world premiere, centred firmly in the north-west of England, invites us to a night down the pub for an evening of family, banter, beer, and karaoke.
The cast includes Sophie Stanton, who makes her first appearance on the Bush stage since starring in the premiere of Jonathan Harvey’s Beautiful Thing in 1993.
A Bush Theatre production
Heart Wall
Written by Kit Withington
Directed by Katie Greenall
Set & Costume Designer – Hazel Low
Costume Supervisor – Esther Taylor
Lighting Designer – Simisola Majekodunmi
Sound Designer & Composer – Mwen
Movement Director – Mateus Daniel
Casting Director – Jatinder Chera
Cast – Aaron Anthony, Olivia Forrest, Rowan Robinson, Sophie Stanton, and Deka Walmsley
7 April – 16 May 2026
Monday – Saturday at 7.30 pm
Wednesday matinees – 15, 22, 29 Apr, 6, 13 May at 2.30 pm
Saturday matinees – 18, 25 Apr, 2, 9, 16 May at 2.30 pm
Relaxed performances – Sat 18 Apr, 2.30 pm & Thurs 30 Apr, 7.30 pm
Captioned performances – Thurs 23 Apr, 7.30 pm & Sat 9 May, 2.30 pm
Audio described performances and touch tours – Sat 25 Apr 2.30 pm & Thurs 7 May 7.30 pm
Press Night – Tues 14 Apr at 7 pm
A new play with its heart and soul placed firmly in the north-west of England opens at the Bush Theatre on 7 April (Press night 14th April). Heart Wall, by Manchester writer and Bush Writers’ Group alum, Kit Withington, and directed by Katie Greenall, an Associate Director at the Royal Exchange, Manchester, invites us down the pub for an evening of family, banter, beer, and karaoke
It’s Friday night, and home from University, Franky is back at her local pub for the first time in years. A British institution, so often under threat of closure these days, the pub is the centre of the community where pints are poured, Motown music drifts from the tinny speakers, and karaoke starts at eight. It’s reassuringly familiar. Like nothing’s changed.
But, haunted by grief, Franky’s family is quietly unravelling around her. Her dad is hiding himself away, and buried family secrets are leaking through the cracks in every room.
A bittersweet, tender exploration of the long tail of grief and the fickleness of memory, Heart Wall asks where we go when the walls start closing in, and home has become somewhere you don’t know.
Kit Withington is a playwright from Manchester. Kit was a member of the Soho Theatre Writers’ Lab in 2018, and her play Scrap was shortlisted for the Tony Craze Award. She was part of the Emerging Writers’ Group at the Bush Theatre in 2021 and has also been part of both an Intro Group and a Long Form Group at the Royal Court. In 2021, she wrote Our Moon Under Water for Edition 6 of the Royal Court’s LIVING NEWSPAPER. In 2023, Kit’s play AS WE FACE THE SUN was produced by The Bush for their 18-25 young company. In 2025, her first radio drama, Nearly Light, was Highly Commended for Best Single Original Drama at the BBC Audio Awards.
Katie Greenall is a director, theatre maker, and writer based in London, specializing in new writing, solo autobiographical work, and youth/community projects. They are Associate Director (Creative Exchange) at the Royal Exchange, Manchester, and previously Associate Director at the Bush Theatre, where she also led the Young Companies. Notable directing credits include COMMUNION, As We Face the Sun (Offie-nominated), ANTHEM, Pass It On & Back Up! (Bush Theatre) and We All Know How This Ends and here, here, here (Theatre Royal Stratford East). They were also the Associate Director on Barcelona at the Duke of York’s Theatre. As a writer, Katie was part of the Roundhouse Poetry Collective and a Resident Artist (2018-19). She has been long-listed for the Channel 4 Screenwriting Course, is an alumnus of the Soho Writers’ Course, and was a finalist for the Popcorn Award in 2023. Her solo show FATTY FAT FAT won the VAULTS Origins Award (2019) and had a sold-out run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Their current solo show BLUBBER explores body image through synchronised swimming and whales, and after a critically acclaimed run at Summerhall, Edinburgh in 2024, will tour nationally and internationally in 2026.
Aaron Anthony plays Valentine. Aaron’s theatre credits include: A Christmas Carol and A Doll’s House (Sheffield Crucible); Cymbeline, Macbeth, and Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare’s Globe); The Motive and the Cue (National Theatre); Yellowman (Orange Tree Theatre); Shakespeare in Love (West End); Twelfth Night and Billy Liar (Royal Exchange Manchester); Lose Yourself (Sherman Theatre); Romeo & Juliet (Insane Root); A View from the Bridge and Macbeth (Tobacco Factory Theatre); ’Tis Unmanly Grief (Theatre N16) and Human Emotional Process (Chaskis/Arts Theatre). On television, Aaron has appeared in The Blame, Emmerdale, Midsomer Murders, Father Brown, The Pact, The Other One, Shakespeare & Hathaway, Doctors, Outlaws, Witless, Holby City, Behind Her Eye and Delicious. Aaron has appeared in the short films I, You, and Silent Phantom.
Olivia Forrest plays Charli. Olivia’s theatre credits include Little Death (Theatre 503), Much Ado About Nothing (National Theatre), and Two Into One (The Mill at Sonning). TV credits include Falling (Channel 4).
Rowan Robinson plays Franky. Rowan studied at RADA and won the Sir Alec Guinness Award in 2022. She is known for her TV roles in Brassic (SKY), A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (HBO), Passenger (ITV), and A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story (ITV). She stars in Kenneth Branagh’s feature film A Haunting in Venice (20th Century). On stage, she has appeared in A Taste of Honey at the Royal Exchange Theatre and, most recently, When We Are Married at the Donmar Warehouse.
Sophie Stanton plays Linda. Sophie is a fixture on national television, film and on the UK stage, and has made notable appearances in over 40 of the biggest television shows of the last two decades, including Eastenders, King Gary, Endeavour IV, The Halcyon, My Mad Fat Diary, Gimme Gimme Gimme, Prime Suspect, A Touch of Frost, Ashes to Ashes, New Tricks and Where The Heart Is. Most recently, Sophie played regular roles in FX’s highly anticipated serialisation of The Full Monty for Disney+, and in The Killing Kind for Paramount+. Sophie has also appeared in numerous plays at the National Theatre, the Donmar Warehouse, The Almeida – Diyan Zora’s Roots being her fourth Almeida show – and for companies including the Royal Shakespeare Company and Paines Plough. Her most recent credits include East is East (National Theatre); As You Like It (RSC), The Taming of The Shrew (RSC); The Fantastic Follies of Mrs Rich, as Mrs Rich (RSC), Ink (The Almeida), The Tempest (Donmar Warehouse), Henry IV (Donmar Warehouse & St Ann’s Warehouse NY).
Her film appearances include Una, Me Before You, Shadowlands, Grow Your Own, Beautiful Thing, and Cheerful Weather for the Wedding.
Deka Walmsley plays Dez. Deka is a British film, TV, and stage actor whose theatre credits include: Ghosts (Lyric Hammersmith); Roots/Look Back in Anger and Enemies (The Almeida); Fisherman’s Friends: The Musical (Hall for Cornwall); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It and The Tempest (Shakespeare’s Globe/ Tour); An Enemy of the People and Wonderland (Nottingham Playhouse); Macbeth and The Pitmen Painters (National Theatre/Tour); Secret Heart (Royal Exchange); Cyrano (Bristol Old Vic); Home Shetland (National Theatre of Scotland); Their Very Own and Golden City (Royal Court); Playing with Fire (National Theatre); Keepers of the Flame (RSC); Bones (Hampstead Theatre); Andorra and Stars in the Morning Sky (Northern Stage); Billy Elliot; Cooking with Elvis and Blood Brothers (West End). Deka’s television credits include Forever Home; Truelove; Deceit; The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself; The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe; Vera; Three Girls; Our Friends in the North; Nature Boy; Ticket to Ride; Rebus; Waiters; Breeze Block; Grease Monkey; 55 Degrees North; Waking the Dead; Dirty War and Inspector George Gently. Deka’s film credits include Blue Jean and A Banquet.
Heart Wall was co-commissioned with Oldham Coliseum.
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Tickets
The Bush has updated its pricing structure this season to make tickets cheaper and help audiences find the deal that’s right for them. The theatre has moved away from dynamic pricing and released more £15 tickets than ever before. The concession rates are now all £5.
Heart Wall
Previews: £15 – £20
From 15 April: £15 – £35
Concessions available.
Tickets can be booked at bushtheatre.co.uk or the Box Office on 020 8743 5050.
With a Bush Theatre season ticket, the more shows you book, the more you save.
Bush Theatre members get the best benefits, including discounts on tickets and savings at the bar. Free memberships are available for under-30s and local residents. See the Bush Theatre’s new website for details.
Bush Theatre
Opened in 1972, the Bush Theatre is internationally renowned as “the place to go for groundbreaking work as diverse as its audiences” (Evening Standard).
A champion of playwrights and operating in one of London’s most culturally diverse areas, the Bush Theatre is committed to its local and wider artistic communities. Braiding these two strands of work together, the Bush produces an engaging and challenging programme that reflects the world we live in.
Recent successes include multi-award-winning productions Red Pitch by Tyrell Williams and Shifters by Benedict Lombe, both of which transferred to the West End, and Invisible by Nikhil Parmar, which transferred to Off-Broadway. Richard Gadd’s Baby Reindeer, Igor Memic’s Old Bridge, Waleed Akhtar’s The P Word, and Sleepova by Matilda Feyiṣayọ Ibini won the Olivier Award for ‘Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre’ in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024, respectively.
The Bush Theatre’s talent development programmes discover and develop the very best of the UK’s leading artists. The Bush team believes the theatre has a responsibility to programme and generate opportunities for new and established makers and, through long-term residencies, to support the sustainability of their careers.
The Bush continues to create a space where all communities can be part of its future and call the theatre home.
