Rapture, Blister, Burn: Full casting announced

Polly Adams, Emma Fielding, Adam James and Shannon Tarbet join Emilia Fox in Rapture, Blister, Burn, Gina Gionfriddo’s witty dissection of gender politics.

Can any woman have it all? After university Catherine and Gwen chose opposite paths: Catherine built a career as a rock-star academic, while Gwen built a home with a husband and children. Decades later each woman covets the other’s life, and a dangerous game begins as each tries to claim the other’s territory.

Gina Gionfriddo‘s previous plays include the critically acclaimed Becky Shaw (Almeida Theatre) and After Ashley (Vineyard Theatre). The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize winner has also written extensively for television including Law & Order and House of Cards. Rapture, Blister, Burn was a 2013 Pulitzer Prize finalist.

Peter DuBois reunites with Gina following Becky Shaw. His other directing credits include All New People (West End). Peter is Artistic Director of the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston. His productions have been on the annual top ten lists of The New York Times, Time Out, Variety and The Evening Standard.

Rapture, Blister, Burn is lit by James Farncombe with sound by John Leonard.

Emilia Fox last appeared on stage in Coriolanus and Richard II (Almeida Theatre), Good (Donmar Warehouse), Katherine Howard (Chichester Festival) and The Cherry Orchard (RSC). Film includes Suspension Of Disbelief, A Thousand Kisses Deep, Ways To Live Forever and Dorian Gray. TV appearances include Silent Witness, Falcon, Upstairs Downstairs, Merlin,The Queen and Ballet Shoes.

Polly Adams’ stage appearances include Legal Fictions (West End), Entertaining Angels (Chichester Festival and National Tour) and Americans (Oxford Stage Company). TV includes Element of Doubt, Just William, and The Camomile Lawn. Film includes Kisna and A Woman of The North.

Emma Feilding’s many stage roles include In The Republic Of Happiness (Royal Court), Decade (Headlong), The King’s Speech (Wyndham’s Theatre & UK Tour), Heartbreak House (Chichester Festival Theatre) and Playing With Fire (National Theatre). TV includes DCI Banks, The Game, The Suspicions of Mr Whicher and the Cranford Chronicles. Film includes Fast Girls, Twenty8k and The Other Man. She has been nominated for two Olivier Awards.

Adam James returns to Hampstead having been in Nina Raine’s Tiger Country in 2011. Other theatre work includes Bull (Sheffield Crucible and New York), 13 (National Theatre), Much Ado About Nothing (Wyndham’s Theatre) and Gethsemane (National Theatre). Many TV appearances include The Game, The Ark, Churchill’s First World War, Law & Order and Vexed. Films include A Little Chaos, Kilimanjaro, Last Chance Harvey (Golden Globe Nominated) and Broken Lines.

Shannon Tarbet returns to Hampstead following Skåne at Hampstead Downstairs in 2011. Other stage roles include Circle Mirror Transformation, (Royal Court), To Kill A Mockingbird, (Royal Exchange), Mary Shelley (Shared Experience) and 66 Books (Bush Theatre). TV includes Inspector George Gently, Lewis, Monroe and Silk. She appeared in the feature film A Promise.