As Long As We Are Breathing
Diane Samuels
As Long As We Are Breathing is a multi-sensory, mixed media and timely evocation of the true-life story of Miriam Freedman.
The piece depicts Miriam's childhood experience of living in danger, hiding in Slovakia during the Holocaust and charts her journey to London where, in adulthood, she discovered yoga and meditation which enabled her to face and begin to process the depths of her trauma and grief.
Audiences are invited to delve within to contemplate Miriam’s loss and search for healing, peace and forgiveness in a shared theatrical experience.
Written by Diane Samuels and directed by Ben Caplan, the play world premieres at Arcola Theatre, Hackney from 29 January to 1 March and stars Caroline Gruber, Zoe Goriely and Matthew James Hinchliffe.
Bios
Caroline Gruber - Actor
Theatre includes: Little Women, The Machine Stops and Abandonment (York Theatre Royal), The Arc (Soho Theatre), The Narcissist (Chichester Festival Theatre), Leopoldstadt (Wyndhams Theatre), 2000 Years (Royal National Theatre), Six Degrees of Separation (Manchester Royal Exchange), Love Me Slender (New Victoria, Stoke), On the Razzle (Moving Theatre), What Every Woman Knows (Watermill Newbury), Nice Dorothy, Return of the Prodigal (The Artifice), The Dutch Courtesan, His Majesty, Penny for a Song, Cat With Green Violin and Play With Repeats (the Orange Tree Theatre). The Corn is Green (Greenwich), Steaming, (Belgrade, Coventry), Milk and Honey (Library Theatre), The Clandestine Marriage (Compass Theatre).
Television includes: Grace, Doctors, The Jury: Murder Trial, Mr Bates vs The Post Office, FBI International, Einstein and Eddington, Bottom, Stick With Me Kid, Rory Bremner (Who Else?), The Bill, TV Squash, Heil Honey I’m Home, The Upper Hand, Grange Hill, Minder, Sorrel and Son.
Film includes: Disobedience, Too Many Gods, Break Point.
Zoe Goriely - Actor
Zoe trained at École de Theatre Internationale de Jacques Lecoq and The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.
Theatre credits include: Catalyst (The North Wall), Enter, Pursued (Rehearsed reading, The Pleasance), I Really Do Think This Will Change Your Life (Research & Development, Thick Skin) plus numerous development workshops with The North Wall.
Screen work includes: Trigger Point S2 (HTM Television and ITV Studios) and Once Upon A Riot (Broken Flames Productions/Dreamotion Studios).
Credits while training include: Nora in A Doll’s House directed by Blanche McIntyre, Gala performances of The Diary of Anne Frank and The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Portia in The Merchant of Venice and Chanel in The Electric.
Zoe was a BBC Carlton Hobbs Nominee in 2021.
Matthew James Hinchliffe - Actor / Musician
Matthew trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, London and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.
Theatre includes: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Gillian Lynne Theatre), Amelié (Criterion Theatre) and Dirty Dancing (Phoenix Theatre), Nativity! the Musical (Bridge House Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Regent’s Park Open Air theatre), Crazy For You, Singin’ in the Rain, Calamity Jane, Fiddler on the Roof, Chess (all UK, Ireland Tours and Princess of Wales Theatre, Toronto), Sweet Charity, Assassins & Throughly Modern Millie (all Watermill Theatre), Carnival of the Animals (Riverside Studios, London), Sweet Charity (New Wolsey Theatre), Cabaret (European Tour), Peter Pan & The Happy Prince (Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch), Moulin Rouge (MV Aegean Odyssey), Into The Woods (Embassy Theatre), Merrily We Roll Along (Crescent Theatre, Birmingham), West Side Story (Birmingham Hippodrome), Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens (White Rock Theatre).
Television includes: Coronation Street (ITV), Toxic Town (Broke Bones/Netflix).
As a Director/MD/Dance Captain/Pit musician: Journey’s End, Crazy For You, Kiss Me, Kate, 42nd Street, Top Hat, Bar Mitzvah Boy, Sunset Boulevard, The Glorious Ones, Pippin, Oklahoma!, High School Musical, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Fiddler on the Roof, Seussical!, Assassins, Calamity Jane.
Workshops include: Miss Nightingale, BSL integrated performer in DD Divas & The Gruffalo.
In 2002, he was selected and performed Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet for Her Majesty the Queen as part of her Golden Jubilee Celebrations.
Diane Samuels - Writer
Diane Samuels was born and grew up in Liverpool and now lives in London where she has been writing professionally for over thirty years.
Her play Kindertransport won the Verity Bargate and Meyer-Whitworth Awards, and has been performed in the West End, Off-Broadway and all over the world.
Other work includes: The True Life Fiction of Mata Hari (Palace Theatre, Watford), 3 Sisters on Hope Street, with Tracy-Ann Oberman (Liverpool Everyman and Hampstead Theatre), The A-Z of Mrs P, with composer Gwyneth Herbert (Southwark Playhouse), Poppy + George (Palace Theatre), This Is Me, snapshots of girlhood, interactive memoir as monologue (Chickenshed). Plays for BBC radio, include Woman’s Hour serial, Tiger Wings. In 2005, she was Pearson Creative Research Fellow at the British Library. She has been involved in two Wellcome Trust award-winning projects in 2001 and 2016.
Her plays and book, “Diane Samuels’ Kindertransport” are published by Nick Hern Books.
Waltz with Me was published by Renard Press in 2023.
Her daily writing prompts on Instagram, Facebook and Threads are widely enjoyed @dianeesamuels.
Ben Caplan - Director
Ben trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
Directing includes: The Monkey’s Paw (Arrow), Intelligence, Silence, Panic Buy, Embraceable You, Snap, Catch, Slam (Pleasance/UK tour), The Collector (Arcola), Running Free (JW3).
Stage work includes: Redlands, Macbeth (Globe), The Merchant of Venice (Sam Wanamaker), The End of the Night (Park Theatre), A Sherlock Carol (Marylebone), The Exorcist (UK tour), Describe the Night (Hampstead), The Winter’s Tale (RSC), The Knowledge (Charing Cross), Abigail’s Party (Theatre Royal, Bath/UK tour), Sunny Afternoon (Hampstead Theatre/West End-Winner of Best Musical Oliviers), Hedda Gabler (Salisbury Playhouse), Shiver (Watford Palace), Playing With Grown Ups (Theatre503), A Winter’s Tale and Dr. Korzcak’s Example (both Unicorn), Titanic (The MAC, Belfast), Pushing up Poppies (Theatre 503), Seven Jewish Children (Royal Court), The Common Pursuit (Menier Chocolate Factory), Three Sisters on Hope Street (Liverpool Everyman and Hampstead Theatre), Two Thousand Years (National Theatre), The Man of the Future is Dead (Edinburgh), Hamlet (Southampton Nuffield), The Dwarfs (Tricycle), Romeo and Juliet (UK tour), As You Like It (Oxford Playhouse) and SWEAT (Bloomsbury).
Film includes: The Harness, The Commuter, That Woman, The Funeral, Leap Year and Rocknrolla.
Television includes: The Ink Black Heart, Lagging (series1-3), Small Axe (BBC), Silent Witness (BBC), Casualty, Midsomer Murders (ITV), Maigret (ITV), Call the Midwife BBC (series regular 1-6), X Company, The Coroner (BBC), New Blood (BBC), The Lost Honour of Christopher Jeffries (ITV-winner of best Miniseries BAFTAs), Whitechapel (series III), Dark Matters, The Runaway (SKY), Trinity (ITV), The Passion (BBC/HBO), Maxwell (BBC), The Candidate, Judge John Deed (BBC), Dwarfs (BBC4), Band of Brothers (HBO/BBC- winner of Golden globe and Emmy Best Mini-Series), A Touch of Frost (ITV), The Perfect Blue (BBC), Soldier Soldier (ITV), Inspector Morse (ITV) and Where the Heart Is.
Sarah Lawrie - Producer
Producer Sarah Lawrie has been making theatre since 2013. Most recently she produced Good Boy (The Space UK, Edfringe 2024), In Defiance of Gravity (Kings’ Head/Summerhall), the European premiere of 1979 (Finborough Theatre), ACE-funded Stitches (Hope Theatre), three-times Off West End Award nominated The Quality of Mercy (Courtyard Theatre/EdFringe 2023), The Good Dad (EdFringe 2023/Playground Theatre), Shutters: A Lesbian Rock Opera (Omnibus Theatre) and Arts Council funded web series Lear Alone which won Best Series at Off West End’s OnComm Awards 2022.
Other recent work include: Assisted (EdFringe 2022 - nominated for the BBC Writers’ Room Popcorn Award), This Bitter Earth (White Bear), Love & Destruction (Playground Theatre), Leaves (Jermyn Street Theatre), Power Luncheon (Hope Theatre), ACE-funded Scrounger (Finborough Theatre – winner of Best New Play at the Off West End Awards 2021), web series Late Night Staring at High Res Pixels (winner of London Pub Theatre’s Standing Ovation Award for Best Theatre Online) and Timeless (Space Theatre and touring).
Sarah is a founding member of And Tomorrow Theatre Company, whose inaugural production, Death of a Hunter, premiered at the Finborough Theatre in 2018 and transferred to the Brighton Fringe Festival. In 2019 she produced the world premiere of Edred, the Vampyre for The London Horror Festival.
Titania Krimpas - Dramaturg
Titania trained at Birmingham University and Central School of Speech & Drama. She was Arts Council trainee director with Shared Experience and Salisbury Playhouse and holds an MA in Writing for Young People, from Bath Spa. In 2024 she completed an ACE funded DYCP exploring audio, poetry and storytelling.
Dramaturgy includes: Animal Lullabies (Secret City Arts), Waltz With Me (Diane Samuels), Project S (Jessica Tomchak), Underland (Pentabus), Carmen (Opera Holland Park), Oscaria by Lizzie Hopley (Old Vic), and One Glass Wall by Danusia Iwaszko (Salisbury Playhouse). She also works regularly as director/dramaturg with oral storytellers Pyn Stockman, Lucy Lill and Katie Cawkwell.
Directing credits include: The Goose Who Flew (Half Moon), The Rhythm Method (The Stable), The Girl & the Giraffe (Half Moon), How to Beat a Giant (Unicorn), The Real Boy (Schools tour), Big Girls Don’t Cry (Canal Café), Beauty Sleeps (Young Vic), and Two’s Company (Salisbury Playhouse).
She’s assisted at Lyric Hammersmith, Young Vic, and the RSC.
Titania edits for literary consultancy, Cornerstones, and has written plays and short stories for children. She also edited Northern Dreaming, in 2023, an anthology for children published by British Library and Leeds 2023.
Isabella Van Braeckel – Set & Costume Designer
Isabella is an award winning Production Designer and Art Director for Theatre, Dance, Opera, Immersive Productions and Film. She has presented her work in both large and small venues across the UK as well as in Europe, South America and the Middle East.
Theatre includes (as Designer): Dorian: The Musical (Offie 2024 Nominated Costume Design), Blanket Ban, The Lesson, Gatsby (Southwark Playhouse), Tiny Tim’s Christmas Carol (Orange Tree Theatre), Jules and Jim, The Dog Walker, Cancelling Socrates, The Oyster Problem (Jermyn Street Theatre), Boogie Booth (UK tour), The Dwarfs (White Bear), Dual (VAULT Festival, Pleasance Dome, UK Tour), Piloten, Polarörnen, Midnattståget till Marrakech (Teateri, Jönköping), When The Birds Come, This is Living (Edinburgh Fringe), Hell Yes I’m Tough Enough (Park), A Funny Thing Happened[...], Finishing the Picture, Into the Numbers (Finborough), Macbeth (UK/ Ireland Tour), Red INK (Tour/Leicester Curve / Southbank Centre), Blush of Dogs (Tabard).
Opera Credits include: The Ring Cycle (Regents Opera, Freemasons Hall, York Hall), Liminal (Kings Head Theatre), The Travelling Companion (New Sussex Opera), Madama Butterfly (Cadogan Hall).
Production Design & Art Direction includes: Humbug (Truman Brewery, London), Rhythm & Ruse (The Vaults, London), Peaky Blinders: The Rise (Riyadh Festival, Saudi Arabia), Knorr: Dare to Try (Swamp Motel, Mexico), Dirty Dancing (Secret Cinema, London).
Theatre credits include (as Associate Designer): The White Factory (Offie 2023 Winner for Best Set Design & Best Production 2024, Marylebone Theatre), Burgerz (Hackney Showroom / Traverse / Tour), The Boys in the Band (Park 200/ Vaudeville/ Tour), Eclipsed (Gate).
Jon Fiber – Music Editor
Credits include: Cluedo 2 (UK Tour), Running Free (JW3), The Gruffalo’ (Broadway, Sydney Opera House, West End, UK and International Tours), Cluedo (UK Tour), Room on the Broom (West End, UK and International Tours), The Comedy about A Bank Robbery (West End and UK Tour), Wilde Creatures (West End and UK tour), The Canterville Ghost (UK Tour), Romeo and Juliet (Verulanium Amphitheatre), The Gruffalo’s Child (West End, UK and International Tours), The Three Little Pigs (West End and Australian Tour), What the Ladybird Heard (West End, UK and International Tour), Emily Brown and the Thing (Broadway, Sydney Opera House, UK and International Tours), Mr Benn (UK Tour), Something Else (UK Tour), The Snow Dragon (UK and International Tours).
Lewis Champney – Production Manager
Lewis Champney is a production manager with experience spanning theatre, opera, and live performance. A graduate of the Royal Central School of Speech & Drama with a BA (Hons) in Theatre Practice, where he developed strong skills in technical and production management.
Lewis has worked with respected venues and companies, including the Arcola Theatre, Park Theatre, and Oxford Playhouse.
Recent credits as Production Manager include: 23.5 Hours (Park Theatre), The Forsyte Saga (Parts 1 & 2; Park Theatre) and Gigi & Dar (The Arcola Theatre). He has collaborated with directors such as Josh Roche, Katharine Farmer, Clive Judd, and Kathryn Hunter, ensuring productions run smoothly and meet high creative standards.
Lucy Fowler – Design Associate
Lucy trained at The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, studying Design for Performance. Lucy also worked as a freelance assistant designer at the Royal Shakespeare Company and is frequently Assistant designer for Set and Costume Designers Nicky Shaw and Stewart J Charlesworth.
Theatre as Set and Costume designer includes: Hansel + Gretel (Thameside Theatre/Tour/Arts Outburst Theatre company), Napoleon: Un Petit Pantomime (Jermyn Street Theatre/Charles Court Opera), The Sorcerer (Wilton’s Music Hall/Tour/Charles Court Opera), Beyond the Fog, Maladies (Orange Tree Theatre), Snow Queen (Thameside Theatre/Tour/Arts Outburst Theatre company), Medea (Barn Theatre/Rose Bruford College), Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet (Guildford Shakespeare Company Schools Tour/Orange Tree Theatre), Idomeneo (Normansfield Theatre/Rose Opera Company), The Things I Say When I Don’t Say I Love You (Studio at the Lowry Theatre/Tour/Sam Brady Ltd), Hush (Bute Theatre Cardiff/Gate Theatre London/Richard Burton Company).
Theatre as Costume Designer includes: The Actress, The Giant Killers, Arty’s Ani-Magination (Edinburgh Fringe/Long Lane Theatre Company), Carrie (Trinity Laban conservatoire of Music and Dance), A Pissedmas Carol (Edinburgh Fringe/Leicester Square Theatre/Sh!tfaced Showtime).
Theatre as Associate Set and Costume Designer: The Oyster Problem (Jermyn Street theatre)
Theatre as Associate Set Designer includes: Footloose (Trinity Laban conservatoire of Music and Dance), Deer Hunt (Richard Burton Theatre).
Theatre as Associate Costume Designer includes: The Lesson (Southwark Playhouse/Icarus Theatre Company).
Tom Turner – Lighting Designer
Tom is a lighting designer and associate lighting designer.
His designs include: The Marilyn Conspiracy (Park200), Body 115 (Brockley Jack), The Devil’s Passion (Edinburgh Fringe & Italian Tour), 9 Circles (Park90 & Edinburgh Fringe), Walking to Jerusalem (UK Tour), The Dog Walker (Jermyn Street Theatre), La Traviata & Venus/Dido (Hampstead Garden Opera) and 9 to 5 The Musical (Upstairs at the Gatehouse).
As Associate Designer: War Horse (UK & International Tour), Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake (UK & International Tour), Das Phantom Der Oper (Vienna), Macbeth (UK & US Season), The Ocean at the End of the Lane (UK Tour), A Strange Loop (Barbican), Traplord (European Tour & Factory, Manchester), Les Miserables The Staged Concert (Gielgud Theatre), The Grinning Man (Trafalgar Studios).
Douglas Baker – Video Designer
Douglas is a disabled, inter-disciplinary theatre maker. Since 2017, as So it Goes Theatre, he has created & directed accessible work utilising video design in distinct local venues. In Feb 2023 he won the Offie Video Design Award & a Standing Ovation ‘Most Innovative New Play’ Award for: Ten Days in a Madhouse. In April 2023 a selection of his work was exhibited as part of Hello Stranger Yorkshire at Leeds Playhouse.
Douglas uses video to transform audience perspective, creating an illusion of action and interaction between video and performer, and to activate spaces scenographically. Douglas was a creative associate at Jermyn Street Theatre.
Theatre includes: Our War (Jack Studio Theatre), Slaughterhouse Five (Jack Studio Theatre), Boy in da Korma (Edinburgh, Pleasance), Chariots of Fire (Frinton Arts Theatre), Fluff (Theatre 503), Smithereens (Synergy Theatre), Alice in Wonderland (Derby Theatre), So That You May Go Beyond the Sea (Undone Theatre), Laughing Boy (Jermyn Street Theatre), The Promise (Deafinitely Theatre), Boy in Da Korma (Jermyn Street Theatre), Mandrake (R&D), Mars Rover R&D (Theatre Deli), Hot in Here (Gate Theatre), The Butterfly Project (Undone Theatre), Agrippina (Jackson’s Lane May), The Woman who Amuses Herself (Jack Studio Theatre), The Sleeping Sword (Watermill Theatre), The Prince (Southwark Playhouse), Ten Days in a Madhouse (Jack Studio Theatre), A Christmas Carol (Jack Studio Theatre), Holst/Payne (Arrows & Traps Theatre), The Invisible Man (Jack Studio Theatre), Moby Dick (Jack Studio Theatre), Faust (Lazarus Theatre R&D), Castles Palaces Castles (Prague Quadrennial), The Fatal Eggs (So it Goes Theatre), Dante’s Divine Comedy, (So it Goes Theatre).
Film includes: The End of It, Mise en Abyme.
Jasmin Colangelo – Movement Director
Creative credits include: Movement Director in Running Free (Short Street Productions), Associate Movement Director in The Lion, the Witch And the Wardrobe (Leeds Playhouse), Assistant Choreographer to Lizzi Gee in A Face in The Crowd (Young Vic, Kindred Partners), Assistant Choreographer to Tom Jackson Greaves in Smoosh (Paraorchestra), Resident Choreographer in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Birmingham Rep), Assistant Choreographer to Lynne Page in Stranger Things: The First Shadow Workshop (Sonia Friedman Productions)
Theatre credits include: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Birmingham Rep & Gillian Lynne Theatre), Groundhog Day (Old Vic), Legally Blonde (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), Saturday Night Fever (Peacock Theatre), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat (London Palladium), Matilda (International Tour), Cats (International Tour & German Tour), Kiss Me Kate (Les Theatre de la Ville de Luxeumbourg), Mamma Mia! (Novello Theatre & International Tour), Cinderella (Hackney Empire), Billy Elliot (Victoria Palace), Les Misérables (Queen’s Theatre).
TV includes: Matilda: Royal Variety Performance, All Star Musicals, Sadie Jones, Big Day Out.
Film includes: The Man Who Cried.
Jessica Taylor – Stage Manager (On Book)
Jessica Taylor studied at East 15 Acting School in Stage and Production Management.
Recent credits include: Assistant Stage Manager on Cablestreet (The Southwark Playhouse), Deputy Stage Manager for Machinal (RCSSD) and The Government Inspector (the Marylebone Theatre) and Stage Manager (on book) for Outpatient, Making Headway, and Santa’s Christmas Cracker. She is excited to have joined this production as Stage Manager (on book).
Molly Healy - Production Assistant
Molly Healy is a recent Stage Management graduate from Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, with a particular interest in devised works and new writing that highlight marginalised voices and centre accessibility into the entire production process.
Recent credits as Stage Manager include: How to Survive Your Mother (Kings Head Theatre), Labworks Festival (RADA) and I Dream in Colour (Extant X Bloomsbury Festival). She is very excited to get to work on such a brilliant upcoming production.
In support of The Forgiveness Project
The Forgiveness Project collects and shares stories from individuals who have rebuilt their lives following hurt and trauma. At its core The Forgiveness Project is an understanding that restorative narratives have the power to transform lives; not only supporting people to deal with issues in their own lives, but also building a climate of resilience, hope and empathy.
Founded in 2004 by journalist, Marina Cantacuzino, The Forgiveness Project provides resources and experiences to help people examine and overcome their unresolved grievances. The testimonies collected bear witness to the resilience of human spirit and act as an antidote to narratives of hate and dehumanisation, presenting alternatives to cycles of conflict, violence, crime and injustice.
https://www.theforgivenessproject.com/