David Djemal as Magnussen, a medical examiner, a pathologist, a salesperson, a lifeguard, a police officer, a hacker, a customs official, the interpreter, and the brother.

Eugenia Low as an architect, Hustvedt, the French diver, a beach bar owner, a tourism officer, yet another salesperson, a shop manager, Nadine, the refugee, and the mother.

Youness Bouzinab as Westerman, the mother of a French diver, a beachcomber, another salesperson, a scientist, a corporate spokesperson, the aid worker, and the father.

Production Manger: Camila França
Technical Production Manager: Pembe Tokluhan (2022, consultant 2023)
Technical Stage Manager: Jaymie Quin-Stewart (2022)
Technical Stage Manager: Lauren Wedgeworth (2023)

Claire Martin and everyone at the Rose Lipman Building
Pierre Palluet and everyone at Centre 151
Jack Birch and everyone at Rich Mix
Scarlett Malone, Paul Davies, Pembe Tokluhan & Frank Sweeney
Rich at Risk Rusk Films
Bart Brosius and everyone at Flanders House
The brilliant team at Arcola Theatre
and to Ben, Eric and Paul for their unwavering support!

Exploring Themes of Migration: Conversations with Local Organisations

Join us for a post-show talk with organisations working with refugees, migrants and asylum seekers in Hackney. We’ll discuss the themes of the play, the challenges faced by refugees, migrants and asylum seekers, and the work that is being done to support them.

The talk will be chaired by theatre-maker Hester Welch and will include speakers from Hackney CVS and Xenia Hackney.

The post-show talk will take place immediately after the performance and will last 30 minutes.

Behind the Curtain: A Conversation with Playwright and Director

Join us for a post-show talk with the playwright and director of The Wetsuitman.
They’ll give insights into the making of the show, including the creative process, the challenges of staging the play, and the hopes and dreams they have for the show.

The talk will be chaired by Deema Al-Mohammad, our embedded critic and cultural dramaturg, and will feature playwright Freek Mariën and director Trine Garrett.

The post-show talk will take place immediately after the performance and will last 30 minutes.

Join us for a unique and free Theatre Club experience!

Picture it as a book club, but with a twist! Instead of discussing a book, we’ll discuss the performance we’ve all shared. It’s a welcoming space for you to express your thoughts, viewpoints and opinions about the show and its themes. No one from the Creative Team will be present, and the discussion will be facilitated by director Tian Brown-Sampson.

The Theatre Club is open to matinée audience members and will take place immediately after the performance (following a 10-minute comfort break) and will last 1 hour, finishing at 5:50pm.

Freek Mariën

Freek Mariën is a Belgian author and a theatre-maker. He studied drama at KASK in Ghent. He and Carl von Winckelmann are the artistic leaders of the theatre ensemble Het Kwartier, mounting productions for young people and adults that emphasise powerful writing, socially relevant topics, and unexpected forms and themes. He has written for ensembles including ARSENAAL/LAZARUS, Circus Ronaldo, Tuning People, and Laika. Freek has won awards such as the Dutch-German Kinder- und Jugenddramatiker*innenpreises 2012 and 2020 for plays for young people, the East Flanders Literary Prize 2014, and the Toneelschrijfprijs for the best Dutch-language play (winner in 2015, nominated in 2017 and 2019). His writings have been translated into German, French, Finnish and English and performed in various European countries and the United States.

David McKay

David McKay is a literary translator based in The Hague. His translation of War and Turpentine by Stefan Hertmans (BE) won the Vondel Prize and was nominated for the International Booker Prize and other international awards. His translation of Hertmans’s The Convert was a finalist for the 2020 Jewish Book Awards, and his co-translation with Ina Rilke of the great nineteenth-century classic Max Havelaar was shortlisted for the Oxford Weidenfeld Prize. He received an inaugural ICM Global South Translation Award for the anti-colonial manifesto We Slaves of Suriname by Anton de Kom. He is the ALTA Dutch-English mentor for the second time this year. His theatre translations include The Wetsuitman, which is a Eurodram selection for 2023, and other plays by Freek Mariën, including Freedom Club, a madcap monologue about a climate change amusement park and the outer limits of activism, as well as Anna Carlier’s lyrical dystopian monologue HIDE.

David Djemal

David Djemal is an actor and writer who has been performing professionally since the age of nine. David studied acting at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York, the Yoram Loewenstein Studio for Performing Arts in Tel Aviv and completed the Royal Academy of Music’s Musical Theatre Postgraduate programme with distinction. Theatre credits include The Earth’s Core (Foreign Affairs), De Haan in Demons of Jerusalem (The Glory), Lorenzo in The Merchant of Venice (TSMGO), and voice work for film & TV for Entebbe, The Crown (Netflix), and BBC’s McMafia.

Eugenia Low

Eugenia Low is a British ESEA actress of Singaporean Chinese heritage who has worked with Foreign Affairs since 2018. Recent theatre credits include The Wetsuitman (Rose Lipman Building), Much Ado About Nothing (Trinity Theatre Tunbridge Wells), Ladybirds (Lion & Unicorn), Casino Royale (Secret Cinema), Tango (rehearsed reading – Tristan Bates/Typhoon Festival). Online theatre credits include Gallathea (The Show Must Go Online), Richard II (ShakeScene Shakespeare), William Shakespeare’s Tragical History of Frankenstein (Some Kind of Theatre/Edinburgh Horror Festival). Screen credits include feature films Anonymous, Raging Grace and comedy short Surgeons.

Youness Bouzinab
Youness Bouzinab is a Moroccan, Greek and Belgian performer, theatre-maker and dramaturg. After studying Archaeology and Art History of the Ancient Near East in Brussels, Paris and the UK, he trained on the BA (Hons) Acting, Collaborative and Devised Theatre at Royal Central.

Since graduating, Youness has performed in Maktub (Pleasance Theatre, Complicité), Fatherland (Lyric Hammersmith, Frantic Assembly), What They Forgot To Tell Us (And Other Stories) (BOLD Elephant, Sarah Davey-Hull).

He’s on Migrants in Theatre’s Steering Committee (MiT), and is also a member of MENA Arts UK and Equity’s Non-UK Born Artists Network Casting Working Group.

Trine Garrett – director & producer

Trine Garrett (she/her) is the Co-Artistic Director of Foreign Affairs theatre company. Originally from Denmark, she embarked on her artistic journey as an actor. Since co-founding the company in 2010, her primary focus has been on producing and directing its artistic productions and creative learning programmes.

Directing credits include: The Wetsuitman by Freek Mariën, translated by David McKay; Where I Call Home by Marc-Antoine Cyr, translated by Charis Ainslie; and The Warmhouse by Anna Bro, translated by Paul Russell Garrett.

As an experienced teacher and workshop facilitator, Trine leads the company’s creative learning programmes and she runs masterclasses and workshops rooted in the company’s practice for other companies and organisations, such as the Royal Court Theatre; Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI), and BCLT: British Centre for Literary Translation.

Beyond her work with Foreign Affairs, Trine teaches at drama schools in the UK as well as internationally, most recently in Bucharest, Copenhagen, and Paris. Additionally, she is a member of the Migrants in Theatre steering committee.

Camila França – producer & production manager

Camila França (she/her) is Co-Founder & Artistic Director of Foreign Affairs theatre company.

Originally from Brazil, Camila trained as an actor but her passion for bringing untold stories from afar to local audiences has led to her co-producing and directing many of the company’s artistic and creative learning programmes such as Foreign Affairs Theatre Translator Mentorship (unique in the industry) and Make theatre with (a free theatre-making workshop programme for Hackney-based young people). Camila leads the company’s community engagement programme and is passionate about working with local communities.

Recent work includes: The Earth’s Core (reading & industry event), The Wetsuitman (UK premiere), Playwriting from Flanders (industry showcase) Where I Call Home (UK & world premiere), and The Warmhouse (UK premiere), serving as a producer and production manager

Amy Daniels – lighting designer

Amy Daniels (she/her) is a London-based freelance lighting designer, production manager and technician. A lover of theatre since she can remember, she studied English at Sussex then fell in love with all things production during a year abroad at SUNY Stony Brook. She has since focused her practice from general tech towards lighting design, and works on a wide variety of performance, with an emphasis on the political, the playful and the pondering. Find her full credits and portfolio on her website – www.amydanielslighting.com

Nikiforos Fintzos – sound designer

Nikiforos comes from Greece but lived in London for the better part of the last ten years. His dedication to music production started from a young age with studies in Music Technology and a Masters in Music and sonic media. Through the years he has gone from being a technician to being a creator and more recently being a project manager for a production company in London whilst still creating art for special projects.

Franck Jeuffroy – movement director

Franck Jeuffroy is a jack-of-all-trades. After exploring various career paths, he is currently juggling between movement direction for theatre, life coaching and consulting in strategy and organisation. Passionate about everything related to the complex and beautiful connection between body, soul, heart and mind, his current obsession is about the neuroscience of flow states.

Before joining Foreign Affairs in 2015 for their production of Professor Bernhardi, he was evolving in the Musical Theatre world. Trained at the Académie Internationale de Comédie Musicale in Paris, credits include Baloo in The Jungle Book (International Tour), Broadway Lights (Théâtre du Châtelet), Songs For A New World. He is now creative associate and movement director of Foreign Affairs and loves sharing his experience of body rhythm and movement with diverse audiences.

Deema Al-Mohammad – embedded critic & cultural dramaturg

Deema Al-Mohammad, a British-Syrian translator, language and culture consultant. Serving as PEN Translates’ Arabic literature assessor for five years, her recommendations have consistently made it to the International Booker Prize shortlist. As a mentee of Foreign Affairs Theatre Translator Mentorship, she translated the captivating Syrian play, Hide & Seek, showcased in 2020. In 2022 she consulted on and subtitled two films: One Like Him and the 11-time nominated Mediterranean Fever, which secured three awards, including a prestigious win at Cannes. Most recently, she has expanded her repertoire as a creative associate for The Wetsuitman with Foreign Affairs theatre company.

Ria Samartzi – production dramaturg

Ria Samartzi is a UK based director, dramaturg and performance maker from Greece. She looks for strangeness in the familiar and the epic in the everyday. Her background is in movement, developing new work and collaborative practice. She has trained in Physical Theatre at East 15 Acting School, on the SITI Company Conservatory and in the Six Viewpoints theory and practise with Mary Overlie, which she also teaches. She is an associate artist with Foreign Affairs and has worked with them on a variety of projects, most recently The Wetsuitman (Rose Lipman Building) and their industry showcase of Flemish playwriting (Soho Theatre).

Lauren Wedgeworth – technical stage manager

Lauren Wedgeworth is a theatre maker, with experience in stage management and directing. Recent stage management credits include: The Unicorn (Nina Productions), No Man’s Island (The Big House), Under the Bridge (Barbican Theatre Open Lab/Libby Liburd), and Everything Has Changed (Rhum + Clay). Other credits include: The Wedding Speech (Stage Manager and Assistant Director), Space Girls (Writer and Director), and The Recollection of Tony Ward (Producer). She has experience in touring, R+D, and community-led projects.