Cape Town 1970. Painting a Wall follows the day in the life of four Cape Coloured South African painters, living under apartheid. We follow them in their task of painting public walls government-regulation white. They’ve got one hour to do it and they’ve got to hurry up about it, or risk no pay and harsh punishment. The only thing is…they’ve been given the wrong colour paint…

Stephen Daldry called Painting a Wall a “hugely effective, deeply emotional attack on a political system”, but avoiding political debate, it focuses simply on the painters – Henry, Peter, Willy and Samson – and their jokes, dreams and vivid storytelling as they work together to triumph over the struggles and frustrations of their lives. This production coincides with South Africa’s national elections.

David Lan’s plays include Bird Child, The Winter Dancers, Red Earth, Sergeant Ola, Flight, A Mouthful of Birds (with Caryl Churchill), Desire, Charley Tango and The Ends of the Earth. He has written adaptations of plays by Sobol, Euripides, Verga and Chekhov, as well as opera libretti and films. In 1995/1997, he was writer-in-residence at the Royal Court Theatre. His directing includes Pericles, The Glass Menagerie and ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, as well as documentaries for the BBC before being appointed Artistic Director of the Young Vic in 2000 where he has directed Julius Caesar, A Raisin in the Sun, Doctor Faustus, The Daughter-in-Law, The Skin of Our Teeth, As You Like It and The Soldiers’ Fortune. Painting a Wall was David Lan’s first play, written when he was just twenty-two, and first presented by the Almost Free Theatre and Ed Berman’s Inter-Action at The Howff in Chalk Farm in 1974.

Director Titas Halder is the Literary Associate at the Finborough Theatre, following a spell as a Resident Assistant Director when he assisted on Sons of York and Follow. Other Theatre includes One For The Road (Tabard Theatre) and a rehearsed reading of Speak to Me (Hampstead Theatre). Other Assisting includes Stovepipe (Hightide, Bush Theatre and National Theatre) and The Constant Prince (Oxford Playhouse). As a writer, he trained with the Royal Court Theatre’s Critical Mass programme for black and ethnic playwrights. Writing includes Feeding Me (Paines Plough Later) and Fresh Prince (Oval House 33% London).

Alex Marker is Resident Designer of the Finborough Theatre where his acclaimed designs have included Soldiers, Trelawny of the ‘Wells’ , Hortensia and the Museum of Dreams, Albert’s Boy, Lark Rise To Candleford, Red Night, The Representative, Eden’s Empire, Love Child, Little Madam, Plague Over England, Hangover Square, Sons of York and Untitled.

The cast includes Jacob Anderson, Howard Charles, Peter Landi and Syrus Lowe. Jacob Anderson has just finished appearing in King Lear for Headlong Theatre Company, directed by Rupert Goold, whilst his many other film and TV credits include Spooks (Kudos), Gunrush (ITV), Casualty (BBC), The Things I Haven’t Told You (Tiger Aspect Productions), Primeval (ITV), The Whistleblowers (ITV) and Doctors (BBC); Howard Charles has just finished appearing in the national tour of The Hounding of David Oluwale, and his other credits include The Three Sisters (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester), Beautiful People (BBC), The American Clock, Twelfth Night, Blue/Orange, The Lunatic Queen, Hamlet and Macbeth (Drama Centre); Peter Landi’s many stage credits include I.D. (Almeida Theatre), Rat Pack Confidential (Nottingham Playhouse), Piaf (York Theatre Royal), Of Mice & Men (Octagon Theatre, Bolton, and York Theatre Royal) and Death of A Salesman (Leicester Haymarket); Syrus Lowe’s many stage credits include Overspill (Soho Theatre and the Churchill Theatre, Bromley), Testing The Echo (Out of Joint), The Sky’s The Limit (The Old Vic), Incomplete And Random Acts Of Kindness, Barbarians, Richard III, Odysseus and Twelfth Night (RADA).

Generation 2 is a project in its infancy which will provide support for young British theatre practitioners who have a foreign family history with no bias towards specific colour or ethnicity. Painting a Wall is their first production with the support of and in association with the Finborough Theatre.