The World premiere of MASS, written by Fran Kranz comes to the Donmar Warehouse 18 April – 6 June 2026
What is it about
I’m really grateful to finally see you all together. May I say that. And I hope we all feel this was the right thing to do once we’ve left here today.
In a quiet room of an Episcopal church, two couples meet to have a conversation no parent should ever have to face.
As defences fall away and memories surface, they attempt to reach across a divide carved by violence.
Mass is the debut play from Fran Kranz, adapted from his debut screenplay of the same name which premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim and received the Robert Altman Award and an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Screenplay. Also an actor, his theatre credits include Good Night, and Good Luck (Winter Garden Theatre), Death of a Salesman (Ethel Barrymore Theatre) and You Can’t Take It With You (The Public Theater, Second Stage, Longacre Theatre).
The Cast
Adeel Akhtar
Amari Bacchus
Monica Dolan
Paul Hilton
Lyndsey Marshal
Rochelle Rose
Susie Trayling
The Creative Team
Director: Carrie Cracknell
Set and Costume Designer: Anna Yates
Lighting Designer: Guy Hoare
Sound Designer: Donato Wharton
Composer: Stuart Earl
Casting Director: Lotte Hines CDG
Additional information about the Cast
Adeel Akhtar returns to the Donmar to play Jay – he previously appeared in The Cherry Orchard (also St Ann’s Warehouse, New York). His other theatre credits include The Estate (National Theatre), A Christmas Carol (Noël Coward Theatre), Hamlet (Young Vic), Satyagraha (London Coliseum), Wuthering Heights (Oldham Coliseum Theatre, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre), In My Name (Old Red Lion, Trafalgar Studios) and Zero (Theatre Absolute). H
Amari Bacchus makes his professional stage debut as Carlos. His television credits include Crookhaven, The Gentlemen and Adolescence; and for film, Frank and Percy, The Night House, Dragged Up Dirty and Power to Make a Change (The Mid Life) Vol 4.
Monica Dolan returns to the Donmar to play Linda – she previously appeared in Appropriate and The Same Deep Water As Me. Her other theatre credits include Doubt (Chichester Festival Theatre), Talking Heads: The Shrine (Bridge Theatre), All About Eve Role (Noël Coward Theatre – Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role), Plaques & Tangles, The Twits, Sliding with Suzanne, The Glory of Living (Royal Court Theatre), Chalet Lines (Bush Theatre), King Lear, The Seagull, The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (RSC), Jane Eyre (Trafalgar Studios), Macbeth (Wilton’s Music Hall and UK tour), Mary Stuart (Nuffield Theatre Southampton), She Stoops to Conquer, A Laughing Matter, The Walls (National Theatre), Hay Fever (Savoy Theatre) and The Glass Menagerie (Lyceum Theatre). Dolan wrote and starred in The B*easts at the Edinburgh Festival and Bush Theatre – winner of The Stage Edinburgh Award for Outstanding Performance and Olivier Award nomination.
Paul Hilton returns to the Donmar to play Richard – he previously appeared in Polar Bears and The Wild Duck. His other theatre credits include A Christmas Carol (The Old Vic), Hamlet: Hail to the Thief, The Mysteries – The Creation/The Passion, Romeo and Juliet, The Cherry Orchard, Richard III (RSC), Juno and the Paycock (Gielgud Theatre), An Enemy of the People, The Glass Menagerie, In Celebration, All New People (Duke of York’s Theatre), Rifleman, Three Sisters (Trafalgar Studios), Doctor Faustus, As You Like It (Shakespeare’s Globe), Ghosts (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse), Othello, Peter Pan, Mosquitoes, The President of an Empty Room, Mourning Becomes Electra, Three Sisters, The Oresteia (National Theatre), The Inheritance (Young Vic, Noël Coward Theatre, Ethel Barrymore Theatre – Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play),The Daughter-in-Law, The Cherry Orchard (Young Vic), Anatomy of a Suicide, Terrorism, Mountain Language (Royal Court Theatre), Rosmersholm, The Storm (Almeida Theatre), The Homecoming, Les Blancs, Ghosts (Royal Exchange Theatre), wonder.land (Manchester International Festival, National Theatre), Dr Dee (English National Opera), Twelfth Night, A Small Family Business and Stone Free (Bristol Old Vic).
Lyndsey Marshal returns to the Donmar to play Gail – she has previously appeared in Force Majeure, Absurdia and Boston Marriage (also Ambassadors Theatre – Winner of Critics’ Circle Theatre Award for Best Newcomer). Other theatre credits include A Christmas Carol (Bridge Theatre), The Wild Duck, Blood Wedding, The Hypochondriac (Almeida Theatre), Diminished (Hampstead Theatre), The Oresteia (HOME, Manchester), Othello, Greenland, A Matter of Life and Death (National Theatre), Three Days of Rain (Apollo Theatre), The Pride, Fire Face (Royal Court Theatre), Sleeping Beauty (Young Vic, Barbican, Broadway), The Crucible (Sheffield Theatres), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Bristol Old Vic – Winner of TMA Theatre Award for Best Supporting Actress), Bright (Soho Theatre), Fireface, Redundant (Royal Court Theatre) and Top Girls (New Vic).
Rochelle Rose plays Kendra. Her theatre credits include Black Power Desk (Brixton House); Untitled F*ck M*ss S**gon Play (Young Vic); Rockets and Blue Lights (National Theatre / Royal Exchange Theatre); salt. (Royal Court); The Ridiculous Darkness (Gate Theatre); The Mountaintop (UK tour); Cinderella and Aladdin (Oxford Playhouse); The Winter’s Tale (Orange Tree Theatre); and One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show (Kiln Theatre / Eclipse Theatre).
Susie Trayling plays Judy. Her theatre credits include Breaking the Code (UK tour), Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Palace Theatre), The Iphigenia Quartet, Idomeneus, Vanya (Gate Theatre), Arthur Miller’s The Hook (Northampton Theatre Royal, Liverpool Everyman), Vast White Stillness (Brighton Festival), The Crucible, Twelfth Night (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Thomas Tallis (Globe Theatre), The Seagull (Manchester Library Theatre), Sons Without Fathers (Belgrade Theatre, Arcola Theatre), King John, A Soldier in Every Son, Richard III (RSC), The Constant Wife, Private Lives, Waters of the Moon (Salisbury Playhouse), Antony and Cleopatra (Nuffield Theatre Southampton), Mary Goes First, The Mob (Orange Tree Theatre), Love’s Labour’s Lost (Rose Theatre, Kingston), A Doll’s House, The Portrait of a Lady, Habeas Corpus, Measure for Measure (Theatre Royal Bath), Iphigenia, Dream Play, Women of Troy, The Forest (National Theatre), Closer, The Importance of Being Earnest (Northampton Theatre Royal), Don’t Look Now (Sheffield Lyceum, Lyric Hammersmith), Skylight (Stephen Joseph Theatre), Anna Karenina, Private Lives (Bolton Octagon Theatre), Camera Obscura (Almeida Theatre), Hamlet (Exeter Northcott Theatre), and Edward II (Sheffield Crucible).
Carrie Cracknell directs. Her stage credits include Grapes of Wrath, Julie. The Deep Blue Sea. Medea, Blurred Lines (National Theatre), Portia Coughlan, Oil (Almeida Theatre), Seawall / A Life (Hudson Theatre, The Public Theater), Macbeth (Young Vic, Birmingham Rep, HOME), Birdland, Pigeons (Royal Court Theatre), A Doll’s House (Young Vic, Duke of York’s Theatre, Brooklyn Academy of Music), Elektra (Gate Theatre, Young Vic), Breathing Irregular, Hedda, I am Falling, The Sexual Neuroses of our Parents (Gate Theatre), Death and the City (The Tron Theatre), Stacy (National Theatre of Scotland), Broken Road (Hush, British Council Showcase), A Mobile Thriller (UK tour), The Hush (Steven Joseph Theatre, Ohio Theatre), Carmen (Met Opera) and Wozzeck (English National Opera); and for film Persuasion.
