Malorie Blackman is a best-selling author of books for children and young adults and has been Children's Laureate since 2013. Before that, he directed Macbeth, As You Like It, The Crucible (which won two Olivier Awards), and Pericles and The Winter's Tale which formed part of our Complete Works Festival in 2006. His most recent production for the RSC was his adaptation of Arabian Nights in winter 2009/10. About Dominic Cookeĭirector Dominic Cooke is a former RSC Associate Director and currently Artistic Director of the Royal Court Theatre, London.

The ensemble included Ony Uhiara as Sephy and Richard Madden as Callum.

It's remarkable how the story also speaks to people who have been divided on other than racial grounds.' Dominic Cooke, who adapted the novel for the stage, tried several ideas to create a 'reveal' moment on stage but abandoned these early once in rehearsal.ĭominic remarked that the world of Noughts & Crosses echoes many different settings: 'There's the America of the 1950s, South Africa under apartheid, and in the handling of the Liberation Militia, the IRA of the 1970s and Eighties. In Malorie Blackman's novel the different skin colour can of course be kept from the reader, but on stage it's immediately obvious. If you are a teacher working on either the book or the play of Noughts & Crosses there are rehearsal insights and activities for you to try with your students in our Noughts & Crosses 2007 Teacher Pack. Their desire to be together threatens family loyalties and sparks a growing political crisis.įind out more about the story and this production in our schools' Noughts & Crosses Information pack. Sephy is a Prime Minister's daughter from the powerful Crosses who falls for rebel Callum, son of a dangerous nought agitator. We follow the love story of Sephy and Callum, two young people kept apart by bigotry, terrorism and injustice.

Callum malorie blackman