Actors Touring Company (ATC) have today announced casting for their acclaimed production of Dave Harris’ Tambo & Bones which will return for a national tour from Friday 7 March - Saturday 24 May 2025, including Belgrade Theatre, Coventry between Wednesday 9 - Saturday 12 April following its European premiere in a co-production with Stratford East in 2023.

Clifford Samuel (2:22 A Ghost Story, McMafia) will play the role of Tambo and Daniel Ward (Cat on A Hot Tin Roof, Rebellion) will reprise his role as Bones.

Clifford Samuel said: “Stepping into the role of Tambo is both a thrilling challenge and a privilege. Collaborating with such an extraordinary team fuels my passion for the craft. I’m eager to witness how audiences engage with the story and the production we’ve brought to life.”

Daniel Ward added: “The transitory nature of theatre means we do our best as artists to create moments that resonate with people and live long in their memories. Sometimes that happens, often it doesn't. But with T&B people have never stopped asking me about it. More than just ask - people have wanted to debate, dissect and argue. They have passionately told me all the ways in which the show moved them. They have told me that they have never forgotten the show and never will. What is special about returning is honouring those experiences and what is exciting is the opportunity to create new memories with new audiences that hopefully last a lifetime.”

Directed by Olivier-award-winning Director, Composer and DJ Matthew Xia (Artistic Director and Joint CEO of ATC) Tambo & Bones is an Actors Touring Company, Stratford East and Royal & Derngate, Northampton Co-Production in association with Belgrade Theatre, Leeds Playhouse and Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse.

Tambo and Bones are stuck in a minstrel show.

It's hard to know what's real when you're stuck in a minstrel show.

Their escape plan: get out, get rich, get even.

One of the most talked-about cultural events of 2023, Tambo & Bones is an exhilarating, darkly comic and provocative satire on capitalism and Black performance, that explores the commodification of the Black experience through the mediums of minstrelsy, hip-hop and afro-futurism. Spanning 500 years, Tambo and Bones journey from comedy double-act, to hip-hop superstars to activists in a future America, contending with the alarming repercussions of a nation torn apart by race. Harris’ blistering play laughs through our past, blows the roof off our present and imagines an explosive future for our world and for theatre. 

Tambo & Bones is the latest in a series of acclaimed productions from ATC, one of the only British theatre companies dedicated to producing international plays and presenting them throughout the UK. ATC’s recently celebrated work includes The Architect (2023), Family Tree (2023) and Bodies of Water (2024).

Matthew Xia, Artistic Director and Joint CEO of ATC said, “I’m so excited that Tambo & Bones - our genre-busting headline-grabbing production - is getting a second outing. Tambo & Bones is a truly audacious satire, both ridiculous and profound, which combines my greatest passions: hip-hop and theatre, to interrogate perceptions of race in the past, present and future. There is truly no experience quite like this show, I can’t wait to see how audiences in Northampton, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Coventry and London respond to this sucker punch of a play.”

 
Biographies

Dave Harris is a poet and playwright from West Philly. Selected plays include TAMBO & BONES (LA Drama Critics Award "Best New Play", TimeOut London "Best Plays of 2023,"), EXCEPTION TO THE RULE (Roundabout Theatre Company, 2022), and EVERYBODY BLACK (Humana Festival 2019). His first feature film, Summertime premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and was released in 2021. Selected honors include: the 2024 Relentless Award, the 2023 Horton Foote Prize, the Ollie Award, The Lorraine Hansberry Award and Mark Twain Award from The Kennedy Center, The International Commendation for The Bruntwood Prize, and a Cave Canem poetry fellowship amongst others. Dave has written feature and television projects for AMC (Interview With A Vampire), Netflix, Apple (Widow's Bay), Amazon (The Fortress of Solitude), and FX amongst others. His first full-length collection of poetry, Patricide, was published by Button Poetry.

Matthew Xia is the multi-award-winning Artistic Director of ATC (Actors Touring Company). He was previously Associate Artistic Director at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester; Director-in-Residence at The Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse; and Associate Director at Stratford East. He was Associate Artist at the Nottingham Playhouse alongside James Graham and Amanda Whittington.

Matthew has directed some of the UK’s most talented actors, including Daniel Kaluuya, Cynthia Erivo, Joseph Quinn, Maxine Peake, David Haig, Samuel Barnett, Matt Henry, Karl Collins, Martina Laird, Christopher Colquhoun, Malachi Kirby, David Moorst, Natasha J. Barnes, Yolanda Kettle, and Erin Doherty.