Here’s images from the world premiere of Nina, the debut play written by director Caroline Williams now on stage at Battersea Arts Centre.
Co-directed with Deborah Pearson, it is inspired by Chekhov’s The Seagull and serves up a meta-theatrical fever dream on coercion, power and the quest for creative expression.
A series of actresses audition to play Nina in The Seagull for a charismatic, yet sinister director. His methods are unorthodox, annihilating, and very effective. Using imaginative stagecraft to explore the tension between female strength and survival, NINA subverts a familiar gender narrative in a way that is in turn humorous, playful and unsettling.
The full cast includes Maya Bartley O’Dea as Nina 01, Samantha Begeman as Nina 02, Nina Bowers as Nina 03, Gemma Barnett as Nina 04, Joseph Payne as Tim and Rowan Polonski as Goran.
Nina is brought to the stage by writer Caroline Williams, co-directors Deborah Pearson and Caroline Williams, producer Kate Yedigaroff, dramaturg Christopher Brett Bailey, video design Daniel Denton, associate video Jacob Krumpolc, lighting design Marty Langthorne, composition/sound design AJ Turner, movement Laura Dannequin, casting director Nadine Rennie, sound associate Alexander Comana, artist wellbeing and associate director Linzy Na Nakorn, set and costume designer Tomás Palmer and associate designer set and costume Victoria Maytom.
The BAC production launches an experimental, boundary-pushing autumn season and is currently running until October 24.
Tickets here.
Top image: Samantha Begeman as Nina 02, Nina, Battersea Arts Centre 2026 © Ali Wright