Described as ‘hard to take your eyes off’ (The Scotsman) and ‘accomplished, spirited and genuinely hilarious’ (EdFest Magazine) - UNLEASH THE LLAMA stages ambitious, genre-defying and historically-informed comedies - inspired by the personal narratives of its collaborators and charged with intensive historical scholarship.
By foregrounding the historical and cultural heritage of different communities in its productions, Unleash the Llama encourages audiences to ask questions of our shared present and explore the complexities of British society today.
Unleash the Llama’s productions include the Edinburgh Fringe Festival sell-out shows: JEW…ish (‘delectable’, Broadway World), a twisted millennial romcom co-written by Saul Boyer and Poppy Damon (Gilded Balloon/Kings Head Theatre); and Man of One Hundred Faces by Saul Boyer, exploring espionage during the Russian Revolution (Gilded Balloon/Kings Head Theatre). This show was recently listed in The Guardian’s "Readers’ Favourite Stage Shows of 2022". Previous productions have included Nougat for Kings (‘accomplished, spirited and genuinely hilarious’, EdFest Magazine) (Underbelly); and PANAMAX: A Podcast (‘crammed with insanity’, The Prickle).
By foregrounding the historical and cultural heritage of different communities in its productions, Unleash the Llama encourages audiences to ask questions of our shared present and explore the complexities of British society today.
Unleash the Llama’s productions include the Edinburgh Fringe Festival sell-out shows: JEW…ish (‘delectable’, Broadway World), a twisted millennial romcom co-written by Saul Boyer and Poppy Damon (Gilded Balloon/Kings Head Theatre); and Man of One Hundred Faces by Saul Boyer, exploring espionage during the Russian Revolution (Gilded Balloon/Kings Head Theatre). This show was recently listed in The Guardian’s "Readers’ Favourite Stage Shows of 2022". Previous productions have included Nougat for Kings (‘accomplished, spirited and genuinely hilarious’, EdFest Magazine) (Underbelly); and PANAMAX: A Podcast (‘crammed with insanity’, The Prickle).
MEET THE COMPANY
Saul BoyerCo-Artistic Director
Saul is an award-winning writer and performer (RSC/Marlowe Other Prize 2014). His play JEW…ish, written with Poppy Damon, completed a sold-out run at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival and The Kings Head Theatre before forming part of the KHT’s online programme earlier this year. Saul has recently performed in Alone by Moray Hunter (Radio 4), his sketch show TüManz Tük18 (Leicester Square Theatre) and Beaten Gold (New Renaissance Collective) as well as writing and performing in Always Remember You, a music video for Loco Ironico. Saul is represented by Sarah Williams at Independent Talent. |
Sam RaynerCo-Artistic Director
Sam is a theatre-maker and movement director. His movement direction credits for comedy include Jack Whitehall: At Large (UK & EIRE Arena Tour/Hammersmith Apollo/Netflix) and Jordan Brookes: BLEED (Pleasance Theatre/Soho Theatre). Sam is a co-founder of the New Renaissance Collective, which reimagines Early Modern theatre and opera for site-specific settings, and Voloz Collective - an award-winning international physical theatre company (LET/Greenwich Award 2020). As an assistant/associate director, Sam’s work includes Broken Wings (Theatre Royal Haymarket, West End/Dubai Opera/Katara Opera); The Adventures of Pinocchio (Ambassadors Theatre, West End) and Tick, Tick… Boom (Park Theatre). Sam trained at l’École Jacques Lecoq. |
Zoe WeldonProducer
Zoe is a freelance theatre producer. In tandem with her own productions, Zoe has produced for Sonia Friedman Productions, and was accepted onto the Stage One Apprenticeship - working for Bill Kenwright Productions and Tom O’Connell Productions. Zoe also worked as Production Assistant at ATG Productions for their Pinter at the Pinter Season. Freelance work includes: JEW...ish (Kings Head Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe Festival & Drayton Arms); CHUTNEY (Bunker Theatre, four OFFIE nominations); Snapshot (Hope Theatre); Quandary (Reading, RADA); and Mind The Gap (Edinburgh Fringe Festival). Zoe has also worked with Damsel Productions on Dry Land (Jermyn Street Theatre) and Brute (Soho Theatre), and as an Assistant Producer with Debbie Hicks Productions for Ages of the Moon and The Permanent Way (Vaults Theatre). |
Poppy DamonWriter
Poppy is a playwright, radio producer and journalist based in London. She is the deputy executive podcast producer at The Times and Sunday Times. In 2019 Poppy was listed as one of the Radio Academy's '30 Under 30' for her work as a radio reporter and producer at the BBC. Poppy co-wrote a play with Saul Boyer titled Broken Glass, which won 'runner up' in the RSC's Other Prize and the pair have written dramedies together ever since. Their next play, about the life of Frida Kahlo and Leon Trotsky, was long listed for the Papatango playwriting competition in 2017 and has been adapted into a TV pilot. The duo then wrote JEW..ish, a semi-autobiographical TV pilot, and submitted it to the Cannes Series award, where it was shortlisted. Poppy and Saul later adapted JEW...ish into an Edinburgh Fringe show in 2019 where it sold out 18 shows at the Gilded Balloon theatre. The show, produced by the Unleash The Llama team, transferred to venues in London and Birmingham in 2020. Poppy also produces the Blood Ties podcast and co-hosts Murderabilia, which is available on Amazon's Audible. |
Oseloka ObiWriter / Performer
Oseloka is a London-based actor and writer whose recent theatre credits include The End of Eddy (BAM, New York City) and Matthew Xia’s One Night In Miami (Bristol Old Vic). He also appeared in the pilot for Armando Iannucci’s Avenue 5 (HBO). His performance in Macbeth at the Garrick Theatre was described as "excellent" by The Guardian, while New York Theatre said that Obi is "as persuasive as [he is] energetic and charming." On his performance in Dante or Die's Skin Hunger, Exeunt Magazine mentioned that "Obi masterfully delivers Hughes’s destabilising, grief-spiked text with absolute control and complete sincerity.” |
Kennedy BloomerDirector
Kennedy was the former Artistic Director of the Hope Theatre. Her credits as director include: JEW...ish (Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh); TüManz TuK18 (Leicester Square Theatre); In Need for XPOSED (Southwark Playhouse); Brood for PEN (Arcola Theatre); Just How It Is for Secrets (The Lion and Unicorn Theatre); the world premiere of Pareidolia (Karamel Club Theatre); The Taming of the Shrew for Cambridge American Stage Tour and The 2014 CUADC/Footlights Pantomime: The Emperor's New Clothes (ADC Theatre). Choreographic Credits include: Doctor Faustus (The Cambridge Arts Theatre). As an assistant director: Foul Pages (The Hope Theatre); Thark (Drayton Arms Theatre); There But for the Grace of God (Camden People's Theatre and ARC, Stockton); The Comedy of Errors (Karamel Club Theatre) and Into The Woods (Bernie Grant Arts Centre). |
Maddy Chisholm-ScottProducer
Maddy is a producer. She recently produced a five star production of 'Curtains' at Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2022. She has also worked as assistant producer with Grace Dickson Productions for 'Bogeyman' (Lagahoo Productions) and 'Project Dictator' (Rhum and Clay) at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She is the producer of 'Cyanide at 5' at the Kings Head Theatre, and producer of 'Nines' with 'Black Bat Productions' at the Canal Café Theatre. Since September, she has worked with 'Unleash The Llama Productions' as producer for their London run of the sell-out show 'Man of 100 Faces'. |
