Announcing: Selby Light 2026
7th November 2025
We are thrilled to announce the casting for our 2026 touring production of War of the Worlds – our brand new retelling of H. G. Wells’s classic novel. Read the press release from Duncan Clarke PR below for more information.
PRESS RELEASE
10 November 2025
The award-winning imitating the dog have today announced full casting for the premiere of their bold and contemporary retelling of H.G Wells’s iconic science fiction tale The War of the Worlds which will be touring from 5 February till 2 May.
War of the Worlds’ cast will feature Bonnie Baddoo (All of Us, Royal National Theatre and Alex Rider, Eleventh Hour Films), Morgan Bailey (Night of the Living Dead™ – Remix, imitating the dog and SAS: Rogue Heroes, BBC), Gareth Cassidy (Marvellous, @sohoplace and The Card, Claybody Theatre and New Vic Theatre) and Amy Dunn (Edward II, Royal Shakespeare Company and Hushabye Mountain, Hope Mill Theatre).
Four performers enter the stage and construct an epic road movie before our eyes.
It’s a story we know or think we know – an apocalyptic tale of alien invasion and the unfolding destruction of everything we hold dear. Extraterrestrial lifeforms land from the skies. Lines of Brits scrabble to flee across the channel while their cities and towns lie in smouldering ruins. It’s all of our worst nightmares.
What would you do if order broke down? What would you do to survive? How far would you go to protect your own?
Using miniature environments, model worlds, camera tricks and projection, imitating the dog mix the live and the recorded, the animate and the inanimate to create a thrilling, audacious and timely retelling of H. G. Wells’s classic novel.
Following their acclaimed adaptations of literary classics Heart of Darkness (2018), Dracula (2021), Macbeth (2023) and Frankenstein (2024), imitating the dog are set to push their creative storytelling to new heights.
imitating the dog have been making ground-breaking work for theatres and other spaces for 27 years. Their work, which fuses live performance with digital technology, has been seen by hundreds of thousands of people in venues, outdoor festivals, and events across the world. Past productions have included Hotel Methuselah, A Farewell to Arms, Heart of Darkness, Night of The Living Dead™– Remix, the award-winning Dracula: The Untold Story, Frankenstein, and most recently, All Blood Runs Red. In 2022 the company staged Cinema Inferno, a ground-breaking new show for the Parisian haute couture house Maison Margiela, based on an original concept by creative director John Galliano, for Maison Margiela’s Artisanal 2022 collection, presented on the official Paris Haute Couture Calendar.
Created by imitating the dog’s co-artistic directors Andrew Quick, Simon Wainwright and Pete Brooks, imitating the dog’s retelling of War of the Worlds will premiere at Cast, Doncaster from 5-7 February before touring to BEAM, Hertford (11-14 February); The Dukes, Lancaster (18-21 February); Lowry, Salford (25-28 February); Liverpool Playhouse (4-7 March); New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich (11-14 March); Belgrade Theatre, Coventry (18-21 March); Theatr Clwyd, Mold (15-18 April); Blackpool Grand Theatre (22-25 April) and The Arts Theatre Cambridge (29 April-2 May). The production will also tour to Switzerland in April.
War of the Worlds is supported by Lancaster Arts and Cast, Doncaster
For more information on War of the Worlds visit imitatingthedog.co.uk
-Ends-
For all press material, images, interview, and press ticket requests, please contact:
Duncan Clarke PR – duncanclarkepr@gmail.com / 07880893750
NOTES TO EDITORS:
Press Performances:
Friday 6 February at 7pm & Saturday 7 February at 2pm
Cast, Doncaster, DN1 3BU
CREATIVE TEAM
An imitating the dog production
War of the Worlds
Based on The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
Retold by imitating the dog
Supported by Lancaster Arts and Cast, Doncaster
Written and Directed by Pete Brooks and Andrew Quick
Projection and Video Designs by Simon Wainwright
Set and Costume Design by Abby Clarke
Lighting Design by Andrew Crofts
Music and Sound design by James Hamilton
Casting Director: Ellie Collyer-Bristow CDG
Cast: Bonnie Baddoo, Morgan Bailey, Gareth Cassidy, Amy Dunn
UK TOUR DATES 2026:
5-7 February – Cast, Doncaster
Box Office: 01302 303959 / castindoncaster.com
11-14 February – BEAM, Hertford
Box Office: beamhertford.co.uk
18-21 February – The Dukes, Lancaster
Box Office: 01524 598500 / dukeslancaster.org
25-28 February – Lowry, Salford Quays
Box Office: 0161 8762000 / thelowry.com
4-7 March – Liverpool Playhouse
Box Office: 0151 7094776 / everymanplayhouse.com
11-14 March – New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich
Box Office: 01473 295900 / wolseytheatre.co.uk
18-21 March – Belgrade Theatre, Coventry
Box Office: 024 76553055 / belgrade.co.uk
25-28 March – Leeds Playhouse
Box Office: 0113 2137700 / leedsplayhouse.org.uk
15-18 April – Theatr Clwyd, Mold
Box Office: 01352 344101 / theatrclwyd.com
22-25 April – Blackpool Grand Theatre
Box Office: 01253 290190 / blackpoolgrand.co.uk
29 April –2 May – The Arts Theatre Cambridge
Box Office: 01223 503333 / artstheatre.co.uk
PRODUCER
IMITATING THE DOG
imitating the dog is a National Portfolio Organisation which have been making ground-breaking work for theatres and other spaces for 25 years. Their work, which fuses live performance with digital technology, has been seen by hundreds of thousands of people in venues, outdoor festivals, and events across the world.
Past productions have included Hotel Methuselah, A Farewell to Arms, Heart of Darkness, Night of The Living Dead ™- Remix, Dracula: The Untold Story, Macbeth, Frankenstein, and most recently, All Blood Runs Red.
To date in 2025, imitating the dog’s site-specific work has featured in the Otherham Winter Light Festival in Rotherham in January, thelaunch of bicentenary celebrations of the Stockton & Darlington Railway in March and Light Up Lancaster in November
SUPPORT FROM:
CAST, DONCASTER
@CastInDoncaster |castindoncaster.com
Having opened in 2013, Cast welcomes over 100,000 audience members every year. It runs a vibrant participation programme, engaging with people of all ages and backgrounds from communities across Doncaster, encouraging them to take part in workshops, events, and productions. It also supports and commissions work with exciting local artists, hosting scratch nights and artist hangouts where both experienced and emerging artists can thrive. Though firmly embedded in the cultural life of Doncaster, Cast is still a young, distinctive, and forward-thinking arts centre with a well-established reputation, locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally.
The 620-seat theatre presents an extensive and varied programme throughout the year, including music, dance, family shows, comedy, and drama. As well as the main auditorium, the second space can accommodate up to 200 people and features the very best of small-scale touring productions. Through Cast’s regional and countrywide creative partnerships with theatres and artists, they offer the very best in performing arts, with long-term programmes of engagement and performances from world-renowned companies, such as the National Theatre and The Royal Opera House, taking place alongside the newest freshest work from early career artists. Cast strives to be an inclusive organisation, open and welcoming to everyone.
LANCASTER ARTS
where ideas, peoples and places connect
Lancaster Arts has a long-established artistic reputation for the creation, development and presentation of cutting-edge contemporary arts and a part of Arts Council England’s portfolio as a combined arts organisation.
Based at Lancaster University, Lancaster Arts has presented contemporary theatre, circus, dance, music and visual arts for over 40 years in the Nuffield Theatre, the Great Hall and the Peter Scott Gallery as well as locations on campus and across the region. The Peter Scott Gallery is also an accredited museum, taking care of Lancaster University’s Art Collection, a rich and varied collection spanning thousands of years.
The artistic programme includes commissions, festivals, Creative Gatherings and artist residencies, often with university academics and has supported the research and development stages of creating artwork. Many national and international companies had their beginnings in the Nuffield Theatre such as Forced Entertainment and imitating the dog! Recently, Lancaster Arts has been producing outdoor arts, particularly with environmental themes.
Visit lancasterarts.org to learn more or follow @lancasterartsuk on social media for the latest updates.
ARTS COUNCIL ENGLAND
Arts Council England is the national development agency for creativity and culture. Their vision, set out in their strategy Let’s Create, is that by 2030, they want England to be a country in which the creativity of each of us is valued and given the chance to flourish, and where every one of us has access to a remarkable range of high-quality cultural experiences. Between 2023 and 2026 they will have invested over £467million of public money from Government, alongside an estimated £250 million each year from The National Lottery, to help ensure that people in every part of the country have access to culture and creativity in the places where they live. Until Autumn 2025, the National Lottery is celebrating its 30th anniversary of supporting good causes in the United Kingdom: since the first draw was held in 1994, it has raised £49 billion and awarded more than 690,000 individual grants.
Visit our website to learn more about our work. www.artscouncil.org.uk
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