Asian Playwright Dolly Dhingra is inspired by East End crime story in her new play The Fortune Club. Leicester Haymarket in association with the Tricycle Theatre present the World Première of this new play, written by the Guardian newspaper columnist and playwright, from 10th March-2nd April at the Tricycle Theatre, Kilburn, London.

Disillusioned and 'broke', a group of twenty-something friends reunite to celebrate New Year's Eve at The Fortune Club, a run down bar in the East End of London. When it transpires that one of their group has access to the credit cards of the rich and famous, they hatch a plan to escape the rat race forever. Imaginations run wild and ideas soon spiral out of control leading them into a world of greed, glamour and deceit.

Dolly Dhingra who currently writes for The Guardian newspaper as a freelance journalist has also written for The Independent, Time Out and the Asian Age. In 1994 she won The Commission for Racial Equality's Race in the Media Award for highlighting the concerns of ethnic minorities in her journalism. In 2002 she won the UK Press Gazette's Student Interviewer of the Year Award.
Her plays have included One Night, Theatre Royal, Stratford East which was awarded the Diverse Acts Award from the London Arts Board. Nowhere Fast at the Tricycle Theatre and Spooked at Theatre Venue. In 2000 Dolly was a finalist for The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for her play The Main Course.

Her most recent play, Unsuitable Girls, was first performed at Contact Theatre in Manchester in 1999, and then toured with Pilot Theatre Company. The play had its London premiere at the Lyric Studio in April 2002.

Kully Thiarai is Co-Artistic Director at Leicester Haymarket, (Master Harold and The Boys, Dolly Dhingra's Unsuitable Girls). Thiarai's previous directing credits have included projects at Contact Theatre Manchester, for Red Ladder Theatre Company, numerous site-specific community events and international projects.

The character of attention seeking actress Renu will be played by Paven Virk whose credits include Hobson's Choice, Channel 4's Second Generation and hit film Bend It Like Beckham. Renu's sister Priya will be played by Natalia Campbell (Bollywood Jane at Leicester Haymarket, BBC's Casualty). Tink the streetwise, tabla player will be played by Anil Desai (My Dad's Corner Shop-Birmingham Rep and Goodness Gracious Me) with Rez Kempton who recently appeared in The Battle of Green Lanes at Theatre Royal, Stratford East playing the part of 31 year old journalist Gilly.

The Fortune Club premières at the Tricycle and will then be performed at Leicester Haymarket 7-23 April.

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