Greater London, England, United Kingdom
Off West End Award nominated actress, award-winning theatre maker and nascent director with extensive stage credits (inc. West End, Salisbury Playhouse, Oldham Coliseum Theatre, Theatre Royal Windsor, Glasgow Citizens Theatre, Original Theatre, Chichester Festival Theatre, Southwark Playhouse, Perth Theatre, Theatre Babel, The Mill at Sonning and numerous other touring, regional and London credits); also working across screen, audio and radio. Represented by Steve Nealon Associates. https://app.spotlight.com/9510-8976-9362. Sarah is also a founding member of And Tomorrow Theatre Company and Perfectly Normal Theatre Ltd. Producing theatre since 2013. Most recently AS LONG AS WE ARE BREATHING (Arcola Theatre), DIAGNOSIS (Finborough Theatre), GOOD BOY, TIMELESS and IN DEFIANCE OF GRAVITY at EdFringe 2024, 1979 at the Finborough Theatre, STITCHES at The Hope Theatre, THE QUALITY OF MERCY at The Grand Theatre, Surgeons' Hall, EdFringe 2023, SHIUTTERS: A LESBIAN ROCK OPERA (Omnibus Theatre), THIS BITTER EARTH (White Bear Theatre) and Arts Council funded web series LEAR ALONE which won Best Series at Off West End’s OnComm Awards 2022. Other recent work includes LEAVES (Jermyn Street Theatre), POWER LUNCHEON (Hope Theatre) SCROUNGER (Finborough Theatre – winner of Best New Play at the Off West End Awards 2021), web series LATE NIGHT STARING AT HIGH RES PIXELS (winner of London Pub Theatre’s Standing Ovation Award for Best Theatre Online) and TIMELESS (Space Theatre and touring). Sarah is a founding member of And Tomorrow Theatre Company, whose inaugural production, DEATH OF A HUNTER, premiered at the Finborough Theatre in 2018 and transferred to the Brighton Fringe Festival. In 2019 she produced the world premiere of EDRED, THE VAMPYRE for The London Horror Festival. Co-producing credits include MY ROMANTIC HISTORY (Old Red Lion), TREE HOUSE (Brewhouse Theatre Taunton and touring), MADAME BOVARY (Hope Theatre), ORANGES & INK (Tristan Bates Theatre and touring) and THE MARVELLOUS ADVENTURES OF MARY SEACOLE (C Venues, Edinburgh Festival). Sarah is also the co-creator and sole producer of Rula Lenska’s one woman show FROM DZIKOW TO WILLESDEN GREEN. X/Instagram @La_Lawrie BA Hons Social and Political Sciences (2:1) Trinity Hall, Cambridge University.
Rupert Everett stars as the former British agent, Denis Rake. It's 1968. An ageing drag performer is waiting to go on as the warm-up act in Soho's Flamingo club, a cabaret at the bottom of the food chain. In his dressing room he meets the venue's young Australian stage manager, John, who first brings him his post and a bottle of champagne from a nearby bar. Through their awkward conversations we learn that the older man is a war hero, Major Denis Rake MC. In a state of reverie, he recalls the glamour but also the danger of his time in occupied Paris as an undercover agent of the Special Operations Executive. A new play, premiered on Radio 4, inspired by real events. Also starring Reece Budin as John. The Remarkable Dennis Rake: Denis Rake achieved the rank of Major as well as receiving the Military Cross, Croix de Guerre and Legion D'Honneur. To our knowledge he is the most highly decorated openly gay man in the history of the British Army. He refused point blank to train with weapons and explosives and conducted a love affair with a German officer in occupied Paris. Writer DHW Mildon's other plays include The Flood and Leaves and Masque, which was shortlisted for last year's Woven Voices prize. Director Philip Franks has a long track record in theatre and radio as a director and actor. His Radio 4 credits include The Machine Stops and A Cold Supper Behind Harrods. He has recently directed The Mirror Crack'd on UK tour, as well as The Mousetrap in The West End. Cast: Denis Rake: Rupert Everett John: Reece Budin Neighbour: Sarah Lawrie The Comedian: Philip Franks Director: Philip Franks Producers: Sarah Lawrie and David Morley Original Music by Patrick McDonald. Sound Design: Chris O'Shaughnessy A Perfectly Normal production for BBC Radio 4
Returning to @edfringe via @CamdenFringe this summer with ELON MUSK: LOST IN SPACE, presented by newly formed PERFECTLY NORMAL THEATRE, a new company that I have founded with David Morley and Richard Clemmow. An action-packed, satirical epic that looks inside the scary mind of Elon Musk to find out what’s really going on in there. World premiere by British writer and radio producer David Morley. Starring Ben Whitehead (the voice of 'Wallace' in BAFTA winning, Academy Award nominated Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl as Musk and Off West End nominated Sarah Lawrie as 'M-UTHA', ELON MUSK: LOST IN SPACE charts Musk's solo mission to Mars, accompanied only by the ship's next-generation computer. As the man-boy, sci-fi geek blasts off into space, he’s about to get a call from The White House that will send his universe into a spin.. The play also features conjurings of Donald Trump, Sir Patrick Moore and Arthur C. Clarke (also voiced by Ben Whitehead), and will appeal to fans of satire, sci-fi, American politics and those interested in the ethics of A.I. Directed by Olivier Award-nominated John Nicholson (co-founder of Peepolykus) with sound design and original composition by multi Sony Gold Award winner Chris O'Shaughnessy, ELON MUSK: LOST iN SPACE previews at Camden Fringe ahead of its debut at the Space UK's Grand Theatre at Edinburgh Fringe 2025.
13 May- 7 June 2025 Proudly producing he world premiere of Athena Stevens' latest play, following our previous collaborations on SCROUNGER (Best New Play, Off West End Awards 2021) and web series LATE NIGHT STARING AT HIGH RES PIXELS (Standing Ovation Award Winner). A London police station, late at night. A vulnerable woman with a disability is brought in. But is she making a confession, a plea, a threat, or is she just plain mad? After spending years flying surveillance drones through the tunnels of London’s Underground, she begins seeing things – glowing words above people’s heads, predicting their future injuries and diagnoses. And when she sees a countdown above a stranger’s head at a bar – one that’s ticking down in minutes – she knows she has to act… Gripping, taut and unsettling, Diagnosis is a speculative fiction thriller that asks…if you knew what was coming, would you be able to change it? Diagnosis marks the return to the theatre after four years of creative exile for Olivier Award nominated and OffWestEnd Award Best Play winner Athena Stevens, and is directed by the multi-award-winning Ché Walker whose sell-out production of Burnt-Up Love at the Finborough Theatre in November 2024 was selected by The Observer as one of the UK’s Top 10 Productions of 2024. This production coincides with the publication of Athena’s autobiography What’s Done Cannot Be Undone to be published by HarperCollins on 5 June 2025. https://finboroughtheatre.co.uk/production/diagnosis/
Sarah Lawrie presents As Long As We Are Breathing: meditations on survival and beyond Written by Diane Samuels | Directed by Ben Caplan The world premiere of a new work by Diane Samuels (author of award-winning Kindertransport). AS LONG AS WE ARE BREATHING is a multi-sensory, mixed media and timely evocation of the true-life story of Miriam Freedman. Directed by Ben Caplan, the piece conjures Miriam’s childhood experience of living in danger, hiding with some of her family in Slovakia during the Holocaust and charts her journey to London in adulthood where she discovered yoga and meditation which enabled her to face and begin to process the depths of her trauma and grief. 29 January - 1 March 2025 ★★★★ “Multi-sensory memoir is both numbing and terrifying” – Broadway World ★★★★ “Entertaining and educational and held the audience spellbound as the tale unfolded ... Miriam’s story is one that should be heard, seen, and lived through. As Long As We Are Breathing, is really good theatre.” – London Theatre 1 ★★★★ “A cast of three brings multitudinous talent to the multiplicity of forms ... Innovative and timely” – Mark Lawson – The Guardian ★★★★ “Playwright Diane Samuels has created a truly touching homage to the life of Miriam Freedman ... a story which will hopefully and deservedly be told again and again and again” – A Youngish Perspective ★★★★ “As Long As We Are Breathing is truly a multi-sensory immersive experience.” – Operation Live Theatre ★★★★ “Miriam’s story is told excellently by the cast” – Stage Masters ★★★★ “A mindful, sensitive and emotional journey through one woman’s life... intimate storytelling” – Everything Theatre ★★★★ “Beautiful and unusual; theatre as a sacred space” – London Pub Theatres ★★★★ “What an extraordinary story it is, and what an honour to hear it.” – North West End
World premiere of IN DEFIANCE OF GRAVITY, which previewed at The King's Head, and received its @EdFringe debut at Summerhall, 2024. Ezra Montefiore is the greatest spirit medium of all time. A master of the seance, levitation and telekinesis, he defies all scientific explanation. But when details of a clandestine affair with Prince Felix Yusupov reach the ears of Rasputin and Russia's Imperial Court he must fight not only for his reputation but also his life. From the makers of the sell-out smash hits Jew...ish and Man of 100 Faces comes an extraordinary story based on real historical events, told through dynamic physical theatre, multi-roling and stage illusion. Expect seances, spirit-possession and live levitation. ★★★★★ The Prickle ★★★★ Broadway World ★★★★ Broadway Baby ★★★★ The Wee Review ★★★★ Theatre Weekly ★★★★ West End Best Friend