Triple casting revealed for Dr Korczak’s Example at Leeds Playhouse

Actors Robert Pickavance, Gemma Barnett and newcomer Danny Sykes will star in the powerful and moving production timed to premiere on Holocaust Memorial Day.

Set in the shadows of the Warsaw ghetto in 1942, the play examines life in an orphanage where escapism is key to survival, and where the children’s shared sense of community is the only barrier against the wave of hatred approaching their haven of solidarity.

The show runs from Saturday, January 25, until Saturday, February 15.

Dr Korczak’s Example highlights the work of Polish educator and children’s author Dr Janusz Korczak, who championed the voices of young people and whose influence led to the creation of the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989.

Leeds Playhouse artistic director James Brining said: “Dr Janusz Korczak was an incredible individual whose beliefs and teachings helped to redefine how we think about the way we bring up our own children and the part we have to play within society to achieve that. I commissioned the play and first directed it in 2001. It’s such a powerful, moving and timely story and I’m so looking forward to returning to it in the new Bramall Rock Void and particularly to working with Hebden Bridge designer Rose Revitt, recent winner of the Linbury Prize for theatre design. What we have already discovered about our new theatre is that its raw intimacy can create a powerful environment for powerful stories and Rose’s vision for Dr Korczak’s Example does just that. I am honoured to be directing this again with such a brilliant company.”

The role of Dr Janusz Korczak will be played by Leeds actor Robert Pickavance, who starred as Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol and Sava in David Greig’s Europe as part of the Leeds Playhouse Ensemble during its Pop-Up Season.

He is joined by Gemma Barnett, fresh from starring as Hermia in A Midsummers Night’s Dream (Shakespeare In The Squares), as well as Rory in A Hundred Words For Snow (Trafalgar Studios) and Lola in Lola (The Vaults). Danny Sykes make his first professional stage appearance after graduating with a BA in Acting from Arts Ed in 2019.

This production is supported by The Linbury Prize for Stage Design. The biennial prize, the most important of its kind in the UK, brings together the finest early career designers with professional theatre, dance and opera companies. The Linbury Prize for Stage Design is funded by the Linbury Trust.