Iron by Rona Munro at the Staveley Roundhouse

So many questions. So many withheld truths. So many revelations. When the truth finally emerges, it may not be the truth at all.

After fifteen years apart, a mother and daughter come face to face. One is searching for answers to a past she can barely remember. The other holds memories she may not be ready to share. What begins as a long-awaited meeting becomes a journey through fractured memories, buried secrets and competing versions of the truth. As the layers are peeled back and long-hidden secrets emerge, the past must finally be confronted. But some truths are harder to accept than others.

Iron by Rona Munro. A gripping and deeply moving drama about family, memory, guilt, redemption and the stories we tell ourselves to survive.

Rona Munro is one of Scotland’s most celebrated playwrights, whose work includes the James Plays trilogy for the National Theatre of Scotland.

Iron marks the directorial debut of Kate Vernon. Kate is a familiar presence on the stages of the Brewery Arts Centre, Staveley Roundhouse and KAOS Musical Theatre. She performs regularly with the Fairly Famous Family Street Theatre Company, including several appearances at Glastonbury, and her comic anecdotes are renowned for clearing a dressing room of all other conversation. Which makes her choice of directorial debut all the more striking.

The production stars Abbi Lawson as Josie, the daughter. Abbi appeared on The Great British Bake Off in 2023, wowing Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith with flavours drawn from the fields and hedgerows around her Tebay home. A veg grower, forager and delivery driver, she has been performing with Staveley Roundhouse for several years.

Opposite her as Fay is Sarah Waterhouse, previously a professional tuba player whose career took in recording Always Look on the Bright Side of Life with Coronation Street’s Percy Sugden at Abbey Road, playing on all the opening credits of Channel 4’s The Sean Hughes Show with terrible 1980s hair, and touring and recording with the juggernaut big band Delightful Precipice.

Also appearing is Bob Christie, a familiar face throughout the area with Staveley Roundhouse, KAOS Musical Theatre and local venues. He was recently awarded a NODA Best Supporting Male in a Musical for his performance as Uncle Fester in KAOS Musical Theatre’s production of The Addams Family.

Making her Staveley Roundhouse debut is Jamie-Leigh Currie, whose work with KAOS Musical Theatre and other societies across Furness has marked her out as one of the area’s most exciting musical theatre performers. Her leading roles have included Morticia Addams in The Addams Family, Tracy Turnblad in Hairspray and Rita O’Grady in Made in Dagenham.

Rona Munro’s Iron plays at the Staveley Roundhouse 7–10 July. Tickets are available here.