Julene Robinson, Emile John and Dudley O’Shaughnessy will lead How To Keep Warm in Winter, the 1970s Caribbean love story that closes the Ryan Calais Cameron Season at Catford’s Broadway Theatre from 14-25 October 2026.
Julene Robinson plays Irene, newly arrived from Jamaica, in How To Keep Warm in Winter, with Emile John as Everton, the childhood sweetheart she joins in London, and Dudley O’Shaughnessy as their landlord, David. The three complete the company for the final play of the Ryan Calais Cameron Season, which runs in the Studio at the Broadway Theatre in Catford from Wednesday 14 to Sunday 25 October 2026.
Robinson, whose stage credits include Get Up, Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical, takes the central role. O’Shaughnessy comes to it with a screen career behind him: he played Si in Top Boy, and in 2011 he was the love interest opposite Rihanna in the video for We Found Love, which has since passed a billion views on YouTube.
The play is the writing debut of Kaleb D’Aguilar, who also directs, and it reaches the stage for the first time after being long-listed for the Alfred Fagon Award. It is set in Peckham in 1973, with Edward Heath’s Three-Day Week on the way and a hard winter closing in. Irene and Everton share a single room as they try to build a life in a hostile city, and the fuel crisis, the politics of the moment and the couple’s growing friendship with David all put the marriage under strain. The cast had still to be named when the season’s two autumn plays were announced in September.
Tyreke Leslie is assistant director and Jade Hackett movement director. The set is by Maariyah Sharjil, lighting by Jahmiko Marshall and sound by Esther Kehinde Ajayi, with Lauren Popka as costume supervisor, Tolu Oshodi as intimacy co-ordinator, Fran Cattaneo as casting director and Lydia Wainwright on stage management. Carmel O’Connor is principal producer, with Nina Cavaliero producing.
Hand-picked by Ryan Calais Cameron, the season gives early-career Black and Global Majority writers from Lewisham mentoring, dramaturgy and a fully funded twelve-performance run in the Broadway Theatre’s Studio. It opened with Justice Ezi’s Last Goal Wins and continued with Demi Wilson-Smith’s Cranes.
The opening performance on Wednesday 14 October is a preview, and press night is Thursday 15 October at 7.30pm. Performances are at 2.30pm and 7.30pm, with tickets at £15, or £12 for concessions, at the Broadway Theatre on Rushey Green.
