The Void
Dare you enter a world infected by fear?
Eight million miles from Earth, a mysterious distress call crackles through the ether and draws Flint, a haunted space ranger, towards the Odyssey – an ageing research vessel in the grip of a nightmare. Boarding the craft, he finds a failing ship, a missing crew, and a deadly force running out of control…
The Void is a chilling sci-fi horror created for the stage – a decaying future of desperate humans, all-seeing AI, and memories of a distant, dangerous past. Combining powerful illusions, atmospheric projections and a creeping sense of dread, this story asks… what are you afraid of?
A bold plunge into sci-fi horror that electrifies the stage with cinematic flair and unsettling atmosphere”
★★★★★, Glos
Out of this world”
★★★★, North West End
Venue

Presented by
Thunder Road Theatre
Written and directed by
Ryan Simons
Set designed by
Caitlin Mawhinney
Price
Special Offers
Aged 16 to 25: Discounted tickets are available for this production for registered 16-25 members on Tue 27 Oct at 7.45pm. T&Cs apply – Find Out More
Multi-Buy: Save 10% when you book 3 or more productions in one transaction.
Max 2 discounted tickets per customer, and must be booked for three different productions. Some productions excluded. T&Cs apply – Find Out More
Rep Friends
- Bronze Friends: Save 10% per production, or 20% when booking 3 or more productions in the same transaction, with no transaction fees.
- Gold/Silver Friends & Rep Patrons: Save 15% per production, or 25% when booking 3 or more productions in the same transaction, with no transaction fees.
Max 4 discounted tickets per friend. Multi-buy must be booked for three different productions. Some productions excluded T&Cs apply – Find Out More
Running Time
Approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes, including an interval.
Age Guidance
13+
Please note, no under 5s will be admitted to the auditorium.
Content Advice
Please note, this production contains some strong language, disturbing images and scenes of horror.
This production also contains haze, spark effects, flashing lights including strobe lighting, and sudden loud noises.
Production Photos
Photography by Marc Brenner
Photography by Marc Brenner
Photography by Marc Brenner
Photography by Marc Brenner
Photography by Marc Brenner
Photography by Marc Brenner
Photography by Marc Brenner
Photography by Marc Brenner
Cast
Alex Moran
Alex is a multi award-winning actor whose theatre credits include the UK, Ireland & South Africa tour of War Horse with the National Theatre, A Clockwork Orange at the Arcola Theatre for Volcano, and the national tour of Quality Street with Northern Broadsides and New Vic Theatre.
Alex is also the founder of Thunder Road, demonstrating his commitment to creating and developing new theatrical work, and has been producing live entertainment for over 16 years. He has worked with over 150 venues across 5 different countries, and appeared in the first ever UK, Ireland & South Africa tour of War Horse, widely regarded as the most successful production in National Theatre history.
His acting credits include: Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin (Georgian Theatre Royal); Body Snatcher, The Invisible Man, The Count of Monte Cristo, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and Hyde (Harrogate Theatre); Seeds (Oldham Coliseum); Tales From The Blackjack (The Lowry); Nivea’s international skin-care commercial for Liverpool FC.
Producer credits include: Night of the Werewolves; Sh*t Life Crisis (Hull Truck for Silent Uproar; It’s Not A Game (UK Tour); The Void (UK Tour); Shock Horror (four UK Tours between 2022-2025); 1984 (Regional Tour and The Edge, Chorlton); The Body Snatcher (UK Tour and Harrogate Theatre); The Invisible Man, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, The Count Of Monte Cristo and Hyde (Harrogate Theatre).
Awards include: A Manchester Evening News Theatre Award (Best Performance) and the Jane Horrocks Award (Outstanding Achievement).
Find out more at www.mistermoran.com
Ryan Simons
Ryan graduated with a First Class BA Honours in Drama from Bretton Hall. Ryan has expanded his creative career beyond his established acting work to become a playwright and filmmaker. He further developed his writing skills through specialised training with Hull Truck.
Stage credits include: Firebird (Lawrence Batley Theatre); Kes (Perth Theatre Royal); Crap Dad (West Yorkshire Playhouse); The Tale of Teeka (York Theatre Royal); Chameleon (Sheffield Crucible); Lord of the Flies (Pilot Theatre Company).
Television credits include: EastEnders (BBC), Emmerdale (ITV), The Royal Today (ITV Studios), Line of Beauty (BBC), and the television movie Booze Cruise 3 (Yorkshire TV).
Writing/Directing credits include: She Sells (Mikron), It’s Not A Game (Fine Entertainment), Shock Horror: A Ghost Story (Thunder Road), Merlin and The Magic Mirror (Lawrence Batley Theatre), and Bottoms Up (Liverpool Actors’ Studio).
His transition into filmmaking has proven equally successful, with horror films Seizure and Demon Eye receiving theatrical releases in America and Europe and distribution across thirty territories globally.
Ryan’s recent short film Tea With The Reaper garnered four prestigious awards following its initial release.
Olwen May
Olwen has worked as an actor for over thirty years. Theatre work includes productions with The National Theatre, Manchester Royal Exchange, The West Yorkshire Playhouse, The Library Theatre, The RSC, and The Young Vic. Olwen performed in a season of plays at Theatre By The Lake in 2004, where she played Mrs. Alvin in Ibsen’s Ghosts and the shameless Mrs. Lack in Sailor Beware.
Olwen plays series regular DC Louise McLaren in The Bay for ITV and will be seen later this year in Sally Wainwright’s new BBC drama Riot Women. Extensive TV work includes Industry, Halo, Slow Horses, Brassic, Gentleman Jack, Trying, Life, Bodyguard, Happy Valley, and Poirot.
Riana Duce
Riana is an actor from West Yorkshire.
Her theatre credits include: Dracula: The Untold Story (Imitating the Dog and Leeds Playhouse); Cinderella: A Fairytale (The Dukes Lancaster); Pram Talk (Blackpool Grand Theatre) The D Road (Claybody Theatre); and Unsung (Unsung Collective).
Her screen credits include: Small Prophets by BBC, The Moment by A24, Gladiator II by Paramount Pictures and Napoleon by Sony Pictures.
Terence Rae
Terence is a Scottish actor based in West Yorkshire, he trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
Theatre credits include: The Heroes Who Made Us – the 75th Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo (UK Tattoo and Aus/NZ International Tour); The Cyclops (National Theatre/CAST Doncaster); A War Of Two Halves (Two Halves Productions); All The Joy That You Can Bring (Shakespeare North Playhouse), 59 Minutes To Save Christmas (The Crucible) for SlungLow; Romeo in Romeo And Juliet (Bard In The Botanics); Malvolio, Macbeth and Mark Anthony in Midsummer Night’s Showcase (Front Room Productions); Three Sisters and Walk A Mile (Cumbernauld Theatre).
Screen credits include: Blood of my Blood (Starz/Sony); Rebus (BBC/Eleventh Hour); Blackdog (Atheneum Productions/27 Ten Productions).
Emma Leah Golding
Emma is an Actor and Voiceover Artist from Leeds who can currently be seen in the new HBO Max docu-drama Boom Box: Beats and Betrayal.
Further TV credits include: Hapless (Amazon Prime), Emmerdale (ITV) and Coronation Street (ITV).
Theatre credits include: Colin Wilson’s Poltergeist (Leeds Theatre Festival), Penelope (Leeds Playhouse) and Shake The City (Leeds Playhouse and Jermyn Street Theatre).
Creative Team
Writer & Director
Ryan Simons
Ryan Simons
Ryan graduated with a First Class BA Honours in Drama from Bretton Hall. Ryan has expanded his creative career beyond his established acting work to become a playwright and filmmaker. He further developed his writing skills through specialised training with Hull Truck.
Stage credits include: Firebird (Lawrence Batley Theatre); Kes (Perth Theatre Royal); Crap Dad (West Yorkshire Playhouse); The Tale of Teeka (York Theatre Royal); Chameleon (Sheffield Crucible); Lord of the Flies (Pilot Theatre Company).
Television credits include: EastEnders (BBC), Emmerdale (ITV), The Royal Today (ITV Studios), Line of Beauty (BBC), and the television movie Booze Cruise 3 (Yorkshire TV).
Writing/Directing credits include: She Sells (Mikron), It’s Not A Game (Fine Entertainment), Shock Horror: A Ghost Story (Thunder Road), Merlin and The Magic Mirror (Lawrence Batley Theatre), and Bottoms Up (Liverpool Actors’ Studio).
His transition into filmmaking has proven equally successful, with horror films Seizure and Demon Eye receiving theatrical releases in America and Europe and distribution across thirty territories globally.
Ryan’s recent short film Tea With The Reaper garnered four prestigious awards following its initial release.
Producer
Alex Moran
Alex Moran
Alex is a multi award-winning actor whose theatre credits include the UK, Ireland & South Africa tour of War Horse with the National Theatre, A Clockwork Orange at the Arcola Theatre for Volcano, and the national tour of Quality Street with Northern Broadsides and New Vic Theatre.
Alex is also the founder of Thunder Road, demonstrating his commitment to creating and developing new theatrical work, and has been producing live entertainment for over 16 years. He has worked with over 150 venues across 5 different countries, and appeared in the first ever UK, Ireland & South Africa tour of War Horse, widely regarded as the most successful production in National Theatre history.
His acting credits include: Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin (Georgian Theatre Royal); Body Snatcher, The Invisible Man, The Count of Monte Cristo, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and Hyde (Harrogate Theatre); Seeds (Oldham Coliseum); Tales From The Blackjack (The Lowry); Nivea’s international skin-care commercial for Liverpool FC.
Producer credits include: Night of the Werewolves; Sh*t Life Crisis (Hull Truck for Silent Uproar; It’s Not A Game (UK Tour); The Void (UK Tour); Shock Horror (four UK Tours between 2022-2025); 1984 (Regional Tour and The Edge, Chorlton); The Body Snatcher (UK Tour and Harrogate Theatre); The Invisible Man, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, The Count Of Monte Cristo and Hyde (Harrogate Theatre).
Awards include: A Manchester Evening News Theatre Award (Best Performance) and the Jane Horrocks Award (Outstanding Achievement).
Find out more at www.mistermoran.com
Dramaturg
Steve Marmion
Steve Marmion
Steve is Chief Executive and Director of Programming for Watford Palace Theatre and was Artistic Director at Soho Theatre until 2019 and prior to that he was Associate. He was also a Creative Associate at the Bush Theatre.
He has directed work for the National Theatre, Hampstead Theatre, Royal Court, The Royal Shakespeare Company with whom he is an Education Associate Practitioner, Theatre Royal Plymouth, Polka Theatre, York Theatre Royal, Bath Theatre Royal, Central School of Speech and Drama and East 15 School of Acting. He worked with Rupert Goold as an associate, transferring his production of Macbeth to Broadway. Steve trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, University of Glamorgan and has a BA Hons in Theatre (First Class).
Set & Costume Designer
Caitlin Mawhinney
Caitlin Mawhinney
Caitlin Mawhinney is a Yorkshire born and bred designer. She was the winner of the Evening Standard Future Theatre Fund for Visual Design in 2021 and has continued to gain recognition with a double nomination for Best Designer at The Stage Debut Awards 2022, finalist for the JMK Awards, as well as being a Creative Associate at Jermyn Street Theatre and a Resident Designer at New Diorama Broadgate. She trained in BA Theatre Design at Nottingham Trent University.
Her work as a set and costume designer has seen main stages, studios, and unconventional spaces across the country. Recent collaborations include Royal Opera House, The Bush, National Theatre, Hull Truck Theatre, Leeds Playhouse, Soho Theatre, Arcola Theatre, Northern Opera, Southbank Centre, Theatre503 alongside many others. She loves to design for shows with a social and political motivation, using her designs to walk a line between reality and abstraction.
Alongside this, Caitlin’s work takes the form of installation design, most notably for the National Trust, and as Associate and Assistant to a number of designers, including for the West End, Scottish Opera, Royal Opera House, and National Theatre.
Associate Director
Jason Furnival
Jason Furnival
Jason has been an actor and director for over 35 years, with a career spanning a glorious eclectic mix of theatre, television and film.
As an actor, his theatre work includes touring internationally and domestically with The National Theatre’s War Horse, classical roles with companies including Northern Broadsides (King Lear, Macbeth, Henry V) and Stafford Gatehouse (Richard III), and national tours of David Walliams’ Gangsta Granny and Billionaire Boy for Birmingham Stage Company. Regional credits include HOME Manchester (Chamaco), The Library Theatre Manchester (Wind In The Willows), Derby Theatre (Kiss Me Quickstep) and Hull Truck Theatre (Kissing Married Women).
On screen, he’s had major roles in Downton Abbey as Craig, Mr Bates’ cell mate, and as Norman Smeaton in Channel 4’s Gold Plated, alongside appearances in Shameless, Scott and Bailey, Cracker, Phoenix Nights, Coronation Street and Heartbeat.
As director/associate director, his work includes Twelfth Night and The Tempest with The Stageworks theatre company, alongside sharing his expertise in stage craft and storytelling with theatres, professional organisations and theatre schools, plus corporate films for multinational companies. He is excited to be working on The Void and looking forward to “building a bold, immersive and spine-chilling show that will leave audiences breathless.”
Composer
Ben Parsons
Ben Parsons
Ben Parsons composes music for TV, films and theatre.
He has scored for many series and programmes for TV including Charlie Cooper’s Myth Country, Bear Grylls and received an Emmy nomination for Netflix’s The Hidden Lives of Pets. Ben has also scored feature films including Demon Eye and a number of shorts.
Theatre credits include: Cascade’s Frankenstein dance piece.
Ben used to tour and record with bands including Cherry Ghost and Arctic Monkeys and now lives and works in North Manchester.
Lighting Designer
Andrew Crofts
Andrew Crofts
Andrew Crofts is a visual designer and technologist who works with lighting, video and interactive tech for theatre, dance and mixed-media companies. As well as working with Thunder Road previously on Shock Horror, Andrew has worked with a range of other artists and companies including Imitating the Dog, Jasmin Vardimon, Blast Theory, Every House Has A Door, Invisible Flock, Streetwise Opera, Geraldine Pilgrim Performance, Belarus Free Theatre and Spymonkey.
Illusion Designers
Fine Entertainment - Jamie Docherty and Lewis Joss
Fine Entertainment - Jamie Docherty and Lewis Joss
Jamie Docherty and Lewis Joss, also known as the magic double act Jay & Joss, are the creative team behind Fine Entertainments Ltd. They have created original magic for a wide range of stage productions, including Dr. Faustus at the iconic Minack Theatre, and regularly consult for magicians on Britain’s Got Talent.
Their theatre work extends to unique live events, from producing a magical presidential entrance at the Chelsea Lodge annual dinner to regular appearances at the Royal Variety Aftershow. Commercial credits include campaigns for Dulux and Marks & Spencer, and a recent routine created and taught for rapper Nines, filmed in a West End theatre.
Their magic has also featured in television and documentary projects, including School of Hard Tricks (BBC), A Day in the Life Of (Channel 4), and Theatre of Wrestling for Wrestling Resurgence.
As touring performers, Jamie and Lewis continue to bring their large-scale illusion shows to theatres across the UK, blending innovation, spectacle, and a deep love of live performance.
Director of Photography
Dave Hackney
Dave Hackney
Dave is a multidisciplinary filmmaker whose work spans narrative film, documentary, live theatre, television advertising, time-lapse and branded content. Each form informs the way he approaches visual communication.
Shock Horror and The Void have given Dave the opportunity to bring cinematic imagery into a live theatrical setting, blending screen and stage while exploring the creative possibilities of rapidly evolving technology.
His credits include the award-winning films Polterheist (2018), Seizure (2018), Demon Eye (2019) and Tea with the Reaper (2022). In 2023, he made his directing debut with the short film Hide.
Dave‘s favourite projects are those that fuse techniques old and new to serve a story’s central themes. Virtual production, LED volumes, projection mapping, motion control and emerging visual technologies meet traditional lighting, shadow, scenery and practical in camera effects, while cinematography, music and animation draw the whole into one distinctive visual language.
Technical Manager
Dominic P Patel
Dominic P Patel
Dominic is a Lighting Designer and Technical Stage Manager based in Greater Manchester.
He’s been working within music and theatre since graduating from The University of Hull in 2019. He’s worked alongside a variety of producers, playwrights and education establishments to share their stories and works with the wider world. He joined Thunder Road in 2024 for their UK Tour of Shock Horror: A Ghost Story and has been a Member of their Technical Team since.
Design credits include: Beauty and the Beast (Performers College), Daddy’s First Gay Date (UK Tour), BUFF (UK Tour), BI-TOPIA (UK Tour), Macbeth (IC Theatre), A Night with Me; Myself and Bi-polar Brenda (UK Tour) and The Formidable Lizzie Boone (UK Tour).
Production credits include: BBC’s First Homosexual (Inkbrew and Emmerson & Ward Productions), Shock Horror: A Ghost Story (Thunder Road Theatre), SO UNFAIR (One Tenth Human) and ROTTEN (Emmerson & Ward).
His works can be viewed at www.dompateltech.com
@dompateltech on instagram
Vision
Darcy Cole
Darcy Cole
Darcy is a BMus Composition graduate from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. She has dabbled in many areas of theatre in her professional and personal life, and has recently branched out into a role at Glyndebourne Opera House as an Orchestra Pit Assistant.
During her university career, Darcy worked on several shows with the Richard Burton Theatre Company as musical director, composer and/or sound designer including The Welkin by Lucy Kirkwood (The Sherman Theatre), Sweet Science of Bruising by Joy Wilkinson (Bute Theatre), Playhouse Creatures by April de Angelis (Richard Burton Theatre) and world-premiere Children of the West by Dipo Barruwa-Etti (Young Vic).
Fight Director
Kaitlin Howard
Kaitlin Howard
Prosthetics & Makeup Artist
Nikoleta Tzani
Nikoleta Tzani
Nikoleta Tzani is an international professional Makeup and Prosthetics Artist with experience in Film, TV, Theatre, Corporate, Photography, and Education. Her specialties include prosthetics, blood rigs, on-camera effects, special makeup effects, prop making, and character design. She has worked with high-profile organizations, artists, and designers on numerous projects, including serving as Head of Prosthetics for the recent international tour of The Phantom of the Opera.
Her other recent credits include: Part of the makeup team for 28 Years Later, 28 Years Later: Bone Temple, Gladiator II, Rings of Power, Netflix’s Bodies, and the BAFTA award-winning show War of the Worlds for Fox TV.
Nikoleta absolutely loves creative projects and is thrilled to showcase her creativity with Thunder Road Theatre.
Scenic Painter
Sophia Constance
Sophia Constance
Sophia is a scenic artist and creative, trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in Scenic Painting for Stage and Screen BA (hons) and is starting her MFA in Scenography at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
Selected credits include: Before After, London Zoo, When We Strike, and The Frogs (Southwark Playhouse), Roman Fever and The Human Voice, Ruth and Six of Calais, and The Aspern Papers (Pegasus Opera), Choir of Man (Arts Theatre), Gucci Cruise 2025, McLaren 2024, and Hublot x Daniel Arsham (Tate Modern), Hermés Brides de Galaxy (Titan Studios), Burberry Spring Summer 2024 (London Fashion Week), Shifters (Bush Theatre), Instructions for a Teenage Armageddon (Garrick Theatre), and Waterperry Opera Festival (Waterperry Gardens).
Set Construction
Will Hunter
Will Hunter
Will is the Technical Manager at Uppingham Theatre, as well as a Scenic Carpenter and Set Designer.
Credits include: The Worst Witch (UK Tour and West End), Hetty Feather (UK Tour and West End), Ottone (UK Tour), The Siege of Calais (UK Tour), Il Mondo Della Luna (UK Tour), La Bohème (UK Tour), Girls and Boys, Instructions for Correct Assembly (Royal Court Theatre), Good Canary, Romeo and Juliet, My Brilliant Friend, The War of the Roses (Rose Theatre Kingston), Sheppey (Orange Tree Theatre), The Magic Flute, King Priam, and Paul Bunyan (Royal Opera House).
Costume Assistant
Kitty Winter
Kitty Winter
Kitty Winter is an A-Level student at Uppingham School with a focus on costume design. She has experience working on school productions and plans to study costume design at university.
Graphic Designer
Rebecca Pitt
Rebecca Pitt
Rebecca is a British designer and art director who has been creating key art for theatre since 2008, beginning with a stint at West End advertising agency Dewynters. Notable London work includes SIX, The Time Traveller’s Wife, Amélie, The Lord of the Rings: A Musical Tale, Treason, Unfortunate and Your Lie in April. She also works for a number of regional theatres, including Watermill Theatre, Sheffield Theatres, Theatr Clwyd, Exeter Northcott Theatre and The Barn.
Her work can be viewed at www.rebeccapitt.co.uk
Original Sound Design (2025)
Nick Sagar
Nick Sagar
Nick’s work as a Sound Designer, over more than 30 years, has seen him collaborate on productions across the world, in a wide range of genres including drama, family theatre, dance and performance art.
From the West End to Broadway, Sydney to Halifax, LA to Beijing, his work has often bridged the worlds of soundscape and music, sometimes immersive and intimate and at others theatrical extravaganza on a grand scale.
Most recent Sound Design credits include: Mary Said What She Said (New York), Pessoa (Paris & Lisbon), Horrible Histories (2025 UK Tour & West End), Awful Auntie (UK Tour), Jungle Book (World Tour) and Tree of Codes (World Tour). Nick has also provided the sound design for three Olivier award nominated productions.
When not travelling the world being ‘creatively noisy’ he is also a Music Producer and Songwriter at 3507 Studio Recording, specialising in developing new and emerging music artists.