Michael Mears presents The Mistake

Following a three-week run off-Broadway in New York… and prior to performances in Japan… ESSENTIAL THEATRE presents THE MISTAKE by Michael Mears

When the decision is made to use the atomic bomb on Japan, Leo Szilard, tormented by his role in creating it, must do everything he can to prevent the catastrophe occurring.

When Shigeko Nomura, a young woman living in Hiroshima, survives her city’s destruction she must use every last ounce of energy to reach and rescue her parents.

Two actors, one British, one Japanese, enact the compelling stories of a brilliant Hungarian scientist, a daring American pilot and a devoted Japanese daughter, in this gripping, moving and thought-provoking drama about the ‘mistake’ that launched our nuclear age.

Performed by Riko Nakazono and Michael Mears
Directed by Rosamunde Hutt
Set design by Mark Friend
Lighting design by Richard Williamson
Sound design by Claire Windsor

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Michael Mears last appeared at Greenbelt Festival in 2017 performing his acclaimed solo play about WW1 conscientious objectors THIS EVIL THING. Michael Mears is a British actor who has had a rich and varied career for over four decades
in British theatre, television and film – including seasons with the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, and the Peter Hall Company, portraying many classical roles.  He has played Prospero in Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Malvolio in two professional productions of Shakespeare’s comedy Twelfth Night, the Observer’s then theatre critic,
Michael Ratcliffe, writing ‘Michael Mears gives the most inventive reading of the role since Laurence Olivier himself.’

Michael has also worked in many of the UK’s regional theatres and performed in London’s West End on numerous occasions, most notably as Arthur Kipps in the long-running hit The Woman In Black. He acted alongside American actor Judd Hirsch in the UK premiere of Conversations With My Father, by Herb Gardner, at London’s Old Vic Theatre, playing
Judd’s son in the play, which was directed by Alan Ayckbourn.

Television roles include Rifleman Cooper in the first six Sharpe films, (ITV, and seen on Masterpiece Theatre, PBS) and Alex Kozoblis in two series of The Lenny Henry Show (BBC TV). He has appeared in The Crown (Netflix), Inspector Morse (ITV), Fleabag 2 (BBC TV) and in Sanditon 3 (ITV and masterpiece PBS). Film appearances include playing the Hotel Barman who brings Hugh Grant and Andie McDowell together in Four Weddings And A Funeral. He played Punter and Shadowman in Edgar Wright’s recent film Last Night In Soho, and he has just finished filming an appearance in Wright’s latest film, The Running Man, based on the early Stephen King novel.

But Michael is perhaps best known as an award-winning performer of his own original solo plays for theatre and radio. His first solo play, Tomorrow We Do The Sky, in which he played six factory canteen workers, premiered at the Traverse Theatre during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1991, and was nominated for the Independent Theatre Award, and Time Out Theatre Award, before playing in London, on tour, and subsequently being broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

This was followed by Soup, his Scotsman Fringe First Award winning solo play about homelessness, which garnered five star reviews and had a sell out three week run at the Pleasance, Edinburgh, in 1995.  Michael was also nominated for the Stage Best Actor Award at that year’s festival.  Soup also played in London, on tour, and was broadcast on BBC Radio 4. He performed his solo play about grief A Slight Tilt To The Left at the Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh, in 2002, and this, as well as four other of his solo plays, Slow Train To Woking, Uncle Happy, Jam and Arnold Darwin’s Feeling Better, were all specially commissioned for BBC Radio, and have all been performed by him on Radio 4.

His most recent solo stage plays have been This Evil Thing (2016), depicting the struggles of Britain’s WW1 conscientious objectors which he performed over 100 times in many venues in the UK and in 2018 in seventeen venues in the eastern USA; and The Priest’s Tale, Michael’s adaptation of one of the survivor stories, that of a German priest, from American journalist John Hersey’s classic book, Hiroshima.

In his latest play The Mistake, Michael portrays Hungarian-Jewish physicist Leo Szilard; the American pilot of the Enola Gay, General Paul Tibbets; as well as numerous other personae, including Einstein and President Roosevelt.

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Riko Nakazono is a London based Japanese actor, dancer, puppeteer, and singer. After graduating from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in NYC, she originated a role in The Secret Silk, a musical produced by Stephen Schwartz.

Riko has performed internationally, working with renowned companies including the Royal Shakespeare Company, Jim Henson's Creature Shop, Whole Hog Theatre, English National Opera, Blind Summit, Vereinigte Bühnen Wien (Vienna), The 92nd Street Y (NYC), and Princess Cruises.

Theatre credits include: My Neighbour Totoro (Royal Shakespeare Company; Improbable), Miss Saigon (Vienna), Madame
Butterfly (English National Opera), The Garden of Words (Whole Hog Theatre), The Secret Silk (Princess Cruises), and Caligula and the Sea (Vault Festival, London). In 2023, Riko performed as Shigeko and the Woman in The Mistake by Michael Mears (Essential Theatre) during its UK nationwide tour across 28 venues, and in the USA earlier this year including a three-week run in New York City.

TV and film credits include: Mamma Mia! I Have A Dream (ITV) and, most recently, The Head (Series 3) as series regular Keiko (HBO Max; Hulu Japan).