RUTHLESS - the tragic Survival of Ruth Madoff
London World-Premiere 3 June 2025
Cast
Ruth Madoff
Emily Swain
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Marco Di Cesare / Ahmed
Evan Emanuel
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Voices
Phil Gwilliam
Caitlin Stuart​
Louis Critchley
Toby Cisneros
Jem Brooks
Mark Tunstall
Bernardo Hita
Roger Steinmann​
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Creatives
Writer, Director, & Producer
Roger Steinmann
Assistant Director
Evan Emanuel
Sound & Light Technic
Bernardo Hita
Marketing Coordinator
Kathleeen Murtagh
​Marketing
Brenda Sabryna
Ilona Stern
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Press Rep
Geri Perry
Matthew Parker
British Dramaturge Adviser
Ruth Ahmed
Prop Master
Michelle Plevin
Mark Tunstall
Set Designer
Charlie San Myint
Stage Artwork
Pai Koomphi
Set Constructor
Is Jones
Graphic Designer
Vy Miracle
Administrative Assistant
Ruth Meier
Management Win Win Produtions
Luigi A. Fischer
Management Arches Lane Theatre
Leo Bacica
Roger Steinmann
Author, Director & Producer
Roger Steinmann is a Swiss director and producer who is the auteur of his own Hollywood films and theatre.
Born on 6 November 1961, he began making Super-8 films at the age of eight. Among his many award-winning short films in his youth, DIE TÜRE and DIE FLUTKATASTROPHE were broadcast on Swiss national television in 1976 and 1978, respectively.
In the 1980s, Steinmann turned to theatre, and in the 90s back to film and to Hollywood. His best-known work is ILLUSION INFINITY (2004), starring Dee Wallace (E.T.), Mickey Rooney (Night at the Museum), Barbara Carrera (Never Say Never Again), and Timothy Bottoms (The Last Picture Show).
In 2017, Steinmann began shooting PHONY, an ambitious feature film set across various international locations. Filming in Switzerland, as a stand-in for the snowy Canadian landscape, and in tropical Thailand. The final segment, which starred Burt Reynolds, Talia Shire, and Faye Dunaway, had to be cancelled following Reynolds' untimely death; it was further impeded by the Covid-19 pandemic.
During this period, Steinmann returned to theatre and wrote the social-distancing satire WIN=WIN, which, in 2022, he produced and directed in Switzerland.
His play TEUFELSKREIS, adapted in English as RUTHLESS: The tragic Survival of Ruth Madoff, will premiere in London on 3 June 2025, with Steinmann again as producer and director.
Further original stage plays include twin and triplet mistaken-identity crime-comedy WENN DER DRILLING MIT DER ZWILLING, and the post-digital-dystopian satire w.w.STEINZEIT. The latter's English adaptation, w.w.STONEAGE, is in preparation for a 2026 premiere in London.
Steinmann was educated at the Swiss Business School. Since 1984, he continues to preside over a shareholder company—at the time, he was the youngest person in Switzerland to do so. Steinmann divides his time between his native Switzerland and his self-imposed ‘exile’ in Phuket, where he runs a boutique hotel. A seasoned world traveller, he speaks eight languages, including French, Spanish, and Thai.
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Extenal Links:
Emily Swain
as Ruth Madoff
Emily Swain is an Anglo-Irish actor, filmmaker, and voice artist, recently starring as Queen Eloise in Royal-ish - a Hallmark original movie (2025). With a career spanning television, major streaming platforms, stage, and independent film, Swain has built a rich and varied body of work across the UK and internationally.
Raised in Sussex, and holding dual UK-Irish citizenship, Swain brings an international outlook, shaped by living in France and Italy. Before training professionally at The Academy of Live and Recorded Arts (ALRA) in London, she studied at Plater College, Oxford and the Sorbonne in Paris, becoming fluent in French. She has performed across Europe and Australia (Sydney Theatre Company), and toured Pakistan for the British Council.
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Screen Credits Include:
BBC, ITV - Grace (2025), Code of Silence (2025), Channel 4, Channel 5, Hulu - The Heritage (Bite Size Halloween), Netflix - Netflix original film Dunki with Bollywood Star Shah Rukh Khan, What About Me - winner of Best Short Film at the 2024 Royal Television Society Southern Awards.
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Stage Credits Include:
West End, national and international tour of of Mike Bartlett’s multi award-winning King Charles III (for the Almeida Theatre Company), an all-female A Scandal in Bohemia staged in Pakistan, The Life and Times of Jelly Roll Morton, performed at Chichester Festival Theatre’s Minerva Studio (2025).
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Filmmaker and Writing Credits Include:
The Shriving, Problème d’Étang, and Verses from Diamond Hill - showcased at Independent Shorts Awards, Indie Shorts Fest Los Angeles, East End Film Festival, Bloomsday Dublin, and two IFTA-affiliated festivals. She is deeply committed to socially conscious storytelling.
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Beyond acting, Swain’s path has been anything but conventional. She took a sabbatical from the industry to work in journalism, defence, hospice care-work and human rights - experiences she credits with deepening her understanding of the world. Highlights include interviewing The Princess Royal at Buckingham Palace, working on a Cherie Blair charitable event at No.10 and scaling the US gigantic aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman in gale-force winds off Stokes Bay. These experiences, she says, “recycle back into the work - nothing is ever wasted.”​
Born into a family of theatre and screen actors — Cherry Morris and Mike Murray, whose careers spanned the Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal National Theatre, film and British television — Swain continues a creative tradition of combining craft with adventure and substance. Her maternal great-grandfather, George Armstrong, was part of the 19th-century mapping of Western and Eastern Palestine with Lt. Kitchener for the Palestine Exploration Fund.
Emily Swain is married to British landscaper and artist Graham Swain (artswain.com) and divides her time between Sussex and Ibiza.
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External Links
Evan Emanuel
Marco / Ahmed
& Assistant Director
Evan Emanuel is a 25 year old Actor. First acting from the young age of 7 years old on stage, Evan has persuaded this ever since. Making it his career. Evan graduated from the University Of Chichester Studying BA Hons Acting For Film. Along with studies and awards in LAMDA. Evan is versed in both stage and screen, having completed many short films including working with London Film School, commercial work and a leading role in a feature film. In terms of stage he has a long history of productions from pulling double duty in a Stage production of Bugsy Malone doing two roles when he was a teenager for a long theatre run. To most recently this year having a run at Brighton Fringe having two roles in Alphabet Rainbow, a Limited Run in Eastbourne for Revelation 18:8 to now working in Ruthless as both Marco and Ahmed. Evan has the range for both performances. Using his techniques in Stanislavski and Meisner. Evan has also Assistant Directed both a feature film, short films (Along with directing) and plays (revelation 18:8). This makes Evan extremely qualified in Assistant Directing this play and his qualification in stage management makes sure he is able to run the production professionally and smoothly while also acting in the production. Evan is very used to directing and acting in the same piece. Pressure makes diamonds afterall. Evan has a range of accents; German, American, North Yorkshire, English Northern, Italian, Russian and many more. Evan utilizes this skill for this play in both roles of Ruthless. For more information on Evan you can find him on Mandy.com or Email evanemanuel1064@gmail.com / evanemanuelacting1064@gmail.com. Alternatively go to potlight account by clicking his name on the website or searching: https://app.spotlight.com/9419-7831-7980