Cuba and His Teddy Bear

Play Circle was an intimate public workshop by The AIDS Plays Project in which audiences are invited into the rehearsal room. Performed with the cast seated amongst the audience, the reading blurs the line between performers and spectators, creating a unique shared experience. After the reading, audiences were invited to join a discussion about the play and its writer, guided by a guest director.

Sometimes little lambs gotta be sacrificed so God can be revealed.

Cuba is a small-time coke dealer in New York’s Lower East Side whose pride and joy is his sixteen-year-old son, Teddy. Cuba forbids Teddy from drink and drugs, encourages his ambition to be a writer, and tries to shield him from his world of pimps and lowlife thugs. Unbeknownst to his father, however, Teddy has fallen for the charismatic Che—a queer, award-winning playwright turned junkie who has gotten him hooked on heroin.

Reinaldo Povod’s blistering portrayal of addiction and queer love was a sensation on Broadway in 1986, with Robert de Niro in the lead role. Now, this forgotten American classic receives its UK premiere in a reading directed by Emily Aboud.

Cast

Lucas Aurelio
Helder Fernandes 
Alvaro Flores 
Mariam Haque
Luca Kamleh-Chapman
Cyril Nri

Creative Team

Director: Emily Aboud
Producers: Alastair Curtis, David Doyle

This event was organised by Alastair Curtis, as part of the Associate Artists Programme.

Dates and Times

Thu 20 November 2025
7.30pm

Location

Studio 5, London Performance Studios
For more info on how to get to London Performance Studios, click here

20/11

About

Alastair Curtis (he/him) is a writer, director and founder of The AIDS Plays Project. His writing has been published in Frieze, AnOther, The Economist, Prospect and The Observer amongst others. Sweetheart, his debut short film, premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2025.

Reinaldo Povod, also known as ‘Ray’, was a Cuban-Puerto Rican playwright who grew up on New York’s Lower East Side. ‘Cuba and his Teddy Bear’, written when he was twenty six, won the George Oppenheimer Playwriting Award and premiered on Broadway. Other plays include ‘La Puta Vida’ and ‘Super Fishbowl Sunday’. He passed away from AIDS-related illnesses in 1994, aged 34. 

Emily Aboud is a Trinidadian theatre director. She was shortlisted for RTST Peter Hall Award in 2023 and the JMK Award in 2022 and 2021. She is a recipient of the Evening Standard Future Theatre Award. Recent credits include: ‘Disco Inferno’ (National Youth Theatre), ‘Callisto: A Queer Epic’ (Jermyn Street), ‘Sweet Charity’ (Mountview), ‘Tender’ (Bush Theatre), ‘RockDJ & Three Other Songs That Saved the World’ (New Diorama Theatre), ‘Haemosporidian’ (Lyric Hammersmith), ‘Flip!’ (Regional Tour and Soho Theatre), ‘Lady Dealer’ (Paines Plough Roundabout, Bush Theatre), ‘SPLINTERED’ (Soho Theatre Mainhouse, also writer), ‘BOGEYMAN’ (Edinburgh Fringe 2022, also writer), and ‘Pink Lemonade’ (Bush Theatre). She has also written ‘Insurrection: A Work in Progress’ for the Royal Opera House. As a Caribbean theatremaker, her work draws inspiration from the political community theatre she grew up making in Trinidad - a combination of music, movement, direct audience address and theatricality. Associate and assistant work includes: ‘The Harder They Come’ (Stratford East), ‘Tijean and His Brothers’ (Queen's Hall, Trinidad), ‘Drums and Colours’ (British Library), ‘Deposit’ (Hampstead Theatre) and ‘Going Through’ (Bush Theatre).

Photography
Jake Bush