Noma Dumezweni to Narrate Theatre Professor’s Latest Audiobook

Noma Dumezweni, the African-born English actress who recently made headlines as Hermione Granger in the London West End production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, will narrate the audiobook version of Steeplejack, a new young adult novel by Dr. Andrew Hartley. Hartley, who is the Robinson Distinguished Professor of Theatre, first met Dumezweni when she was working for the Royal Shakespeare Company six years ago. In addition to her vibrant stage career (she won an Olivier Award in 2006 for her role in A Raisin in the Sun), Dumezweni has had appeared in numerous TV films and series.

Steeplejack is a fantasy/mystery with a brave young female protagonist. It is set in an imaginary world inspired by 19^th-century South Africa, the same country that Dumezweni’s parents fled – first to Swaziland, where Dumezweni was born, then to England – to escape apartheid. It was published in June 2016 by Tor Teen. Audible will release the audiobook on November 8.

Dumezweni is the third celebrity to give voice to one of Hartley’s books. In 2012, Alan Cumming narrated the audio version of Macbeth, a novelization of Shakespeare’s tragedy written with David Hewson. Two years later, Richard Armitage narrated the Hartley/Hewson novelization of Hamlet, named Audible’s Best Book of 2014.

Steeplejack is the first in a series of three young adult fantasy novels; the second book is due out next year.