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tarry-a-lot · 4 years

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French Musical Recommendations/review (Part 2)

I should have mentioned in part 1 but I don't speak French (well a bit but not enough to understand the lyrics unless I’m reading it or something) so if the lyrics aren’t that good my bad I honestly wouldn’t know,

Also this is in no particular order, I don't think all the shows mentioned in part 1 are better than the ones mentioned here, there will be a part 3 at some point

1789 Les amantes de la Bastille: I think this may be my second or third (ties with Mozart) favourite French musical based solely on soundtrack, it’s about the siege of the Bastille and the days leading up to it with a focus on two lovers Ronan a revolutionary and Olympe Marie Antoinette’s children’s governess (the actress who played Olympe was also Guinevere in roi Arthur musical), my favourite songs are “Sur ma peau” and “La rue nous apparent” it is available in full on YouTube, IMPORTANT: This show has two endings, I don’t want to spoil so perhaps skip what I’m about to write though I will try to be vague: the scene before the song “fixe” at the end, the two characters switch place mattering on which version your watching, one version was done towards the start of the run and late 2013 they seemed to have made the change, the full version uploaded and the dvd have the original ending (I personally prefer the original but the other is not bad as well). also in 2012 when the show was staring with the showcase costumes are really different and you’ll find Ronan is played by Matthieu Carnot who plays Lazare in the full production later on instead because he had vocal issues resulting in getting replaced and given a more minor role (I think he’s great in his new role though, “Maniaque” is a bop)

Non-music: I have yet to see it in full but from clips the lighting is great and really adds to the songs and emotions, the story is pretty straightforward but nice, and the choreography is good from what I’ve seen, also for a “historical” show the costumes aren’t that bad, I would assume not accurate but a good balance of inaccurate and historical looking enough

Japanese Toho ver. (1789 バスティーユの恋人た��) 2016 clips are available on YouTube, the costumes in this version is fun, it’s non-replica but they really went off on Olympe’s costume, I will be honest a little bit sad about Ronan’s yellow jacket being replaced with a dark blue, also one of the Ronan actors (Olympe, Ronan and Marie-Antoinette are double casted) looks too old, especially compared to other Ronan actor who really has the young energetic vibe about him (though if memory serves me correctly his sur ma peau was strangely annoying to listen to)

Takarazuka ver. 2015, clips are available on YouTube if Japanese title along with “宝塚“ is added in search

Notre-Dame de Paris: a musical based on Victor Hugo’s novel of the same name, it is different from the Disney musical, this is another popular French show, if you like Romeo et Juliette you’ll probably like this, it can found in full on YouTube along with different translations/adaptions, I won’t go to in depth on different version on here like I did for R+J but if your interested the Wikipedia page is quite detailed and can tell you about all the casts and cast recording available, I have yet to watch it in full but so far I think Belle and Le temps des cathédrales are my favourite songs (quite basic I know), it’s one of those shows you can’t go wrong with, from the parts I’ve watched and listened I think it could become one of my favourite shows

Non music: From the bits I’ve seen the wall backdrop is really cool, It has nooks and platforms that appear and disappear and it’s just really cool looking, WARNING, this is a bit of the spoiler so maybe don't read what I’m about to write but if you’ve read the book its not that much of a spoiler but there is a hanging scene at the end so if that imagery is something your sensitive to please be wary, it’s at the end (on the YouTube video of the full original show its from 2:03:42-2:03:54)

Don Juan: I love this show (I strangely found parts funny and a bit cheesy which is why I liked it), It’s pretty much about a man Don Juan who is a know heartbreaker who is only into sex drinking and having fun but no love, he then falls in love with a woman, shocker, and conflicts arise from there, honestly I don’t see a lot of content for this show but I think it’s fun, the dancing is primarily flamenco (music is heavily inspired by the dance as well) and it’s impressive, the singing is great, the full show is available on YouTube, my favourite songs are probably “Les fleurs du mal” and “Jalousie,” It opened in Montreal originally then went to Paris, the full show is available on YouTube (I think the Paris version) and there is also a full 3 and half hour behind the scenes video of the Paris production online, from what I can tell up till the symphony version of 2019 Don Juan and his love Maria has been consistently played by Jean-François Breau and Marie-Ève Janvier (obviously there were understudies and such) the actors are also married/were dating during the show which adds to it when you see them perform together

Non-Music: a character described with black hair in the song chorus is blonde/brunette and I thought that was hilarious, some strange choreography with Don Juan especially in Jalousie, he walks up and down stage and it’s awkward, aside from weird parts in general the costumes are ok (gets better in later productions), the set is plain but with some fun props, I think the dancing is probably one of the highlights along with the live band present on stage for certain songs (photo from Quebec 2013 production)

Don Juan (Théâtre St-Denis) 2004 Montreal, also had Canada tour after its Montreal premier in Feb.

France Tour 2005 Palais des Congrès à Paris performance recording and behind the scenes is available on YouTube

Korean Tour 2006, the French cast touring, non-costume concert versions and actual performance clips are available on Youtube

Korean Cast, 2009 (March~) (뮤지컬 돈 주앙) separate from the tour which was the French cast touring this is an all Korean cast, act 1 and 2 can be found on YouTube (video called “돈쥬앙 1막“ and “돈쥬앙 2막“) though it seems to cut around so It’s like a pieced together version of the acts, other clips are also available, it is a replica production

2012 revival Montreal, from what I read it only had 10 performances? and with it released a cd with new recordings, “nous on veut de l'amour“ and “L'amour Est Plus Fort“

Grand Théâtre de Québec 2013 (August 9-18), you could call this a continuation to the revival in Montreal

Takarazuka ver. 2016 (June+July) (ドン・ジュアン) the page is still up on the takarazuka website for this production, there’s a ad with clips from the show available on niconico (should come up if you search the title in jp and add takarazuka in jp) also this version Don Juan is strangely more touchy with his friend, not mad guess it adds a new tension to the plot, non replica production though it is quite similar to the French one, they don’t stray too far

Don Juan Symphonique 2019 (Feb 12-16): At the Montreal Symphony House they had a concert version with the original cast (or at least the original Don Juan and Maria), along with the OSM (Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal)

Japanese ver. 2019 (August/September + December) it’s non-replica, there’s a trailer for it online but it only features Don Juan, I found blog posts about it but currently while I write this it’s late so perhaps I’ll update with more info later, maybe not

Moscow Concert 2020 (March 17-22) (Дон Жуан or Don Juan) This is still in French with a French cast but this time the leads are no longer the original, Laurent Ban is now Don Juan, supposedly according to a Russian video it was meant to go on tour after Moscow (State Kremlin Palace) but I’m assuming the issue with the virus changed plans, I’m surprised they were going to go on world tour I honestly think it’s not true, the interview with cast can be found on YouTube with bits of songs, however the Russian concert advertisement is only a recording from the 2005 French, from what I can tell it is a replica, I believe it was cancelled before the premier due to Covid-19

The research for this show took me all day, maybe if I was fluent in French it would have been faster, if I’m wrong in parts feel free to comment and correct me and I’ll edit it

Les Trois Mousquetaires: Not to be mistaken with the Broadway/Westend show of the same name and base material from 1928 with the revival in the 80′s or the other three musketeer musical at the North Shore theatre in 2007 (the one with Aaron Tveit and Kevyn Morrow), or the other musical by George Stiles and Paul Leigh, this is an entirely separate 2016-2017 musical that follows the general plot of the literature it’s based on though simplified, it’s ok, not great but not the worst, I probably would rank it lower than roi Arthur, I will admit I haven’t listened to the full show, it’s quite catchy, my favourite song so far is probably “Je t’aime c’est tout,” there is a showcase concert in full, music videos and official soundtracks available on YouTube but I would advise checking out the live versions, the ensemble backing parts are really great and they get cut out in the recording versions which really cheapens the songs for me, In general ok show, really not the best but has its highlights (like the four lads relationship is fun to watch, dancing is great, singing is good),

Non-Music: Athos the oldest of the 3 musketeers is actually the youngest actor though he is a few year older than the D’Artagnan actor, It’s minor I guess but I didn’t realise who Athos was until looking up the cast list and was shocked, Also Athos really doesn’t sing because Brahim Zaibat who plays him is a dancer, despite this his dancing skills really add to the fight sequences making them very impressive and fun to watch, it’s more concerty in style and a bit interactive with the audience, from what I can tell the sets seem plain and the costumes are really awful (in my opinion) like Athos’ shirt is so revealing to the point he might as well not wear a shirt, also Constance’s outfit is just a no for me

#1789 les amants de la bastille #notre dame de paris #les trois mousquetaires #the three musketeers #Don juan #musical theatre #French musicals #takarazuka #musicals #theatre #rambling

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fountaintheatre · 6 years

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VIDEO: Take a look at these 16 actresses from 4 LA theatre companies set to read 'Natural Shocks'

VIDEO: Take a look at these 16 actresses from 4 LA theatre companies set to read ‘Natural Shocks’

Natural Shocks is a darkly hilarious tour-de-force written by Lauren Gunderson, the most-produced playwright in America. A woman is forced into her basement when she finds herself in the path of a tornado. Trapped there, she spills over into confession, regret, long-held secrets, and giddy new love. But as the storm approaches, she…

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mybarricades · 6 years

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David Grundy | A Black Arts Poetry Machine

(Bloomsbury)

The Umbra Poets Workshop was formed in the early 1960s in the atmosphere of artistic and political radicalism that saw African-American protestors disrupt the business-as-usual order of the UN building in New York in protest at the murder of Patrice Lumumba. One of the participating groups, the On Guard Committee for Freedom -- a political organisation -- essentially then coalesced into a more artistically-focused group, the Umbra Workshop. The group held regular meetings at Tom Dent's flat, in which they would get together to discuss each other's in-progress work, and were an active presence in the New York poetry scene of the time. Consisting of a fluctuating, but always large, membership, they aimed to form a publication, workshop and reading environment at a time when the poetry scenes around them were almost exclusively white. The group also started a magazine, of which two issues were produced during its most active period, with further issues appearing at periodic intervals later on, after the group had officially disbanded.

Copies of the magazine are rarer than hen's teeth these days -- there was talk of an Umbra reader coming out from CUNY's Lost and Found programme, but I haven't seen or heard any news of that for a while. Let's hope that something happens! But Umbra was always more than just a magazine. Calvin Hernton described the explosive impact Umbra Poets would make at readings within the predominantly white New York poetry scene of the time: sometimes appearing eight-to-ten at a time, they appeared, in his words, like "a dynamic, well-rehearsed black arts poetry machine". So while Baraka has often been essentially credited with 'founding' the Black Arts Movement, establishing the Black Arts Repertory Theatre/School in Harlem after Malcolm X's death in 1965 -- an enterprise in which members of Umbra were involved -- Umbra should be understood as laying the ground -- and, perhaps, offering examples of roads not taken. Umbra are sometimes credited in histories of the period as precursors, but their work is almost never considered in depth. Hence this book! (I'm also played to say that another book, by Jean-Phillipe Marcoux, is in the works -- watch this space...)

Of course, the Black Arts Movement challenged easy divisions between the political and the aesthetic, and politics was also key to Umbra. The book's first chapter discusses the 1961 UN protest and the emergence of Umbra, along the way offering readings of poems that emerged from the protest and its environment by Ishmael Reed, Raymond R. Patterson, Askia Toure, Ray Durem and Lorenzo Thomas. Here's one of them:

I use this chapter to argue that, at this point in time, tradition of African-American internationalism was already in existence -- involving Baraka, to be sure, but alongside many other now-forgotten figures, not least the Umbra poets. Umbra itself was short-lived, but it set in motion a number of hugely important careers -- to list them partially, beginning with perhaps the most famous, that of Ishmael Reed, but also of Lorenzo Thomas -- later on, a Black Arts scholar,and throughout, for my money, one of the most unjustifiably-neglected poets in America of the second-half of the Twentieth Century (though thankfully a collected poems is forthcoming -- this is a bit of a boom-time for Umbra, it seems!); and of Tom Dent, 'New Orleans Griot' (likewise, an invaluable Dent Reader came out last year -- edited by Dent's friend and comrade Kalamu ya Salaam, you can get it here); of David Henderson, maybe best known as the first biographer of Jimi Hendrix, collaborator with Sun Ra, Ornette Coleman and others, poet of what he calls the 'third eye/world' of diasporic culture in America; of Calvin C. Hernton, author of the controversial Sex and Racism in America, attendee of R.D. Laing's Kingsley Hall and meetings of the Caribbean Artists Movement, novelist and poet; of N.H. Pritchard, whose experimental concrete poetry has recently been addressed by Fred Moten and in Anthony Reed's Freedom Time; Lloyd Addison, perhaps the most experimental of the Umbra poets, author of prodiguous, often self-published output, allusive, punning and singular; Askia Toure (then Rolland Snellings), today one of the eminent grises of the Black Arts Movement; Rashidah Ismaili, whose Autobiography of the Lower East Side has been getting some recent praise, and who should (as is the case with all these writers) be far better-known; Steve Cannon, still an active figure in New York artistic scenes; did I mention that Archie Shepp and Cecil Taylor were also involved?! -- and all that's just the half of it...

Within a single book, I wasn't able to write on every member of the workshop, so, after the ensemble first chapter on the Lumumba Protest, each subsequent chapter focuses on one principal writer. Though Amiri Baraka was never a member of the workshop, he knew a number of the Umbra poets and invited them to perform in the Black Arts Repertory Theatre / School. (Here's Clayton Riley's review of the event for Liberator, alongside some images from the feature on 'five young afro-american poets' in French left magazine Revolution, which sets Baraka alongside Umbra poets Lorenzo Thomas and Joe Johnson, as well as A.B. Spellman and a very young Sonia Sanchez.)

While Baraka's Black Arts work is too often taken in isolation, as if suddenly it emerged in an explosion of provocative militancy, setting it against the backdrop of Umbra helps us -- I hope! -- read it anew. So the book's second chapter turns to Baraka's response to urban insurrection and stereotypes of African-American militancy in the iconic mid-60s poems 'Black Dada Nihilismus', 'Black Art' and 'Black People!'.

The third chapter concentrates on David Henderson's poetry, charting the complexities of New York racial politics at the time -- as he writes, 'Harlem to Lower East Side, space of a nation' -- and in particular the 1964 Harlem Rebellion, from which emerged his poem 'Keep on Pushing'. We then get Calvin C. Hernton's writings on riots, in poetry and in an incendiary essay 'Dynamite Growing Out of their Skulls!', published in Baraka's and Larry Neal's anthology Black Fire; and another Hernton chapter, on his poem 'Medicine Man', read for its complex and tortured address to the American South.

Next up, a chapter on Tom Dent, which touches on his work with The Free Southern Theatre, who courageously toured the South, eventually settling in New Orleans, and thence his own poetry emerging from the city -- notably, the long poem 'Return to English Turn'. Finally, there's a chapter on Lorenzo Thomas's poem 'The Bathers', one of the great poems of the Black Arts Movement, and its (re)writing of the 1963 protests in Birmingham, Alabama. (I also touch here on Ishmael Reed's amazing early prose-poem 'The Ghost in Birmingham' -- subsequently the first item in his collected poems, it appeared in the magazine Liberator in the early 60s and is as good an indication as any of just how the good the writing coming out of Umbra could be.)

taken from here: STREAMS OF EXPRESSION

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dashfirediaries · 6 years

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On the Appropriate Form and Naturally Correct Method of Enacting The Feast of the Thanksgiving

Dr. Horace S. Browntrout

Dear Friends, Thanksgiving is a Covent Garden theatre production of epic proportions, and no less important. Every act must be perfectly executed, every prop must consist of the finest materials. Every actor must know their mark, their role—and indeed the limitations of their role—their dialogue as well as the entire script if the Production is to be a successful one. There must be the harried chef, the fussy friend, the drunk uncle, the ingrate, the sanguine sister, the doddering, wizened and cantankerous cousins and their unruly spawn, the cracked curmudgeon, and the self-absorbed simpleton simmering with singular simian stories.

There is to be no improvisation allowed, for each element of the Production serves a vital function, and if each person were to perform their role ad libitum, a single atonal note could cause disarray and discord to be the result.

First, let us consider the matter of the victuals themselves. These are the raw materials from which we, the people, draw thankful succor, the caloric substance that will comprise our basal metabolic rates and the continued performance of certain organs and their attendant support systems. Indeed, gratitude is a higher-order cognitive function as is the ability to cogitate itself. In order that gratitude, be achieved one must have the benefit of lipids, tryptophan, and other amino acids. Indeed, nothing is so sublime than meditating on the denaturing of quaternary-structured proteins and considering them as one would a sphere of twine slowly disentangling from its threads by the Hand of Fate—one of the Fates at any rate—as it transmogrifies from an inert and inedible substance to that which can provision a man with thoughts that can pause to understand the firmament of time and the indelible forces that etch their names upon our naked, purified souls.

In any Feast of the Thanksgiving there are seven core elements that act in concert, mashed potatoes, gravy, turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, baked yams, and cranberry sauce. These seven elements are like points of a star. They are the Inner Sanctum of the Thanksgiving. These seven elements are the original pantheon of gods on Mount Socially Sanctioned Gluttony. They are fixed points, as unchanging as the Earth itself. Not only must they be present at each Feast of the Thanksgiving, their constituent parts must never vary. Think carefully of our friend the potato, and how just one of these nutrient-Edens can feed a family of twelve, so long as it hasn’t been killed off by a wicked weevil or some other malicious animalcule. The potato is the shape-shifter of the vegetable world. It may be fried, sliced, smashed, poached, grilled, baked, boiled, parched, peached, poked, prodded, dehydrated, dilled, dipped, or chopped, and yet there is but one correct method of creating this famine-proof viscera liner on the Day of Thanksgiving: mashed. It must be boiled, drained, mashed, with salt, butter, and milk-like liquid product added to dampen it. It must be made moist, like a woman awaiting her lover’s kiss, but not sodden, like a soiled sponge lost in the rain without an umbrella, or a ponderous, rotund saturnine gentleman with edematous limbs due to sluggish lymphatic tissue. Stuffing must always include bread crumbs, broth, diced celery and onion. Green bean casserole must always be made with the freshest cream of mushroom soup available, coarse-cut fresh onions, garlic, French-cut green beans, and French-fried onion bits as a topping. The turkey must be a real turkey, not the monstrosity known as a “turducken,” (banned!). One must never defile a turkey by placing another whole fowl in its behind, even after it is deceased. On the manner of turkey preparation, carving, and presentation, you already know the proper methods and I shall not belabor the reader with their reiteration here.

Cranberry sauce must be refined to a fine jelly that one can readily consume even if one had no mouth, but simply a straw-like proboscis like a house fly or a wood tick. Consider those unfortunates that suffer from poverty of teeth and note their lonesome moanings. The aforenoted jelly must bear the ribbed imprint of its zinc-lined cannister. It must be removed from its cannister using a series of percussive “thumps” to its posterior end using the fleshy part of one’s palm. The entire, cylindrical mass should be birthed from the cannister in one motion and it should retain this form on your silver plate. Here, take a moment to remove your hat, bow your head and give thanks to God or some other deity of choice, not otherwise specified. Behold this sacred objet d’art. Observe how light enters it from one side and then exits, creating an amber-tinted glow. Like a many-faceted diamond in the rough, the unhewn canned cranberry log holds stories and delights as old as time. Find, if you will, its “voice.” Do not dare touch it until you can transcribe the words of the angel choirs that sing its odes! When you are ready, take a deep breath, for you must resign yourself to making an injury to the flesh of perfection. Next, grasp a sharp, sterile instrument and make a lateral, transverse incision perpendicular to the jelly body 20 millimeters inferior to the cephalic terminus. The incision should proceed from the lateral to the medial portion of the jelly body until the entire body has been bisected completely. Repeat the incision until the caudal terminus is reached. This tissue should be firm, yet globular and gelatinous, and it should easily yield to your surgical knife. Each layer will demonstrate a bit of wobble and sag as it is removed from the larger portion of the jelly body. Some degree of ptosis of the jelly is normal, and the novice clinician should not be alarmed by this observation. Once the jelly body has been completely processed in the previously described manner, it is now ready to be served.

Many foods in the Grand Production may take a turn at auditions. Many may even earn a hard-won, tentative place at the edge of the table, but no new members can ever be admitted to the Inner Circle. Replacements equal defilements and additions are subtractions—unless they are relegated to their proper, subordinate stations. One may welcome creamed corn, that humble, hard-working, plainspoken American fruit of the soil and sauce of the cow. If creamed corn appears, tattered hat in hand, crooked smile on its trembling lips, lowered eyes peering respectfully away from Her Majesty Meleagris gallopavo, fingerless gloves shivering as they clutch your door, do invite it to stand—not sit—at the edge of your table. Squash is another old friend and neighbor to the maize d’cremes. Served with butter and browned sugar, that refined kiss of the cane, it too, should be allowed a peripheral place at your ensemble of glory. Pumpkin and apple pie, should they decide to grace your presence, must be warm, served a’ la mode if any of your guests do not bear grudges against lactose. They are the sweets that our forebears set before us, and they serve important digestive functions by hastening the exit of unwanted extra calories. In this way, they tidy our flesh temples in readiness for Judgement. Additionally, wheat rolls, those milled and ground Children of the Grain, must be allowed to bathe in the holy waters of commingled mashed potatoes and gravy, for this is a baptism of the Buds of Taste. But what of rabble like chunky, unseemly “homestyle” cranberry sauce, all tarted up from its Bog of Ill Fame? What of fruit “salad” and its tawdry, voluptuary beckonings? What of the slippery bivalve that hails from the gutters of the abysmal depths? Nay, one must never admit “Slick Silas” the Craven Clam to dinner at this feast unless forced by dint of dire necessity. Ultimately, while many may seek a place beside your Horn of Plenty, only a select few are preordained to blow it, and thus receive salvation from their heathen origins.

Whilst gratitude is a tertiary consideration of the Feast of the Thanksgiving, it is not wholly inappropriate for the host to compose some lines that add gravitas and evoke the grim solemnity of a typical, upstanding familial assemblage. Suggested topics include the importance of piety, the consequences of disobedience, a recitation of the diseases that no one at the table suffers from, the airing of unresolved grievances between both consanguineal and affinal relations, or an invocation to the Almighty to have mercy on any unsaved, damned souls present—and to provision said souls with an adequate supply of body butter or coconut oil with an SPF of 30 or higher for their one-way sojourn to the halls of Hades. Whatever one’s words, do make sure that they contribute to a funereal and austere atmosphere suitable to the occasion, and contain none of the impish frivolity marked by the undignified, impulsive and dysregulated lower classes. If any toast is to be made, cudgel anyone seen pouring libations to fallen idols, golden calves, or demonic demiurges. Be sure that the Almighty and the British Empire receive the bulk of your lionization, and that no indignant fiend quaffs their fermented grape squeezings until the termination of your circumlocutions—AND a lengthy, silent pause followed by the ominous tolling of a bell—even if they are parched and on the verge of death.

Many roads lead to the Promised Land of Venerated Yet Obscene Consumption. Many other roads are but dead-end paths or worse yet—will take you directly to perdition’s flames. Fly not, to the place of brimstone and conflagration! Heed ye, my warnings. Harken to my good news of salvation! Follow the Seven Points Star. Let its light guide you to the Table of Life, and check ye carefully its table of contents. While one may cook a turkey in manifold ways, one must always arrive at the same or roughly similar place or failure is the result, and death and ignobility, the final harvest.

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londontheatre · 7 years

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Steffan Rhodri and Nathaniel Parker in THIS HOUSE at Chichester Festival Theatre. Photo by Johan Persson

Rehearsals began today (Monday 22nd January 2018) for the first UK tour of This House, which opens at West Yorkshire Playhouse on 23 February (national press night 28 February). The cast – who play a colourful host of MPs and Whips – is Ian Barritt (Batley & Morley/Woolwich West/Belfast North/Western Isles & Ensemble), William Chubb (Humphrey Atkins), Giles Cooper (Fred Silvester), Stephen Critchlow (Bromsgrove/Abingdon/Liverpool Edge Hill/Paisley/Fermanagh & Ensemble), James Gaddas (Walter Harrison), Natalie Grady (Ann Taylor), Ian Houghton (Armagh, Ambulance Man, Ensemble), David Hounslow (Joe Harper), Marcus Hutton (Ensemble), Harry Kershaw (Paddington South/Chelmsford/South Ayrshire/Henley/Marioneth /Coventry North West/Rushcliffe/Perry Barr & Ensemble), Louise Ludgate (Rochester & Chatham/Welwyn & Hatfield/Coventry South West/Ilford North/Lady Batley & Ensemble), Geoffrey Lumb (Clockmaker/Peebles/Redditch/Stirlingshire West/Clerk & Ensemble), Nicholas Lumley (Oxshott/Belfast West/St Helens & Ensemble), Martin Marquez (Bob Mellish), Matthew Pidgeon (Jack Weatherill), Miles Richardson (Speaker Act I/Mansfield/Sergeant at Arms Act II/West Lothian & Ensemble), Tony Turner (Michael Cocks), Orlando Wells (Walsall North/Plymouth Sutton/Serjeant at Arms Act I/Speaker Act II/Caernarfon/Clerk & Ensemble) and Charlotte Worthing (Ensemble). Ian Houghton, David Hounslow, Matthew Pidgeon, Tony Turner and Orlando Wells return to This House having previously appeared in the West End production.

James Graham’s critically acclaimed and prescient political drama takes on a new importance in the current political climate. Are we in the midst of a political revolution? Can the country stay united? Roll back to 1974… The corridors of Westminster ring with the sound of infighting and back biting as Britain’s political parties’ battle to change the future of the nation, whatever it takes.

In an era of chaos, both hilarious and shocking, when votes are won or lost by one, there are fist fights in the parliamentary bars, high-stakes tricks and games are played, and sick MPs are carried through the lobby to register their crucial votes as the government hangs by a thread. This House strips politics down to the practical realities of those behind the scenes; the whips who roll up their sleeves and on occasion bend the rules to shepherd and coerce a diverse chorus of MPs within the Mother of all Parliaments.

Directed by Jeremy Herrin with Jonathan O’Boyle, the production is designed by Rae Smith with lighting design by Paule Constable and Ben Pickersgill on tour, music by Stephen Warbeck, choreography by Scott Ambler and sound by Ian Dickinson.

This House is produced on tour by Jonathan Church Productions and Headlong.

Cast Ian Barritt – Batley & Morley/Woolwich West/Belfast North/Western Isles & Ensemble Theatre includes: The Life of Galileo, The Alchemist (National Theatre), The Shawshank Redemption (UK Tour), Rebecca (UK Tour) Handbagged, Remarkable Invisible (The Theatre by the Lake, Keswick), The Lower Depths (Arcola), Hamlet, All’s Well That Ends Well, The Tempest, Troilus and Cressida (Tobacco Factory), Other Desert Cities (English Theatre of Frankfurt), Othello (Sheffield Crucible), Uncle Vanya (Bristol Old Vic/Galway Festival), Kes, Separate Tables (Manchester Royal Exchange), Richard II, Corionlanus (Almeida/New York/Tokyo), Gates of Gold (Manchester Library), One Night In November (Coventry Belgrade).Television includes: Wolf Hall, The Musketeers, Attila The Hun, Doctor Who, Upstairs Downstairs, Doctors, Foyle’s War, Life On Mars, Only Fools and Horse.

William Chubb – Humphrey Atkins Theatre includes: Racing Demon (Theatre Royal Bath), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, King Lear (Old Vic), In The Depths of Dead Love (The Print Room), Lawrence After Arabia (Hampstead Theatre), Waste, Great Britain, Othello, Scenes from an Execution (National Theatre), Richard II (Shakespeare’s Globe), The Vortex, A Midsummer Nights Dream, Love’s Labours Lost (Rose Theatre, Kingston), Yes Prime Minister (Chichester Festival Theatre/West End), The History Boys (National Theatre), The Sea (Theatre Royal Haymarket). Television includes: Close to the Enemy, My Baby, Breathless, Edge of Heaven, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Law and Order, Silk, The Bill. Films include: 6 Days, Adrift in Soho, Tees, Veer, Affair of the Necklace, Mrs Caldicot’s Cabbage War, Milk, The Woodlanders.

Giles Cooper – Fred Silvester Theatre includes: The Duchess of Malfi, The Knight of the Burning Pestle, Henry V (Shakespeare’s Globe), People, After the Dance (National Theatre), As Is (Arion Productions), Great Expectations (ETT), The Talented Mr Ripley (Northampton Royal), Trilby (Finborough), Dreams of Violence (Soho/Out of Joint), Think Global, F**k Local (Royal Court/Out of Joint), A Touch of the Sun (Salisbury Playhouse), Rafts and Dreams (Royal Court), The Witches (West End), Full Circle (Triumph Ent.), The Witches (Birmingham Rep), Twelfth Night (Bolton Octagon), Across Oka, Rafts and Dreams (Manchester Royal Exchange). Television Includes: Hollyoaks, Consenting Adults. Film includes: The Lady in the Van, Pride, Apollo and the Continents, The Nun.

Stephen Critchlow – Bromsgrove/Abingdon/Liverpool Edge Hill/Paisley/Fermanagh & Ensemble Theatre includes: Filthy Business, Loyalty (Hampstead Theatre), The Men From The Ministry Reloaded (The White Bear), The 39 Steps (The Criterion Theatre), Pygmalion (The Albery Theatre), Hamlet (West End), Cyrano De Bergerac (National Theatre), A Christmas Carol, The Relapse, When We Are Married (Birmingham Rep), Soap, Time of My Life, Twelfth Night, (Theatre Royal Northampton), The Game of Love and Chance (Salisbury Playhouse), Round The Horne Revisited (UK Tour). Television includes: Downton Abbey, Guerrilla, Little Lord Fauntleroy, The Prince And The Pauper, Cider With Rosie, Heartbeat, Red Dwarf 11, Miranda, Coronation Street, Casualty, Holby City, Doctors, Skins, Hattie, Fantabuloza, The Armando Iannucci show, The Railway Murder, The Thieving Headmistress, Trial And Retribution, Blue Murder, Daziel and Pascoe, The Vice, Without Motive, Heartbeat, Walking on the Moon, Baggy Trousers, A Likeness in Stone, A Line in the Sand, The Vice, Back Up, The Bill, Monarch of the Glen. Film includes: A Way Through The Woods, Fogbound, The Calcium Kid, Churchill The Hollywood Years.

James Gaddas – Walter Harrison Theatre includes: The Girls (Phoenix Theatre), Billy Elliot (Palace Theatre), Mamma Mia (Novello), Spamalot (UK Tour), Art (Wyndhams Theatre), Peter Pan (Curve, Leicester), The Messiah (West Yorkshire Playhouse), You Never Know Who’s Out There (Drill Hall), A Passionate Woman (Comedy), Jackie, A Chorus of Disapproval (Lyric Hammersmith), Three Guys Naked From The Waist Down, (Donmar Warehouse). Television Includes: Bad Girls, Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Waterloo Road, Against The Law, Casualty, Holby City, The Camomile Lawn, Medics, Class Act, Troubles, The Bill, Backup, Dogtown, Vincent, Jonathan Creek, Grafters, Heartbeat, Between The Lines, Secrets, El Cid. Film Includes: Starter For Ten, The Human Bomb, Girl’s Night, The Black Candle, Dead Man’s Folly, A Hazard of Hearts, The Pied Piper, Last Days Of Summer.

Natalie Grady – Ann Taylor Theatre includes: Julius Caesar, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Storyhouse Chester), Brassed Off (Oldham Coliseum), Marth, Josie and The Chinese Elvis (Hull Truck), To Kill a Mockingbird (Regent’s Park Theatre/ UK Tour), Hobson’s Choice (Bolton Octagon). Television Includes: Hollyoaks, Snatch, Trollied, Endeavour, 6 Wives, Coronation Street, Doctors, Jam and Jerusalem.

Marcus Hutton – Understudy Marcus trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Theatre includes: Private Lives (Nottingham Playhouse), Naomi (The Gate), Slave Island, Don Juan (Manchester Royal Exchange), The Scarlet Pimpernel (Wolsey Ipswich), Crusade (Theatre Royal Stratford East), She Stoops to Conquer (Oxford Stage Company), Tis Pity She’s a Whore (Exeter Northcott), Tess of the D’urbevilles (Horseshoe Basingstoke), Flags and Bandages (Colchester Mercury), Reeling (New Vic Productions), The Lady from the Sea (Portlands Playhouse), Secrets of Cherry on the Run (Riverside Studios), Table Manners (UK Tour), Sound of Murder (UK Tour), Dial M for Murder (UK Tour), Kiss Chase (UK Tour), The Ghost and Mrs Muir (UK Tour), Dangerous Obsession (UK Tour), Suddenly at Home (UK Tour), Jeckyll and Hyde (UK Tour), What the Butler Saw (UK Tour), The Wind in the Willows (UK Tour). Film includes: Made in Dagenham, I’m Here, Cycle, Deep in the Woods, The Dark Channel, The Wager, Framed, Grandma.Television includes: Midsomer Murders, Making Beach, Holby City, Dr Who, Love Hurts, Lovejoy, Diana: Her True Story, A Class Act, The New Professionals, The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries, Crocodile Shoes, Smack The Pony, Hollyoaks, Brookside. Marcus is a founder member of the Radio City Theatre Company.

Ian Houghton – Armagh, Ambulance Man, Ensemble Theatre includes: War Horse (New London Theatre), This House (West End), The Audience, Yes, Prime Minister (Gielgud Theatre), Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus (UK Tour), The Best Man (UK Tour), Boeing Boeing (UK Tour), The Fastest Clock in the Universe (Old Red Lion), Unrestless (Old Vic New Voices), What’s Wrong with Angry? (King’s Head) Moonlight and Magnolias (Hertford Theatre), Woman in Mind, Oliver! (Gordon Craig Theatre) Decade (Theatre503), Art, Gagarin Way, Journey’s End, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, The Government Inspector, Incorruptible, Absurd Person Singular, Noises Off (The Company of Players). Television includes: Harley and the Davidsons, Mr. Selfridge, Eastenders, Call the Midwife, The Great Outdoors, Waking the Dead, MI High and Moving Wallpaper. Film includes: RocknRolla and Breaking and Entering.

David Hounslow – Joe Harper Theatre includes: This House (National Theatre/Chichester Festival Theatre/West End), The Fall Of The Master Builder (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Queen Coal (Sheffield Crucible), The Empty Quarter (Hampstead Theatre), Way Upstream (Salisbury Playhouse), Too Much Pressure (Coventry Begrade), Warm (Theatre 503), Billy Liar (Liverpool Playhouse), Tamburlaine (Bristol Old Vic/Barbican), A Night At The Dogs (Soho Theatre), The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice (Royal Exchange Manchester), Holes In The Skin (Chichester), Dealer’s Choice, My Night With Reg, Perpetua, First Person Shooter, (Birmingham Rep), Tales From Hollywood, Privates On Parade (Donmar Warehouse), Alcestis (Northern Broadsides), All of You Mine, A Question Of Mercy (Bush Theatre), Othello, Henry V, Coriolanus, The Wives Excuse, Zenobia (Royal Shakespeare Company), Bent (National Theatre/West End), Fuente Ovejuna (National Theatre), Macbeth, Billy Budd (Sheffield Crucible), Our Boys (Cockpit), Treasure Island (Farnham Redgrave), The Snowman (Leicester Haymarket). Film includes: London Kills Me, Captives, Fever Pitch, The Man Who Knew Too Little, I Want You, Tabloid TV, The Flying Scotsman, The International, Defining Fay, Ginger and Rosa, Peterloo. Television includes: The Unknown Soldier, Coronation Street, Othello, Children of the North, Gone to the Dogs, The Bill, Resnick, True Crimes, Minder, Bad Company, Under The Hammer, Anna Lee, Soldier Soldier, Deadly Crack, The Cinder Path, Chandler and Co., Six Sides of Coogan, Crimes and Punishment, Turning World, Is It Legal, Peak Practice, A Wing and a Prayer, Dangerfield, Playing the Field, The Unknown Soldier, Bugs, Within Living Memory ,Casualty, Eastenders, City Central, Bomber, Always and Everyone, Peak Practice, Silent Witness, North Square, Doctors, Heartbeat, London’s Burning, Margery & Gladys, Ultimate Force, Crisis Command, Blackpool, Holby City, The Brief, Doctors, Robin Hood, Jekyll, Dalziel And Pascoe, Is This Love?, Coronation Street, Little Miss Jocelyn, MI High, Dead Set, Bonekickers, Waking The Dead, Spooks IX, Homefront, Foyle’s War, The Bletchley Circle II, Emmerdale, Moving On, Bad Move.

Harry Kershaw – Paddington South/Chelmsford/South Ayrshire/Henley/Merioneth/Coventry North West/Rushcliffe/Perry Barr & Ensemble Harry trained at RADA. Theatre includes: Mischief Movie Night (Arts Theatre), Peter Pan Goes Wrong (West End/UK Tour), The Play That Goes Wrong (West End), One Man Two Guvnors (West End), The Circle Game (Old Vic New Voices).Television includes: Peter Pan Goes Wrong (Christmas Special), Supreme Tweeter, The Interceptor, Omid Djalili’s Little Cracker, Switch, Cuckoo, Wallander, Endeavour. Film includes: Unhappy Campers, Exhibition, Unrelated, Blue Monday, Great Expectations, Skyfall, Rufus Stone, The Date.

Louise Ludgate – Rochester & Chatham/Welwyn & Hatfield/Coventry Sount West/Ilford North/Lady Batley & Ensemble Theatre includes: Iron (Traverse/Royal Court) Lanark, Sub Rosa (Citizen’s Theatre), Sex and Drugs, Greta, Class Act, First Bite (Traverse Theatre), The House of Bernada Alba, Little Otik, Macbeth, Realism, Home (National Theatre of Scotland), Strawgirl, The Adoptive Papers (Royal Exchange Manchester), Trojan Women (Tobacco Factory), World Domination, Resurrection, The Course of True Love (Oran Mor Theatre), When The Dons Were Kings, Guilty, the Course of True Love, Fishwrap (The Lemon Tree), Jeff Koons (UK Tour), Balgay Hill (Dundee Rep), 13 Sunken Years (Assembly Rooms/Finnish National Theatre). Film includes: City of the Blind, Swung, No Man’s Land, Goodbye Happy Ending, Café Rendevous, The Last Ten Minutes. Television includes: River City, Freedom, Taggart, Kissing Tickling and Being Bored, High Times, Sea of Souls, The Key, Spooks, Tinsel Town, Glasgow Kiss, Robert Burns ‘Alive and Kicking’.

Geoffrey Lumb – Clockmaker/Peebles/Redditch/Stirlingshire West/Clerk & Ensemble Geoffrey trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Theatre includes: Vice Versa, Coriolanus, Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet, King John, Shrew, The American Pilot, The Comedy of Errors, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (RSC), King Charles III (UK tour/Australia), Much Ado About Nothing (Lamb Players), Macbeth, Twelfth Night (Filter Theatre Company), Prophesy, Macbeth (Baz Theatre Productions), Fitzrovia Radio Hour Tour (UK tour), Chekhov in Hell (Soho Theatre/Drum Plymouth), Romeo and Juliet (US Tour), Rendezvous with Fear (Fitzrovia Radio Hour), His Dark Materials (Birmingham Rep/West Yorkshire Playhouse), Rendition Monologues (Bridewell Theatre/Queen Elizabeth Hall), The Changeling, Twelfth Night (English Touring Theatre), Hansel & Gretel (Northampton Theatre Royal). Television includes: Holby City, 24: Live Another Day, Doctors, Hollyoaks, Luther, Europe’s Secret Armies. Film includes: Paddington 2

Nicholas Lumley – Oxshott/Belfast West/St Helens & Ensemble Nicholas read Law at Newcastle University before training at the Bristol Old Vic. Theatre includes: Dr Faustus, Don Quixote, Beaux Stratagem, Midsummer Nights Dream, Kiss Me Kate (RSC), Great Britain, NT 50, The Magistrate, After The Dance, Never So Good, Afterlife (National Theatre), Timon of Athens (Young Vic), Sergeant Musgraves Dance, Richard II (Old Vic), Tyne (Live Theatre), Pitman Painters (Royal National Theatre/ UK Tour); Close The Coalhouse Door (UK Tour), Much Ado about Nothing (Wyndhams Theatre), The Company Man (Orange Tree Theatre) Porridge (UK Tour), Looking for Buddy (Live Theatre, Newcastle/Bolton Octagon), The Sound of Music (Apollo Victoria), The Canterbury Tales (Garrick Theatre), Chorus of Disapproval (Lyric Theatre),The Bakers Wife, Richard II, Richard III (Phoenix Theatre), Bellman’s Opera (The Pit), Brighton Rock (Almeida), Little Voice, Rope (Watermill), Oleanna, Educating Rita (Salisbury Playhouse). Television includes: Downton Abbey, Houdini and Doyle, Doc Martin, Parade’s End, Vera, George Gently, Enid, Auf Wiedersehen Pet, The Bill, Lovejoy, Kavanagh QC, Wycliffe, Catherine Cookson’s The Secret, Holby City, Crossroads, Wilderness, Eastenders, Coronation Street, Derailed. Films include: Peterloo, Where Hands Touch, Paddington 2, Lady Macbeth, Winterflight, Stormy Monday Goal!, Right Hand Drive, Across the Universe.

Martin Marquez – Bob Mellish Theatre includes: Husbands & Sons, Anything Goes, Loves Labour’s Lost, Mother Courage & Her Children (National Theatre), Much Ado About Nothing, Imogen (Shakespeare’s Globe), Ah, Wilderness (Young Vic), Cleansed, Identical Twins (Royal Court Theatre), Fool For Love, Front Page (Donmar Warehouse), The Iceman Cometh (The Old Vic), Snowball (Hampstead Theatre) Gondoliers, I Caught My Death In Venice, Insignificance, Pal Joey (Chichester Festival Theatre), The Crucible, Don Juan, Of Mice and Men (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Brothers Marquez (Soho Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (Nottingham Playhouse), Before I Leave (National Theatre of Wales), Blasted (Sheffield Theatres), From Here To Eternity (Eternity Productions Ltd), 4 Knights in Knaresborough (Tricycle), Asylum (Queen Elizabeth Hall), Biloxi Blues (Library Manchester), Boeing Boeing (UK Tour) The Dark Side of Buffoon, The Sea (Belgrade Theatre). Film includes: After Louise, Girl on a Bicycle, A Louder Silence, Les Miserables, The Business.Television includes: The Crown, New Tricks, Elizabeth, Empire, Hotel Babylon, Lead Balloon, Dead Pixels, Bounty Hunter, Modus, Decline and Fall, Suntrap, The Javone Prince Show, The Job Lot, Woody, Vera, Knifeman, Benidorm, The Whale, Twenty Twelve, Falcon – Blind Man of Seville, Holy Flying Circus, Eastenders, Heartbeat, Dirty Tricks, The Plastic Man, Murder Most Horrid, The Bill, In Suspicious Circumstances.

Matthew Pidgeon – Jack Weatherill Theatre includes: This House (Chichester/West End/National Theatre), Salome (RSC), The James Plays (National Theatre of Scotland UK/World Tour), Wolf Hall & Bring Up the Bodies (RSC/Aldwych Theatre/Broadway), Edward II (National Theatre), Midsummer (Traverse Theatre/World Tour), Much Ado About Nothing, The Mysteries (Shakespeare’s Globe), Kyoto (Traverse Theatre) The Wonderful World of Dissocia, Realism, Caledonia (National Theatre of Scotland) The Lying Kind (The Royal Court), The Cherry Orchard, The Wizard of Oz, Vanity Fair, Pinocchio, The Glass Menagerie (Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh). Television includes: Taggart, Casualty, Holby. Film includes: Daphne, The Winslow Boy, State and Main, A Shot at Glory.

Miles Richardson – Speaker Act I/Mansfield/Serjeant at Arms Act II/West Lothian & Ensemble Miles graduated from Arts Educational Drama Collage in 1982, winning the Best Actor award. Theatre includes: Macbeth, Death of a Salesman, The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Newcastle Rep) Another Country (Queens) Romeo & Juliet (Ludlow Festival) Wilfred, A Midsummer Nights Dream, An Inspector Calls, The Contractor (Birmingham Rep) Othello (Theatr Clwyd) Private Lives (Theatre Royal York) Richard II & Richard III (UK Tour) An Evening with Gary Lineker (Lyric) The Seagull (Bromley) Journeys End (Kings Head) Charley’s Aunt, The Three Musketeers (Canizzaro Park) The Picture of Dorian Gray (Westminster Theatre) The Three Musketeers (UK Tour) Romeo & Juliet (Hull Truck) Wuthering Heights, Cause Celebre, First Class Passengers (Pitlochry) The Invisible Man (Stratford East/Vaudeville Theatre/Harold Pinter Theatre) Candida, The Lovers, Playing Sinatra (New End) Lulu (Almeida/Kennedy Center, Washington DC) A Doll’s House, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Warwick) The Rivals (Wimbledon) The Moment of Truth, Dear Brutus (Southwark Playhouse), Anjin: The Shogun and the English Samurai (Tokyo/Sadler’s Wells), 12 Angry Men (Garrick Theatre), King Charles the Third (Wyndhams Theatre/Broadway) King John (Rose Theatre Kingston) Sleuth (Nottingham) Loves Labours Lost, All’s Well That Ends Well, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It, Volpone, Henry IV pt1, Henry IV pt2, Henry V, Henry VI pt1, Henry VI pt2, Henry VI pt3, Richard III (RSC). Television includes: Elizabeth, Highlander, Byron, Inspector Lynley Mysteries, The King Must Die, Porterhouse Blue, Allo,Allo, The Brief, Cambridge Spies, Miss Marple, Doctors, Upstairs Downstairs, Dirk Gently, Doctor Who, Jo, Midsomer Murders, Dancing on the Edge, Sick Note, Lucan, Genius, The Crown. Film includes: Maurice, Harry Potter & The Sorcerer’s Stone, The Best Offer, Beat Girl, The Remains of the Day, Flushed away, A Princess for Christmas, Mindgame, Their Finest, A Quiet Passion, The Colour of Magic, Big Pants, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, Sabotage, Titanic, Peterloo, The Queen of Spain.

Tony Turner – Michael Cocks Theatre includes: Ink (Almeida/West End) This House (National Theatre/Chichester/West End), The Curious Incident of The Dog In The Night Time (West End) Burnt by the Sun, Her Naked Skin, Present Laughter, Playing With Fire, The UN Inspector (National Theatre), Measure for Measure, Big White Fog, Enemies (Almeida Theatre), The House of Special Purpose (Chichester Festival Theatre), The Damned United (West Yorkshire Playhouse/Derby Theatre), The School for Scheming (Orange Tree Theatre) Journey’s End (UK Tour/West End), Personal Enemy (Brits Off Broadway), One Night In November (Belgrade Theatre), The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs (Salisbury Playhouse), Mad World My Masters, Neville’s Island (New Wolsey), Madness of George III (West Yorkshire Playhouse/Birmingham Rep), The Danny Crowe Show (Bush Theatre), Christmas Carol (Stoke New Vic), Talent (Colchester Mercury/Watford Palace Theatre), Communicating Doors (Manchester Library Theatre), Macbeth, Othello (Liverpool Everyman), Romeo and Juliet (Birmingham Rep). Television includes: Delicious, WPC 56, Call The Midwife, Downton Abbey, Loving Miss Hatto, Holby City, Silk, Doctors, Andrew Osler, Maxwell, Party Animals, Gavin & Stacey, Trial & Retribution XIII, Foyle’s War, Derailed, Eyes Down, Red Carp, Coronation Street, Children’s Ward, September Song.

Orlando Wells – Walsall North/Plymouth Sutton/Serjeant at Arms Act I/Speaker Act II/Caernarfon/Clerk & Ensemble Orlando trained at LAMDA. Theatre includes: This House (Chichester Festival Theatre/West End), Noises Off, Tonight at 8:30 (English Touring Theatre), The Woman In Black (Fortune Theatre), Katrina (Bargehouse, South Bank), Our Country’s Good (Watermill), The History Boys (National Theatre), Pirandello’s Henry IV (Donmar Warehouse), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Modernists (Sheffield Crucible), The Tempest (Plymouth Theatre Royal), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Othello, Anthony and Cleopatra (RSC), Treehouses (Northcott Exeter), Deathrap (Vienna’s English Theatre), The Journey of Mary Kelly (Theatre Clwyd). Television includes: Father Brown, Casualty, Holby City, A Very British Sex Scandal, Doctors, Nowhere Left to Hide, Living the Quake, The Machioness Disaster, Slave Dynasty, As If, Trust, A Rather English Marriage, Killer Net, Mosley, After the War. Film includes: The King’s Speech, Midsummer Madness, Zemanovaload, Wilde. Orlando is also a writer for Theatre and Television.

Charlotte Worthing – Understudy Charlotte trained at Oxford School of Drama and East 15 Acting School. Theatre includes Princess Charming (Spun Glass Theatre and Ovalhouse Theatre), These Trees Are Made Of Blood (Arcola Theatre and Southwark Playhouse), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (The Young Shakespeare Company), Twelfth Night (Open Bar Theatre Company), The Absolute Truth About Absolutely Everything (Camden People’s Theatre), The Wind in the Willows (Open Book Theatre Company), The Just So Stories (National Tour for Red Table Theatre Company), Little Pieces of Gold (Theatre503), Wait (Arcola Theatre), The Wasabi Nut (National Theatre of Scotland). Film includes Here and Now, Souljacker, Coincidence. Television includes Panorama.

Creatives

James Graham won the Pearson Playwriting Bursary in 2006 and went on to win the Catherine Johnson Award for Best Play of 2007 for Eden’s Empire. His upcoming and recent plays include The Culture – A Farce in Two Acts for Hull Truck Theatre, Quiz (Chichester Festival Theatre, transferring to the West End this spring), Labour of Love (West End), Ink (Almeida and West End), Monster Raving Loony (Theatre Royal, Plymouth), The Vote (Donmar Warehouse), Finding Neverland (American Repertory Theater), The Angry Brigade (Theatre Royal, Plymouth and The Bush) and Privacy (Donmar Warehouse). His television credits include the award-winning Coalition (Channel 4) and his film credits include X+Y (BBC Films).

Jeremy Herrin is Artistic Director of Headlong, for which he has directed Labour of Love (a Headlong and Michael Grandage Company co-production), Junkyard (Bristol Old Vic/Theatr Clwyd/Rose Theatre Kingston), Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme (UK Tour), The Absence of War (UK Tour) and The Nether (at the Royal Court and in the West End). For the National Theatre his directing credits include Common (A co-production with Headlong), The Plough and the Stars (co-directed with Howard Davies), People, Places & Things (A co-production with Headlong which transferred to the West End, toured the UK tour and played a sold out run at St Ann’s Warehouse, New York in 2017), This House (Olivier nomination for Best Director), which transferred to Chichester Festival Theatre and the West End in a co-production with Headlong, and Statement of Regret. For the RSC he directed the world premiere of Hilary Mantel’s Man Booker prize-winning novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, which transferred to the West End in May 2014 and Broadway in March 2015 and for which he won the Evening Standard Award for Best Director and was nominated for an Olivier and Tony Award.

Jonathan O’Boyle’s credits include: Pippin (Southwark Playhouse/Hope Mill Theatre), Dear Brutus (Southwark Playhouse), Hair (Hope Mill Theatre/The Vaults), Four Play, Sense of an Ending, Water Under the Board (Theatre503), Bash Latterday Plays (Trafalgar Studios/Old Red Lion), The Surplus, All The Ways To Say Goodbye (Young Vic), The Verb, ‘To Love’, Made in Britain (Old Red Lion), Broken Glass (Central School of Speech and Drama), Last Online Today, Guinea Pigs (Crucible New Writers’ Project, Sheffield Crucible Studio), The Monster Bride (Tristan Bates Theatre). Associate Director Credits include: An American in Paris (Dominion Theatre), This House (Chichester Festival Theatre/West End), The Judas Kiss (Ed Mirvish Theatre, Toronto/Brooklyn Academy of Music), Mack and Mabel (Chichester Festival Theatre/UK Tour), Bull (Young Vic), This Is My Family (Sheffield Lyceum/UK Tour). Assistant Director credits include: The Scottsboro Boys (Young Vic). Jonathan was selected as one of the Guardian’s Rising Stage Stars of 2014.

About Headlong Headlong creates exhilarating contemporary theatre: a provocative mix of innovative new writing, reimagined classics and influential twentieth-century plays that illuminate our world.

Headlong is one of the most ambitious & exciting theatre companies in the world. We make bold, innovative productions with some of the UK’s finest artists. We take these industry leading, award-winning shows around the country & beyond, in theatres & online, attracting new audiences of all ages & backgrounds. We engage as deeply as we can with these communities & this helps us become better at what we do.

Productions have included Labour of Love (Noël Coward Theatre), People, Places & Things (National Theatre/West End/UK Tour/New York), The House They Grew Up In (Chichester Festival Theatre), Common (National Theatre), Junkyard (Bristol Old Vic, Theatr Clwyd and Rose Theatre Kingston), This House (Chichester Festival Theatre and West End), Pygmalion (UK tour), Boys Will Be Boys (Bush Theatre), 1984 (UK and international tours and West End), The Nether (Royal Court Theatre and West End), American Psycho (Almeida and Broadway), Chimerica (Almeida and West End), and Enron (UK tour, West End and Broadway).

https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/this-house-on-tour

http://ift.tt/2DXZMmF London Theatre 1

#IFTTT #London Theatre 1

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clearlyqueerlyhere · 5 years

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What’s your favorite musical, play, and opera you’ve performed in?

Don’t do this to me, I’m begging, I’m terrible at picking favorite things. I’ll give you my top two or three for each category and that’s the best I can do lol.

In terms of plays...I really enjoyed doing The Crucible (I was John Proctor) and that was a pretty great show for me. I’m a real sucker for an Arthur Miller play. I also did Our Town as the narrator/stage manager which was really fun since no other plays to my knowledge really have that kind of omnipotent narrator who is also an actual character and guides the audience through the show. Honorable mention here to All My Sons where I played George Deever...that was a cool time.

Musical wise, I think playing Billy Elliot will always hold a special place in my heart since it was the first show I ever did and took really seriously and I realized how much I loved to perform. There’s something so magical about it for me - it just sparks this passion in me. Being able to share such raw emotion with people and explore humanity and the depth of human emotion in a way that’s so intimate and yet so performative is just amazing to me. It was also fun to get to use my ballet skills. Eight years of classes actually came in handy there. As terribly cliche as it is,I also loved doing Les Miserables. Obviously I’m not really the type that would get cast for Valjean at this young of an age, but it was a teenage production so, getting to really delve into who Jean Valjean is and play that role was a genuine honor for me. Also, shout out to Carousel where I was Billy Bigelow. Objectively not the best dude, but a decently interesting character to analyze and play. (If anyone was curious, I played Tony in West Side Story once and that’s partially why I chose the name Maria).

I haven’t done as many operas as I would’ve liked to, mostly because the demand for that was a lot, a lot lower for that than it was for plays and musicals in the area where I was doing theatre stuff when I was younger. I mostly just did ensemble stuff or had very small parts. I hope I can do more in the future though if I ever get the confidence and resources to get back into performing and taking it more seriously as an adult woman

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frustratedcastingdirector · 8 years

Text

Aisle View: Arthur’s Price

Steven Suskin - Huffington Post 03/16/2017 08:01 pm ET

At the final curtain of Arthur Miller’s 1968 drama The Price—and I’ve seen all five Broadway productions—I’m always left thinking: this is a very good play. Something has kept it off the Miller Hit List (which consists of Death of a Salesman, The Crucible and A View from the Bridge, plus sometimes All My Sons). And every time I see The Price, I walk away wondering why.

Terry Kinney’s scintillatingly bristling revival, from the Roundabout, offers a clear answer. In 1968 at the 46th Street (where it had moved from the Morosco), I left the four-character play talking about Kate Reid (as Esther) and Davey Burns (as Solomon). In 1979 at the Playhouse, it was Fritz Weaver (as Victor, the cop). In 1992 at the Roundabout, it was Hector Elizondo (Victor) and Eli Wallach (Solomon). In 1999 at the Royale, it was Bob Dishy (Solomon). This time, it was Mark Ruffalo, giving an altogether excellent performance as Victor. And Jessica Hecht, as the finest Esther I’ve seen. And Tony Shalhoub as the most convincing Walter yet. And Danny DeVito, who is making his Broadway debut—although the man, you could say, has loads of experience—and who I suppose is equal to Burns as Solomon supreme.

This tells us a few things. First, it suggests that Miller’s play—about the familial bonds and internecine strains of brotherhood and sacrifice—is deceptively strong. (Deceptive in that we walk in knowing the play will be good, and repeatedly find it considerably better than that.) Second, it reinforces how incisive Kinney—a Steppenwolf actor, who staged the 2001 production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest—is as a director. While the original had first-rate direction by Ulu Grosbard, the other Broadway productions have had the feel of top-grade regional theatre.

Mostly though, it reveals the secret of The Price. Miller has given us four deep, conflicted characters. More accurately, three deep characters plus one octogenarian Jewish vaudevillian. And I mean that literally: Solomon was an acrobat who played on the same bill as Gallagher & Shean, and Miller has written him raveled like an onion, “playing the part” of the used-furniture dealer with all the schmaltz he has. Not simply the actor playing it with schmaltz, mind you; the character milks every line for a laugh, and isn’t averse to feigning a heart attack or two if it will help him lower the price (or, rather, “The Price”). Let us just say that DeVito is a marvel; if the evening weren’t as good as it is, we might recommend it simply so you can see what Danny can do with a boiled egg. (And yes, the egg is in Miller’s meticulous stage directions.)

Otherwise you have two brothers: a highly-successful surgeon and a blue-collar patrolman. Victor stayed home and took care of Pop, a casualty of the Depression, and lost any opportunities for advancement he might have had. Reason for his resentment of high-living Dr. Walter, and reason for Victor’s wife Esther to share the resentment.

But it’s not quite as simple as that. The action takes place as Solomon comes to buy the household furniture before the building is demolished: ten room’s worth of furniture stacked in the attack, where the family was forced to move after the millionaire father went bust early in the Depression and had to rent out the rest of the house. What’s the price Solomon will give them for the furniture? And what’s the price each of the other characters has paid over twenty-eight years of resentment?

Ruffalo is likable, honest and direct, more plebeian than the other Victors I have seen (although I did not see Pat Hingle, who had already left the original production before I got there). Shalhoub, the former TV actor who has demonstrated his stage-worthiness with searing performances in Golden Boy and Act One, is a marvel as the successful brother. Walter almost sheens with success, on the surface; but the actor from the first allows us to see the depths that work beneath. Shalhoub can express his character’s psychology by simply buttoning and unbuttoning his suit jacket; by play’s end, he is gnawing at his fingernails.

When Victor and Walter finally tangle, we believe it. (They grasp each other in a manner reminiscent, somehow, of the final battle between Romulus and Remus.) Esther arrives nervous, slightly drunk and in a brand-new suit (which is probably more attractive than she usually dresses); is she somehow excited by the thought of seeing her husband’s rich and successful brother? Maybe, and maybe not; Hecht plays it in such a manner that the brothers—and the audience—can’t quite tell. She is wonderful here, with her finest performance since the Liev Schreiber A View from the Bridge.

So there, it seems, is the answer to our Price question. Miller has built the play on four equal characters, giving each their space. But I’ve never seen the play with four equalperformances. Mr. Kinney has taken his actors—all of whom are accomplished—and mixed them together in such a manner that the play always comes through. Not ensemble work, exactly; rather, four star turns which continually halt, making way for whomever the playwright wants the audience to concentrate on in the next exchange.

The Price was the end of the line for Miller. At least nine more full plays were produced before his death in 2005—the last to reach Broadway being Broken Glass (1994) and The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (2000)—with nary a one of them getting positive attention. Every time they did another revival of Salesman, the man was hailed as one of America’s greatest playwrights and a living treasure; do a new Miller play, no one cared. People just wanted to see Salesman, The Crucible, A View from the Bridge, and sometimes All My Sons.

This play belongs on that list. Thanks to Kinney, Ruffalo, Shalhoub, Hecht & DeVito, we have an opportunity to see just how high The Price is.

#the price #arthur miller #mark ruffalo #jessica hecht #tony shaloub #danny devito #terry kinney

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ham4slam4ham · 8 years

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So I saw Hamilton Chicago at the PrivateBank Theatre on March 9, 2017. It was AMAZING. I saw almost the whole original cast besides Aaron Burr (who was Wayne Brady after Joshua Henry left) and Peggy Schuyler/Maria Reynolds (Aubin Wise). I'm. Shook. Quite honestly, I didn't know it was going to be a dialogue-free musical. I knew the soundtrack told the story but I always figured there was something more? In that aspect, it was interesting. On the one hand, I wasn't exactly... missing out? persay, by not seeing the musical. But on the other, seeing all those songs performed live, with explosive choreography and intense lighting and the set and stage and the orchestra filling the room next to hundreds of people who shared my love for Hamilton- that made it magical. I want to say I was immersed in the musical but I was really immersed in the fact that I was THERE. I didn't cry once- tears threatened me during "Blow Us All Away" and I was essentially dry-sobbing during "Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story". But I was too overwhelmed and excited to be there and caught up in the fact that it was almost over to actually cry. Also, this sucks to admit, but I feel like the cast not being the OBC also contributed to the surprisingly lower amount of emotion it moved me to. I was still SHOOK and the talent in the room was amazing and the dancers were so interactive and Chris Lee and Wallace Smith and King George were hilarious, but something wasn't there. Arianna Afsar was adorable but it just didn't feel like ELIZA. She did a very nice job but it wasn't Phillipa; ya know? I didn't feel that way about Karen Olivo, mostly because I just love her so much from In the Heights. I was SO disappointed about not seeing Samantha Marie Ware as Peggy, just because I had been looking forward to seeing her performance style for a very long time, too. But Aubin Wise was actually really good as Peggy and her chemistry with the sisters and also Alexander during the mildly uncomfortable "Say No to This" was great. Miguel Cervantes was an ADORABLE Alexander Hamilton! He's got great chemistry with everyone and I could just feel Lin Manuel Miranda's sass when he performed "Farmer Refuted". Another thing I'd like to point out was the audience-actor chemistry. I'll admit the audience was lowkey unresponsive when I WANTED to clap and "woOoOoOo!!" but we laughed at all the right parts and we had a good time. Chris Lee had little quirks that made him funny and he and Wallace Smith were such an iconic duo. King George was the most extra thing ALIVE but it was great. Even the ensemble members like Amber Ardolino, Samantha Pollino, Justice Moore, Holly, and a bunch of other ones like the men in the ensemble enhanced the performance by moving the props and swirling around the main cast members and being great fillers- they actually added so much depth to the piece that showed the amount of work that was put in. "Blow Us All Away" actually involved so many ensemble members which was adorable. ALSO they made the Cabinet Battles more interesting by acting like it was a real rap battle. Shoutout to the ensemble. All in all, these people put so much into the performance. I really really really loved it, and I'm still processing it. I had forgotten how much I loved the musical. Over the summer I fell completely in love with it, and I developed such a strong emotional attachment to Hamilton. Its cast members, Lin Manuel Miranda, its fanbase, the possibility of us seeing it, going to the stage door. Singing the songs with friends and learning all the raps- I love love loved it. When school started, I listened to it less frequently, to the point where I stopped crying during "Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story". I got worried about that but then I realized it still has the same meaning but it's just less new. It's still just as magical as before. This musical is still a piece of art. It involves a diverse cast and a whole new sound of Broadway and the whole storyline in itself is accessible to everyone, even if they can't see the show. Seeing it adds that little bit of sparkle so that you can visualize everything, but being able to create your own visuals for that long while you're learning the storyline is also an amazing experience. I've been needing to write that ever since I saw it, but it was a weeknight, and the next day I was tired. Finally getting that out settles so many things for me. I hope I remember this experience forever.

#hamilton chicago #hamilton #broadway #privatebanktheatre #musical

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peppurthehotone · 3 years

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When Fabulous Things Happen

I’m just going to blurt it out: I’m a semi-finalist with the Garry Marshall New Play Works Festival!! When I read the email announcing the news, I burst into happy tears. Here’s why: These past several months have been creatively fantastic, full of hard work and soul-filling. I’ve somehow gotten back to my original love, playwriting. This part of me blossomed (perhaps like my boobs) at twelve…

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#antaeus theater company #Brown Betties #Circle X Theatre #emerging writer #Garry Marshall New Play Works Festvial #lower depth theatre ensemble #peppur chambers #playwright #t tara turk haynes #tira palmquist #Zip Code Plays

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rohrer-blog1 · 7 years

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(via Los Angeles Theater Review: PURE CONFIDENCE (Lower Depth Theatre Ensemble at Sacred Fools))

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peppurthehotone · 5 years

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When sex trafficking is real.

I was walking the dogs yesterday morning. The sun was shining as it does, here in LA. I passed the post office, said a silent hello to the homeless man that sleeps on the steps there, rubbed Molly’s pitty-mix head for finally not growling at him and approached the corner. That’s when I saw what lead to the rest of my day:

A smaller older man was crouched along a chain-link fence next to a younger…

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#human trafficking #journey out #ldte #lower depth theatre ensemble #safe harbor #sex trafficking #social justice #tira palmquist

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frustratedcastingdirector · 8 years

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Huffington Post Review of “The Price”

Steven Suskin, ContributorDrama critic

Aisle View: Arthur’s Price03/16/2017 08:01 pm ET

Terry Kinney’s scintillatingly bristling revival, from the Roundabout, offers a clear answer. In 1968 at the 46th Street (where it had moved from the Morosco), I left the four-character play talking about Kate Reid (as Esther) and Davey Burns (as Solomon). In 1979 at the Playhouse, it was Fritz Weaver (as Victor, the cop). In 1992 at the Roundabout, it was Hector Elizondo (Victor) and Eli Wallach (Solomon). In 1999 at the Royale, it was Bob Dishy (Solomon). This time, it was Mark Ruffalo, giving an altogether excellent performance as Victor. And Jessica Hecht, as the finest Esther I’ve seen. AndTony Shalhoub as the most convincing Walter yet. And Danny DeVito, who is making his Broadway debut—although the man, you could say, has loads of experience—and who I suppose is equal to Burns as Solomon supreme.

So there, it seems, is the answer to our Price question. Miller has built the play on four equal characters, giving each their space. But I’ve never seen the play with four equal performances. Mr. Kinney has taken his actors—all of whom are accomplished—and mixed them together in such a manner that the play always comes through. Not ensemble work, exactly; rather, four star turns which continually halt, making way for whomever the playwright wants the audience to concentrate on in the next exchange.

The Price was the end of the line for Miller. At least nine more full plays were produced before his death in 2005—the last to reach Broadway being Broken Glass (1994) and The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (2000)—with nary a one of them getting positive attention. Every time they did another revival of Salesman, the man was hailed as one of America’s greatest playwrights and a living treasure; do a new Miller play, no one cared. People just wanted to see Salesman,The Crucible, A View from the Bridge, and sometimes All My Sons.

This play belongs on that list. Thanks to Kinney, Ruffalo, Shalhoub, Hecht & DeVito, we have an opportunity to see just how high The Price is.

Arthur Miller’s The Price opened March 16, 2017 and runs through May 7 at the American Airlines Theatre

#the price #mark ruffalo #tony shaloub #danny devito #jessica hecht #arthur miller #terry kinney

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