Rehearsals began today 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.
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), ThisHouse (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.
Our 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).
About Jonathan Church Productions
Jonathan Church Productions was formed in 2015 in association with Delfont Mackintosh Theatres to produce and general manage high quality theatre in the West End, on tour and internationally.
Recent productions include Fracked (UK tour); Sand in the Sandwiches (Theatre Royal Haymarket, London and UK tour); Loves Labours Lost and Much Ado About Nothing (Chichester, Manchester, Theatre Royal Haymarket London); This House (Chichester and West End); The Dresser (UK tour and Duke of York’s Theatre London). General Management projects include Strictly Ballroom the Musical (Toronto) and North By North West (Toronto).
Jonathan Church is currently Artistic Director of Bath Theatre Royal’s summer season. He was Artistic Director of Chichester Festival Theatre (2006-2016); Artistic Director of Birmingham Repertory Theatre (2001 – 2006); Associate Director of Hampstead Theatre (1999-2001); Artistic Director of Salisbury Playhouse (1995-1999); Associate Director of Derby Playhouse (1994-1995) and Assistant Director of Nottingham Playhouse (1992 – 1994).
Jonathan’s West End productions as a Director include Hobson’s Choice, Taken at Midnight (Theatre Royal Haymarket), Singin’ in the Rain (Palace Theatre), The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Duchess Theatre), Of Mice and Men (Savoy Theatre and The Old Vic), The Witches (Wyndham’s Theatre), A Busy Day (Lyric Theatre), The Life and Times of Nicholas Nickleby (Gielgud Theatre). He is currently directing Racing Demon for Bath Theatre Royal.
About the National Theatre
At the National Theatre, we make world-class theatre that is entertaining, challenging and inspiring, and we make it for everyone. In 2016-2017, the NT staged 26 productions and gave 2,585 performances at our home on the South Bank. The NT’s award-winning programme had a UK paying audience of 1.8 million, 400,000 of which were NT Live audiences.
The work the National Theatre produces appeals to the widest possible audiences with new plays, musicals, re-imagined classics and new work for young audiences. The NT’s work is seen in the West End, on tour throughout the UK and internationally, and in collaborations and co-productions with partners across the country. Through NT Live, we broadcast some of the best of British theatre to over 2,000 venues in 60 countries around the world.
Our extensive Learning programme offers talks, events and workshops for people of all ages, and reaches nationwide through programmes such as Connections, our annual festival of new plays for schools and youth theatres. In 2016-2017 there were 196,826 participations through the NT Learning events programme. Over 3,000 schools have signed up to the free streaming service, On Demand In Schools, since its launch in September 2015.
About Chichester Festival Theatre
Chichester Festival Theatre is one of the UK’s flagship theatres, renowned for the exceptionally high standard of its productions as well as it’s work with the community and young people. Situated in a cathedral city in West Sussex between the South Downs and the sea, the Festival Theatre’s bold thrust stage design makes it one of England’s most striking playhouses; a studio theatre, the Minerva Theatre, sits nearby.
The annual summer Festival season runs from April to November, during which productions originated at Chichester reach an audience of over 200,000. Year-round programming continues through the winter with the Theatre presenting high-class touring productions, as well as a traditional Christmas show mounted by the renowned Chichester Festival Youth Theatre.
Recent West End transfers from Chichester (as originating producer) include Half A Sixpence (Noël Coward Theatre), Young Chekhov (National Theatre), Running Wild (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), Guys and Dolls (Savoy Theatre), Stevie (Hampstead Theatre), Taken at Midnight (Theatre Royal, Haymarket), Gypsy (Savoy Theatre), Private Lives (Gielgud Theatre) and Sweeny Todd (Adelphi Theatre). Christmas 2015 saw the television broadcast of Gypsy with Imelda Staunton, shown on BBC4. Filmed during its West End run at the Savoy Theatre, the broadcast was watched by over half a million viewers and is now available on DVD.
Rooted firmly in the community, the Theatre runs a Learning, Education and Participation (LEAP) programme that is a beacon of excellence and inspiration to its local audience, as well as being home to one of the country’s largest youth theatres with over 750 members.
Daniel Evans and Rachel Tackley joined the organisations as Artistic Director and Executive Director respectively in the summer of 2016, appointed with a mandate to build on the success of the past and take the theatre into its next exciting chapter.
