Cast
Alec Boaden
Raf, DS Villers, Sam
Alec studied at Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Productions whilst training include: The Comedy of Errors, Polaroid Stories and Days of Significance (Guildhall School of Music and Drama).
Projects whilst training include: The Bacchae, The Talented Mr Ripley, Love and Information, The Cherry Orchard and The Arrival (Guildhall School of Music and Drama).
Television credits include: Masters Of The Air (Apple TV), Random Acts (Channel 4) and Jamie Johnson (CBBC).
Alec attended The Television Workshop from 2008-2020 and was a part of Nottingham Playhouse’s Homegrown programme in 2019.
Julie Hesmondhalgh
Joan, Nan
Theatre credits include: Blue Now (Factory International), The Jungle (St Ann’s Warehouse New York); The Greatest Play in the History of the World (Trafalgar Studios and National Tour); The Report with Lemn Sissay (Royal Court); Mother Courage and Her Children, The Almighty Sometimes, Black Roses: The Killing of Sophie Lancaster, Blindsided (Manchester Royal Exchange); Wit (Manchester Royal Exchange - winner of Best Female Performer 2017 MTAs); There Are No Beginnings (Leeds Playhouse); God Bless the Child (Royal Court).
Television credits include: Alma’s Not Normal; Mr Bates vs the Post Office; You & Me; The Pact; The A Word; The Trouble with Maggie Cole; Dr Who; Catastrophe; Broadchurch (BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actress); Happy Valley; Black Roses (BBC4 - Royal Television Society Best Actress 2014); Moving On; Inside No 9; Cucumber; Hayley Cropper in Coronation Street 1998-2014 (National TV Award 2014, Royal Television Society Award 2013).
Writing: An Actor’s Alphabet (NHB); A Working Diary (Methuen); These I Love, a one woman show.
Julie co-runs Take Back theatre company in Manchester and the fundraising group, 500 Acts of Kindness. She is a supporter of Arts Emergency.
Tony Hirst
David, Derek, Tony, Raf's Dad
Television credits include: Riot Women, Boiling Point, Better, Everything I Know About Love, Red Rose, Broken (BBC); Brassic (SKY); Pistol (FX/Disney+); Stephen, Coronation Street, Law & Order: UK (ITV) and Glue, Shameless (Channel 4).
Stage credits include: Maryland (Take Back Theatre); My White Best Friend North, Hobson’s Choice, Bruntwood Prize Ceremony (The Royal Exchange, Manchester); Hangmen (Wyndam’s Theatre, West End & The Royal Court); I Know Where The Dead Are Buried (Second City Productions) and Strangeways: The Inside Account (Contact Theatre, Manchester).
Film credits include: Old Guy (Paramount Movies)
Tony continues to work extensively in radio & voiceovers.
Shalisha James-Davis
Clare, Nicola
Theatre credits include: Romeo and Juliet (Royal Exchange – Nominated, Ian Charleson Awards 2024); The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe (London Theatre Company); Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare’s Globe); Alfred Fagan Award (National Theatre Studio); If We Were Older (Royal National Theatre); The Wolves (Stratford East); Our Country’s Good, Notre Dame (National Theatre).
Film credits include: Mary Queen of Scots (Working Title); Bay of Silence (Silent Bay Films) and Night Out (Unit 9 Films).
Television credits include: Casualty, Silent Witness (BBC); Crossfire, Vera (ITV); I May Destroy You (HBO); The Split 2 (Sister Pictures); Alex Rider (Eleventh Hour Films); Next of Kin (Mammoth/ITV) and Class (BBC America).
Emma Pallant
Wendy, Sandra, Jacob’s Mum
Theatre credits include: Cowbois (RSC/Royal Court); Faustus: That Damned Woman (Storyhouse); A Christmas Carol, Tamar’s Revenge, As You Like It, Henry IV Parts 1 & 2, Laughter in the Dark (RSC); The Dog in the Manger, House of Desires, Pedro, the Great Pretender (RSC/West End); Celebrated Virgins (Theatr Clwyd); Ravens: Spassky Vs Fischer (Hampstead Theatre); An Enemy of the People, LAVA (Nottingham Playhouse); Intra Muros (Park Theatre); William Wordsworth (ETT); The Wind in the Willows (Rose Theatre); Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Comedy of Errors, Macbeth (Shakespeare’s Globe); It Just Stopped, Alison’s House (Orange Tree Theatre); Bell, Book and Candle, Bleak House, Great Expectations, Romeo and Juliet (New Vic Theatre); The Cherry Orchard, His Dark Materials, Katherine Desouza (Birmingham Rep); An Ideal Husband (Theatre of Frankfurt); The House of Bernada Alba (Belgrade Theatre); Top Girls (Watford Palace); Cymbeline (Regent’s Park) and Precious Bane (Pentabus).
Television and Film includes: Queenie; All This Time; Acquisitions Panel; Heavenly Village Hall; Responsible Child; Casualty; Holby City; Father Brown; Our Life Together and Doctors.
David Shields
Jacob
David Shields can currently be seen in Apple TV’s Masters Of The Air and Netflix’s most recent Black Mirror.
Theatre credits include: Hush (The Gate Theatre); Monster Party (Arcola Theatre) and Arcadia (Oxford Playhouse).
Television credits include: Van Der Valk (ITV); The Liberator, Treadstone, The Crown (Netflix); and Doctor Who (BBC).
Film credits include: Freud’s Last Session, Judy and The Bad Education Movie.
Credits whilst training include: Wild Honey, Henry VI: Part II and The Last Days Of Judas Iscariot.
Creatives
James Graham
Writer
James Graham is a playwright and screenwriter.
Theatre includes: Olivier award winning play Dear England (National 2023, West End and NT Live. An updated version returns to the National Theatre before a national tour this Spring, and it is being adapted for TV with the BBC); Tammy Faye (Almeida Theatre 2022, Broadway 2024); Boys from the Blackstuff (adapted from Alan Bleasdale’s seminal TV drama, Liverpool Royal Court 2023, The National Theatre 2024); This House (National Theatre, West End 2017, Olivier-nominated and chosen by popular vote as the best play of the 2010’s for the major theatre publisher Methuen).
TV includes: Sherwood (BBC, won the Royal Television Society Award for Best Drama and 2 BAFTAS); Quiz (ITV and AMC); Brexit: An Uncivil War (Channel 4 and HBO, nominated for an Emmy and a BAFTA).
Adam Penford
Director
Adam Penford is Artistic Director at Nottingham Playhouse. He trained at Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA).
For Nottingham Playhouse credits include: Dear Evan Hansen (& UK Tour), The Clothes They Stood Up In, A Christmas Carol (& Alexandra Palace & Birmingham Rep & worldwide cinema release), Piaf, Bubble, Holes (& UK Tour), An Enemy of the People, Coram Boy, The Madness of George III (& NT Live), Dick Whittington, Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella, and Wonderland.
For the National Theatre credits include: A Small Family Business (Olivier); Dorfman Opening Gala (Dorfman); Island (Cottlesloe); One Man Two Guvnors, Revival Director (West End/Broadway/UK and International Tour); and NT 50 Years on Stage, Associate Director (Olivier and BBC2).
Other Directing credits include: The Sound of Music (Chichester Festival Theatre); Committee (Donmar Warehouse); The Boys in The Band (Vaudeville/Park Theatre); Platinum (Hampstead Theatre); Unfaithful (Found 111); Watership Down (The Watermill Theatre); Deathtrap (Salisbury Playhouse/UK Tour); Ghost the Musical (The English Theatre, Frankfurt); Stepping Out (Salisbury Playhouse); The Machine Gunners and Run! (Polka Theatre).
Assistant/Associate Director credits include: The Winter’s Tale (Propeller at The Watermill Theatre); The Vagina Monologues (National Tour); 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover (Bush Theatre); Imagine This (Theatre Royal, Plymouth); Dying For It (Almeida) and Charley’s Aunt (Oxford Playhouse).
Anna Fleischle
Production Designer
Anna Fleischle is an Olivier award–winning and Tony-nominated production set and costume designer.
Previous Young Vic credits include: A Face In The Crowd, Nachtland, The Collaboration (Broadway), Death Of A Salesman (Broadway/West End).
Theatre includes: What we talk about when we talk about Anne Frank (Marylebone Theatre); Red Speedo (Orange Tree Theatre); A Child Of Science (Bristol Old Vic); Punch (Nottingham Playhouse); The Pillowman (West End); Death Of A Salesman (Broadway/West End); 2:22 A Ghost Story (West End/LA/Tour/Melbourne); Hangmen (Broadway/West End/Royal Court), Tony Award Nominee 2022, Winner of Olivier Award For Best Set Design, Critic’s Circle Award ‘Best Designer’, Evening Standard Award ‘Best Design’); Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (West End/ UK tour/ LA); House of Shades, The Writer, Before the Party (Almeida); The Kid Stays In The Picture (Royal Court & Complicité); A German Life; A Very Very Very Dark Matter, John Gabriel Borkman, Two Ladies (Bridge Theatre); Much Ado About Nothing, Home I’m Darling (National Theatre/ West End/UK Tour - 2019 Olivier Award Nominee For Best Set Design And Best Costume Design); Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (Old Vic); Beware Of Pity (Schaubühne, Berlin/Complicité).
Opera includes: L'Orfeo (Vienna Staatsoper); Weimar Nightfall (LA Philharmonic/Complicite).
Dance includes: A Christmas Carol (Finnish National Opera); Message In A Bottle (International Tour); John; Can We Talk About This? (DV8 Physical Theatre/ International tour).
Fellowships include: Trustee Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, Founding Member of Scene/Change.
Robbie Butler
Lighting Designer
Originally from Ireland and based in the UK, Robbie is one of only a handful of Life Members of the Association for Lighting Production and Design. Having trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, he won the inaugural Profile Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera, an Off West End award for Best Lighting Design, and was also the winner of the 2015 ETC Award. More info at www.robbiebutler.com
Design credits include: Reverberation (Bristol Old Vic); Punch (Nottingham Playhouse); Death In Venice (Welsh National Opera); The Makropulos Affair (Scottish Opera). As well as work with The Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh; The Mercury Theatre, Colchester; Greek National Opera, Polish National Opera; Den Norske Opera and Ballet; Hofesh Schecter Company; Teatro Real, Madrid; The Watermill Theatre; and The English Theatre, Frankfurt.
Upcoming work includes: Work at The Tron Theatre, Glasgow; Malmö Opera; and The National Theatre of Scotland.
Alexandra Faye Braithwaite
Sound Designer and Composer
Recent credits include: Giant, Sound of the Underground, Purple Snowflakes and Titty Wanks (Royal Court); Underdog: The Other Other Brontë (National Theatre); The Real Thing (Old Vic); Falkland Sound (Royal Shakespeare Company); A Taste of Honey, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Wuthering Heights, Light Falls (Royal Exchange Theatre); Chariots of Fire, Anna Karenina, Operation Crucible, Chicken Soup (Sheffield Theatres); The Good Person of Szechwan (Lyric Hammersmith/Sheffield Theatres); Bloody Elle (Lyric Theatre/Traverse Theatre/Royal Exchange); Never Have I Ever, The Narcissist (Chichester Festival Theatre); The Creakers (Southbank Centre/Theatre Royal Plymouth); Abigail’s Party, Shining City, How Not To Drown, The Wonderful World of Dissocia (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Things of Dry Hours (Young Vic); Lost and Found (Factory International); Groan Ups (Mischief Theatre/Vaudeville Theatre/UK Tour); The Cavalcaders (Druid); Good Luck, Studio (Mischief Theatre/Mercury Theatre); Kes (Bolton Octagon); The Climbers, Tom’s Midnight Garden (Theatre By The Lake); A Pretty Shitty Love, A Christmas Carol (Theatre Clwyd); My Name Is Rachel Corrie (Al Madina Theatre, Beirut); Cougar, The Rolling Stone, Dealing with Clair (Orange Tree Theatre); Dublin Carol (Sherman Theatre); Hamlet, Talking Heads, Rudolph (Leeds Playhouse); The Audience, Juicy and Delicious (Nuffield Theatre); The Remains of Maisie Duggan (Abbey Theatre); Toast, Enough (Traverse Theatre); When I Am Queen (Almeida).
Leanne Pinder
Movement Director
Movement Director and Choreographer credits include: Punch (Nottingham Playhouse); Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Aberystwyth); Disruption (Park Theatre); Spring Awakening (ArtsEd); Pippin, Our House (Wilkes Academy); She Loves Me, The Wizard of Oz, Bare A Rock Opera (Mountview); Lasagna (Short film directed by Hannah Hill).
Associate Director credits include: Cages (Riverside Studios).
Associate Choreographer credits include: Bugsy Malone (UK Tour); Waitress (UK Tour) and We Will Rock You (UK Tour).
Assistant Choreographer credits include: Groundhog Day (Broadway, NYC); Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Playhouse); American Psycho (Almeida) and Matilda (Broadway, NYC).
Resident Choreographer credits: Waitress (Adelphi).
Other credits include: Frau Blücher in Young Frankenstein (English Theatre Frankfurt); Mrs Teavee in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Aberystwyth); Matilda (Workshop/ Feature Film); Strictly Ballroom the Musical (Piccadilly); Snow White (Palladium); Groundhog Day (Old Vic); Bend it like Beckham (Phoenix); Performance Captain for the 2014 Commonwealth Games Closing Ceremony; Matilda (Cambridge); We Will Rock You (Dominion); Fame (UK Tour); Saturday Night Fever (UK Tour) and Grease (UK Tour).
Lynne Page
Movement Consultant
British choreographer Lynne Page works internationally in film and television, opera, theatre and the music industry.
Recent work includes: Standing at the Sky’s Edge (Sheffield Crucible/ National Theatre/West End) for which she was nominated for an Olivier Award, Tammy Faye and Spring Awakening (Almeida Theatre) and Lyssa, her first work for the Royal Ballet featuring Nadine Shah.
Other theatre credits include: The 47th (Old Vic); American Psycho (Almeida and on Broadway); Ink (Almeida and Broadway); Noyes Fludde (Theatre Royal Stratford East); La Cage aux Folles (Tony, Olivier and Drama Desk nominated) and A Little Night Music (Menier Chocolate Factory and Broadway); Little Shop of Horrors (Menier Chocolate Factory); Company (Sheffield Theatre) and Funny Girl, The Grinning Man, Tell Me on a Sunday (West End).
Opera credits include: Death in Venice (Royal Opera House); Medea (ENO and Paris Opera); Marnie (Metropolitan Opera); Les Troyens (La Scala) and Andrea Chénier (Bregenz Festival).
Film and Television credits include: The Crown, Four Weddings and a Funeral, So You Think You Can Dance, Judy, Fred Claus.
Music choreography credits include: for The Pet Shop Boys (as director and choreographer) for Inner Sanctum and Dreamworld tours and Glastonbury, Stormzy and Jess Glynne at the BRIT Awards, Kanye West, Ellie Goulding, Imogen Heap and Duffy.
Christopher Worrall CDG
Casting Director
Christopher is a freelance Casting Director and began his career at the Donmar Warehouse.
Previously for Nottingham Playhouse: The Real and Imagined History of The Elephant Man, The Beekeeper of Aleppo, LAVA.
Theatre Credits as Casting Director: Arabian Nights (Bristol Old Vic); Assassins (Chichester Festival Theatre); The Red Lion (New Wolsey Theatre); Sucker Punch (Queen’s Theatre/UK tour); The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Rose Theatre Kingston); Rock, Paper, Scissors, Chicken Soup (Sheffield Theatres); Arms and the Man, The Solid Life of Sugar Water, The Misfortune of the English, Tom Fool, Two Billion Beats, Last Easter (Orange Tree Theatre); The Climbers (Theatre by the Lake) and Missing People (Leeds Playhouse).
Theatre Credits as Casting Associate/Assistant: A Very Expensive Poison, All My Sons, The American Clock, A Christmas Carol (The Old Vic) and Measure for Measure, Aristocrats, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The Way of the World, The York Realist, Belleville, The Lady from the Sea, Committee (Donmar Warehouse).
Film & TV Credits as Casting Associate: Emma and Call the Midwife.
Sally Hague
Voice & Dialect Coach
Theatre Credits include: The Full Monty Tour, Kite Runner, She Stoops to Conquer, Joking Apart (Nottingham Playhouse); Kes, Canary and A Streetcar Named Desire (Liverpool Playhouse); Salt, Roots and Roe (Theatre Clwyd); Translations (Curve Leicester); Hayfever (Chichester Festival Theatre); The Daughter-in-Law (Manchester Library Theatre); Flashdance (Shaftsbury Theatre, London); Street Scene (The Opera Company); Beautiful Thing (The Arts Theatre, London); The Body Guard (UK Tour) and Let it Be (UK Tour).
Recent Film and Television credits: Who is Erin Carter, Day of the Jackal, Henpocalypse, Death in Paradise, Roadkill, Documentary Now! House of the Dragon, The Singapore Grip, Game of Thrones Season 2 to 8, Peaky Blinders Series 2, Film: Robin Hood, Peter Rabbit, Peter Rabbit 2 and Terminal.
Kev McCurdy
Fight Director
Kev is an Equity Registered Fight Director of 24 yrs, co-founder of The Academy of Performance Combat and Combat tutor at RWCMD. Upcoming fight choreographing projects include: Buddha Of Suburbia, Othello (RSC); Kiss Me, Kate (Barbican Theatre); Rigoletto (Wales Millennium Centre) and Little Foxes (Young Vic).
Theatre & Opera credits include: Sister Act (Dominion Theatre); Les Misérables (Sondheim Theatre); Phantom of The Opera (Her Majesty’s Theatre); Bajazet (INO tour); Carmen, The Barber Of Seville (Garsington Opera); Mandela, The Homecoming (Young Vic); Rigoletto (Royal Opera House); Jitney (Old Vic); Red Pitch (Bush Theatre); Trouble In Butetown (Donmar Warehouse); Brokeback Mountain (Soho Place); The Wizard Of Oz (London Palladium); Othello (National Theatre); The Tempest (RSC); Tambo and Bones (Stratford East); Macbeth (Bristol Old Vic); Enemy Of The People (Duke Of York’s Theatre); Stranger Things (Phoenix Theatre); An Officer And A Gentleman (UK Tour); Player Kings (Noel Coward) and Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare’s Globe).
TV & Film credits include: The A List S2 (Netflix); John Carter Of Mars (Walt Disney / Pixar); Protein, Scopophobia (Broadside Films); Until I Kill You (ITV) and Bariau (S4C Wales).
Directing credits include: The Saliva Milkshake; The Glass Menagerie; Making of a Motherer; Jekyll And Hyde The Musical and The Welsh Dragon.
Jacob Dunne
Production Consultant
Jacob Dunne is an author, campaigner, presenter and educator working across justice, health, education and corporate spaces. In 2020 he presented The Punch, a BBC Radio 4 series which won an ARIA award for Best Factual Series for 2021. He is a former Longford scholar and received a first-class honours degree in Criminology. His book Right From Wrong was published in 2022 and is a continuation of his campaign work into one-punch and Restorative Justice which has reached over 100 million people since he began.
Jacob delivers a range of interventions and training aimed at reducing conflict, creating healthier cultures, and supporting people’s wellbeing. @jacobfreeeman
Angelica Rush
Associate Production Designer
Angelica is an Australian born Set and Costume Designer for live performance and film, who trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Angelica is currently working in London as the Associate Designer for Anna Fleischle.
Previous Young Vic: Associate Designer on A Face in the Crowd.
Theatre includes: A Child of Science (Costume Designer, Bristol Old Vic), Eclipse (Winner of the APDG Emerging Designer 2023, NICA), ONEIRIC (National Institute of Circus Arts), Cactus (Costume Designer, La Mama), After Mrs Rochester (RCSSD).
Film includes: SLANT (Art Director, Best Australian Film 2022 Monster Fest), Lacerate (Flickerfest International Short Film Festival,), Tadpoles (Internationale Winterthur Kurzfilmtagel).
Associate Design includes: What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank (Marylebone), A Child of Science (Bristol Old Vic), 2:22 A Ghost Story Australia (Her Majesty's Theatre), Ghost Stories Australia (Atheneum)
Omar Khan
Associate Director
Omar is a director, facilitator and writer based in the Midlands. His work is deeply rooted in contemporary cultural discourse, often touching on our connection to the plant we live on. Collaboration sits at the heart of his process as he works to support artists and regional development, and enable conversations around topics including: grief, identity, and spirituality.
He was a recipient of RTYDS’s 18 Month Residency, where he was placed at Derby Theatre and directed the regional premiere of Mr Burns: A Post Electric Play. He is also an alumnus of Birmingham REP’s Foundry scheme & Tamasha’s Directors Programme. He is currently on New Perspectives 24/25 Associate Programme. In 2024 he was long listed for the Sir Peter Hall Award.
Theatre credits include: The Trials - Co-Director (Nottingham Playhouse), Mr Burns: A Post Electric Play - Director, Producer (Derby Theatre), Jekyll & Hyde - Assistant Director (Derby Theatre)
Current projects include: A Beginner’s Guide to Widowhood
Annie May Fletcher
Associate Sound Designer
Annie is a Yorkshire-based sound designer and dramaturg. She trained at LAMDA and Leeds Conservatoire, and was nominated for a WhatsOnStage Award 2023 and shortlisted for the Evening Standard Future Theatre Fund 2021.
Theatre credits include: Robin Hood & The Christmas Heist (Rose Theatre Kingston), Tell Me How It Ends (Liverpool Everyman), A Passionate Woman and Decades (Leeds Playhouse), We Could All Be Perfect and Rock (Sheffield Theatres), Accidental Death of an Anarchist (Theatre Royal Haymarket/Lyric Hammersmith/Sheffield Theatres), Hope Has a Happy Meal (Royal Court Theatre), NT Public Acts’ The Odyssey: The Cyclops and Children of the Night (Cast, Doncaster), Beauty Queen of Leenane (Theatre by the Lake), Hedwig & The Angry Inch (Leeds Playhouse/HOME Mcr), A Christmas Carol and An Adventure (Bolton Octagon), Endurance (Battersea Arts Centre/HOME Mcr), Ad Libido, Splintered and The Arc (Soho Theatre), The Survivors’ Guide To Living (Manchester Royal Exchange), The Understudy Live (Palace Theatre).
Simon Pilling
Jerwood Trainee Assistant Director
Simon (He/Him) is a northern, neurodivergent, working-class theatre maker with a keen interest in breathing life into classic texts, as well as giving form to new writing. Simon started his career in theatre as a performer with Odd Arts, touring in interactive theatre performances. He later earned an MA in Contemporary Directing Practices from Rose Bruford College.
Simon was part of the Young Vic's Fresh Directions cohort 2024/25.
As Director: Dudley Road (by Cameron Corcoran) at the Union Theatre, The Last Curry (by Anthony Orme), a finalist at the Off-Cut Festival 2024, at 53Two and Miss Julie (by Strindberg) at the Barn Theatre.