Press Information



1980-2010 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FINBOROUGH THEATRE

Summer Season 2010
Benn Cody and Coracle in association with Neil McPherson for the Finborough Theatre presents

WHAT EVERY WOMAN KNOWS
by J.M. Barrie
Directed by Louise Hill. Designed by Rachael A. Smith. Lighting by Euan Maybank.
Cast includes: Alistair Findlay. Gareth Glen. Scott McFarlan. Anne-Marie Piazza. Carmen Rodriguez. Jack Tarlton. Madeleine Worrall. Peter Yapp.

The first London production in 50 years of the classic comedy by J.M. Barrie,
celebrating the 150th anniversary of his birth.

”Charm...is a sort of bloom on a woman. If you have it, you don't need to have anything else; and if you don't have it, it doesn't much matter what else you have.”
Unseen in London for fifty years, What Every Woman Knows plays for six Sunday and Monday performances at the Finborough Theatre as part of its 30th anniversary year, opening on 18 July 2010 (Press Night: Monday, 19 July 2010).

Maggie Wylie is a woman with no charm. But when her brothers catch penniless student John Shand breaking into the family home to read their books, a bizarre bargain is struck – if the Wylie’s fund John’s education, he will marry Maggie.

John’s ascent of the political ladder earns him powerful friends and the affection of the beautiful Lady Sybil Tenterden. Maggie is determined to act differently from other wives if her husband falls in love, but how will John react when he discovers that his wife, not her money, has been the making of him?

What Every Woman Knows has been seen as an expression of Barrie’s support for the public struggle of the suffragettes to gain women the vote, as well as a deeply moving portrayal of the secrets which keep a marriage alive.
Playwright J.M. Barrie (1860-1937) was born on 9 May 1860 in Kirriemuir, Scotland, and this production of his 1908 classic celebrates the 150th anniversary of his birth. Now best remembered for his only children’s play, Peter Pan, he was also the hugely successful author of plays and novels including The Admirable Crichton, Dear Brutus, Mary Rose and Quality Street.

Director Louise Hill trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and spent two years as Artistic Director of the Bristol Shakespeare Festival. Directing includes Spiders (Soho Theatre Studio), Tiny Dynamite (Alma Tavern Theatre, Bristol), To a Sunless Sea (Etcetera Theatre) and IAGO, her own adaptation of Othello for which she won a Fringe Review Outstanding Theatre Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2009. Louise is currently developing her own adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Grandmother’s Footsteps, a new play by Toby Hulse for children and their grandparents, with support from Bristol Old Vic.

Alistair Findlay’s theatre credits include Hobson’s Choice (Chichester Festival Theatre and National Tour), Hardman (Donmar Warehouse), Faith, Hope and Charity (Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith), Contested Will (Etcetera Theatre), Deathtrap (Connaught Theatre, Worthing), Twelfth Night, In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel (Portland’s Playhouse), Murder in Mind, Larger Than Life, A Coat of Varnish (Civic Theatre, Ayr),Talent (Theatre Exchange, Los Angeles). Television credits include The Tudors 111, Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story, Passage, Suez, Poirot, Silent Witness, Taggart. Film credits include Red Sky at Night, Murky Waters, Cold Fish, Highlander. Radio credits include The League of Gentleman and The McKinnon Extradition.

Gareth Glen’s theatre credits at the Finborough Theatre include Jamie The Saxt (2007) and David Hume’s Kilt as part of the Vibrant – An Anniversary Festival of Finborough Playwrights (2010). Other theatre credits include Beauty and the Beast (Cumbernauld Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Brunton Theatre, Musselbrugh), A View from the Bridge, Guys and Dolls, Romeo and Juliet (Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh), The Real Thing (Bristol Old Vic), Saved (Citizen’s Theatre, Glasgow). Television credits include Sea of Souls, The Ghost Squad, Foyle’s War, Holby City, Rockface, Gypsy Girls, Taggart. Film credits include So Good.

Scott McFarlan’s credits at the Finborough Theatre include Witchcraft (2008) and a workshop of Give a Dog a Bad Name (2006). Other theatre credits include Gagarin Way (BAC), The Tempest (UK Tour), Dignity at Work (Scottish Tour), A Life Less Ordinary (Icarus Theatre), Feet First (National Tour), The Threepenny Opera, The Dutch Courtesan, The Country Wife (Drama Centre). Film credits include With Respect, Together.

Anne-Marie Piazza’s theatre credits includes Alice in Wonderland (Nuffield Theatre, Southampton), The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (Haymarket Theatre, Basingstoke), Come Rain, Come Shine (Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York), The American Clock, Twelfth Night, Man and Superman, Love and Money, Hamlet (Bristol Old Vic Theatre School), Hanging Around (National Youth Theatre). Radio credits include Faust (BBC Radio 3), The Archers, The Day They Wouldn’t Take It Any More, Unchoreographed World, I Believe I Have Genius (BBC Radio 4). Film credits include Pond Life, Tomorrow.

Carmen Rodriguez’s theatre credits include Mrs Warren’s Profession, What The Butler Saw (Theatre Royal Bath and National Tour), Gertrude’s Secret (Leeds Grand Theatre), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Apollo Theatre), Death of a Salesman (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester), Easy Virtue (Garrick Theatre), Wildfire (Phoenix Theatre), The Elephant Man (Churchill Theatre, Bromley). Television credits include Streetwise, Zero Option. Radio credits include The Eternal Moment (BBC).

Jack Tarlton’s theatre credits include Troilus and Cressida, A Month In The Country (Royal Shakespeare Company), Coram Boy (National Theatre), She Stoops to Conquer (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester), An Inspector Calls (Garrick Theatre), Afore Night Come (Young Vic), Romeo and Juliet (Chichester Festival Theatre), Beasts and Beauties (Bristol Old Vic), Twelfth Night, The Taming of the Shrew (Old Vic Theatre). Film credits include Unscarred. Television credits include Doctors, The Golden Hour, Dead Ringers, The Genius of Mozart, Swivel on the Tip, Doctor Who, Hearts and Bones, Wings of Angels, Life Support.

Madeleine Worrall’s theatre credits includes Peter Pan (O2 Arena), The Real Thing, A School for Scandal (Salisbury Playhouse), The House of Bernarda Alba (Belgrade Theatre, Coventry), Gone With the Wind (New London Theatre), Cinderella (Old Vic), Cocoa (Theatre 503), Tonight at 8:30 (Chichester Festival Theatre), The Anniversary (Garrick Theatre),The Tempest, The Merchant of Venice (Royal Shakespeare Company). Television credits include Doctors, Heartbeat, Foyle’s War, Midsomer Murders, Bunny and the Bull, Complete Female Stage Beauty. Radio credits include Hybernaculum, Blindness (BBC Radio 3), The Last Smoker (BBC Radio 4).

Peter Yapp’s theatre credits includes The Forest (National Theatre), Female of the Species (Vaudeville Theatre), Honour (Wyndham’s Theatre), What the Butler Saw (Criterion Theatre), The Mousetrap (St. Martin’s Theatre), Habeas Corpus, Mrs Warren’s Profession, The Real Inspector Hound (Theatre By The Lake, Keswick), The Lady in the Van (Birmingham Rep), Eurydice (BAC). Television includes John Wyndham, Judge John Deed, Noah, The Ark and the Deluge, Life Begins, Bilbo and Beyond, Family Affairs, Peak Practice. Film includes Sin Noticias De Dios / Don’t Tempt Me, The Affair of the Necklace.
The Press on Director Louise Hill
“Louise Hill’s version exceeds all expectation...a thrilling re-imagining of Othello” ***** Five Stars Three Weeks
"A beautifully-acted, spellbinding story...If the standards for the rest of the season are as high as this, you won’t be disappointed” BBC Bristol on Tiny Dynamite
“A gripping, tense little docudrama” Time Out on To a Sunless Sea

The Press on the Finborough Theatre’s revivals of Edwardian Drama
“The tiny Finborough - 50 unsubsidised seats over a pub - has been turned by its Artistic Director Neil McPherson into a hub of early-20th-century theatre: a place where forgotten voices are celebrated.” Susannah Clapp, The Observer
“Earl’s Court rather than the South Bank seems the place to find the internationally-minded repertory due from a national theatre company.” Timothy Ramsden, Reviewsgate

PRESS NIGHT: MONDAY, 19 JULY 2010 AT 7.30PM
PHOTOCALL: By Arrangement. Please email
Finborough Theatre, The Finborough, 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED
Box Office 0844 847 1652. www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk
Sundays and Mondays, 18, 19, 25, 26, July; 1 and 2 August 2010
Evenings at 7.30pm. Tickets £13, £9 concessions
Performance Length:
For more information, interviews and images, please contact
Neil McPherson on e-mail or 07977 173135 or
Susie Safavi on e-mail or 07875 277913

Press releases and images are available to download from http://www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk/pressresources.htm

118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED Telephone +44 (0)20 7244 7439 Fax +44 (0)20 7835 1853

e-mail www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk Artistic Director Neil McPherson

The Finborough Theatre is managed by The Steam Industry. Registered in England and Wales as a company limited by guarantee, no. 3448268.

Registered Charity no. 1071304. Registered address: 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED. A member of the Independent Theatre Council.