Press Information
1980-2010 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FINBOROUGH THEATRE
Spring Season 2010
Part of Vibrant 2010 – An Anniversary Festival of Finborough Playwrights
Whippet Productions in association with Neil McPherson for the Finborough Theatre presents
The World Premiere
THE MAN
by James Graham.
Directed by Kate Wasserberg. Designed by Fly Davis. Lighting Design by Tom White.
Cast: Samuel Barnett. Leander Deeny. James Graham. Michelle Luther. Alex Price. George Rainsford.
Stephanie Thomas. Lizzy Watts.
“This is my first tax return. Thank you…erm for offering to… for helping. I realise it’s a bit weird. It’s just. This is…it’s the only way I can think to make it better. The only way I can think to do it. With other people. Like this.”
Award-winning Playwright-in-Residence James Grahamreunites with former Finborough Theatre Associate Director Kate Wasserberg to present a blackly comic and uniquely interactive storytelling event – a different actor, telling a story in a different order, selected at random, every single night – opening on Tuesday, 25 May 2010 (Press Night: Thursday, 27 May 2010).
Tax is really, really taxing for Ben Edwards. Self Employed. And afraid…
And now he must face his dreaded self assessment form, with every receipt evoking the good times and the bad – memories of things gone wrong, gone right, the journeys he’s been on, the relationships that have begun and ended and the people he haslost…
With each receipt drawn out at random, Ben begins to stitch together the patchwork quilt that was the Tax Year 2009/2010 –a yearthat was both hilarious and tragic, all mixed up in one shoe box of receipts.
“They’re a record of what we buy? Aren’t they? And what we buy says, you know, a lot about, you know, a lot about … who we are. What we…erm. Value. What we need.”
The Man is performed by a changing team of actors. Please see our website for the latest casting information.
First tried out as a reading in last year’s Vibrant! A Festival of Finborough Playwrights when it was performed by the playwright himself, The Man is part of Vibrant 2010 – An Anniversary Festival of Finborough Playwrights, a 30th anniversary celebration of the Finborough Theatre with thirty new works for the stage by thirty UK and international playwrights, discovered, developed or championed by the Finborough Theatre, all performed in four weeks, and featuring many premieres of brand new plays by some of the well-known playwrights who began their careers at the Finborough Theatre.
Award-winning actor Samuel Barnett’s credits include Women Beware Women (National Theatre), The Whisky Taster (Bush Theatre), When You Cure Me (Bush Theatre), Dealer’s Choice (Menier Chocolate Factory and West End), The Marriage of Figaro (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester), The Accrington Pals (Chichester Festival Theatre), The History Boys (National Theatre, International Tour and Broadway) for which he won a Drama Desk award for Best Performance for a Featured Actor in a Play, Newcomer of the Year and Best Supporting Actor at the WhatsOnStage Theatregoers Choice awards, and was nominated for an Olivier Award and a Tony Award. Television credits include Miss Marple, Beautiful People, Desperate Romantics, Crooked House, John Adams, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Coupling, Strange. Film credits include Bright Star, The History Boys, Mrs Henderson Presents.
Leander Deeny’s credits include The Representative, A Torture Comedy, part of Vibrant – A Festival of Finborough Playwrights (Finborough Theatre), Dr Faustus (Watford Palace), Victory (Arcola Theatre), Corporate Rock (Latitude), How to Beat a Giant (Unicorn Theatre), The Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare’s Globe), The Seduction of Almighty God (Riverside Studios and Birmingham Rep). Film credits include Atonement and the forthcoming Captain America.
Michelle Luther’s credits include Arden of Faversham, The Cherry Orchard, Night Must Fall, And What Now?, The Crucible, The Ballad of Megan Morgan (all Clwyd Theatr Cymru), Ker-Ching (Redbridge Drama Centre), Romeo and Juliet (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art), Crossings (Sgript Cymru). Television credits include Tracey Beaker – The Movie Of Me, Daniele Cable: Eye Witness, EastEnders, The Bench.
Alex Price’s credits include Theatre includes Bingo (Chichester Festival Theatre), Is Everyone OK? (National Tour), Colourings (Old Red Lion) and The Duchess of Malfi (National Theatre Studio). Television includes Doctor Who, Doctors, Lewis, Mouth To Mouth, Going Postal, Merlin, Being Human and Casualty. Film includes A Passionate Woman, A Horse With No Name, Clubbed and Internal. Short films include My Singing Girl, Fervour, Draft 5 and Stone Cold.
George Rainsford’s credits include Days of Significance (Royal Shakespeare Company Tour), All’s Well That Ends Well (for which he was nominated for the Ian Charleson Award) and Chatroom/Citizenship (both National Theatre), Miles to Go (Latitude), Polar Bear (Birmingham Rep), The Three Musketeers (Bristol Old Vic), Guy Fawkes Night (Old Vic), Men Without Shadows (Finborough Theatre). Television credits include Waking the Dead, Doctors. Film credits include Wild Target, Souvenirs.
Stephanie Thomas’ credits include Frost/Nixon (Gielgud Theatre), The Merchant of Venice (Greenwich Playhouse), Her Naked Skin (National Theatre), Only When I Laugh (National Tour), The Tempest (York Theatre Royal), a rehearsed reading of Millicent Scowlworthy (Donmar Warehouse), I Wish to Die Singing, The Beaver Coat, The Representative, The Northerners (Finborough Theatre). Voiceovers include The Damned United, Silent.
Lizzy Watts’ credits include My Balloon Beats Your Astronaut (Tristan Bates Theatre), Dr Faustus (Watford Palace), Eight (Ringling Festival Museum, Florida), The Exquisite Corpse (Edinburgh Festival), Artefacts (Bush Theatre), The Grizzled Skipper (Nuffield Theatre, Southampton). Television credits include Midsomer Murders and Hidden. Film credits include Sprawlers, Footsteps. Radio includes Mountain of Light, Matilda, Towards Zero, Ruminations Upon Mortality, Our Mutual Friend.
Playwright and actor James Graham is a Playwright-in-Residence at the Finborough Theatre. In 2003, James sent an unsolicited script to the Finborough Theatre and since then they have produced his Pearson Award-winning Albert’s Boy (2005), Eden’s Empire (2006), winner of the Pearson Award’s Catherine Johnson Best Play Award 2007; Little Madam (2007) on the life of Margaret Thatcher, and Sons of York (2008), named Time Out Critics’ Choice. He was also the Finborough Theatre’s nominee for the BBC’s and Royal Court’s ‘The 50’ programme (of the 50 most exciting new writers in the UK) in 2006. Since being discovered by the Finborough Theatre, he has gone on to write for the Soho Theatre (Tory Boyz), Clywd Theatr Cymru (A History of Falling Things), BBC Radio 4, ITV1 (Caught in a Trap starring Connie Fisher), and the Bush Theatre – Sudden Loss of Dignity and The Whisky Taster which opened at the Bush Theatre in January 2010 and won great critical acclaim – ***** Five Stars, The Independent and The Telegraph - as well as the forthcoming Huck (National Tour and Southwark Playhouse).
Director Kate Wasserberg is New Plays Director at Clwyd Theatr Cymru where she has directed The Glass Menagerie (Clwyd Theatr Cymru and National Tour) and James Graham’s A History of Falling Things (Clwyd Theatr Cymru and Sherman Cymru). Forthcoming directing includes Pieces by Hywel John at Clwyd Theatr Cymru in Spring 2010. Kate was previously Associate Director at the Finborough Theatre where she directed Sons of York and Little Madam, both by James Graham, and The Representative, I Wish to Die Singing and The New Morality.
Designer Fly Davis trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in Technical Theatre Arts and Stage Management and on the Motley Theatre Design Course. Recent credits include Associate Designer to John Napier on Disconnect (Royal Court Theatre Upstairs and transfer to the Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre), and Design Assistant on The Whisky Taster (Bush Theatre). As Set and Costume Designer: When the Lilac Blooms (Leicester Square Theatre), My 15 Minutes Musical (New Wimbledon Studio), Bloody Poetry, A Madman’s Confession (White Bear Theatre), The Malleables (Arcola Theatre). Forthcoming designs include The Great British Country Fete (Bush Theatre and North Wall Theatre, Oxford, Ustinov Studio, Bath, Tobacco Factory, Latitude Festival and the Drum Theatre, Plymouth). Fly has also worked as a Costume and Design Assistant for the English National Ballet at the London Coliseum, Paines Plough at the Shunt Vaults, Nabokov at the Village Underground and Punchdrunk at the BAC. She is Associate Designer to the physical theatre company Dumbshow, and is the Co-Artistic Director of Catapulting Cocoon.
Lighting Designer Tom White’s credits include Pieces, A History of Falling Things (Clwyd Theatr Cymru), Whipping It Up (West End and National Tour), Up The Cafe De Paris (New Players Theatre), Dry Sigh (The Place), Madness in Valencia (Trafalgar Studios), The Glass Menagerie (Clwyd Theatr Cymru and Welsh National Tour), Where’s My Desi Soulmate (Theatre Royal Stratford East and Tour), Turf, 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover (Bush Theatre), The Pink Bedroom (Courtyard Theatre), Poofloose with Stephen De Martin, 1 Poof and a Piano (Edinburgh Festival), Game? (Theatre 503 and UK tour), Hedda Gabler (Bulandra Theatre, Bucharest), Mozart’s Back, Emily’s Kitchen (Edinburgh Festival) Hamlet, Malvolio and His Masters (Southwark Playhouse), Deir Yassan Day (Bloomsbury Theatre), Yesterday Was a Weird Day (BAC), Cargo (Northern School of Contemporary Dance), Catching Dust (Teatro Della Contraddizione, Milan), Miss Julie, Sotoba Komachi, The Damask Drum (Greenwich Playhouse), Snapshots, Maybe Baby (Old Red Lion Theatre), A Servant Of Two Masters (New End Theatre). Opera includes La Boheme (Longborough Festival Opera), Simon Boccanegra, The Pearl Fishers (Feria De Valladollid, Spain), The Marriage Of Figaro (National Tour), The Immortal Orchestra In Concert (The Roundhouse), The Crocodile (Arcola Theatre). Musical credits include Stacey Solomon’s Homecoming Concert (Freemantle Media), Dick Whittington, Sleeping Beauty (Broadway Theatre, Barking), Alyona (Theatre am Lend, Graz, Austria) and Shola Ama in Concert (The Roundhouse), The Representative, Little Madam, Love Child, Sons of York, Weapons of Happiness (Finborough Theatre). Tom’s work has been seen in Egypt, Italy, Romania, Austria, Spain and France.Tom’s other production role credits include the BBC Electric Proms and the Paris Autoshow 2008.
The Press on James Graham and Kate Wasserberg’s previous collaborations
“One of the best new plays of the year…a real triumph for the Finborough”. British Theatre Guide on Sons of York
“A must-see event.” The Telegraph on Little Madam
“While perfect is an ominous word, this production comes as close to it as I have seen this year – an absolute must-see production.” The Western Mail on A History of Falling Things.
“Directed with verve and sensitivity by Kate Wasserberg.” Sam Marlowe, The Times, on Sons of York
PRESS NIGHT: THURSDAY, 27 MAY 2010 AT 7.30PM
PHOTOCALL: TUESDAY, 25 MAY 2010 AT 1.00PM-1.30PM
Finborough Theatre, The Finborough, 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED
Box Office 0844 847 1652 Book online at www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk
Tuesday, 25 May – Saturday, 19 June 2010
Tuesday to Saturday evenings at 7.30pm. Saturday Matinees at 3.00pm (from 5 June 2010). Sunday Matinees at 3.00pm.
Prices for Weeks 1 and 2 (25 May-6 June) – Tickets £13, £9 concessions, except Tuesday Evenings £9 all seats, and Saturday evenings £13 all seats. Previews (25 and 26 May) £9 all seats.
£5 tickets for Under 30’s for performances from Tuesday to Sunday of the first week when booked online only. £10 tickets for residents of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea on Saturday, 29 May 2010 when booked online.
Prices for Weeks 3 and 4 (8-19 June) – Tickets £15, £11 concessions, except Tuesday Evenings £11 all seats, and Saturday evenings £15 all seats.
Performance Length: 65 minutes with no interval.
CASTING SCHEDULE
WEEK ONE – 26 May-30 May 2010
Tuesday, 25 May 2010 (7.30pm) – Samuel Barnett / Lizzy Watts
Wednesday, 26 May 2010 (7.30pm) – James Graham / Lizzy Watts
Thursday, 27 May 2010 (7.30pm) – James Graham / Lizzy Watts
Friday, 28 May 2010 (7.30pm) – Samuel Barnett / Lizzy Watts
Saturday, 29 May 2010 (7.30pm) – Samuel Barnett / Lizzy Watts
Sunday, 30 May 2010 (3.00pm) – Samuel Barnett / Lizzy Watts
WEEK TWO – 1 June-6 June 2010
Tuesday, 1 June 2010 (7.30pm) – Samuel Barnett / Lizzy Watts
Wednesday, 2 June 2010 (7.30pm) – Leander Deeny / Stephanie Thomas
Thursday, 3 June 2010 (7.30pm) – Alex Price / Stephanie Thomas
Friday, 4 June 2010 (7.30pm) – Alex Price / Michelle Luther
Saturday, 5 June 2010 (3.00pm) – Alex Price / Michelle Luther
Saturday, 5 June 2010 (7.30pm) – Alex Price / Michelle Luther
Sunday, 6 June 2010 (3pm) – Leander Deeny / Stephanie Thomas
WEEK THREE – 8-13 June 2010
Tuesday, 8 June 2010 (7.30pm) – Leander Deeny / Stephanie Thomas
Wednesday, 9 June 2010 (7.30pm) – James Graham / Lizzy Watts
Thursday, 10 June 2010 (7.30pm) – Samuel Barnett / Lizzy Watts
Friday, 11 June 2010 (7.30pm) – Samuel Barnett / Lizzy Watts
Saturday, 12 June 2010 (3.00pm) – Samuel Barnett / TBA
Saturday, 12 June 2010 (7.30pm) – James Graham / Lizzy Watts
Sunday, 13 June 2010 (3pm) – Alex Price / Stephanie Thomas
WEEK FOUR – 15-19 June 2010
Tuesday, 15 June 2010 (7.30pm) – George Rainsford / Michelle Luther
Wednesday, 16 June 2010 (7.30pm) – George Rainsford / Michelle Luther
Thursday, 17 June 2010 (7.30pm) – Alex Price / Stephanie Thomas
Friday, 18 June 2010 (7.30pm) – James Graham / Lizzy Watts
Saturday, 19 June 2010 (3.00pm) – George Rainsford / Michelle Luther
Saturday, 19 June 2010 (7.30pm) – Samuel Barnett / TBA
For more information, interviews and images, please contact
Neil McPherson on e-mail or 07977 173135 or
Susie Safavi on e-mail or 07875277913
Press releases and images to download are available at 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.