The Remains of the Day musical by Alex Loveless

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Best Theatre This Month (September 2010) - Time Out

Evening Standard Review:

Songs for English reserve in The Remains of the Day

By Fiona Mountford

03.09.10

A cursory glance at The Remains of the Day, a novel of subtlety and nuance, would suggest it is an unlikely candidate to be turned into a musical, a genre that often over-emphasises the obvious. Kazuo Ishiguro’s masterful study of quintessential English reserve in the first half of the last century, turned into a magnificent Merchant Ivory film starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson, doesn’t exactly beg to have songs inserted. Yet from such seemingly unpromising source material Alex Loveless has crafted a sophisticated piece of musical theatre.

A strong sense of magisterial Darlington Hall, home of a Nazi-sympathising lord and place of work for butler Mr Stevens (Stephen Rashbrook) and housekeeper Miss Kenton (Lucy Bradshaw) is skilfully evoked in the small playing space, and director Chris Loveless captures the milieu perfectly via maids whispering in corners. The central thrust of the narrative is the years-long non-romance between the central characters, due to the obsessively decorous Stevens putting “service” before any vestige of a personal life.

Rashbrook gives a marvellously restrained performance that hints at the unexplored depths of Stevens’s soul and he and Bradshaw, plus a top-notch ensemble, make easy work of the songs, many of which have a solemn and hymn-like feel. It’s not all gloom, though, with the frothy music hall number The End of the Pier to lighten the mood. A canny West End producer could do far worse than to tweak this fine show for a transfer.

Until September 25. Information: 020 7261 9876, uniontheatre.biz

Blanche Marvin's London Theatreviews

It may be a tiny theatre but it has a giant production in this programme. It is a play with music taken from the subtle and sensitive book that was made into the most heart rending film starring Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins.

Does such a delicate story sustain the transition…absolutely. The set is amazingly captivating using the space to recreate rooms in the stately home of Darlington Hall that are not just a box set. The cast are all hand picked in both their acting singing and dancing. The adaptation flows sustaining the mood of the times with music that is melodic in its songs yet lively enough for the dancing and jolly enough in the music hall rendition of The End of the Pier. It is all woven together in fluid strokes. The staging is inventive, abounding with whispering servants and the lovers that never come to be… Stephen Rashbrook as Stevens, Lucy Bradshaw as Miss Kenton…could not be bettered in the West End.

It is a gem…a jewel… that shines its light and lingers on. The story centres on Lord Darlington, a Nazi sympathizer who held his political meetings at Darlington Hall. The English formality and reserve as epitomised by the butler Stevens freezes him from shedding tears upon his father’s death or opening his heart to the housekeeper Mrs Kenton. His deep sense of loyalty, putting service before his personal feelings, being more a part of Darlington Hall than part of a marriage leads him into a loneliness never counted upon as the times change. Lord Darlington is forced to sell the estate and Mr Farraday, an American without English tradition, takes over leaving Stevens serving in a world he no longer knows. And yet he cannot commit himself to Mrs Kenton when the door is opened to him. It is a quiet tragedy of two misplaced lovers surrounded by the vitality of the young servants who effervesce with life. The soul of Stevens is touched by life but never lived. Hats off to this accomplished company and to the Union Theatre…Import, import and export to the West End, Lincoln Center, BAM, Kennedy Center, etc.
September 1-25/10

Review of 'The Remains of the Day Musical' by Bernie Whelan for EXTRA! EXTRA!

It was difficult, at first, to accept the idea of Kazuo Ishiguro's wonderful book as a musical. The Merchant Ivory film was as close to the book as I imagined it was possible to get, with Anthony Hopkins making the role of the quintessential butler, Stevens, very much his own among a brilliant cast. Yet the key theme of declining British hegemony, as played out in Darlington Hall at key moments just before the Second World War in 1935, looking back through the eyes of Stevens (Stephen Rashbrook), from around the time of the Suez Crisis in the 1950s, is rendered perfectly on stage in this musical production.

The complexities of the political machinations of 'gentlemen amateurs' like Lord Darlington (Alan Vicary), who seeks to forge European alliances with the Nazis, is, yes I know it's hard to believe, sung in thrilling ensembles such as 'The French' in Act I and 'Democracy' in Act II. The American challenger Mr Lewis/Mr Farraday (Reuben Kaye) becomes Stevens' master at Darlington Hall, just as the Americans take the lead as world superpower from the British after the Suez Crisis, and sings 'Divide and Rule' to the gathered European politicians, taking on the tactics which allowed Britain to remain world leader for so long.

A combination of dramatic dialogue, singing, and dancing brought the characters to life with an emotional subtlety that bewitched the audience in the Union Theatre. Miss Kenton (Lucy Bradshaw) is a fine singer, and brought real depth and intensity to the part of Stevens' thwarted housekeeper. When Stevens follows Lord Darlington's directive to dismiss the two Jewish servants in the household, Miss Kenton's argument on their behalf and their leave-taking in 'Close Your Eyes' is really moving, and beautifully sung by Gemma Salter and Katia Sartini as Sarah and Ruth.

However, the star is Stephen Rashbrook for his singing, dancing and at all times, utterly composed Stevens. The scenes between Stevens and his dying father, played by Dudley Rogers, were all the more affecting for the emotional reserve both actors conveyed so powerfully. I imagine this is no mean feat among a cast of incredibly professional and accomplished singers and dancers who filled the stage with all the verve and panache expected of any musical.

The set, designed by David Shields, marvellously conveyed the changing scenes in Darlington Hall and the Cornish seaside town where Stevens visits Miss Kenton, now Mrs Benn. The music, composed by Alex Loveless, was divine and worthy of attendance by itself. Richard Bates deserves credit for the wonderful dance and vocal arrangements. I particularly enjoyed 'The End of the Pier' which evoked a 1950’s British 'naughty but nice' nostalgia with the girls dancing and singing in tiny sailor suits.

This really was a surprise for me. I didn't expect a work of such understated quality to be rendered well in a musical but it was a true success. An all singing, all dancing Remains of the Day seemed a questionable enterprise, but I enjoyed every moment of it and left excitedly discussing new angles of a book and film I had thought it would be impossible to improve on. However, new wine in old bottles can sometimes be a very good thing.

THE REMAINS OF THE DAY Autumn 2010 - MUSICAL STAGES

Union Theatre, SE1 OPENED 2 SEPTEMBER

Kazuo Ishiguro wrote a Booker Prize-winning novel around the servants of Darlington Hall, home to Lord Darlington and the scene of a post-war scandal that destroyed his reputation.
We are more concerned, here, with the upright and impeccable butler, Stevens, who has been in Lord Darlington's employ for many years and is convinced his master can do no wrong. We first meet him in 1956, working for the new owner of the Hall, Mr Farraday, a wealthy American of considerably less formality. Mr Farraday offers Stevens a holiday, since he will be away himself, plus the use of his car.

Stevens decides to visit his old colleague with the excuse that her letters sound sad, despite her marriage, and begins to think back to the earlier days when Darlington Hall was run like a machine with a full staff. The story is told in Flashbacks with scenes as Stevens remembers them, so possibly sometimes inaccurate.

"their relationship is frozen in formality"

Into this household came a new housekeeper, Miss Kenton, who liked to do things her way and accordingly, Stevens finds fault and attempts to correct her in polite and formal language. However, this has no effect on Miss Kenton who equally politely and equally formally, fights back. Their exchanges are often very funny but their relationship is frozen in formality despite the heat beneath.

Upstairs, Lord Darlington has involved himself in politics and become a Nazi sympathiser. He tells Stevens that the two Jewish maids will have to be sacked and despite Miss Kenton's fervent protestations and disgust, this goes ahead. The scene where the two girls, Ruth and Sarah, leave is poignant in the extreme and their song, 'Close Your Eyes' is deeply moving.

With the exception of'A Day That Will Never Come'which has additional lyrics by Stephen Rashbrook and 'At the End of the Pier; a comedy number which has music and lyrics by musical director, Richard Bates, the entire book, music and lyrics is credited to the young (and extremely gifted) composer Alex Loveless. A previous piece covered in our magazine was his very successful Dracula which will be seen again.

- Lynda Trapnell

Review of The Remains of the Day by Peter Carrington for remotegoat

"Expect tugging of heart strings"

One might be forgiven for hesitating to see a musical version of the celebrated novel The Remains of the Day but this production, like a well-kept house, handles each and every aspect skillfully and is deserving of praise.

To be successful in producing effective musical theatre many elements must come together successfully. To begin with, the Union Theatre is not a huge venue, but in portraying the vast Darlington Hall it is used well, impressively evoking the stately home's grandeur and size. This is coupled with a skillful use of lighting throughout to show the journey taken. Within the set, all cast are costumed very well in understated ways completing the image of the 1920s to 1930s.

The audience are transported via this setting to Darlington Hall, home of Lord Darlington where the tense relationship between Mr Stevens the Butler and Miss Kenton, the Housekeeper happens behind the scenes of important discussions on the economics and politics of Europe. The historical grounding (though largely fictional) is well grounded and the interesting time is handled unpretentiously by Loveless's script and lyrics.

Within this setting we find a strong cast, none shying from their songs, though some voices are stronger than others. Lucy Bradshaw plays Miss Kenton, the passionate housekeeper who initially clashes with the Butler but in her quiet movements and looks betray much more. Lucy Bradshaw also plays well against Stephen Rashbrook as Mr Stevens the butler and lead of the show. Both convey the depth of emotion in a short space of time and with all the same subtlety of the time period. Together they are both halves of the heart of the play and are what keeps the audience involved.

Christopher Bartlett as Reginald ably handles what is not an easy role, neither fully comic relief nor naīve hero. Reuben Kaye makes a strong musical debut as Mr Lewis, a conniving American.

One of the other essentials of successful musical theatre are the Ensemble and this cast of talented and skilled actors and actresses push the roof off this production.

Finally, no musical theatre would be complete without the music and musicians themselves. Those gathered for this are superb, subtle when needed and soaring with the anthems of the show. It is therefore this skillful blend of all the essential elements that means The Remains of the day tugs at the heartstrings with such strength that one wishes this was staged in a larger space, with more people able to experience it.

Review by Helena Rampley for What’s On Stage

It’s somewhat surprising that writer and composer Alex Loveless decided to turn Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day into a musical. What’s even more surprising is that, by and large, his radical transformation of this story works… the songs are almost always well-integrated, intelligently written, and subtly performed.

A sense of distant opulence is created by David Shields’ sombre coloured set, and the small space of the Union helps capture the mood of claustrophobic suspicion and uncertainty.

Dilemmas of duty are fought by Stevens the butler and Miss Kenton the housekeeper, and the uneasy partnership between servitude and sterility is movingly portrayed by Stephen Rashbrook and Lucy Bradshaw. Never guilty of over-singing, their vocal control and contained style of singing poignantly reflect the social constraints placed upon their passion.

Although Loveless’ adaptation does not quite pack what we feel is its potential punch, it does suggest a wealth of potential.

CLASSICAL SOURCE review of ‘The Remains of the Day’ – Michael Darvell

The film version of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Booker Prize-winning novel “The Remains of the Day” was nominated for eight Academy Awards. It won a BAFTA Award for Best Direction by James Ivory. A much-loved book, a well-received film, but does it need to be made into a musical? One could ask that question about any book or play that becomes a film, but then the film industry has long-relied on popular works of literature and the theatre as a source for its bread-and-butter productions. The thinking must be that what works in one medium must work again in another and on many occasions it has been true. English dramatist John Cornford’s 1835 farce “A Day Well Spent” was re-written by Austrian playwright Johann Nestroy in 1842 which American writer Thornton Wilder then adapted in 1938 as “The Merchant of Yonkers”, but it flopped first time around. Seventeen years later Wilder wrote a new version called “The Matchmaker” for actress Ruth Gordon and it was a huge hit. Hollywood filmed it in 1958 with Shirley Booth, and Jerry Herman took it up again as the basis of his stage musical “Hello, Dolly!” for Carol Channing, and it was another massive hit. Gene Kelly directed the film version with Barbra Streisand in 1969 but it was not an immediate success because it had cost too much to make. After that Tom Stoppard took the original story for his farce “On the Razzle” which was staged at the National Theatre. So, what goes around, comes around… again and again and again.

One could hardly disapprove of all these various versions of the same story because most of them were successful on their own level. By that token then it is good to welcome a musical version of “The Remains of the Day”, perhaps because it doesn’t ruin one’s recollections of the book or the film. Adding the songs in the way that Alex Loveless has done help the story along mainly in a through-composed way that explains both the thoughts and emotions of the characters involved. It succeeds where a similar piece like Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Aspects of Love” doesn’t. The lyrics in “The Remains of the Day” are not banal but are still conversational in the way that Stephen Sondheim writes in, say, “Company”, “Assassins” or “Sweeney Todd”.

The main action of “The Remains of the Day” is set between the two World Wars, although the story is told in flashback from the 1950s as Stevens, once devoted butler to the late Lord Darlington but now with Mr Farraday, a wealthy, brash American employer, who has bought Darlington Hall. Stevens receives a letter from Miss Kenton, his former housekeeper some twenty years before at the Hall, which hints at an unhappy marriage. When Farraday tells Stevens to take a motoring holiday in his car, he decides to visit Miss Kenton (now Mrs Benn) on the pretext of re-employing her at Darlington Hall. When they worked together they kept their relationship on a purely professional level, even though they obviously both had feelings for each other, feelings that could never be expressed at the time.

The portrait of Stevens is of a man so buttoned-up emotionally and obsessed with his work that he cannot let anything else into his life. Every task must be carried out with dignity, nothing must impinge on the job at hand, the public front of propriety is all-important and there must be nothing unseemly or strange to upset the work to be done at Darlington Hall. This attitude makes him ignore what is going on around him. He unquestioningly supports Lord Darlington and refuses to even think about his employer’s support of people like Oswald Mosley and his support for anti-Semitism, considering it to be none of his business. His business is to keep Darlington Hall running smoothly. His blindness to Darlington’s politics and his refusal to accept any form of romantic approach from Miss Kenton or anybody else may make him a good employee but less of a man. Stevens’s motoring trip allows him to evaluate his life but by then it is too late. Miss Kenton has grown to love her husband after all, which leaves Stevens ultimately alone, thinking not only about the remains of the day, this day, but also about the remains of his life.

The songs, a mixture of lively music and more contemplative ballads, set the scene well and provide a suitable atmosphere for the narrative. Scored for woodwind and strings, it has a delightfully plangent quality in Rowland Lee’s arrangements. David Shields’s settings and Chris Lince’s lighting evoke the darkness of Darlington Hall, a place steeped in repression. Darlington cannot even bring himself to tell his son ‘the facts of life’ and asks Stevens, of all people, to do the job for him, but it’s the one task the butler cannot fulfil. The ambience at the Hall is one that Stevens totally ignores even to accepting unquestioningly when Darlington tells him to dismiss two of his staff who happen to be Jewish. It is not only Stevens who is devoid of feelings, even anti-Jewish ones, for he makes his whole world a place of emotional desolation.

Steven Rashbrook is excellent at creating a man with little or no soul who would rather die than experience embarrassment, who shuts people out if they are going to upset his working routine, ignoring their feelings in the process. Lucy Bradshaw as Miss Kenton tries to fight her way through the barrier that prevents Stevens from being a fallible human being. The actress gives the part a nicely honed edge and, perhaps surprisingly in the context of the plot, creates a believable relationship. A good supporting cast double-up in various roles including Alan Vicary as Lord Darlington, Christopher Bartlett as his son Reginald, and Dudley Rogers as Stevens’s father. Omar F. Okai’s choreography helps to establish the period feel of the piece and Chris Loveless’s unfussy direction lets the cast and the text get to the heart of the matter. It is in essence a charming piece, subtly and movingly played without making it at all overwrought. It is not often that new musicals are instantly successful. “The Remains of the Day” seems to be an exception that works from first word to last.

IRISH WORLD review by Rebecca Sheppard

A novel renowned for its depiction of quintessential, English reserve, Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day seems an unlikely choice for an adaptation into a buoyant musical. Still, let us not forget that, once upon a time, people voiced similar concerns about the impending transformation of Victor Hugo’s epic novel, Les Miserables.

Set in the first half of the 20th century, The Remains of the Day tells the story of Mr Stevens (Stephen Rashbrook), an English butler, who exclusively preoccupies himself with attending to Lord Darlington (Alan Vicary) and his residence at Darlington Hall.

So utterly dedicated is Stevens to his role as butler, he becomes blind to both the Nazi-leaning sympathies of his employer, as well as the charmingly awkward intimacy that slowly develops between him and his assistant housekeeper, Miss Kenton (Lucy Bradshaw).

Alex Loveless has concocted a recipe of delicious songs, which could certainly fare well as a studio-recorded soundtrack. For example, the starkly entitled number, The French, immediately conjures up the required notion of stiff, upper-lipped Englishness, which is preceded beautifully by the gorgeous, string-drenched melody The Remains of the Day.

The lyrics of the song, sung by Stevens towards the close of the play, finally expose the haunting undercurrent that pervades throughout, even during rare moments of levity. Equally, one could not fail to be impressed by Miss Kenton’s enchanting delivery of The Way That Once We Were.

Although some of the songs occasionally risk veering into sentimentality, most notably when Stevens and his father unite in the wistful When the Night is Darkest, the characters hold back just enough to stay faithful to the reticence and quiet dignity of the novel’s original characters. Director, Chris Loveless, manages to exploit every corner of the fringe theatre to evoke the grandeur of the hall and the gossiping of its inhabitants.

Needless to say, a transfer to the majestic West End stage could only do a service to this already distinguished production, even if the atmospheric sound of the trains rattling overheard would perhaps be lamented. PDF

Review by Naima Khan for Spoonfed

An innovative, fringe musical…

There are possibly too many ways of looking at a production like The Remains of the Day by Chris Loveless at Union Theatre. This musical, based on the sombre Kazuo Ishiguro novel of the same name, will split crowds and critics, as should the best of theatre.

If you come at it from a literary angle, hell-bent on comparing it to the book, you'll lose out. The production deserves to be regarded in its own right. Sure enough, Loveless, who is making a fine name for himself on the fringe circuit, has used the novel as a springboard for a multitude of his own ideas, and they're great ideas…

The story follows Stevens, the fiercely disciplined butler of Darlington Hall. Endlessly committed to Lord Darlington, Stevens, a stupendously controlled Stephen Rashbrook, finds himself at an all-time low when his employer passes away and the estate is taken over by the American Mr Farraday (Reuben Kaye). Convinced his woes are down to a lack of staff, he plans to meet up with the former housekeeper Miss Kenton, the politely bold Lucy Bradshaw. Though the ensemble scenes in this musical are well thought-out, Loveless has created a musical that celebrates the individuality of each character, as proved by the memorable scenes between Bradshaw and Rashbrook…

Its darker parts are the best, but its more frivolous scenes highlight the limitations of Union Theatre. Though one of my favourite fringe venues in London, The Remains of the Day could go bigger and louder and still maintain that sweet darkness that pervades the text.

Go see it for a display of the many talents of this young company… their performances hold their audience, and they sure can sing.

Cast

Christopher Bartlett as Reginald

Christopher trained at London School of Musical Theatre. London credits include: Newsrevue (Canal Cafe Theatre, 09/10) and Christmas In New York (Apollo).

Touring/regional theatre includes: Ensemble/played Judas in Godspell (UK tour), Dandini in Cinderella (Harlequin, Redhill), Dick in Dick Whittington and Silly Billy in Mother Goose (Hurricane Theatre), Street child in Carmen (WNO).

Fringe theatre: Bullet in Sitting Ducks (Sitcom mission, New Diorama), Demitrius in Shakespeare for Breakfast (Edinburgh Fringe), React! Impro for kids (Edinburgh Fringe).

TV includes: Casualty, Doctors and Titty Bang Bang (BBC), Teachers (C4). Christopher will be appearing as Simple Simon in Jack and the Beanstalk, at the Millfield Arts Centre this Christmas.

Adrian Beaumont as Sir David

Trained at Central. West End credits include: King (Piccadilly), Cain in Children of Eden (Prince Edward) Wil Scarlet in Robin of Sherwood (tour and Piccadilly), Carousel (Shaftesbury), Leonardo (Strand) and Grantaire in Les Miserables (Palace).

Tours include Magaldi in Evita, The Plant in Little Shop of Horrors, Dad in Saturday Night Fever.

Provincial theatre includes: Jack & the Beanstalk; Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, playing Pharaoh at the Little Theatre, Middlesbrough; Follow The Star (Chichester); Bill Sykes in Oliver, Genting Highlands Malaysia; Abanazer/Genie in Aladdin, Kilcaldy, Radlett and John Rhodes Centre, Bishops Stortford.

Fringe credits include: Zengara in Assassins (New End, Hampstead), Hogarth in Hogarth (Bridewell) and Broadway in the Shadows (Luxembourg and Arcola). Numerous bills at The Late Joys (Players Theatre)

Television credits include: The Bill (twice), and film credits include the role of Simon in The Sea Change (Dir. Michael Bray).

Hannah Bingham as Florence and Ensemble

Trained at Arts Ed. West End credits include: Featured Ensemble in the 48 hour Showtime Challenge: Crazy for You (London Palladium).

Concerts include: Barbara Cook and Friends (London Coliseum, conducted by Gareth Valentine), Featured Soloist/Petra in Simply Sondheim: Good Thing Going (Cadogan Hall, conducted by David Firman).

Fringe credits include: Understudy Fromme in Assassins (Union Theatre), Understudy Johanna in Sweeney Todd (Union Theatre), Sigma Bracebridge in Nightingale: A Tale of Love and War (Posk Theatre), Holly in Tickledom (Upstairs at the Gatehouse).

Film credits include Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll (Dir. Matt Whitecross).

Lucy Bradshaw as Miss Kenton

Lucy trained at Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, winning the Cameron Mackintosh Award.

Lucy is thrilled to be playing the part of Miss Kenton in The Remains of the Day, her first role after the birth of her son.

She began her career creating/playing roles such as Cathy in the original musical play Whistle Down the Wind for the NYMT, Meg the pirate and the infamous Lucy Lockit in The Beggars Opera. Theatre/TV includes Merrily We Roll Along (Donmar Warehouse), Noel and Gertie (Salisbury Playhouse), New Boy (Pleasance Theatre, Edinburgh), Procession of Shades (Chanticleer Theatre), Merrily We Roll Along, Oct 2010 (Queens Theatre), Argos commercial (Smugglers).

Lucy is CEO of Little Hands Theatre School in East London - teaching, writing and composing for young children.

www.littlehandstheatre.co.uk

Sophie Juge as Mrs Taylor and Ensemble

Sophie trained at Elmhurst Ballet School and the London School of Musical Theatre.

Theatre credits include: Nurse/Ensemble/piano/violin in Anyone Can Whistle (Jermyn Street); Gladys in The Pyjama Game (Ye Olde Rose and Crown); Miranda Ferrari in A Comedy of Arias (New Ambassador’s Theatre, Jermyn Street, Edinburgh Fringe); Hermione in Missing (Diorama); Sophie in 100 (Camberley Theatre); Woman 1 in Closer Than Ever (Jermyn Street, Edinburgh Fringe); Eliza de Feuillide in JANE The Musical (Artrix Theatre, Birmingham); Ensemble in Living on an Island (Talk of London); Grace/Swan/Dot in Honk! (Oxford Studio Theatre); Ruby in Dames at Sea (Prince Regent Theatre); title role in The Little Matchgirl (Gainsborough Theatre); Doris/Dance Captain in Jack and the Beanstalk (Lincoln); Little Pig in The Tail of the Big Bad Wolf (Boxmoor Playhouse).

Original cast recordings include Eliza de Feuillide - JANE The Musical and Benedicte - A Song For Europe. Sophie is also an accomplished classical musician with an LRSM in piano, having worked as an accompanist mainly on TV, and as a vocal arranger to recording artistes.

In her spare time, Sophie runs a ladies choir in Marlow and produces shows supporting charities in her area.

www.sophiejuge.net

Reuben Kaye as Mr Lewis and Mr Farraday

Reuben Kaye is very proud to be making his London Music Theatre debut in The Remains of the Day.

An Australian by birth, Reuben has just moved from his home town of Melbourne. After graduating from VCA (BA Music Theatre), Reuben has worked tirelessly throughout Australia in music theatre, cabaret, stand-up and straight theatre. His debut one man show Reuben Kaye is Out of Line won him the 2006 ‘Under Our Wing Touring Award’ from The Butterfly Club, resulting in tours to the Melbourne International Comedy Fest, Hobart Comedy Fest and Melbourne Cabaret Fest.

An award-winning cabaret artist in Australia, Reuben recently made his London cabaret debut at the now closed Pizza on the Park. The closing of Pizza on the Park had nothing to do with his performance.

Theatre: Brilliant Traces, Romeo & Juliet, Richard III, Genre Bender (State Theatre), Russian Bride (State Theatre), Silly Season (Alexander Theatre), Sweeney Todd (Union Theatre), Boxed In (workshop), Baby The Musical (Federation Hall), Superfreaks (National Tour), Wishful Thinking, Knight On A Bike (workshop), Factor (workshop), Another Day In Vienna (workshop), Wasted Underground (45 Downstairs).

Cabaret: Reuben Kaye is Out Of Line, Fa La LA!, Be A Little Less Stupid, Behind Closed Doors, Midsumma Nights ’07 '08 '09, Reuben Krum and Karin Muznieks are your Christmas Spread, Reuben Kaye is Going To The Dogs and Mayhem Cabaret (Green Room nomination for best contribution to cabaret).

Stephen Rashbrook as Stevens

Stephen Rashbrook trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and then joined the Royal Shakespeare Company to play Sebastian in Twelfth Night, also appearing in Othello, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Julius Caesar, The Knight of the Burning Pestle, Peter Pan, and the original award-winning production of Nicholas Nickleby, directed by Trevor Nunn and John Caird, which played in London and on Broadway.

West End theatre includes Hamlet directed by Jonathan Miller, Alan Bennett’s Forty Years On and The Lady in the Van.

His work at the National Theatre includes Hamlet directed by Richard Eyre, Luther directed by Peter Gill and The Winter’s Tale directed by Nick Hytner.

Since 2005, Stephen has appeared as Frank Sinatra in The Ratpack Live From Las Vegas at the Strand, Savoy and Adelphi Theatres as well as on tour in Europe, Scandinavia and the US. Other recent work includes Don Pedro, Friar Francis and Ursula in Much Ado About Nothing (US tour). He last appeared at the Union Theatre as Judge Turpin in Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, directed by Sasha Regan.

TV credits includes forty episodes of Emmerdale as Rev. Tony Charlton, Doctors, Powers, New Tricks, A Touch of Frost, My Dad’s the Prime Minister, Urban Gothic, Dream Team, Allo Allo and Grange Hill.

Other music theatre credits include the Sound of Music
(Belgrade, Coventry) Robert and Elizabeth (Chichester Festival), two seasons as Associate Director at the D’Oyly Carte on Die Fledermaus, La Vie Parisienne, The Mikado and HMS Pinafore. He has worked extensively for BBC Radio both freelance and as a member of the Radio Drama Company and the BBC World Service. His voice is frequently heard as the narrator on many TV documentaries including Station X, Hunter Hunted, The Lost Evidence and Hitler’s Children.

Dudley Rogers as Stevens Senior and Man on Pier

Dudley trained at the Guildhall School where he won the Characterisation Prize, and since then has had a varied and happy career in all branches of show-business.

He has appeared in four West End musicals, including the original productions of Fiddler On The Roof and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, along with Blood Brothers, Oliver (Fagin) and Godspell (his particular favourites).

His repertory work includes seasons at Chester, Colchester, Crewe and Milford Haven, playing a wide range of parts such as Canon Throbbing in Habeus Corpus and Eric Younglove in Privates on Parade.

He played Dr. Wheedon in the national tour of Beyond Reasonable Doubt, joined Miss Watson`s Music Hall at the Watermill Theatre, Newbury, and went on to play Mr Allworthy in the tour of Tom Jones.

He is no stranger to panto, either, and loves playing Dame. He has also sailed round the world three times as a member of the Stadium Theatre Company on board S.S. Canberra, and has many TV and film appearances to his credit.

Dudley is still recognised as the interviewer from hell in the Bacardi Breezer commercial.

Gemma Salter as Sarah and Ensemble

Gemma left the Italia Conti Academy of Dramatic Arts in 2008 with a BA Hons in Acting. Since then, she has appeared in many productions on stage and screen. These include: Julie in Ray Davies’ Come Dancing (Theatre Royal, Stratford East), Arrabella in Hansel and Gretel (Theatre Royal, Stratford East), Kathleen Cook in Rock and Chips for the BBC, Shiraz Bailey Wood in Diary of a Chav (Tristan Bates Theatre), Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Brentwood Theatre).

Gemma was also a soloist in the recent ‘Voices for a Better World’ charity concert License to Thrill, singing to over 10,000 people at the O2 Arena, and she is the co-producer of The Royal Knees Up cabaret evenings at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East. Gemma is delighted to be a part of this production.

Katia Sartini as Ruth and Ensemble

Katia graduated from SLP College Leeds, also gaining her Licentiate Teaching qualification with the London College of Music.

Credits include: Stars Falling, a new British musical (The Key Theatre), Wicked Lips (Battersea Barge), Unknown Destination (Battersea Barge), Trouble, the Musical (Saving Grace Productions), Gotta Sing! (Voicebox Productions), Gala Evening of Song (Casting Couch Productions, UK tour), Love Central (Scottish tour), Chariot (workshop), Cinderella (Carriageworks Theatre, Leeds) and has performed as a lead singer in five seasons of The Good ol' Days at City Varieties in Leeds.

Amongst Stage shows, Katia has also sung in various bands and has performed gigs around the UK. Katia is also a keen musician and plays piano, flute and piccolo to an advanced standard. Katia is thrilled to be involved in The Remains of the Day and is excited to be working with such a talented cast, and would like to thank her amazing family and friends for their continuous love and support!

Leejay Townsend as Monsieur Dupont

Leejay trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts and graduated in 2008.

Before training, Leejay toured internationally with his own cabaret show, as well as releasing a dance single which enjoyed modest success both in the UK and abroad.

Since training, Leejay has built up a credible CV of plays and musicals. These include the European premiere of Errol Bray’s The Choir (Above the Stag Theatre), the London premiere of Reefer Madness (The Bridewell), Clouds (The Bridewell), Election Idol (The Brighthelm Centre, Brighton).

Leejay was hailed “the star of the show“ by Whatsonstage.com for his performance as the cat in Honk! (George Square – Edinburgh Fringe Festival). Most recently, Leejay was seen in Vavoom! The Story of a Showgirl (The Courtyard Theatre).

For more information on Leejay check out his website
www.Leejay.co.uk

Alan Vicary as Lord Darlington

Alan was born in Perth, Scotland and trained at RSAMD, Glasgow.

Theatre credits include Oliver!, Amadeus, Piaf, An Inspector Calls, The Mikado, And Then There Were None, She Loves Me (Perth Theatre); The Duchess Of Malfi (Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh); The Innocent (Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh); Twelfth Night, Of Mice And Men, The Merchant Of Venice, The Lass Wi’ The Muckle Mou’ (Brunton Theatre Co., Musselburgh); Carousel (Chichester Festival Theatre); A Wee Touch O’ Class, The Thrie Estaitis, The Big Window, Night Sky (Edinburgh Festival); The Parson’s Pirates (Opera Della Luna) and many tours including his own one man show, Being Frank with First Base Theatre.

West End and other credits include: Me And My Girl (Adelphi Theatre); Brigadoon (Victoria Palace Theatre); Les Miserables (Palace Theatre - where he understudied and played both the male leads, Jean Valjean and Javert); The Phantom Of The Opera (national tour and Her Majesty’s Theatre - playing M. Andre and understudying the role of the Phantom); Kiss Me Kate (Victoria Palace Theatre); Mary Poppins (Bristol Hippodrome and Prince Edward Theatre); The Sound Of Music (The London Palladium - played Herr Zeller and understudied and played Max Detwieller; Gone With The Wind (New London Theatre); Carousel (Savoy Theatre, playing Mr Snow).

In 2009 Alan made his National Theatre debut in The Power Of Yes by David Hare in the Lyttelton Theatre. He has just finished working as Resident Director on The Fantasticks (The Duchess Theatre).

Rebecca Whitbread as Dorothy and Ensemble

Rebecca trained at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Her acting credits include Gifted (White Bear), The Audition (Greenwich Playhouse), Winter (tour with Forest Forge Theatre Company), Pulse (short film directed by Tommaso Paino), Goodbye (short film directed by Richard Cosgrove) and various readings and short devised projects.

She is currently filming a feature film, Simple Things, in which she plays the lead. She is in the process of establishing her own theatre company, with which she is currently working on a site-specific piece, to be performed in London parks.

She writes plays and prose, and is involved in various blues and jazz music projects, in which she sings.

Creative Team

Richard Bates

Musical Director

As Musical Director: Tick Tick…BOOM! (Union Theatre), From the Ritz to the Anchor & Crown (Noel Coward Society), A Night At The Music Hall (both Canal Café Theatre), Oh No It Isn’t (Union Theatre), Little Fish (European Premiere, Finborough Theatre), Fairystories (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane), NewsRevue (2008 & 09 seasons, Canal Café Theatre), Edges (UK Premiere), It’s Behind You (both Union Theatre), Assassins (Landor Theatre), Wonderboy (Nitro Centre), Pride & Prejudice, the Pantomime (Vanbrugh Theatre, RADA), Sweeney Todd (Edinburgh Festival), as well as Too Darn Hot: A Night at the Musicals, Marry Me A Little, The Threepenny Opera and Bugsy Malone. Richard also serves as musical director for James Haslam’s cabaret performances.

As composer/lyricist, he is currently working on a new musical Animate, which is scheduled for a workshop-reading in London’s West End at the start of 2011. He wrote music and lyrics for Treasure Island (2008) and Stagefright (2005), and music for Oh No It Isn’t (2009) and A Cabaret of Menace (2006). He made new orchestrations for Little Fish and Assassins, and contributed vocal arrangements to It’s Behind You and Wonderboy. He holds the MA in Music from Cambridge University and the AMusTCL diploma in music.

Poppy Ben-David

Co Producer

Poppy Ben-David trained at The Royal Ballet School and was the recipient of the Ursula Moreton, James Monahan and Ninette de Valois Awards for Choreography. As a choreographer, she created five professional works including Siren Song for the Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House and Gabriel’s Poem for The Birmingham Royal Ballet. In 2002, she won the Deutsche Bank Pyramid Award for Entrepreneurs and began producing dance works for Ballet Central’s National Tour. In 2005, Poppy stopped working as a choreographer and focused on production. As a producer, Poppy produced Sweeney Todd for the Union Theatre, November 2008. She was also Associate Producer on the all male Mikado at the Union Theatre in July 2008 and producer of the sell out Magic to Cry For season at the Canal Café Theatre 2008. Poppy also produced A Day of Magic at the Arcola Theatre, 2008. In 2009, Poppy produced Piff the Magic Dragon’s debut record breaking Edinburgh show Piff-tacular as well as The Falsetto which premiered at the King’s Head Theatre March 2009 and was performed at Musicals at George Square during Edinburgh 2009.

Between 2007 and 2009, Poppy worked for the production team at Ambassador Theatre Group. Productions included Matthew Bourne’s Nutcracker, Guys and Dolls, The Rocky Horror Show, Elling, Fat Pig, West Side Story, The Lover & The Collection and Noises Off. Poppy has also worked for Rambert Dance Company, Birmingham Hippodrome, Jongleurs, The Bush Theatre, The Corner Shop PR and The Society of London Theatre.

In December 2008, Poppy was awarded the Stage One New Producer's Bursary and currently works as Assistant Producer for Sweet Pea Productions. Productions whilst there have included The Misanthrope, starring Keira Knightly and Damian Lewis.

Simon James Collier

Producer

Simon is CEO and Co-Founder of the noted Okai Collier Company and has produced and been the creative director on over fifty plays and musicals in London, throughout the United Kingdom and Europe. These include Oliver Twist & Supernatural (Lion & Unicorn Theatre, London); Love Horse (White Bear); Collision (also directed • Hackney Empire); Normal (Tobacco Factory, Bristol); Moonshadow (Time Out Critics’ Choice, White Bear); In His Hands (Hackney Empire/Oxford House); The Smilin’ State (Hackney Empire); Dracula (White Bear); Hedwig and The Angry Inch (K52 Theatre, Frankfurt); A Mother Speaks (Hackney Empire/New Wolsey, Ipswich/The Drum, Birmingham); The Dorchester (Jermyn Street); The Last Session (Hackney Empire); My Matisse (Jermyn Street); Shiny Happy People, with Victoria Wood (Hornchurch Theatre); Passion (Bridewell); A… My Name Is Alice (Bridewell); Whole Lotta Shakin’ (Belgrade, Coventry); Great Balls Of Fire (Cambridge Theatre, West End); A Wrongful Execution (also directed • Hackney Empire); Spooky Noises (also book & co lyrics • Merlin Theatre); Countess & Cabbages (also book • Merlin Theatre); Preacherosity (Jermyn Street); Purlie (nominated for 4 What’s On Stage Awards • Bridewell); Elegies For Angels, Punks & Raging Queens (also Executive Producer on 2001 Cast Recording • Bridewell, Globe Centre, Three Mills); La Vie En Rose (King’s Head, Towngate Theatre); Viva O Carnaval (also co book & lyrics • Lilian Baylis Sadler’s Wells) and Ruthless (winner of 5 Musical Stages Awards • Stratford Circus, London).

Simon has also written and published over twenty children’s books and novels and recently produced Dance With Me, his first feature film, which will be in cinemas in 2010. He is currently developing two other features for production in 2010/11. He also directed The Difference We Make, a documentary for Southern Housing Foundation as well as presenting celebrated events at St. Martin in the Fields (The Crusaid Requiem), Hackney Empire (Inspiration Innovation Integration Season) & St. Paul’s Cathedral (Service of Thanksgiving, Remembrance & Hope for World AIDS Day).

Simon has also written and published over twenty children’s books, a number of which have been adapted for television and the stage.

Productions for 2010/11 include: Bloodline (Brockley Jack Studio Theatre); Petrouchka and 1888 (also directing); Blavatsky’s Tower (Brockley Jack Studio Theatre); Gifted (White Bear); The Remains of the Day (Union Theatre) and Stairway to Heaven (Blue Elephant).

www.okaicollier.co.uk

Adam Dechanel

Graphic Design

Adam Dechanel is a prolific author, illustrator and graphic designer whose career spans nearly a decade. He has worked in television, film, books, short stories and graphic novels for many years. Throughout his wide-ranging career he has had a series of novels published including the high profile Superman: Tempered Steel. Adam is well known in the illustration field and has worked extensively with Warner Bros, DC Comics and The Walt Disney Company. He also exhibits his artwork in galleries around London, including the prestigious Old Truman Brewery.

He is the co-creator of publishing label Okai Collier Kids that pioneered the CDbook entertainment format. His concept for graphic novel anthologies Vanston Place: The Secret Adventures and The Timber Wharves Gang were short listed for a SNAC award. In theatre, Adam has worked on productions including Collision, Blavatsky’s Tower, Gifted, Bloodline, Passion, A… My Name Is Alice, My Matisse, In His Hands, The Smilin’ State, The Sister Wendy Musical, The Dorchester, A Mother Speaks and Dracula, and also spearheaded the marketing campaign for the critically acclaimed European premieres of Purlie and Preacherosity. He also wrote A Wrongful Execution, which featured as a reading for the acclaimed Inspiration, Innovation and Integration Season.

www.adamdechanel.blogspot.com

Fallen Angel Theatre Company

Co Producer

Fallen Angel was established in 2007 and focuses on new writing and innovative revivals of provocative and challenging works. Productions to date include: Moonshadow, Dracula, The Custom of the Country, Gifted (all White Bear); Vampire Nights, Ray Collins Dies On Stage, (all Alma Theatre, Bristol); Normal (Tobacco Factory, Bristol); Blavatsky's Tower (Brockley Jack); Stairway to Heaven (Blue Elephant).

www.chrisloveless.com

Matt Hall

Sound Design

Matt is currently Deputy Head of Sound at Chichester Festival Theatre following a move from the North as Deputy Chief Technician and Resident Sound Designer at the Theatre By The Lake in Keswick, Cumbria. Recent sound design credits include: Stairway to Heaven, Gifted, Blavatsky’s Tower, Collision (Okai Collier Company), Bones For Prince (New Diorama Theatre), Chris Dugdale’s evening of Magic & Mindreading (Riverside Studios) A New Direction @ Delphina’s (Creative Partnerships) Northanger Abbey, Silence, A Chorus of Disapproval, , The Maid of Buttermere, A Christmas Carol, Arsenic and Old Lace, The Bogus Woman, The Lady in the Van, The Lonesome West, The Importance of Being Earnest, In Extremis, The Caretaker, Our Country’s Good, The Recruiting Officer, The Borrowers, Jordan, Taking Steps, Days of Wine and Roses, Around the World in 80 Days, Of Mice and Men, After Miss Julie, Private Lives and On Golden Pond (Theatre By The Lake).

Kazuo Ishiguro

Novelist

Born in Nagasaki, Japan, on 8^th November 1954, Kazuo Ishiguro has lived in Britain since the age of five. His novels have won him international acclaim and many honours, including the Booker Prize, the Whitbread Book of the Year Award, the British decoration of OBE for Services to Literature and the French decoration Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. His work has been translated into forty languages, and The Remains of the Day was adapted into an award-winning film.

Kazuo Ishiguro has also worked as a screenwriter and a song lyricist. He lives in London with his wife and daughter.

Books in order of publication: A Pale View of Hills (1982 winner Winifred Holtby Prize), An Artist of the Floating World (1986 winner Whitbread Book of the Year Award, winner Premio Scanno, finalist for the Booker Prize), The Remains of the Day (1989, winner Booker Prize), The Unconsoled (1995, winner Cheltenham Prize), When We Were Orphans (2000, finalist for the Booker Prize), Never Let Me Go (2005, finalist for the Booker Prize, winner Premio Serono, winner Corine Internationaler Buchpreis, winner Casino de Santiago European Novel Award, finalist US National Book Critics Circle Award). Latest book Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall published May 2009.

Screenplays for cinema: The White Countess (2006, directed by James Ivory), The Saddest Music In The World (2003, directed by Guy Maddin) co-written with Guy Maddin and George Toles.

Screenplays for TV: A Profile of Arthur J. Mason (Channel 4, broadcast 1984), The Gourmet (Channel 4, broadcast 1986).

Songs (co-written with Jim Tomlinson): The Ice Hotel, I Wish I Could Go Travelling Again, So Romantic and Breakfast On The Morning Tram, featured on Stacey Kent’s 2007 Grammy-nominated album Breakfast On The Morning Tram (Blue Note).

Rowland Lee

Instrumental & Ensemble Vocal Arrangements

Rowland Lee studied composition and piano at the Royal College of Music and has written much orchestral, choral and chamber music including The Crusaid Requiem, featuring the Mezzo-Soprano Sarah Connolly MBE, performed at St. Martin-in-the-Fields in 2003.

He has composed scores for over twenty short films including the Christmas favourite The Little Reindeer. With over 1000 broadcasts last year on UK television alone, he is regarded as one of the country’s principal composers for animation. His TV credits as composer include Crapston Villas, Margaret Thatcher: Where am I now?, Stylissimo, Barking, The Melinda Messenger Show, the children’s series Henry’s Cat, Salut Serge, Captain Abercromby, Engie Benjy, Wilf the Witch’s Dog, BAFTA award-winning 64 Zoo Lane and Pablo the Little Red Fox. A new series of 64 Zoo Lane has recently been completed and will be broadcast in 2010.

His work for the choreographer Matthew Bourne includes an original score for BBC2 ballet Drip-a Narcissistic Love Story, orchestrations for Town and Country, Nutcracker! and the internationally famous Swan Lake. He has also conducted Nutcracker! at Sadler’s Wells and Swan Lake in Ferrara, Tel Aviv, Amsterdam and Cologne. He has created reduced orchestrations of Swan Lake and Mozartiana for the Birmingham Royal Ballet. In February 2009 he accompanied the violinist Michael Poel in a recital on the main stage of the Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg during a gala concert being given by the Kirov ballet. In February 2010, he conducted the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra in a concert of works by Michael Poel and himself.

Conducting engagements next year include concerts with the Orchestra of the Czar's Chapel, St Petersburg, and the Havana Symphony Orchestra.

Other credits as musical director/pianist/arranger include; Marry Me A Little and The Great Big Radio Show (the Bridewell), Over my Shoulder (Jermyn Street, Wyndhams Theatre and 3 tours). For The Okai Collier Company: Countess and Cabbages, Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens, (the Bridewell) and the UK premiere of Ruthless at Stratford Circus (winner of five Musical Stages awards, including Best Production). For Stewart Nicholls at the Theatre Museum work includes A Girl Called Jo, Follow That Girl, Vanity Fair, Zip Goes A Million, The Amazons, Grab Me a Gondola, Anne Veronica, Julian Slade’s 70^th birthday concert, reconstructions of David Heneker’s Popkiss and Noel Coward’s Sail Away (published by Warner Chappell).

Many of these productions are available on CD; The Amazons received a Grammy nomination for best cast album in 2003.

In 1986, he was the first recipient of the British Film Institute’s Anthony Asquith Young Composer Award. He is well-known as a collector of mechanical music; His most prized instrument is an Aeolian Pipe Organ.

Chris Lince

Lighting Design

As lighting designer, Chris has most recently lit Stairway to Heaven (Blue Elephant Theatre), Gifted (White Bear Theatre) and Blavatsky’s Tower & Compression (BrockleyJack Studio Theatre). He has worked extensively with director Benet Catty on productions of Howie the Rookie, Edmond, Speed-the-Plow, Popcorn, Sweet Charity, and Sweeney Todd. He has been award-winning comedian Brendon Burns’ technical director for five years, as well as designing the lighting for numerous comedy shows in Edinburgh and London.

He is regularly based at the Cockpit Theatre, coordinating their long-running scratch night, Theatre in the Pound. As a director, Chris’s Edinburgh Fringe production of Emily Juniper’s Restitution transferred to Theatre 503, and his more recent Edinburgh production of Brett Goldstein’s Success Story will be revived later in 2010. He is also a writer and graphic designer.

www.chrislince.co.uk

Alex Loveless

Adaptation of the Book, Music & Lyrics

Alex trained at the London College of Music, Thames Valley University. He is a member of Mercury Musicals Development and was part of the first UK New Musical Theatre Writers’ laboratory, facilitated by tutors from Tisch School of Performing Arts, New York University.

Awards include Vivian Ellis Prize for ‘Promising Newcomer’ and the Howard Goodall Award for Composition.

Writing credits include Dracula (White Bear Theatre, 2008), and extensive work for youth theatre. Alex’s work has been showcased in the West End at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and the Duchess Theatre, and workshopped by the Royal Academy of Music. He is published through London College of Music Exam Board.

www.alexloveless.com

Chris Loveless

Director

Chris trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School (2007). He is Artistic Director of Fallen Angel Theatre Company and an associate director of the White Bear Theatre and Stepping Out Theatre Company.

Directing credits include: Moonshadow (Time Out Critics’ Choice & Show of the Week), Dracula, The Custom of the Country (Time Out Critics' Choice) & Gifted (all White Bear); Vampire Nights, Ray Collins Dies On Stage, Walter’s Monkey & Thursday Coma (all Alma Theatre, Bristol); Normal (Tobacco Factory, Bristol); Blavatsky's Tower (Brockley Jack); Stairway to Heaven (Blue Elephant); The Demon Box (Finborough Vibrant Anniversary Festival); Script Space III (Tobacco Factory). Assisting credits include Othello (Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory). Producing credits include studio and fringe productions, and an internship with ATG in their West End production office. Chris has also worked in theatre and TV as an actor, and is a former member of the National Youth Theatre.

www.chrisloveless.com

Diana Monteiro

Stage/Company Manager

Diana has recently completed her BA (Hons) in Theatre with Textual Practices at Dartington College of Arts. She has previously directed a devised piece Moments We Like (2009), Hysteria (2006) and When We’re Broken (Warehouse Theatre, 2006) for which she won awards for Best Director and Best Technical Support. She has collaborated extensively on several devised pieces, including When Stone Footsteps Lead to the Lighthouse, which was shown at the Dartington Campus Festival 2010. In 2006 she was Deputy Stage Manager for the International Playwrighting Festival at the Warehouse Theatre and a lighting assistant at Croydon Clocktower for a deaf show. As an actress, Diana has performed in a range of pieces including Timberlake Wertenbaker’s The Love of a Nightingale, John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi and Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard. Diana has also undertaken a Contextual Enquiry Project exploring modes of directing, during which time she worked with Okai Collier (Collision, Hackney Empire), Foursight Theatre (Corner Shop, site-specific) and Uninvited Guests (in residency at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre), as well as conducting interviews with directors Gillian Hambleton (Northumberland Theatre Company), Tim Etchells (Forced Entertainment) and Mole Wetherell (Reckless Sleepers).

Omar F. Okai

Movement Director

Omar F. Okai is an award-winning director and/or choreographer of over forty musicals and plays, productions of which were not only in London’s West End and throughout the UK, but also in Europe. These include: Been There, Doing It (tour); for Theatre Royal Stratford East: Come Dancing by Ray Davies of The Kinks; Aladdin, Hansel & Gretel, Cinderella (Olivier Award-nominated), Pass The Baton, High Heeled Parrot Fish; for The English Theatre Frankfurt: Five Guys Named Moe (German premiere), Rent & Cabaret; at Hackney Empire: The Smilin’ State & Collision; for the National Theatre: Honk! & The Villain’s Opera (Assistant Choreographer) and the national tour of Honk!; Three Sisters (Movement Director, Birmingham Rep); Elegies For Angels, Punks & Raging Queens, A… My Name Is Alice, Burleigh Grimes & Notes Across A Small Pond (Bridewell); Bones for Prince (New Diorama Theatre); Blavatsky’s Tower & Bloodline (Brockley Jack Studio Theatre); Stairway to Heaven (Blue Elephant Theatre); Dracula & Gifted (White Bear); Diary of a Chav (workshop, Tristan Bates Theatre); Elegies (Shaw Theatre); the world premieres of Preacherosity (Jermyn Street) and Viva O Carnaval (Lilian Baylis, Sadler’s Wells) and the European premieres of Ruthless (for which he won a Best Director award, Stratford Circus) and Purlie (nominated for four What’s On Stage awards, Bridewell).

For the Urdang Academy he directed and re-staged Bob Fosse’s original choreography in a revival production of Sweet Charity (Steiner Theatre) and also brought to the stage new productions of Honk! and How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying.

He is the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of the noted Okai Collier Company, which has gained an excellent reputation for encouraging new writing and staging cross-cultural productions. Okai also co-produced four Off-West End studio productions for directors including Lynda Baron (The Dorchester) and Ruth Carney (My Matisse), along with Rowland Lee’s acclaimed The Crusaid Requiem at St. Martin in the Fields and the HIV/AIDS Service of Remembrance at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London. Omar’s film directing credits include the notable documentary The 411: The Bottom Line on Amhurst Road, produced in association with Southern Housing Foundation. He is the Director of Urban Theatre, a project that encourages youth creativity within the community, and has worked with the education departments at both Camden Roundhouse and The Royal Opera House. In addition to the above, Omar is also an accomplished West End performer (Elegies - original King’s Head Theatre cast, Five Guys Named Moe - original cast, King, Sweet Charity & My One and Only) & writer, and has recently penned two new musicals: Ghetto Funk Time Machine and Celia.

www.okaicollier.co.uk

Christina Pomeroy

Costume

Chris has worked as Costume Designer on a number of Okai Collier Company productions including Elegies (Bridewell); Purlie (Bridewell, nominated for 4 What’s On Stage awards); Blavatsky’s Tower & Bloodline (Brockley Jack Studio Theatre); Ruthless (Stratford Circus, winner of 5 Musical Stages Awards); Preacherosity and The Dorchester (both at Jermyn Street West End Studio Theatre); The Sister Wendy Musical, The Smilin’ State, Collision and In His Hands (Hackney Empire), and Dracula & Gifted (White Bear Theatre).

Amy Rycroft

Casting

Casting credits for the English Theatre Frankfurt include: The Full Monty, Educating Rita, Hysteria, Hair, Gaslight, Death Trap, Laughing Wild, Nevelle’s Island, The Last Virgin, Blithe Spirit, RENT; Other theatre casting credits include: Blavatsky’s Tower & Bloodline (Brockley Jack Studio Theatre), Gifted (White Bear), A Day at the Racist (Finborough Theatre), The Tenants (Drill Hall), Ruth (New End Theatre, London) A Wrongful Execution (Acorn Theatre, Hackney); Borrowed Time (New End Theatre, London); Purlie (Bridewell Theatre); Passion (Bridewell Theatre). Music Video & Commercial casting credits include: Andre Rieu (Decca Records), Dreamboats & Petticoats 3 (Universal Music Op), Bingo Wings Music Video (MJNA Records).

Associate Producer and Producer credits include: Circus Agogo (New End Theatre); A Wrongful Execution (Acorn Theatre, Hackney); The Last Session (Acorn Theatre, Hackney); Bridewell Theatre Farewell Gala (Bridewell Theatre); Purlie (Bridewell Theatre). Production Assistant on Death of a Salesman (Lyric Theatre, London); The Countess (Criterion Theatre, London); I Am My Own Wife (Duke of York Theatre, London).

David Shields

Set and Costume

David’s production credits include: Song & Dance and Carmen Jones (European tours, directed by Anthony Van Laast), Oh! What a Night (Blackpool Opera House, directed by Kim Gavin), A Christmas Carol (London and Nottingham Theatre Royal), Dick Whittington (Bristol Hippodrome, directed by Jim Davidson), Anthony Minghella’s Cigarettes and Chocolate (Man in the Moon), Chess 10th & 20th anniversary productions (Oslo Spektrum and UK tours, directed by Anthony Van Laast), Dido and Anaeas (Guildford).

Other credits include the Scandinavian productions of Jesus Christ Superstar, Hair, Fame, Grease, Saturday Night Fever, and Mannen fra La Mancha (Det Norske Teatret, Oslo, directed by Runar Borge), Mapp and Lucia (Jermyn Street Theatre and Greenwich), Naked Flame (UK tour), The Hobbit (Queens Theatre, London and UK Tours, directed by Roy Marsden), Diamond and Shamlet (King’s Head Theatre, London), Saturday Night Fever (UK national tours, Apollo Victoria Theatre and Johannesburg, choreographed and directed by Arlene Phillips, plus the more recent Madrid and Spanish tour directed by Karen Bruce), Instant Magique and Oui, J’ adore, and a further six productions at the Royal Palace Kirrwiller France. David has also designed twelve world-touring productions for Holiday on Ice including In Concert, Dreams, Peter Pan and Spirit, created and directed by Robin Cousins. Earlier this year he designed the set for Strictly Come Dancing: The Professionals Tour.

Band

Elaine Booth – Reeds

Elaine studied music at the University of Leeds and then at Trinity College of Music. Her principal instrument is the flute, and she doubles on clarinet and saxophone.

Elaine has played in the pit bands for many shows, from classics such as Sweet Charity and My Fair Lady through to a musical version of Shakespeare's As You Like It. This is Elaine's second time at the Union Theatre, and she's excited to be part of another new musical.

Mary Erskine – Cello

Having graduated from Oxford with a degree in French and Italian, Mary is now working as a musician in London. A classically trained pianist since the age of 4 and cellist since the age of 8, Mary is currently preparing for a LRSM Performance Diploma on the piano' while teaching privately in London.

Having performed widely as a solo pianist, Mary is now singer/keyboardist with London-based electronica/pop collective, The Shadow Orchestra. On the cello, she has played in a variety of ensembles, including the Oxford University Orchestra, as well as recently building a number of credits as a session cellist, recording for artists such as Belleruche, Official Secrets Act and Al Lewis.

Lorna Young – Violin

Lorna has recently completed her BA Honours degree in Music, specialising in the violin, at Leeds College of Music and throughout this time has been nurtured into a confident and talented performer. For her final performance within the college she was privileged enough to lead the Leeds Community Symphony Orchestra under conductor John Stringer. A keen orchestral player, she has performed with the Lancashire Schools and Youth Orchestras and during her time in Leeds participated in a series of performances, including two operas with the Leeds College of Music Sinfonietta.

Lorna has recently performed a solo version of ‘Duelling Violins’ Lord of the Dance (Blackpool, The Grand Theatre) and has had a busy schedule as lead violin within the ‘Melati String Quartet’ (Leeds, various venues). Other musical endeavours include playing with ‘Folk’d up’, an all girl folk band, taking part in the Harrogate Folk Festival and a residency at The Rudding Park Hotel, Harrogate.

Lorna has collaborated extensively with other musicians in the Leeds area and has played many venues performing with singer songwriters, a Latin swing band and on one occasion been part of the support act for the international band Feeder at the Manchester Academy. Lorna is hoping to develop her musical abilities and career further and is thrilled and excited to be a part of this new musical production.

The Remains of the Day

based on the novel