We are delighted to announce the casting of our co-production with Wiltshire Creative of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? for spring 2020.
Pooky Quesnel and Mark Meadows will play Martha and George, the warring couple at the heart of Albee’s exhilarating black comedy. Pooky Quesnel’s theatre credits include The Suicide for the National Theatre and Romeo & Juliet for Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre, but she will also be well known to audiences for her roles in several television series, including W1A, The A Word and Great Expectations. Mark Meadows trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and has had an extensive career on stage. He will be most recently known to audiences at Tobacco Factory Theatres for playing the eponymous role in Tartuffe, for Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory’s production in 2017.
Playing Nick and Honey, the younger couple drawn into Martha and George’s toxic games, will be Joseph Tweedale and Francesca Henry. Joseph Tweedale will be a familiar face to Tobacco Factory Theatres’s audiences in recent years, having starred in the last two Factory Company seasons (Macbeth and A View From the Bridge in 2018 and A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Our Country’s Good in 2019). Having recently graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Francesca Henry made her professional debut in 2018 in the award-winning play The Wolves at Stratford East. She will make her debut at Tobacco Factory Theatres next season.
For the full cast list and cast biographies, see below.
This new production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? builds on the electrifying drama of past Tobacco Factory Theatres productions such as Blue Heart, A View From the Bridge, Macbeth and Beautiful Thing. David Mercatali (Blue Heart, Dark Vanilla Jungle, Radiant Vermin) returns to Tobacco Factory Theatres to direct this exhilarating masterpiece in the Factory Theatre before taking it to co-producers Wiltshire Creative in Salisbury.
David said of his upcoming production: “This is one of the greatest plays ever written, a riveting combination of manipulative games and painful conflict. It thrills as much now as when written. We’ve assembled a stellar cast to perform it, and I can’t wait to get to work with them.”
David leads a creative team of local and national artists, including Designer Anisha Fields (A View From the Bridge, Beautiful Thing, Tobacco Factory Theatres), Sound Designer Dinah Mullen (Homing Birds, National Tour), Lighting Designer Chris Swain (Blue Heart, Beautiful Thing, Tobacco Factory Theatres) and Fight Director Kev McCurdy (Macbeth, Tobacco Factory Theatres).
EDWARD ALBEE’S
WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?
Wed 19 February – Sat 21 March 2020
Martha Pooky Quesnel
George Mark Meadows
Nick Joseph Tweedale
Honey Francesca Henry
Pooky Quesnel’s theatre credits include: Raleigh: The Treason Trial (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse), The Suicide (National Theatre), Romeo & Juliet (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester), Sitting Pretty (Watford Palace Theatre), Loot (Bristol Old Vic), Present Laughter (Oxford Stage/Theatre Royal, Bath), Jane Eyre (Shared Experience), 1953 (Almedia), The Blue Ball (National Theatre), Don’t Fool With Love (Cheek By Jowl), Anna Karenina (Shared Experience). Television credits include: Two Weeks to Live (Kudos), The A Word (Fifty Fathoms), Ransom (CBS), The Victim (STV for BBC1), W1A (BBC Television), Class (BBC Television), The Living and The Dead (BBC Television), Father Brown (BBC Television), Waterloo Road (Shed Productions& Headstrong), Not Going Out (Avalon), Just Henry (ITV), The Body Farm (BBC Television), Silent Witness (BBC Television), Casualty (BBC Television), Scott & Bailey (Red Productions), Shameless (Company), Dr Who Christmas Special (BBC Television), Doctors (BBC Television), Law & Order: UK (Kudos). Film credits include: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016), Paradox (2009) and Great Expectations (2012).
Mark Meadows trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He was Musical Director of The Swingle Singers and has various theatre and recording credits as composer and arranger. Theatre credits include: A Woman of No Importance (UK Tour); Orpheus Descending (Menier Chocolate Factory), Flowers for Mrs Harris (Sheffield Crucible; Chichester Festival Theatre); Quiz (Chichester Festival Theatre; Noel Coward Theatre); Tartuffe (Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory); The Magna Carta Plays (Salisbury Playhouse); King John (Shakespeare’s Globe); Urinetown (St James/Apollo Theatre); Look Back in Anger (Bristol Old Vic); Betty Blue Eyes (Novello Theatre); Macbeth and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park); 5/11 (Chichester Festival Theatre); King Lear and Six Pictures of Lee Miller (Minerva Theatre, Chichester). TV and Film Credits include: Kiri (Channel 4), Eastenders (BBC), Casualty (BBC), Letters From Baghdad; Doctors (BBC); Nicholas Nickleby (United Artists); High Heels & Lowlifes (Fragile Films).
Joseph Tweedale’s theatre credits include: Rapunzel (Theatre Royal, Bath), Babe The Sheep Pig (Mercury Theatre), A View From the Bridge, Macbeth (Tobacco Factory Theatres), A Christmas Carol (Hull Truck Theatre), The Rise and Fall of Little Voice (Clwyd Theatre), Northanger Abbey (Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds), Alice In Wonderland, The Borrowers, The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe (Sherman Theatre), Barnbow Canaries (West Yorkshire Playhouse), UKIP! The Musical (Hell Bent Theatre), Brief Encounter (Torch Theatre), The Girl Who Cannot Die (Certain Dark Things), Either/Or (Theatre 503), The Tempest, Alice Through the Looking Glass (Quantum Theatre). Film credits include: Dirt Ash Meat, Outdoors is Safer, Deadly Dinner Date, Exit.
Francesca Henry trained at The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Theatre credits include: Germ Free Adolescent (The Bunker Theatre), Our Town (Regent’s Park Theatre), Dear Elizabeth and Sonya R&D (Gate Theatre), The Wolves (Theatre Royal Stratford) and Stormzy X Adidas Originals – Immersive Theatre Event (Adidas & Jukebox Collective). Roles whilst training include: Candide and Intimate Apparel (Richard Burton Company) and Spilt (Richard Burton Company & The Royal Court). On Screen credits include: Doctors for BBC and 2.0 Lucy for Shopfloor Films.
Posted on 16 December 2019
