We are delighted to announce the casting of our Factory Company – the resident professional ensemble that will perform new in-house productions of Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Miller’s A View From the Bridge at Tobacco Factory Theatres between February and May 2018. Drawn from across Bristol and further afield following an extensive open casting call, the Factory Company will create dynamic and fresh productions of two of the most dramatic plays you could hope to see, both perfectly suited to the atmospheric Factory Theatre.
Jonathan McGuinness (Bodies, Royal Court; Love’s Sacrifice, RSC) will play Macbeth and Katy Stephens, stunning as Emilia in 2017’s Othello (Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory and Tobacco Factory Theatres) will play Lady Macbeth. The role of Banquo will be played by Aaron Anthony (Twelfth Night, Manchester Royal Exchange) and Macduff by Joseph Tweedale (The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, Clwyd Theatre Cymru).
Katy Stephens will also play Beatrice in A View From the Bridge, opposite Mark Letheren (The Crucible, Bristol Old Vic) as Eddie. In her professional debut, Laura Waldren (13, Bristol Old Vic Theatre School) will play Eddie’s niece Catherine and Simon Armstrong (Living Quarters, Tobacco Factory Theatres and Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory) will play the lawyer/narrator Alfieri.
For the full cast list and cast biographies, see below.
Directing the cast of Macbeth will be Adele Thomas (National Theatre, Royal Court, Shakespeare’s Globe). A View From the Bridge will be directed by Mike Tweddle, Artistic Director of Tobacco Factory Theatres, in his first production for the theatre. Adele and Mike will lead a creative team of local and national artists for both productions, including Designer Anisha Fields (The Remarkable Case of K, Young Vic), Sound Designer Max Pappenheim (Blue Heart, Tobacco Factory Theatres and Orange Tree Theatre), Lighting Designer Matthew Graham (Othello and Waiting for Godot, Tobacco Factory Theatres) and Movement & Fight Director Kev McCurdy (Macbeth, Shakespeare’s Globe).
Tobacco Factory Theatres is grateful to The JMK Trust, who has worked in partnership with them to offer an Assistant Director Bursary to Charlotte Marigot for Macbeth.
MACBETH
BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Thu 22 February – Sat 07 April 2018
Banquo Aaron Anthony Malcolm Jack Riddiford
Duncan Simon Armstrong Ross Kirris Riviere
Lady Macduff Maggie Bain Lady Macbeth Katy Stephens
Porter/Witch Cait Davis Macduff Joseph Tweedale
Macbeth Jonathan McGuinness Witch/Gentlewoman Laura Waldren
A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE
BY ARTHUR MILLER
Wed 18 April – Sat 12 May 2018
Marco Aaron Anthony Louis Kirris Riviere
Alfieri Simon Armstrong Beatrice Katy Stephens
Eddie Mark Letheren Rodolpho Joseph Tweedale
Mike Jack Riddiford Catherine Laura Waldren
Aaron Anthony’s [Banquo / Marco] theatre credits include: Twelfth Night, Billy Liar (Manchester Royal Exchange), Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare’s Globe), Shakespeare in Love (West End), The Last Days of Mankind (Bristol Old Vic), Human Emotional Process (Chaskis/Arts Theatre), ‘Tis Unmanly Grief (Theatre N16).
Television credits include: Delicious – Series 2, Doctors, Holby City, Witless, Outlaws
Simon Armstrong’s [Duncan / Alfieri] theatre credits include: The Cherry Orchard (Sherman Theatre), Twelfth Night, Cannibals, Accrington Pals (The Royal Exchange), Educating Rita (Hull Truck Theatre), Pericles, The Winter’s Tale, Hamlet (Shakespeare’s Globe), Living Quarters (Tobacco Factory Theatres/Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory), King Lear, The Cherry Orchard, Julius Caesar, Anthony and Cleopatra (Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory), Copenhagen, To Kill a Mockingbird, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Cherry Orchard, Of Mice and Men (Clwyd Theatr Cymru), Bus Stop (New Vic/Stephen Joseph Theatre), The Misanthrope, Uncle Vanya (Bristol Old Vic).
Television credits include: Game of Thrones, Virgin and Martyr, The Coroner, The Hollow Crown: Richard III.
Radio credits include: Poetry Please, One Night in Lillehammer, Peter & Catherine – The Tsars of all the Russias Season, August 1914.
Film credits include: Sans Famille, Excalibur Rising, Berserkers, Golden Years, Crowhurst.
Maggie Bain’s [Lady Macduff, Lennox, Witch] theatre credits include: Man To Man (Tour Edinburgh Fringe and Wales Millennium Centre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Globe Theatre), Broken Meats (Southwark Playhouse), The Blood is Strong (Finborough Theatre), Beautiful Burnout (Frantic Assembly), Henry V, Installation, A Doll’s House (Theatre Delicatessen), 3 Stories – Memory, Love of the Nightingale (Rough Fiction), It’s A Girl (Edinburgh Festival/International Theatre Festival), Kid Simple (Edinburgh Festival).
Television credits include: The End of the F*****g World, Happiness, Crisis Control, Churchill’s Mother.
Film credits include: First and Only, Making Ugly.
Cait Davis’s [Porter, Witch] has a long history in theatre, working at companies such as The Royal Court, the National Theatre, Citizen’s Theatre and West Yorkshire Playhouse. More recently, she performed at The Old Vic in Electra and at The Royal Court in The Twits and The Borrowers at the Sherman Theatre. Cait recently finished in the critically acclaimed Mosquitoes at the National Theatre alongside Olivia Colman and Olivia Williams. Earlier in her career, Cait worked particularly with Frantic Assembly, in shows such as Pool (No Water), Dirty Wonderland, Sell Out, Zero, Flesh and Klub. For television Cait has appeared in Doctors and Respectable Trade, both for the BBC.
Mark Letheren’s [Eddie] theatre credits include: A Streetcar Named Desire (St. Anne’s Warehouse, Brooklyn New York), The Crucible (Bristol Old Vic), Lotty’s War (UK Tour), The Bodyguard (Adelphi Theatre), The Country Girl (Apollo Theatre), Comedians, And Did Those Feet, All My Sons (Bolton Octagon), Cloud Nine (Almeida Theatre), The Secret Rapture (Chichester Playhouse), The Collector (Derby Playhouse/Edinburgh Lyceum), Been So Long (Royal Court Upstairs), Not a Game For Boys (Derby Playhouse), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (RSC and US Tour), The Park (RSC The Pit), Beautiful Thing (Bush, Donmar Warehouse, UK Tour).
Television credits include: Delicious, Guilt, DCI Banks, Casualty, Garrow’s Law, Wire in the Blood, Silent Witness.
Film credits include: Control, Stage Beauty, SW9, Wilde, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Restoration.
Jonathan McGuinness’s [Macbeth] theatre credits include: Bodies (Royal Court), Imogen (The Globe), The Oresteia (Trafalgar Studios), Love’s Sacrifice, The Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night, The Tempest (RSC), Four Minutes Twelve Seconds (Hampstead Theatre & Trafalgar Studios), The Ritual Slaughter of Gorge Mastromas (The Royal Court), Comfort Me With Apples (Hampstead), Fatherland (Gate), Alice, Richard III, Mojo (The Crucible, Sheffield), 1984 (Royal Exchange, Manchester), Orphans (Traverse/Birmingham Rep/Soho), Love, Metamorphosis (Vesturport/Lyric, Hammersmith), Once in a Lifetime, Playing with Fire, The UN Inspector (National Theatre).
Television credits include: Holby City, Wolf Hall, Bletchley Circle, Silk, Casualty, Doctors, The Catherine Tate Show, Robin Hood, A Touch of Frost, In Search of the Brontes.
Radio credits include: The Man With the Hammer.
Film credits include: Nice Guy.
Jack Riddiford’s [Malcolm / Mike] theatre credits include: Junkyard (Headlong Theatre), Agamemnon, Coriolanus, The Country Wife, The Winter’s Tale, Mr Puntila and his Man Matti, No One Sees the Video, Chez Feydeau, The Broken Heart (RADA), Hot Air (Myrtle Theatre Company).
Television credits include: Poldark (series 4).
Film credits include: Dunkirk, Journey’s End.
Kirris Riviere’s [Ross / Louis] theatre credits include: Peeps and Bursts (Show of Strength Theatre Company), Play Mas (The Orange Tree Theatre), Clockwork Orange (Theatre Royal Stratford East), Jolity Farm (Tobacco Factory Theatres), Comedy of Errors (RSC), Tracy Beaker Gets Real (Nottingham Playhouse), Huckleberry Finn (Tobacco Factory Theatres).
Television credits include: I Live With Models, Hollyoaks, Mount Pleasant, Five Daughters, We Are Klang , Little Britain, NY-LON, Casualty.
Film credits include: Welcome 2 Karachi, Red 2, Above Suspicion, Double Time, The Truth About Love, I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead.
Katy Stephens’s [Lady Macbeth / Beatrice] theatre credits include: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Orange Tree Theatre), Othello (Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory & Tobacco Factory Theatres), Hamlet (ETT), Iho (Hampstead Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Theatre Royal Bath), The Complete Walk, Tomas Tallis, The Orestia, Dr Scroggy’s War, Julius Caesar (Shakespeare’s Globe), The King’s Speech (Chichester/Birmingham Rep), Oh No It Isn’t, Sleeping Beauty, Twelfth Night, Our Day Out, Silas Marner (Belgrade Theatre), The Taming of the Shrew, Candide, Titus Andronicus, Forests, As You Like It, The Grain Store, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, Henry VI Pts 1 and 2, Richard II, Richard III, Henry IV Pt 2, Henry V (RSC).
Television credits include: The Bill, London’s Burning, Fun Song Factory, Ellington
Film credits include: Prick Thy Neighbour, Relative Values
Joseph Tweedale’s [Macduff / Rodolpho] theatre credits include: A Christmas Carol (Hull Truck Theatre), The Rise and Fall of Little Voice (Clwyd Theatre Cymru), Northanger Abbey (Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds), The Borrowers, Taith R&D, The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe (Sherman Theatre), My Mouth Brought Me Here (3Crate Productions), Barnbow Canaries (West Yorkshire Playhouse), UKIP! The Musical (Hell Bent Theatre), Samaritans, Can I Help You? (Stonecrabs Theatre Company), 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), Pretty Shrewd (Vienna’s English Theatre), Dido, Queen of Carthage/King Lear, Oedipus: After Sophocles, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Lazarus Theatre Company).
Film credits include: Outdoors is Safer, Deadly Dinner Date, Exit.
Laura Waldren’s [Witch 1, Gentlewoman / Catherine] graduated in 2017 from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, where she was selected as a finalist for the Spotlight Prize. This is her professional stage debut. She is also a co-founder of the GEMA (Gender Equality Movement for Actors) Collective. Laura’s theatre credits during training at BOVTS include: 13 (Tobacco Factory Theatres), Sex With A Stranger (Wardrobe Theatre), Our Town (Circomedia), Treasure Island (Redgrave Theatre). Film credits include: Found, Birds of Paradise, Hairy.
Posted on 19 January 2018
