Cast & Creative
The Players
Making his West End debut with Dickens Unplugged, Joseph’s recent theatre credits include: Dickens Unplugged at Guildford’s Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Sleeping Beauty at Theatre Royal, Margate, The Great Theatre of the World at the Arcola Theatre, Cyrano de Bergerac at the Manchester Royal Exchange, The History Boys at the National Theatre and world tour, Lysistrata at the Arcola Theatre, Single Spies at York Theatre Royal, Winnie the Witch for Watershed Productions national tour, Romeo and Juliet at the Bedlam Theatre, The Threepenny Opera at the Battersea Arts Centre. As well as performing in, Joseph was also musical director for The Great Theatre of the World, Lysistrata, Cyrano de Bergerac, Romeo and Juliet and Single Spies. He composed the music for Cyrano de Bergerac and was the composer and performer for Stop Singing, a musical performed at the Humber Mouth Literary Festival.
Short films include Choice, Fresh Out of Tears, Bealzebumblebee and Fag.
Radio credits include Sons and Lovers for Radio 4.
Joseph would like to thank his parents for their continued love and support.
Simon’s theatre work includes: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), The Bible, The Complete Word of God (Abridged) and The Complete History of America (Abridged), Cousin Kevin in The Who’s Tommy, Goody in Fame the Musical,
Feste in Only Fools, No Horses, Henry in Travels With My Aunt. Regional productions
include Twelfth Night, A Christmas Carol, Three Minute Heroes, The Fantasticks and The
Millennium Mysteries with Polish Company
Teatr Biuro Podrowsky.
TV credits include: No Angels, EastEnders, This Is Dom Joly, The Bill, Doctors and Children in Need.
For Radio 4 he was Alistair Campbell, Peter
Mandelson and Elton John in The Condensed History of Tony Blair.
Films include: Exitz with Malcolm McDowell
and the upcoming Universal Pictures feature The Wolfman.
Matthew last appeared on stage with Menagerie Theatre in Cambridge, in Re:Design, a new play based on the letters of Charles Darwin. Other recent work includes voices for a new Ghost Rider video game, a video installation by artist Sarah Dobai, and a feature film Moussaka & Chips with Ron Moody.
Theatre includes: the Nurse in Romeo & Juliet, and Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, both with Creation Theatre in Oxford, the original West End cast of the Reduced Shakespeare Company, with whom he performed for many years and Sweeney Todd (New Wolsey).
He was born and raised in several places in Canada.
Adam was born in New York, raised in California, and has spent the last 16 years living in London. He trained at Pepperdine University and the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts. Adam began his professional life as an office manager for an anti-nuclear political action committee in the 1980s. Trying to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons during the Reagan administration was a lot like banging your head against a wall, so, for light relief on the weekends, Adam co-founded The Reduced Shakespeare Company. The alternative-RSC performed comic 15 minute versions of Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet at outdoor festivals. These proved popular and, within a short time, the company was playing to 2000 people a day and Reduced Shakespeare became full-time work. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1987. Tours in the US and the UK followed. The Complete Works enjoyed a 9 year run in the West End, at The Criterion Theatre from 1996 through 2005. Adam has written and performed material for theatre, film, radio, and television (including a 30 minute version of Wagner’s Ring Cycle for Channel Four in the UK). He became the director of the UK branch of the RSC in 1994 and retired from the reducing Shakespeare in 2002. Since then he co-wrote a micro-budget independent feature film titled The Barn, which won a British Independent Film Award. He also wrote and performed The Condensed History of Tony Blair for BBC Radio Four, and Star Wars Shortened for Sky Television and Lucasfilm. Dickens Unplugged marks Adam’s first foray into musical theatre. He’d like to dedicate this show to his partner and muse, Alex Jackson-Long.
Training: Royal Academy of Music.
Theatre includes: Young Nazi/Trumpet player in Cabaret (Lyric Theatre) directed by Rufus
Norris, Dickens in Dickens Unplugged (Guildford, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre and
Edinburgh Fringe 2007, Assembly Rooms),
original London cast of Avenue Q understudying Princeton/Rod (Noël Coward Theatre), Scrooge (London Palladium), Brian in Three Sides by
Grant Olding (Shaw Theatre).
Television: Young Ben in My Family (BBC), Royal Variety (London Coliseum).
Radio: Big Cook Little Cook (BBC Radio 7).
Commercials: Lastminute.com.
Albums: Scrooge (London Palladium cast
recording), Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow (Making Records).
Workshops: The Sacred Flame directed by
Simon Lee.
On occasion you may see one of the following artists perform...
Training: Blackpool Fylde College, graduating with a first and a National Diploma in Performing Arts
Theatre: Pepper in Mamma Mia! (Prince of Wales Theatre), Cookie in Return To The Forbidden Planet (Theatre Royal, Lincoln), Johnny in Terry Pratchett’s Only You Can Save Mankind (Edinburgh Festival), Joe Vegas in Fame (National Tour), Mickey Murphy and u/s Daniel in The Beautiful Game (Cambridge Theatre), Stand-Up Comedy (Great Yarmouth), Leo in Thank You for the Music (National Tour) and Zane in Electric Lipstick (National Tour) and Hedzoff/Smith in The Rose and The Ring (Hen and Chicken Theatre)
Workshops: Sacred Flame directed by Simon Lee, Brian in Come Dancing, written and directed by Terry Johnson, Curator in We Will Rock You (Phil McIntyre)
Television: Tony in Peak Practice (Carlton Television).
Bryan Torfeh is a well-traveled Irish-Persian
from California.
Theatre: West End roles include George in High Society, Hamlet in The Reduced Shakespeare, Sowerberry in Oliver!, Warner in Jolson, Rico in Copacabana, and the title role in Figaro. RSC work includes Nicholas Nickleby, The Great White Hope, and They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? US repertory and Broadway work
includes Salieri in Amadeus, Jack in The Importance of Being Earnest, Kerner in Hapgood, John in The Constant Wife, Almady
in The Play’s the Thing and leading roles
in Love’s Labour’s Lost, Much Ado About Nothing, The Comedy of Errors, Titus Andronicus and Kean. UK repertory work
includes Romeo and Juliet and The Grapes of Wrath at the Sheffield Crucible.
Television: This Is Dom Joly (BBC), Soldiers (BBC) and The Last Days of Patton.
Films: Velvet Goldmine, Sudden Impact and Under Surveillance.
Degrees from UCSC and London’s Guildhall
School of Music and Drama have scarcely made
a dent in his ignorance.
Creative
Adam was born in New York, raised in California, and has spent the last 16 years living in London. He trained at Pepperdine University and the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts. Adam began his professional life as an office manager for an anti-nuclear political action committee in the 1980s. Trying to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons during the Reagan administration was a lot like banging your head against a wall, so, for light relief on the weekends, Adam co-founded The Reduced Shakespeare Company. The alternative-RSC performed comic 15 minute versions of Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet at outdoor festivals. These proved popular and, within a short time, the company was playing to 2000 people a day and Reduced Shakespeare became full-time work. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1987. Tours in the US and the UK followed. The Complete Works enjoyed a 9 year run in the West End, at The Criterion Theatre from 1996 through 2005. Adam has written and performed material for theatre, film, radio, and television (including a 30 minute version of Wagner’s Ring Cycle for Channel Four in the UK). He became the director of the UK branch of the RSC in 1994 and retired from the reducing Shakespeare in 2002. Since then he co-wrote a micro-budget independent feature film titled The Barn, which won a British Independent Film Award. He also wrote and performed The Condensed History of Tony Blair for BBC Radio Four, and Star Wars Shortened for Sky Television and Lucasfilm. Dickens Unplugged marks Adam’s first foray into musical theatre. He’d like to dedicate this show to his partner and muse, Alex Jackson-Long.
Alex worked as a television comedy producer for twenty years before she was persuaded to give it all up to work on DICKENS UNPLUGGED.
TV credits include: The Kumars at Number 42 (BBC1), The Armstrong & Miller Show (BBC1), Fonejacker Pilot (C4), Trigger Happy TV (C4), The Ring Reduced (C4) and The Lenny Henry Show (BBC1).
Alex is delighted to have been part of the Dickens Unplugged team from the first reading onwards. She would like to dedicate her contribution to the show to Betty Jackson for the generous and inspirational Broadway trip that started the ball rolling, and to Tony Jackson who will be watching from the Gods.
Training: Central School of Arts and Design.
Lez is an Associate Artist of Matthew Bourne’s company, New Adventures.
Theatre includes: In Celebration (West End) Dying For It, The Lightning Play (Almeida Theatre), Ghosts (The Gate, London), Much Ado About Nothing (RSC), The Vortex, Volpone (Manchester Royal Exchange), Sugar Mummies (Royal Court Theatre), Fuddy Meers (Birmingham and Arts Theatre, London), The Dark, Little Foxes (Donmar Warehouse), The Crucible (Sheffield Crucible), David Copperfield (Sheffield Crucible/Greenwich).
Dance includes: Seven Deadly Sins (Royal Opera House), Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Japan/Sadlers Wells), A Soldier’s Tale (ROH 2 Linbury Studio), Edward Scissorhands (New Adventures, L.A), Play Without Words (National Theatre/New Adventures); The Car Man, Cinderella, Swan Lake, Highland Fling (Adventures in Motion Pictures).
Opera includes: L’Elisir D’Amore (Grange Park Opera), Maria Padilla (Buxton),m La Somnambula (Teatro Municipale, Rio de Janeiro), Hansel and Gretel (Opera Zuid/Opera Northern Ireland), Cunning Little Vixen, Ariadne auf Naxos, Werther (Opera Zuid).
Musicals include: Three Musketeers (Massachusetts) Into The Woods (Royal Opera House), Far Pavilions, Acorn Antiques (West End), Brighton Rock (Almeida Theatre & West End), Tonight’s the Night, My One and Only, Spend, Spend, Spend (West End).
Film includes: Letter to Brezhnev, Swan Lake, The Car Man.
Awards include: Tony Award for Swan Lake (AMP); Oliver Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance for Set and Costume for Cinderella and most recently a Critics’ Circle Award for his outstanding achievement in design for dance.
Training: Theatre design at Bretton Hall, Leeds University.
Recent theatre lighting design: The Birthday Party (Lyric Hammersmith); The Merchant of Venice (RSC Stratford); How to Tell the Monsters from the Misfits (Birmingham Rep); The Lover & The Collection (Comedy Theatre, West End); Dickens Unplugged (Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford); Women of Troy co-design (National Theatre); Water (Filter and Lyric Hammersmith); Night Time (Traverse, Edinburgh); How much is your Iron? and The Jewish Wife (Young Vic); Pinter’s People (Theatre Royal Haymarket, West End); Food (The Imaginary Body); The Soldier’s Tale (Old Vic, London); Gone to Earth (Shared Experience); The Tale that Wages the Dog (Plymouth & Los Angeles); Underworld (Frantic Assembly); Mandragora (Tara Arts).
Recent dance lighting design: Tenderhook and Sorry for the Missiles! (Scottish Dance Theatre); Mountains are Mountains (Phillipp Gehmacher for Tanzquartier Vienna); Real (ACE Dance); Maverick Matador (Juliet Aster for Dance East).
Recent opera lighting design: I Capuleti Ei Montecchi L’Elisir D’Amore, The Barber of Seville and Cosi Fan Tutte (Grange Park Opera), Jenufa (revival design for English National Opera and Washington Opera USA).
Recent associate lighting design: Evita (Adelphi Theatre, West End).
In preparation: On the Rocks (Hampstead Theatre), Street Scene (The Opera Group)m Gone Too Far (Royal Court).
West End Musical Sound Designs: Fiddler on the Roof (Savoy), Little Shop of Horrors (Duke of York’s & New Ambassadors), Footlose (Novello & Playhouse), Follies (London Palladium), Fame (Shaftsbury & Aldwych), Satisfaction (Apollo), Rocky Horror Show (Queens & Royal Court), Camelot (Regents Park), High Society (Shaftsbury), Calamity Jane (Shaftsbury), Make Me a Song (Players), Side By Side By Sondheim (Strand), The Big Life (Apollo), Songs For a New World (Apollo), Tick Tick… Boom! (Menier), The Next Big Thing (Players), Snow White (Victoria Palace), Blues Brothers (Whitehall), The Last Five Years (Menier & Apollo), Glamorous Night (Novello), Dream On (Palladium), Romeo and Juliet (Playhouse), and Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Heaven).
UK Tour Sound Designs: Flashdance, Daydream Believer, The Wedding Singer, Shout!, Fame, Footloose, The Rock Horror Show, Anything Goes, Godspell, Singing in the Rain, Annie Get your Gun, The Player, Calamity Jane, Summer Holiday, The Tempest, Jesus Christ Superstar, Children of Eden, Slamdunk, Stones in Their Pockets and Thoroughly Modern Millie.
West End Play Sound Designs: Dealers Choice (Trafalgar), RSC Winter Season (Geilgud), Jeffery Barnard is Unwell (Garrick), Epitaph for George Dillon (Comedy), Audience with the Mafia (Apollo), Hamlet (Savoy), The Taming of the Shrew (Ambassadors), A Night in November (Trafalgar), Murderer (Menier), Breakfast with Jonny Wilkinson (Menier), Secret Rapture (Geilgud), Double Cross (Apollo), Bombshell (Arts), Unzipped! (Arts), and Fully Committed (Arts).
International Musical Sound Designs: Evita (Bellagio Opera House, Las Vegas), Excalibur (Excalibur, Las Vegas), Time Travel (Danny Gans Theatre, Mirage, Las Vegas), Saturday Night Fever (Korean & Taiwanese Tours), Jesus Christ Superstar (Danish & American Arena Tours), Return to the Forbidden Planet (Korea), Thoroughly Modern Millie (South Africa), Chicago (Mentreux Jazz Festival), Blues Brothers (Austria), Grease (Cyprus), Days of our Lives (Japan), and Evita (Beirut).
Other Sound Designs: Jesus Christ Superstar (Porchester Castle), Les Miserables (Minack), Battle of Green Lanes (Stratford East), Bashment (Stratford East) and The Olivier Awards (SD : Seb Frost).
Rock & Roll Shows: Arena and stadium tours for artistes ranging from Anastasia to The Zutons with highlights including : Def Leopard, Geri Halliwell, Meatloaf, Elton John, Isaac Hayes, The Stereophonics, N-SYNC, Paul Young and BB King.
Jemima trained in Fashion Design womenswear at the University of Brighton. After working with couture designer Alexander McQueen and spending a year in New York assisting fashion stylist Victoria Bartlett, she returned to London to start freelancing as a stylist and Costume designer. Jemima has worked with a wide range of bands, artists and celebrities including Sir Paul McCartney, The Klaxons, Lily Allen, Natalie Portman, The Kooks and Juliette Lewis. Her theatre work as a costume supervisor includes The Marriage of Figaro, Tobias and the Angel, Mamma Mia! the musical, and Much Ado about Nothing. Recent short films Jemima has designed include ‘Where Have I been all Your Life’ starring Imelda Staunton and James Corden, and ‘Talking Heads’ featuring the Scratch Perverts, due to be released in summer 2008.