Across the Dark Water: Cast and Crew

Tom Brownlee returns to his home county of Hampshire to take on the role of King Henry V in Across the Dark Water.

Tom is a graduate of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and former student at Testwood School, Totton and Eastleigh’s Barton Peveril College. Locally he has worked with Russ Tunney and Patrick Sandford at Southampton’s Nuffield Theatre and Kirstie Davis of Forest Forge Theatre.

Tom is excited about getting into the rehearsal room.

“I am fascinated by local history so I didn’t need much persuading. The script is great and the sense of the dangerous unknown, brilliantly suggested by the play’s title, made this a story I really wanted to help tell.

 

“Creativity and collaboration in the rehearsal room excite me – so I am looking forward to exploring the character of Henry with Owen Calvert-Lyons and all members of the creative team.

 

“I have discovered that there is an enormous amount of literature about Henry V. I usually like to do as much research as possible before rehearsals but I would literally be reading non-stop until Christmas – so I think it’s going to be a case of taking a few books as some sort of reference – I’m currently reading 1415: Henry’s Year of Glory by Dr Ian Mortimer – and being confident with whatever choices I/we make.”

Tom talks about playing the role of Henry V in Across The Dark Water http://ow.ly/ONgTt

A love of history and historical fiction drew Darrell Brockis to the role of Lord Scrope of Masham in Across The Dark Water.

Darrell trained at the Webber Douglas Academy, St Andrews University. A regular with acclaimed all-male Shakespeare company Propeller Theatre Company, he says the way the play examines betrayal appealed to him.

“I have always been a lover of history and historical fiction. The attraction of Across The Dark Water is the blend of historical fact with a modern structure and a poetic, even mystical aesthetic, which ultimately explores not just a moment in time, but the nature of betrayal itself.”

Darrell is looking forward to the challenges of Lord Scrope’s complex character.

“Scrope is not a natural traitor, but is drawn into the plot, almost against his will. He is wracked with inner conflict throughout the play, and I am looking forward to exploring the gradual erosion of his loyalty to Henry, by multiple internal and external forces, which eventually leads to his own destruction.”

Examining The Southampton Plot from the conspirators’ perspective also appealed to Darrell:

“My only prior knowledge of The Southampton Plot came from Act 2 of Shakespeare’s Henry V, where the plotters, who took French bribes to kill their king, are shamed by Henry and sent to their execution. It will be fascinating to explore the plot from the conspirators’ perspective.”

Darrell talks about taking on the role of Lord Scrope here http://ow.ly/ONfeF

Bristol Old Vic Theatre School graduate Ben Callon takes on the role of plotter Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, an unlikely heir to the throne, in Across The Dark Water.

Ben is intrigued by the challenges of playing the Earl of March and is eager to get under the skin of the character.

“It’s tempting to label the Earl of March as simply duplicitous but his dislike for the King is wholly justifiable and he’s more a product of exterior manipulation than a traditional treason toting villain. The script really captures this humanity and I’m looking forward to bringing a fully fleshed out version of Edmund to life.”

He is particularly excited about taking the play on the road having researched at length The Southampton Plot.

“I was really attracted to the premise of the play and its place in the Road to Agincourt programme, which I think is a truly inspired project. Also, the idea of running around local castles and chapels wielding a sword, without facing arrest, was a real draw!”

Hear Ben talking about his role as the treacherous Earl of March here http://ow.ly/ONhCL

A graduate of The University of Bristol and The Oxford School of Drama, Chris is no stranger to historical drama; recently appearing in the Birmingham Stage Company’s Horrible Histories productions.

The challenge of playing the role of plotter Richard, Earl of Cambridge, is one that Chris relishes.

“I am looking forward to delving into the borderlines of a character which veers between hero-revolutionary and scheming misanthrope. “The Earl has been dealt a bad hand; he is despised and reviled by his peers and his family; he has been spurned and rejected at every turn; his fortunes have diminished the older he’s got to the point of near destitution and this for a member of the royal family!

 

“He sees only decay and hypocrisy, malice and injustice. So he becomes an agent of destruction. He seeks a better world by turning the one before him into ashes. It is extremely satisfying to grapple with a character driven to such malevolent depths by the world he finds himself in. In a mad world only the mad are sane.”

Chris only knew of The Southampton Plot from the reference in Shakespeare’s Henry V to the execution of three men. He is looking forward to telling the other side of the Henry V story.

“It is ludicrous that Henry V, a mass murdering, religious fundamentalist and invader, is revered as a hero.  Across The Dark Water does something very important in redressing the image of Henry and the plot. History is written by the winners; it’s important for theatre to provide a mouthpiece for the oppressed and vanquished.”

Chris talks about the challenges of playing plotter Richard, Earl of Cambridge here http://ow.ly/ONfRn

Owen’s belief in the power of theatre to transform communities has shaped his career in the arts.

He is the Artistic Director of The Point and its sister venue The Berry Theatre in Hampshire.  Through The Point’s Associate Artist programme Owen mentors four emerging companies each year as well as curating the Powered by The Point artist residency programme, which supports the creation of 25 new productions every year.

Prior to this, Owen established Arcola Theatre’s award-winning Creative Learning Department, which he ran for four years.

Owen has also worked for York Theatre Royal, The Courtyard Centre for the Arts, Theatre Royal Plymouth and National Association of Youth Theatres. Theatre credits include: Jack and Pinocchio (The Berry Theatre); Around the World in Eighty Days, Boy with a Suitcase and Walking the Tightrope (Arcola Theatre); I am a Camera (Cornelius Cook – nominated for Best Director Off West End Awards 2011); 1984, The Children and The UN Inspector (York Theatre Royal); and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (The Courtyard).

Ben grew up in Britain, Bangladesh and India.

Pretend You Have Big Buildings won first prize in the inaugural Bruntwood Playwriting Competition. The play was performed in the main house of the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, in July 2007, as part of the Manchester International Festival. The play has been translated into German. He was subsequently commissioned by the National Theatre. His commission for Y Touring, Breathing Country, in association with the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Wellcome Trust, toured the country in 2009-10, and was shortlisted for the Theatre Centre Brian Way award for the Best New Play for Young People.

In 2009, he worked with David Watson and Paula Stanic on a piece for Only Connect – Pancras Boys Club. His play for the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Exams are Getting Easier, was performed by the Young REP in April 2010. Ben is currently working with TheatreScience and Imperial College on a play about HIV in Uganda.

His afternoon play for Radio 4, The British Club, starring Sanjeev Bhaskar and Samantha Bond, was broadcast in March 2012, and his new play for Only Connect, His Teeth, was performed in October 2011. It was Evening Standard and Time Out Critics’ Choice, and was nominated for an Offwestend.com award for best new play.

He will begin an attachment at the National Theatre Studio towards the end of the year. Ben teaches creative writing at Westminster University, and is a fellow of the Macdowell Colony, New Hampshire. He was a member of the FORUM OF YOUNG EUROPEAN PLAYWRIGHTS (Wiesbaden, Germany, 2008), and is currently supported by a grant from the Peggy Ramsay Foundation.

Other plays include: Later, Paines Plough, Trafalgar Studios, 2007, 2008; The Melancholy Hussar (a free adaptation of the Thomas Hardy story), Etcetera Theatre Camden 2003; Love Between Two Shelves, ADC Theatre Cambridge 2003 and a co-written adaptation of A Tale Of two Cities which was presented in London and Paris in 2001.

Hear Ben talking about the first read through of Across The Dark Water

http://ow.ly/ONdyE

Stephen has been a sound and graphic designer since 2002.

Stephen has worked primarily with Punchdrunk on productions such as the award-winning Faust, The Masque of The Red Death, It Felt Like A Kiss, a collaboration with Adam Curtis and Damon Albarn as part of the Manchester International Festival (UK), the Doctor Who adventure The Crash Of The Elysium, Punchdrunk’s US debut Sleep No More and the critically-acclaimed The Drowned Man: A Hollywood Fable.

He has also worked with Punchdrunk Enrichment on several projects, including The Uncommercial Traveller (UK & International), a collaboration with Arcola Theatre and most recently Against Captain’s Orders at the National Maritime Museum.

Stephen has also worked as a sound designer on two Greenwich & Docklands Festivals.