Issued On: 22/04/2004 Soho Theatre Company
FLUSH
by David Dipper Date issued: 30/3/04 Soho Theatre Company announces cast for A new play by David Dipper Directed by Bijan Sheibani 20 April to 8 May (press night: 22 April at 7.30pm – please note the press night has been changed from originally advertised) The cast for Soho Theatre Company’s new production, Flush, has been confirmed to
include Christine Bottomley as Holly, Elliot Cowan as Charlie, Burn Gorman as Cupid, Katherine Parkinson as Lilly and Darren Tighe as Francis (please find biographies overleaf). Flush is a story of love, competition and deceit amongst friends. Twentysomethings Francis, Cupid and Charlie meet weekly to play poker and share stories, some taller than others, but all explicit. One of Francis and Cupid’s tales involves the story behind the death of Charlie’s sister Holly, and when the truth comes out the
strength of their friendship is taken to the limits. David Dipper wrote Flush at the age of twenty-one whilst a member of Soho Theatre’s Young Writers’ Core Group in 2003. His involvement with Soho Writers’ Centre began by attending an open-access taster workshop leading to a place on the 10-week writing course. From this he was selected to become a member of the Core Group and is now on commission with Soho Theatre Company as part of the Writers’ Attachment Programme. Flush is directed by Bijan Sheibani. Bijan received The
James Menzies-Kitchin Memorial Trust Award for Young Directors 2003 and a Peter Brook Empty Space Award 2002. He has recently been awarded the 2004 Cohen Bursary and, as a result, will be director on attachment at the National Theatre Studio and at English Touring Theatre for the coming year. His previous directing credits include Party Time and One for the Road by Harold Pinter and Stoning by Ghazi Rabihavi (BAC) and Have I None by Edward Bond (Southwark Playhouse). Designer Paul Burgess has worked with Bijan before on
Party Time and One for the Road (BAC) and Have I None (Southwark Playhouse). He trained at the Motley Theatre Design Court and has worked as assistant to Ultz and to Claudia Mayer. With artist/designer Simon Daw, Paul established the visual art, digital technology and theatre company Scale Project, for which he is a collaborating artist and producer. Coinciding with the opening of Flush, Soho Theatre launches the Verity Bargate Award 2004 (VBA), with entries accepted from 22 April. Established following Verity
Bargate's death in 1981 to commemorate and continue her contribution to the field of new writing, the VBA identifies the most outstanding new play with an award including £3500 and a residency with Soho Theatre Company. Previous winners include Shan Khan (Office), Toby Whithouse (Jump Mr Malinoff Jump), Diane Samuels (Kindertransport) and Gillian Plowman (Me and My Friend). To accompany Flush, Soho Writers’ Centre presents Full House, a three-week celebration of Soho’s commitment to the
development and production of new plays and new writers. With an opportunity for audiences to have a first look at Soho’s writers and ongoing programmes, Full House presents/includes openaccess Nuts and Bolts workshops; a sample of short plays by Soho’s six Writers on Attachment*; and Soho’s new Launch Pad series, which gives writers a chance to showcase their plays and offers audiences and industry a first look at their work. During Full House, Launch Pad writers include Simon Day, Zoe Lewis and Ryan Craig.
For further detail contact Nancy Poole on 020 7478 0142 or e-mail nancy@sohotheatre.com *Notes to editors, listings details and cast and company biographies overleaf Notes to editors In January, Soho Writers’ Centre launched the Soho Writers’ Attachment Programme 2004 (WAP). The six members have been commissioned to write a fulllength play during a supported year-long residency. David Dipper is joined on the WAP by Simon Bowen (Whitebaby for Paines Plough at Bristol Old Vic and Free at the National Theatre’s
Transformations season); Nick Caldecott (currently working on Betty Lush); Rebecca Lenkiewicz (Soho – A Tale of Table Dancers at Edinburgh and Arcola, and The Night Season to be produced at the National this year); Amber Lone (Paradise and Lion of Allah at Birmingham Rep); and Laura Wade (Young Emma at Finborough). The Writers’ Attachment Programme is supported by The Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation. Listings Details: FLUSH Venue Soho Theatre + Writers’ Centre
21 Dean Street, W1D 3NE Dates 20 April – 8 May 2004 Time 7.30pm + 4pm matinee on 28 April, 1, 5, 8 May Signed performance 5 May at 7.30pm by Jeni Draper Audio described performance 6 May at 7.30pm by LADs Free post-show discussion 8 May, following the matinee, with writer and director Ticket prices Monday + matinees £5 Tuesday – Saturday £10/£8 Book for any Full House events and buy a ticket for Flush for £5 Box Office 0870 429 6883 www.sohotheatre.com
Listings Details: FULL HOUSE Week one: Nuts and Bolts A series of back-to-basics intensive seminars for writers at every level, led by Nina Steiger (Writers’ Centre Director) and Jonathan Lloyd (Associate Director). Dates 19 – 23 April Time 5pm – 6.30pm Ticket price £5 per session or £20 for the week Week two: Attachment 2004 A sample of work from the Writers’ Attachment Programme 2004, with presentations of ten-minute plays and daytime readings of new works-in-progress. Dates 26 – 30 April
Time 4pm on 26, 27, 29 + 30 + 1pm on 28 Ticket price £5/£3 Week three: Launch Pad Soho Theatre’s brand new workshop programme continues with exclusive first performances of three new plays, chosen for development by Soho Writers’ Centre. Dates and times May 6 at 4pm: OUTSIDE DES by Zoe Lewis May 7 at 4pm: TENDER EYES by Simon Day, directed by Wilson Milam, May 8 at 8pm: CITY BOYS by Ryan Craig Ticket Price £5/£3
For further detail contact Nancy Poole on 020 7478 0142 or e-mail nancy@sohotheatre.com CAST AND COMPANY Christine Bottomley Holly Christine’s theatre credits include Ladybird (Royal Court), New Writers’ Workshop (Royal Exchange) and The Pleasureman (Citizens Theatre). Television credits include Early Doors, Grease Monkeys, Dalziel and Pascoe, Casualty New Writers’ Workshop, EastEnders and Inspector Lynley (BBC). Film credits include Untitled 03
(Thin Man Films, Dir. Mike Leigh). Burn Gorman Cupid Burn’s theatre credits include Ladybird (Royal Court), American Street (Paines Plough, Young Vic), Tiny Dynamite (Frantic Assembly, Paines Plough), The Green Man (Bush Theatre, Plymouth), Ethel and Earnest (Nottingham Playhouse), Spilt Milk (Young Vic), Destination (Riverside, Volcano), Shooting Stars and Other Heavenly Pursuits (Old Red Lion), From Morning to Midnight (ENO),Traffic and Weather, Hidden Markings (Contact Markings), Genius at Large
(LSO), Underbetitled (Royal Exchange Studio), Seagulls, Princess Sharon (Scarlet Theatre) and Christmas Carol (Tron Theatre). Television credits include The Shoreditch T**t (Talkback), A Good Thief, Coronation Street (Granada), Merseybeat and Casualty (BBC). Film credits include Colour Me Kubrick and Layercake. Burn is an accomplished human beatbox and breakdancer and has appeared in various music videos. He was BBC Radio 1’s Human Beatbox Champion 2003. Elliot Cowan Charlie
Elliot’s theatre credits include The Seagull (Edinburgh Festival), Camille (Lyric Hammersmith) and Life of Galileo (BAC, tour). Television credits include The Project, Judge John Deed, Chillers (BBC), Jonathan Creek (BBC1), Crims (Channel 4), Foyle’s War (Greenlit Productions) and Ultimate Force (Bentley Productions), Rescue Me (Tiger Aspect) and It’s a Girl Thing (Optomen TV). Film credits include Alexander (Warner Brothers, Dir. Oliver Stone) and After Berlin (Dir. Richard Tovell). Darren Tighe Francis
Darren’s theatre credits include Hunting for Dragons (Soho Theatre), The Backroom (Soho Theatre, Bush Theatre), Sweet Heart, Mojo (Royal Court), Summer Begins (RNT Studio, Donmar Warehouse), Precious (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Chimps (Hampstead Theatre) and The Forest (National Theatre). Television credits include Silent Witness, Sally Phillip’s Pilot, Crime and Punishment, Casualty, Dalziel and Pascoe, In Your Dreams, Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, All the King’s Men (BBC), Foyle’s War (Greenlit), M.I.T (Thames), Trust (Box), I Saw You, A & E, Cracker II,
Medics, Band of Gold II (Granada), Rescue Me and Gimme, Gimme, Gimme (Tiger Aspect). Film credits include The Virgin of Liverpool (Mob Film Company), 24 Hour Party People (24 Hour Prod, Ltd), High Heels Low Lifes (High Heels Prods. Ltd), More is Less (TTO Limited), Coming Down (Kudos Productions), Jude (Obscure Films) and Ill Communication (Pilgrim Films). Katherine Parkinson Lilly Katherine’s theatre credits include Antigone,The Increased Difficulty of Concentration (Gate Theatre), Camille (Lyric Hammersmith),
Frame 312 (Donmar Warehouse), Clytemnestra (Oxford Playhouse), Deep Throat Live on Stage (Assembly Rooms) and The Age of Consent (Bush Theatre and 2001 Edinburgh Festival). Creative team biogs overleaf David Dipper Writer David wrote Flush at the age of 21 whilst a member of Soho Theatre’s Young Writers’ Group. He is currently working on a new full-length play, commissioned as part of Soho Theatre’s Writers’ Attachment Programme 2004. Bijan Sheibani Director
Bijan’s previous directing credits include Party Time, One for the Road, The Stoning (BAC), The Clink (Rose Theatre), Have I None (Southwark Playhouse), Summer (Lion and Unicorn Theatre), Peace for Our Time (Cockpit Theatre), Nightwatchman (Oval Cricket Ground) and The Lover (Burton Taylor Theatre). Bijan won The James MenziesKitchin Memorial Trust Award for Young Directors 2003. He is also the recipient of the 2004 Cohen Bursary at the National Theatre Studio and English Touring Theatre. Paul Burgess Designer
Paul trained at the Motley Theatre Design Course. Recent designs include One for the Road, Party Time (BAC), Have I None (Southwark Playhouse), Peer Gynt (Arcola) and Choked (Touring). Other designs include Fred and Madge (OUDS, Oxford), The People’s opera (Touring), Women and Criminals (Here Arts Centre, New York) and Sherlock Holmes and the Secret of Making Whoopee (La Tea Theatre, New York). Assistant designing includes The Ramayana (National), Ramayan Odyssey (National Tour), and Twelfth Night (Globe US tour). He is
currently Master of Properties and Hangings for the Globe’s upcoming production of Much Ado About Nothing. In 2001 Paul co-founded Scale Project, a series of collaborations between visual artists and performers. Nigel Edwards Lighting Designer Nigel’s theatre credits include Dirty Butterfly (Soho), Some Confusions in the Law About Love, Bloody Mess, Club of No Regrets, Who Can Sing a Song to Unfrighten Me?, Speak Bitterness (Forced Entertainment), Clare de Luz (Insomniac), Cleansed, 4.48 Pychosis, Fallout, Ladybird
(Royal Court), Crave, Riddance, Sleeping Around, The Cosmonauts Last Message, Splendour (Paines Plough), One Minute, Arabian Night, The Boy Who Left Home (ATC), When Harry met Sally (Haymarket), Sexual Perversity in Chicago (The Comedy), Roberto Zucco, The Mysteries, Shadows, The Tempest, Victoria (RSC), The Misanthrope (The Gate, Dublin), Mr Heracles, Inconceivable (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Jenufa (WNO), Hansel and Gretal (Opera North) and Triumph of Love (Almeida) John Leonard Sound Designer
John started work in theatre sound 30 years ago and during that time he has provided soundtracks for theatres all over the world. Recent productions for Soho Theatre include Wrong Place, A Reckoning, Things You Shouldn’t Say Past Midnight, meeting Myself Coming Back and Kiss Me Like You Mean It. Other recent productions include The Dumb Waiter (Oxford Playhouse), Still Life/The Astonished Heart, The Entertainer (Liverpool Playhouse), Les Liaisons Dangereuses (West End), Sweet Panic (Duke of York’s), Absolutely! (Perhaps) (West End) Jumpers (National/West
End), The Master Builder (Tour and West End), Private Lives (West End/Broadway), Midnight’s Children (London, UK and US tours), Antony and Cleopatra (RSC), The Merry Wives of Windsor (Ludlow Festival), Sunday Father (Hampstead), Madame Tussaud’s Exhibition (New York, Amsterdam) and Five Gold Rings, The Mercy Seat, I.D., The Lady from the Sea (Almeida). John is a director of Aura Sound Design Ltd.