“All children whose parents have been busted up by war – never are the same. We’re a special breed.”
August 1956. It’s a day of excitement. Young Sammy comes to live with his father and stepmother, 15 years after they escaped as refugees from Nazi Europe. Raised from infancy by an aunt in Croydon, he now comes to London to work as an apprentice. But the young man’s arrival – eagerly and nervously anticipated – disrupts the secrets and settled ways of this rackety Jewish household and their neighbours, in ways nobody could have foreseen.
Michael Hastings “writes with an intimate knowledge of Jewish working-class life” (Jewish Chronicle, August 1956)
Tricia Thorns’ Two’s Company is acclaimed for bringing a series of forgotten masterpieces to London theatres, in sparkling new productions. Their world premiere production of Michael Hastings’s only unperformed play, The Cutting of the Cloth, was described as “A production so exact you can smell it. The thrill is in the documentary detail, marvellously realised in Tricia Thorns’ terrific production” – The Observer.
Other productions include London Wall (“rivetingly entertaining” -The Guardian), A Day By The Sea (“A joy” – Daily Express) and What The Women Did (“a complex and funny evening” – Time Out)
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Running time
138 minutes (including interval) -
Age guidance
12+
“Tricia Thorns’ punchily atmospheric revival ….is a poignant, beautifully acted revival. A resonant piece of theatrical history that still ignites today”– The Times
“Timely revival of Michael Hastings’ unsettling 1956 play that examines the legacy of war on immigrants in postwar London”– The Guardian
“Post-war life is beautifully captured in this revival of a forgotten curio”– The Telegraph
Production photos
The Company
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Nathalie Barclay
Shani
Nathalie Barclay
Shani
Nathalie is a British/American actress based in London.
Theatre includes: Visitors (Watermill Theatre), Boeing Boeing (UK Tour, London Classic Theatre), Here I Belong (Theatre By The Lake & UK tour, Pentabus Theatre), Primary Playmaker (Oxford Playhouse), Antigone (The Lowry & UK tour), Positive (Park Theatre), You Once Said Yes (Nuffield Theatre), The Boy Who Never Learned To Fly (The Story Project/Arcola Theatre), Much Ado About Nothing (New Wimbledon Theatre Studio).
TV and film includes: a new series for Apple TV, Killing Eve (BBC America/AMC), Trigonometry (BBC), Old Man, Con Man (Oskar Nilsson Films), 50 Kisses (Grindstone Films), One Day at a Time (Firehouse), Arnika (Théâtre Volière) Duplicity (Nathan Miller Films).
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Eddie Boyce
Sammy
Eddie Boyce
Sammy
Eddie trained at the Royal Scottish Conservatory. This is their professional stage debut.
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Nicholas Day
The Rabbi
Nicholas Day
The Rabbi
Theatre includes: Witness For The Prosecution (London County Hall); Yellowfin (Southwark Playhouse, Offies Award: Best Supporting Actor); After All These Years (UK Tour); The Wild Duck (Almeida); Platonov (Chichester & National Theatre); The History Boys (Sheffield Crucible); Henry V, Cardenio, The City Madam, Romeo And Juliet, Twelfth Night, The Tempest, Marat Sade, Much Ado About Nothing, King John, Dido Queen Of Carthage, Vice Versa, (Royal Shakespeare Company); Wolf Hall (RSC, West End and Broadway); The Crucifer Of Blood, The Country Wife (Theatre Royal Haymarket); Hecuba (Donmar Warehouse); Tartuffe, Johnny On The Spot, Absence Of War, Murmuring Judges, Racing Demon, The Beaux’ Stratagem, (National Theatre), Dealer’s Choice (NT, West End and World Tour); Boy Gets Girl, The Shallow End (Royal Court); The Iceman Cometh (Almeida/Old Vic), A Small Family Business (Oldham), I Do Not Like Thee Dr. Fell, Taking Steps (Watford), Night Must Fall (Greenwich), Ask For The Moon (Hampstead), Abigail’s Party (Windsor, Bromley).
Television includes: The Crown, Brexit, Poirot, Doctors, Garrow’s Law, The Take, Midsomer Murders, Foyle’s War, Rosemary And Thyme, Doc Martin, New Tricks (Series), Cambridge Spies, In Defence, Inspector Lynley, The Stretch, Extremely Dangerous, The Wilsons, The Bill, Goodnight Sweetheart, The Lakes (Series), Kavanagh Q.C., The Absence Of War, Minder (Series), Mountbatten, Trouble In Mind (Series), Lovejoy, Made In Heaven, Never The Twain, Saracen, Home Front, After The War, Bust, Call Me Mister, C.A.T.S. Eyes, A Still Small Shout, Heart Attack Hotel, Crown Court, Harry’s Game, Shelly, Pull The Other One, Full House, Bounder, Grungy, Grandad.
Film includes: A Dark Reflection, Pleasure Island, Eliminate: Archie Cookson, The Wolfman, Amazing Grace, Les Poupees Russes, The Golden Bowl, Sabotage, Human Bomb.
Nick’s Book about Shakespeare and the RSC, “On Bard Duty” was published in 2017.
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Alix Dunmore
Mrs Pond
Alix Dunmore
Mrs Pond
Trained: Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
For Two’s Company: Bodies, A Day By The Sea, The Fifth Column, What The Women Did, (all Southwark Playhouse), London Wall (Finborough Theatre and The Other Palace)
Other theatre includes: Cinderella (Norwich Theatre Royal); Stepping Out (SJT, Scarborough); Jane Clegg (Finborough); King Kong, A Comedy (Vaults); A Christmas Carol (Vaults); Ben Hur (Tricycle); The 39 Steps (Criterion, West End); Gaslight (New Vic, Newcastle-Under-Lyme),; Top Girls (Out of Joint); The Dead Guy (English Theatre Frankfurt); Nature Adores a Vacuum (Soho Theatre); Separate Tables (Mill at Sonning); A Winter of War (Cheltenham Everyman) and The Two Noble Kinsmen (Bristol Old Vic);
Television includes: The Sister Boniface Mysteries, There She Goes, Casualty, Doctors and Call The Midwife (BBC)
Radio includes: I Severus, The Simon Day Show and 49 Cedar Street (BBC)
Film includes: The Pod generation (MK2 Films) and London Wall (Master Media)
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Sue Kelvin
Mrs Miller
Sue Kelvin
Mrs Miller
Theatre includes: Mumsy (Hull Truck Theatre); Caroline, or Change (Playhouse Theatre and Hampstead Theatre); Wicked (Apollo Theatre); Barmitzvah Boy and Jewish Hollywood (Upstairs at The Gatehouse); Bette Midler…And Me (The Other Palace); Private Lives (Gielgud Theatre); Travelling Light and A Streetcar Named Desire (National Theatre); Onassis (Derby Theatre and Novello Theatre); Fiddler on the Roof (Savoy Theatre); Chicago (Cambridge Theatre and Adelphi Theatre); Apartment 2012 (The White Bear); Hetty Feinstein’s Wedding Anniversary (New End Theatre); Beau Jest, Muck From Three Angles and Dick Whittington (Hackney Empire); Sit and Shiver (New End Theatre and Hackney Empire); Sophie Tucker’s One Night Stand (New End Hampstead and UK Tour); Rags (Bridewell Theatre); Wild Wild Women (Orange Tree Theatre); An Evening with Victoria Wood (Theatre Royal Drury Lane); Tales My Lover Told Me (Kings Head Theatre); Oliver! (London Palladium); Assassins (Donmar Warehouse); Les Miserables (Palace Theatre); Hello Dolly! (Nottingham Playhouse and UK Tour); Teechers (Northampton Theatre); Annie (Aberystwyth).
Television includes: Funny Women – Bette Midler (Channel 5); I Live With Models –Series 2 (Roughcut); Silent Witness (BBC); Doctors (BBC); The Legend of Dick and Dom (BBC); Love Soup (BBC); Afterlife (ITV 1); Brazen Hussies (BBC); Casualty (BBC); Coupling (BBC); Dr Who (BBC); Keen Eddie (Paramount Pictures); London Bridge (Carlton); Love Hurts II (BBC); Mike Bassett TV (ITV1); Red Dwarf VIII (BBC)
Film includes: Great Expectations (dir. Mike Newell); Anxiety (dir. Alisdair Ogilvie); Reuniting The Rubens (dir. Yoav Factor); Red Eagle (dir: Jim Goddard) and Song of Songs (dir. Josh Appignanesi)
Radio includes: Co-hosting The Jenny Eclair Show (Radio London), Jack and Millie (Radio 4), Book of Danielle (Radio 4)
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Timothy O’Hara
George
Timothy O’Hara
George
For Two’s Company: London Wall (Finborough Theatre and The Other Palace)
Other theatre includes: Rumble in the Jungle: Rematch (Rematch Productions), Habiti Driver (Bolton Octagon), Shakespeare in Love (Noel Coward Theatre), The Mousetrap (St Martin’s Theatre), The Little Mermaid (Theatre Royal Bath), Chair Plays (Lyric Hammersmith), Essence, Burkas & Bacon Butties, Wretch (Vault Festival).
Film includes: Sherlock Holmes
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Paul Rider
Leo
Paul Rider
Leo
Trained at Bretton Hall.
For Two’s Company, Staircase and Cutting of the Cloth at Southwark Playhouse.
Theatre includes: The Comedy of Errors, The Tempest, Cymbeline, Measure For Measure, The Oresteia, Julius Caesar, Doctor Scroggy’s War, The Knight of the Burning Pestle, The Duchess of Malfi, Henry V, Henry IV Parts 1 & 2, Love’s Labour’s Lost, We the People, Coriolanus, Under the Black Flag at Shakespeare’s Globe.
Other theatre includes: Chicago (Phoenix Theatre), A Woman of No Importance (Vaudeville Theatre and UK tour), Wise Children (Bristol Old Vic), Hairspray (2013 National Tour), Chekhov in Hell (Plymouth Theatre Royal & Soho Theatre), Merchant of Venice (Derby Theatre), Comedians (Lyric Hammersmith), Chicago (Cambridge Theatre), Dying for It (Almeida), Women Beware Women (RSC), Singer (Tricycle), Americans (Arcola), Arsenic and Old Lace (Strand), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Albery), The Changing Room (Royal Court at Duke of York’s), Teechers, Bouncers (Arts Theatre), Hamlet, King Lear, Edward II (Compass Theatre), The Rivals (Derby Playhouse), She Stoops to Conquer (Bristol Old Vic), Richard II, East (Oldham Coliseum)
Television includes: Holby City, Doctors, Doc Martin, Horizon – Einstein, French and Saunders, My Family, Victoria Wood With All the Trimmings, Dinnerladies, Murder Most Horrid, Eastenders, The Bare Necessities, The Bill, City Central, Broker’s Man, The Ritz and Whose Line is it Anyway?
Film includes: Lion Versus The Little People, The War Below, Pond Life, Undercliffe, Making Noise Quietly, A Cock and Bull Story, Honest, Topsy Turvy.
Radio includes: Over 60 plays for the BBC Radio drama company
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Nell Williams
Suki
Nell Williams
Suki
Nell is currently filming independent feature TWO NEIGHBOURS with Anya Chalotra and was most recently seen as ‘Katy’ in the BBC’s critically acclaimed one-off drama ELIZABETH IS MISSING alongside Glenda Jackson, Mark Stanley and Sophie Rundle. Nell has been dubbed one of the UK’s most promising young actors following her starring role in Gurinder Chadha’s BLINDED BY THE LIGHT which premiered to rave reviews at Sundance.
Other recent credits include ITV’s DEEP WATER alongside Anna Friel, her role as ‘Lilli’ in THE GOOD LIAR for Warner Brothers alongside Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen and her role as ‘Agnes Austen’ in the Shekhar Kapur-directed TNT series WILL. Nell can now be seen in feature film INLAND, alongside Mark Rylance, which premiered at this year’s London Film Festival.
Nell’s theatre credits include Caryl Churchill’s LOVE AND INFORMATION at the Royal Court and Stephen Daldry’s THE AUDIENCE playing the young Queen Elizabeth, alongside Helen Mirren.
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Michael Hastings
Writer
Michael Hastings
Writer
Michael Hastings (1937–2011) was the winner of two Emmy Awards, two BAFTAs, the Somerset Maugham Award and was nominated for an Oscar. His first play – Don’t Destroy Me – was produced when he was just 18 years old and he went on to become part of the first wave of new playwrights at George Devine’s Royal Court Theatre. He won the Evening Standard Award in 1979 for Gloo Joo, but remains best known for Tom and Viv, his 1984 play about the poet T.S. Eliot and his wife Vivienne Haigh‐Wood, first seen at the Royal Court Theatre and adapted into a film. His other plays include Lee Harvey Oswald and The Emperor and he also wrote extensively for television and film including The American, starring Diana Rigg, and The Nightcomers, starring Marlon Brando. He also wrote novels, biographies, and libretti.
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Tricia Thorns
Director
Tricia Thorns
Director
Tricia Thorns is Artistic Director of Two’s Company. She began her career as an actress in the West End as part of John Neville’s company at the Fortune Theatre, after a Classics BA from Nottingham University.
Directing includes Staircase, Bodies, A Day by the Sea, The Fifth Column, The Cutting of the Cloth and What the Women Did (Southwark Playhouse), Go Bang Your Tambourine, Red Night and London Wall, (Finborough Theatre and transfer to the Other Palace), her own plays Breakfast on the Beach and Creation with casts of 40, (St Barnabas Church, Dulwich), A Hard Rain (Above the Stag Theatre), My Real War 1914-? (Trafalgar Studios and National Tour), The Searcher (Musical Futures at Greenwich Theatre), Forgotten Voices from the Great War (Pleasance London), Ex and Black ‘Ell (Soho Theatre), Twelfth Night (Dulwich Picture Gallery), Peer Gynt (Alleyn’s Theatre) and Passion Play 2000, a huge community play which she also wrote.
As an actress, theatre includes End of Story (Chelsea Theatre), Harry and Me (Warehouse, Croydon), Façade (Dingley and Dulwich Festivals) A Kind of Alaska (Edinburgh, National Tour and USA Tour), Time’s Up (Windsor Theatre Royal), The Libertine and The Man of Mode (Royal Court Theatre and Out of Joint Tour), Betrayal (Battersea Arts Centre and National Tour), Run For Your Wife (West End) and leading roles in theatres in Salisbury, Ipswich, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Guildford, Derby and many more.
Television includes Dangerfield, A Touch of Frost, Keeping Up Appearances, The Darling Buds of May, The Bill, London’s Burning and Captives. Film includes The Turn of the Screw.
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Alex Marker
Set Designer
Alex Marker
Set Designer
In his role as Associate Designer for Two’s Company Alex has designed almost all their productions over the last 18 years including: Red Night and Go Bang Your Tambourine (Finborough Theatre), My Real War 1914 -? (Trafalgar Studios and 2 national tours), The Searcher (Greenwich Theatre), Ex (Soho Theatre), London Wall (Finborough and transfer to The Other Palace), What the Women Did, The Cutting of the Cloth, The Fifth Column, A Day by the Sea, Bodies and Staircase (Southwark Playhouse).
Alex is resident designer at the Finborough Theatre, where he has designed over 40 productions including: The White Carnation (and transfer to Jermyn Street Theatre), Dream of the Dog (and transfer to Trafalgar Studios) and Plague Over England (and transfer to the Duchess Theatre). At the Finborough he also directed the first production for over 60 years of J. B. Priestley’s play, Summer Day’s Dream.
At the Arcola Theatre Alex has previously designed: Hush and King Arthur. Other production designs include: Yours Unfaithfully (Jermyn Street), It’s Her Turn Now, Funny Money (The Mill, Sonning), I Found My Horn (Riverside Studios), Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense (The Theatre, Chipping Norton/The Barn Theatre Cirencester), Harpy (National Tour), The Odd Couple (Vienna’s English Theatre), The Firm, The Meeting (Hampstead Theatre), Boris III, The Red and Fox (Pleasance, Edinburgh), Can’t Buy You Love and London Calling (Salisbury Playhouse), Sherlock Holmes and the Crimson Cobbles, Around the World in 80 Days (The Theatre Chipping Norton and touring) and Tape (Trafalgar Studios)
He is also the artistic Director of the Questors Theatre in West London.
www.alexmarker.com
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Carla Joy Evans
Costume Designer
Carla Joy Evans
Costume Designer
Carla is a costume designer and maker, her previous productions include: Jane Clegg, Distinguished Villa, The Straw Chair (Off West End Award finalist for Best Costume), The Wind and the Rain (set and costume) and Makeshifts and Realities, all for the Finborough Theatre.
Other productions include Is That a Bolt In Your Neck (Gonzo Moose national tour) and Boris the Third (Edinburgh Festival). Since 2019 Carla has costumed short plays for Vienna’s English Theatre (most recently Macbeth and The Little Prince) touring schools across Austria, and she is Head of Wardrobe at The Questors Theatre in Ealing.
Carla is also a poster designer and photographer for clients including: Chickenshed, The Playground, Jermyn Street Theatre, Riverside Studios, Finborough Theatre, Sky Arts, Charring Cross Theatre and Riverfront Theatre.
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Neill Brinkworth
Lighting Designer
Neill Brinkworth
Lighting Designer
Neill is a Lighting Designer working on a wide range of plays, musicals, opera, dance and immersive theatre.
For Two’s Company: Staircase, A Day by the Sea, The Fifth Column, The Cutting of the Cloth (Southwark Playhouse)
Other Designs include: Don Giovanni (revival @ Greek National Opera), Cinema Inferno (John Galliano, Paris Fashion week with Imitating the Dog,; Afterite, (revival, Wayne McGregor, La Scala, Milan), Ghostbusters (Secret Cinema), Katya Kabanova (revival @ Teatro dell’opera, Rome), Dido and Aeneas, Jephthe, Bridgetower (all English Touring Opera), Blank (NT Connections, Dorfmann Theatre), Merrily We Roll Along, Spring Awakening (Leeds Conservatoire), The Girl on the Train (English Theatre Frankfurt), Noor, Phantasmagoria (Kali Theatre), The Flying Dutchman (OUC), Salt Water Moon (Finborough); Alice’s Adventures Underground (revival, Irish National Opera), The Dark (Fuel Theatre), Jekyll & Hyde (Chester Storyhouse), Hansel & Gretl (revival, San Francisco Opera), In the Night Garden Live (Minor Entertainment), The Firm (Hampstead Theatre), Children of Killers (NT Connections, Olivier Theatre), Dessa Rose (Trafalgar Studios).
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Dominic Bilkey
Sound Designer
Dominic Bilkey
Sound Designer
Dominic Bilkey is a Tony and Olivier Nominated Sound Designer and is currently
Head of Sound & Video at the National Theatre in London England.He is actively involved in the teaching sound and associated technologies at a
number of UK Universities including RWCMD, CSSD, AMATA and Guildford.
For Two’s Company: Staircase, Bodies, The Fifth Column, The Cutting of the
Cloth, What The Women Did (Southwark Playhouse), Go Bang Your Tambourine
(Finborough Theatre), London Wall (Finborough and The Other Palace)
Online Designs: Original Readings, Viral – Online Film, Apollo 13, Birdsong
Online (Original Theatre).Recent Designs: Stumped – (Original Theatre Hybrid); Into the Night – (Original
Theatre Hybrid); Death of a Salesman – Soundscape Designer (Elliott Harper
Productions); Pippi Longstocking the Musical (Royal & Derngate Northampton);
Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella & Aladdin (Windsor Theatre Royal); (CO)The
Lehman Trilogy (National Theatre, West End & Broadway); Peter Pan (National
Theatre and White City Troubador); Highway One (Welsh Millennium Centre)
Shadowlands (Birdsong Productions);); Flarepath (Birdsong Productions); Jane
Eyre (National Theatre/Bristol Old Vic & Touring); Pinocchio (Guy James and
Szpiezak Productions); Tommy the Musical (Aria Entertainment, Guy James and
Szpiezak Productions); Birdsong (Birdsong Productions/Original Theatre). -
Graham Cowley
Producer
Graham Cowley
Producer
He has produced all of Two’s Company’s shows, including his own translation of Véronique Olmi’s End of Story. Previous productions include work with Out of Joint, Theatre of Comedy Company, the Royal Court Theatre (on whose behalf he transferred Death and the Maiden, Oleanna, Six Degrees of Separation, My Night with Reg, The Queen and I and The Weir to the West End), Paines Plough, the Half Moon Theatre, Joint Stock Theatre Group, Greenwich Theatre and the London Palladium.
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Chloé Nelkin Consultants
Press Representative
Chloé Nelkin Consultants
Press Representative
info@chloenelkinconsulting.com
This production is supported by
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The Golsoncott Foundation
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Foyle Foundation
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Unity Theatre Trust
Generously supported by the The Foyle Foundation, Boris Karloff Charitable Foundation, Sylvia Waddilove Foundation, Unity Theatre Trust and The Golsoncott Foundation.