(the) Woman

M is a woman. M is a writer. M is a mother.

Catapulted from the crest of a hit play and hijacked by motherhood – the wild nights out have been replaced by evenings in with baby and a breastpump. Suddenly M is burnt out, angry, lonely, unsure and, quite frankly, terrified of the future.

She wants to tell her story, her way. But, everyone around her shares their opinions on who she is, who she should be and how she’s f*cking everything up.

From award-winning writer Jane Upton, this 2022 Bruntwood Prize shortlisted play is relatable, funny and a painful scream from the abyss of early motherhood.

(the) Woman Cast & Creative Team

CAST

Lizzy Watts – M

Lizzy Watts trained at The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

Theatre includes: The Commotion Time (Exeter Northcott); SHED: Exploded View (Manchester Royal Exchange); Either and Ravenscourt (Hampstead); Dealing With Clair and The False Servant (Orange Tree); Hedda Gabler (National Theatre); Strife (Chichester); Angry Brigade and Artefacts (The Bush); God of Chaos and Merit (Theatre Royal Plymouth); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s Globe); Blink (Nabokov); Twelfth Night (Filter); Wasted (Paines Plough).

TV includes: Call The Midwife, Professor T, Endeavour, The Durrells, Midsomer Murders. Film includes: The Best Man.

Lizzy has recorded many radio dramas for the BBC and played regular character Ivy Layton in Radio 4’s Home Front.

Jamie-Rose Monk

Jamie-Rose Monk trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.

Theatre credits include: Hansel and Gretel; Princess Essex; The Taming of the Shrew (The Globe), Christmas Actually (The Southbank Centre), Greatest Days The Musical (National Tour), The Witch Finder’s Sister (Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch), Talent (Sheffield Crucible), Dick Whittington (National Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Bridge Theatre), The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice (Park Theatre), Yap Yap Yap (Royal Festival Hall and Soho Theatre), Fat – A One Woman Show (Hackney Showrooms/Gaggle Productions), The Poisoners’ Pact (Stuff of Dreams Tour), Monologue Slam Winner’s Edition (Theatre Royal Stratford East/Triforce Promotions).

Television credits include: My Lady Jane (Amazon Studios); Gangsta Granny Strikes Again (BBC); Doctors (Semi Regular, BBC); Holby City (BBC); Class Dismissed (Series Regular, Series 1-3, CBBC); Gameface (Objective Fiction).

Film credits include: Holmes & Watson (Columbia Pictures Corporation).

Comedy credits include: Buttery Brown Monk (Leicester Square Theatre); The Gag Show (Gaggle Productions).

Radio credits include: Sketchtopia – Series 1 & 2 (BBC Radio 4), Athena’s Cancel Culture (BBC Radio 4)

Cian Barry

Cian recently appeared across cinemas in Per Fly’s feature as Heinrich Wieschhoff in the new feature Hammarskjöld, opposite Sex Education’s Mikael Persbrandt.

Cian has just filmed FBI: International and will soon be seen in ITV’s returning crime series DI Ray, playing Ethan Henderson.

Further film credits include: Falling Into Place (Weydemann Bros.); Snap Shot (Contraption Ltd/Parkland Pictures); A Winter Prince (Wales Productions); Caught; Nina Forever (Jeva Films); RPG (MGN Filmes); Holy Water (Feature Productions); Ghost Town (Haunted Productions) and In The Siders Web (Thistle Productions).

TV credits include: Midsomer Murders (ITV); Out Of Her Mind (Stolen Picture); Treadstone (Not-4-Not Productions); The A List (Kindle Entertainment); Outlaws; Doctor Foster; Father Brown; New Tricks (all BBC); Shameless Series 7 (Channel 4) and Walking The Dead (BBC).

Theatre credits include: Wildefire (Hampstead), Translations (Sheffield Theatres), Our Boys (Duchess Theatre), The Member Of The Wedding (Young Vic Theatre).

Cian has a great presence in the video-gaming scene, best known as Zane in the Borderlands.

André Squire

TRAINING: Ian Smith, ITV Workshop, Nottingham; Identity Drama School

THEATRE INCLUDES: One Night in Miami (ABKCO Theater/Nottingham Playhouse), The Grapes of Wrath (Nuffield Theatre), The Refugee Boy (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Lonely Cowboy (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Blue (Arts Theatre, Notts), Measure for Measure (ITV Workshop), Romeo and Juliet (ITV Workshop), Our Style Is Legendary (Nottingham Playhouse)

TELEVISION INCLUDES: Blade Runner 2099 (Amazon Prime), Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles De Menezes (Etta Pictures), 3 Little Birds (Tiger Aspect), FBI International (CBS Studios), Nova Jones (JAM Media), Worzel Gummidge (Leopard Pictures), Gold Digger (BBC), Gormint (Amazon Prime), Jamie Johnson (CBBC), Doctors, West 10 LDN (Kudos), Off the Hook (Greenroom Entertainment/BBC), The Vice (Carlton TV), A Thing Called Love (BBC)

FILM INCLUDES: Greenland: Migration, BYPASS (Third Films), One for the Road (Film Four)

CREATIVE TEAM

Writer – Jane Upton

JANE UPTON (writer) plays include The Price of Home (Paines Plough & Derby Theatre: Come to Where I Am, S6); Finding Nana (Pleasance Edinburgh Festival, dir Katie Posner, New Perspectives), All the Little Lights (Fifth Word, UK tour, Arcola Theatre), Watching the Living – an adaptation of two short stories by Daphne Du Maurier (New Perspectives, UK tour), Swimming (Menagerie Theatre, Hotbed Festival, Soho Theatre and Edinburgh Festival), and Bones (Fifth Word, Edinburgh Festival and UK tour). Jane is currently writing (the) woman shortlisted for the Bruntwood Award, for New Perspectives.

Following Paines Plough’s nomination, Jane Upton is the winner of the Adopt a Playwright Award for her next play.

All the Little Lights was nominated Best Play for the 2019 OFFIES and for the 2017 Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Awards; it was joint winner of the 2016 George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright. The play is published by Nick Hern Books. Jane received a bursary from the Peggy Ramsay Foundation and was shortlisted for CBBC New Voices Initiative.

Director – Angharad Jones

Angharad joined touring company New Perspectives as Artist Director and CEO in October 2021. Formerly she co-founded Fifth Word and was joint Artistic Director for 15 years.

Angharad’s directing credits include: 

For New Perspectives: Model Village (UK tour); The Swearing Jar (UK tour); The Great Almighty Gill (Edinburgh Fringe/UK tour); script in hand reading of MARYLAND; The Fishermen (Associate Director, world premiere tour and West End run). 

For Fifth Word: LAVA by James Fritz (world premiere Nottingham Playhouse, Soho & UK tour); All The Little Lights by Jane Upton (Associate Director, Nottingham Playhouse/UK tour – joint winner of the George Devine Award and nominated for Best New Play at the Writers’ Guild Awards); Bones (Edinburgh Fringe/Tristan Bates Theatre/UK tour); Painkillers (Edinbugh Fringe & UK tour).

Designer – Sara Perks

Sara has designed over 300 shows to date, for UK & world tours, regional theatres, immersive & site specific, West End and National Theatre; and for genres including Shakespeare, classic drama, devised work, family shows, new writing, comedy and musicals.

Future productions include: Mary & The Hyenas (Pilot Theatre & Hull Truck; The Gift (Park Theatre, London)

Current productions include: Jesus Christ Superstar (Spring ’25 Scenekvelder, Oslo); The Mind Mangler (currently Virgin Voyagers; but also UK Tour ’23-24 and West End ’24)

More recent Productions include: Flowers For Mrs Harris Riverside Studios (Costume Design – Aria Ents and Tiny Giant); You Bury Me – The Women’s Playwriting Award from Paines Plough (Bristol Old Vic &Edinburgh Lyceum, Orange Tree) Good Luck, Studio (Mischief, Mercury Theatre & Wiltshire Creative); The Rise and Fall of Little Voice (UK Tour Aria & GHF) 71, Coltman Street, Richard Bean’s new play for Hull Truck’s 50th Anniversary; UK & International Tour of Footloose and Tim Firth’s new musical Now Is Good (Chester Storyhouse)

Other work includes American Idiot, Spamalot, Footloose (West End & UK & International Tours), Hello Dolly!, Gypsy, Hot Stuff! (Curve) and The King and I (UK tour); Beauty Queen of Leenane (Hull Truck); Brideshead Revisited (York & English Touring Theatre UK tour); the all-female Oranges and Elephants (London); the all-female POSH (London); The Suffragette Project (York); Brighton Rock for Pilot (UK tour); Mother Courage (site specific with Pauline McLynn) for Red Ladder. Spring Storm & Beyond The Horizon (National Theatre & Northampton); The Mold Riots (Clwyd); Betty Blue Eyes, Sweeney Todd, Turn Of The Screw;(UK tours) Journey’s End , Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and the promenade, multidiscipline, site specific Depot amongst many shows at The Mercury, Colchester.

She was Head of Design for Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre at York (managing teams for eight concurrent productions); & she specifically designed Macbeth, Midsummer Night’s Dream; Twelfth Night and Hamlet, as well as the theatre stage & facade (2018-19, York & Oxford).

She has held Resident Associate Designer positions at both at The Mercury and English Touring Theatre, and was nominated for Broadway World Award and What’s On Stage Award (American Idiot); for an Offie (Oranges & Elephants and Flowers For Mrs Harris). The latter was awarded Best Off West End Production by Whats On Stage ’23. She holds an Edinburgh Fringe First; The John Elvery Theatre Design Award, and a Vision Design (Costume) Award from the BBC.

She holds a BA Hons in Drama & Theatre Studies; and trained in Theatre Design at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

Dramaturg – Sarah Dickenson

Sarah is a dramaturg and writer with over twenty-year’s experience in creating work that is inclusive, representative and full of wonder. She has been Associate Dramaturg at LAMDA, Paines Plough and the RSC Midsummer Mischief, Production Dramaturg for the Globe Holy Warriors by David Eldridge, Princess Essex by Anne Odeke, Senior Reader at Soho Theatre, Literary Manager for Theatre503, New Writing Associate at The Red Room and founding Coordinator for the South West New Writing Network. Sarah’s historical drama The Commotion Time received its world premiere at Exeter Northcott in October 2024 directed by Martin Berry in association with Poundstock Gildhouse. She wrote her first radio play North Ealing in 2010 for Theatre503, directed by Teunkie van der Slujis. Jo Mcinnes directed her next piece, Power/Play which played a summer run at Hampton Court in 2017. She is currently writing the book for a new musical whilst also developing a host of other new ideas for the stage and screen.

Lighting Designer – Lily Woodford

Lily Woodford is a London-based lighting designer with experience in technical design and production management. Lily studied at Goldsmiths, University of London where their love of all things beautifully strange was solidified. They thrive on creating work that pushes the boundaries of conventional design and building powerful, thought provoking spaces. They have worked as a lighting designer for productions such as Julia Masli (ha ha ha ha ha ha ha); FOREVERLAND (Southwark Playhouse); Frankie Thompson (CAttS, Body Show); Liv Ello (SWARM, Jack the Mack, Body Show); Adrian Bliss (Inside Everyone); Eloina (HIGH STEAKS); Stamptown Comedy (STAMPTOWN, Jack Tucker).

Sound Designer – Bella Kear

Bella Kear trained at LAMDA. Her work in theatre includes, as Sound Designer: Summer 1954 (Theatre Royal Bath) and on tour; Here In America (Orange Tree Theatre); The Good John Proctor (Offie nominated), Boy in Da Korma (Jermyn Street Theatre); The Great Murder Mystery (The Lost Estate); Invisible (Bush Theatre and New York); Elephant and Clutch (Bush Studio); The Night Woman (The Other Place); The Animal Kingdom(Hampstead Theatre).

As Associate or Assistant Sound Designer: Mnemonic (Olivier Theatre); Newsies (Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre); Liberation Squares (Nottingham Playhouse); Silence (Donmar Warehouse); Edith (The Lowry); Blue/Orange (Theatre Royal Bath and tour); Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner (Riksteatern); A Place for We (Park Theatre); and Sizwe Banzi is Dead (MAST Mayflower Studios and tour). Other projects include Mudlarking, a sound installation at the Bush Theatre.

Projection Designer – Matt Powell

Matt (they/them) is an Offie finalist video designer, musical theatre creative and queer practitioner.

Recent Video Design and Digital credits include: Little Shop of Horrors, Sheffield Crucible, Cake: The Marie Antoinette Playlist (The Other Palace), The Elixir of Love (English National Opera), Brace Brace (Royal Court), Ghost Ships (Icon Theatre), The Real Ones (Bush Theatre), Mother of the Revolution (Leeds Industrial Museum), New Year (Birmingham Opera); Marie Curie – A New Musical (Charing Cross Theatre); Laughing Boy (Jermyn Street Theatre and Theatre Royal Bath); Sherlock Holmes and the Poison Wood (The Watermill Theatre) EXhibitionists (King’s Head Theatre); I Really Do Think That This Will Change Your Life (Pleasance Dome, Edinburgh & Stage Awards for Innovation Finalist – Mercury Theatre, Colchester): Gypsy in Concert (Manchester Opera House for Hope Mill Theatre); REBECCA (Charing Cross Theatre); RIDE (The Old Globe, Curve and Southwark Playhouse); ANIMAL (Offie Finalist – Hope Mill Theatre and Park Theatre); Accidental Death of an Anarchist (Theatre Royal Haymarket, Sheffield Theatres and Lyric Hammersmith); Rumi: The Musical (D’asha Performing Arts Festival and London Coliseum), Flight (Royal College of Music).

Assistant Director – Jessy Roberts

Jessy Roberts is a director and dramaturg who trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and The University of York. She is Senior Reader at the National Theatre, Associate Director of The Rondo Theatre and of Bomb Factory Theatre, and a New Associate with New Perspectives. Recent Credits as Director include: The Incredibly Scary Object (The Jack Studio Theatre), PAKIt In (R&D, New Perspectives), Tap Root (The Glitch), THIRST (Vaults Festival), Untitled Sparkly Vampire Play (Omnibus Theatre), Girls With Wings & Trauma and BRANDED (both Bomb Factory Theatre). As Assistant Director: Octopolis (Hampstead Theatre), Everybody Wants To be Ronaldo (Tectum Theatre/Birmingham Rep) Broken Lad (Arcola Theatrer), Absolute Scenes (Motion Bristol), and Crimes Camera Action (Theatre Royal Bath).

Movement Director – Lucy Glassbrook

Lucy is a Movement Director and Intimacy Director from the Midlands. She has a master’s degree in Movement Directing and Teaching from Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and has trained and worked professionally as an actor and dancer. She has always loved physical storytelling and explores movement languages to enable embodied storytelling, character creation and devising, through a consent-based inclusive practice. Her theatrical work contributed to an “Offie” nomination for Best New Play Lately, Profoca Theatre. She also teaches at various institutions around the UK in Movement practices such as Laban, Animal Studies, Somatic Movement and Intimacy workshops.

Theatre Includes: Pontypool (Wales Millenium Centre), Little Women (HOME & Pitlochry Theatre), Thrown (National Theatre of Scotland), Bindweed (Arcola/Mercury Theatre), Cyrano De Berscherac / Wuthering Heights (Birmingham REP) Fighting Irish (Belgrade Theatre), Pride & Prejudice (Curve Theatre), Flashbang (Proforca Theatre), Hansel & Gretel (Nottingham Playhouse), SONDER (Centrality Theatre)

Mass Movement Includes: Dance Captain, Opening and Closing ceremonies of the Commonwealth Games 2022, Assistant Movement Director & Choreographer City of Culture Opening Ceremony.