Our Country’s Good – cast & creative

SIMON DARWEN

Simon’s extensive theatre career includes a number of shows for the Royal Shakespeare Company, as well as Catch 22 (UK tour), King Lear (Theatre Royal Bath), Mad About The Boy (Young Vic), The Taming of the Shrew and What the Women Did (Southwark Playhouse), Love Love Love (Paines Plough/Drum Theatre/National Tour), Accolade (Finborough Theatre), Ramshackle Heart (Public Theatre New York) Mad Forest, The Wonder (BAC), 1 in 5 (Hampstead Theatre) and Fanny & Faggot (Trafalgar Studios).

VICTORIA GEE

Victoria previously toured with Out of Joint in Top Girls (co-produced with Chichester Festival Theatre). Other theatre includes What The Women Did (Two’s Company at Southwark Playhouse), Othello (Trafalgar Studios), Strivers (Young Vic), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Cyrano De Bergerac, Othello, Twelfth Night, Masters Are You Mad? (Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre), Hobson’s Choice (Chichester) and Country Magic and The Lower Depths (Finborough Theatre).

SAM GRAHAM

Sam previously toured with Out of Joint in O Go My Man and The Permanent Way. Other theatre includes The Winter’s Tale (Sheffield Crucible), Love the Sinner (National Theatre), Pornography (Tricycle and Bath Theatre Royal) and Troilus and Cressida and A Month in the Country (RSC). TV includes The Tunnel, Spooks, Law & Order, Silk, Taggart, Kingdom, Doctor Who and Footballer’s Wives. 

NATHAN IVES-MOIBA

Nathan trained at LAMDA. His theatre includes Tull (Octagon Theatre), Terminates at Kennington (The Calder Bookshop & Theatre), Punk Rock (White Bear Theatre), Fathers Inside (SOHO Theatre) and Just For Fun – Totally Random & Marianne’s Heart (Without a Paddle). TV includes Coronation Street and Salting the Battlefield.

CORNELIUS MACARTHY

Theatre credits include: The Keepers of Infinite Space (Park Theatre), The Conquest of Happiness (European Tour), Rising Damp (National Tour), Antony and Cleopatra (Chichester Festival Theatre), 1936 (Sadlers Wells/Attic Theatre), 12 Proposals for a Better Europe (Belarus Free Theatre, West Yorkshire Playhouse), Welcome to Thebes (National Theatre) and One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (Garrick Theatre). TV includes Eastenders, Collision and Torchwood. Films include Patient 17 (Winner Best Sci Fi/Horror, LIFF 2012) and Millions (Danny Boyle).

RICHARD NEALE

Richard trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Theatre includes Travelling Light and Privates on Parade (New Vic); Cinderella (High Wycombe Swan); Measure for Measure, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Othello (Creation Theatre Company), Kurt Tucholsky – His Life and Songs (Soho Theatre), Richard II (Tobacco Factory) and Charlotte’s Web (Birmingham Stage Co). TV includes Just Desserts and Holby City.

DAVID NEWMAN

Theatre includes Above and Beyond (Look Left Look Right), Chariots of Fire (Gielgud Theatre/Hampstead Theatre), Comedy of Errors and Pocket Dream (Propeller), The Canterbury Tales (Northern Broadsides), Tintin (Young Vic), Faust (Punchdrunk), Shakespeare’s War of The Roses (West Yorkshire Playhouse/Northern Broadsides), Ghosts in the Cottonwoods (The Arcola). TV includes New Tricks and Sherlock.

KATHRYN O’REILLY

Kathryn’s Out of Joint shows include Mixed Up North and Andersen’s English. Other theatre includes The Golden Dragon (ATC/Plymouth Drum), Love onThe Tracks (Soho Theatre Studio, Redbridge Drama Centre), A Christmas Carol (Trafalgar Studios), Oedipus (Sheffield Crucible Studio). TV includes Lewis, The Bill and Rough Justice.

ANNA TIERNEY

Anna trained at the Drama Centre London. Theatre includes Follow (one woman piece for the LUX Associate Artists Exhibition); Kolbe’s Gift (Leicester Square Theatre); AS IS (Finborough Theatre), After The Rainfall (Curious Directive), TULL (Bolton Octagon), Promise (Rosemary Branch Theatre), Without External Ignition (one woman play, Theatre 503). , Brightest and Best (Half Moon Theatre).

JESSICA TOMCHAK

Theatre includes Time & The Conways (Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh), She Town (Dundee Rep), My Romantic History (Borderline), Measure for Measure (The Almeida Theatre), The Menu (Stand Up Drama), The Wolves in the Walls (The National Theatre of Scotland/ Improbable), Hamlet, Pontius Pilot and Romeo and Juliet (Royal Shakespeare Company). TV includes includes Doctors, Eastenders, Holby City and The Bill.

Timberlake Wertenbaker – writer

(Read Timberlake’s blog post on writing Our Country’s Good here) As well as Our Country’s Good, for which she won the Olivier Award for Play of the Year, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Play and the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright, Timberlake’s plays include Three Birds Alighting on a Field (Writers’ Guild Award, Best West End Play; Critics Circle Awards, Best West End Play; Susan Smith Blackburn Prize), The Love of the Nightingale (Eileen Anderson Central Television Drama Award), Galileo’s Daughter, After Darwin, The Break of Day, Credible Witness and The Grace of Mary Traverse.  Her translations include Hecuba, Elektra, Filumena and Phedre.

Max Stafford-Clark – Director

Max is Out of Joint’s Artistic Director, and a former Artistic Director of the Royal Court Theatre and the Traverse Theatre, as well as co-founder of the Joint Stock Theatre Group. A hugely influential director of new writing, his world premieres include Top Girls and Serious Money by Caryl Churchill, Shopping and F***ing by Mark Ravenhill, Rita Sue and Bob Too by Andrea Dunbar, and plays by Richard Bean, April De Angelis, David Hare, Timberlake Wertenbaker, Stephen Jeffreys, Sebastian Barry, Howard Brenton, Sue Townsend, Alistair Beaton, Jim Cartwright, Stella Feehily, Robin Soans and more. His acclaimed revivals of classics include Three Sisters, King Lear, She Stoops to Conquer and the world-touring Macbeth.

He has directed for the RSC, the National Theatre, Sydney Theatre Company and New York’s Roundabout Theatre and several of his productions have transferred to the West End, including the world premiere of Our Country’s Good, the hit comedy Feelgood, and last year’s 5-star revival of Top Girls.

Tim Shortall – Designer

For Out of Joint: This May Hurt A Bit, Our Country’s Good, Top Girls, The Big Fellah, King of Hearts, The Overwhelming. Other work includes: set design for La Cage Aux Folles (West End and Broadway -Tony nomination 2010 Best Scenic Design); The Overwhelming (National Theatre/Out of Joint and Broadway, NY); The Philanthropist (Donmar Warehouse and Broadway); Awake and Sing (Almeida); set design for Sweet Charity (Menier, and Theatre Royal, Haymarket), A New World(Shakespeare’s Globe); Race, and Old Money (both Hampstead), These Shining Lives (the Park), See How They Run (Duchess); Whipping It Up (Ambassadors); Elton John’s Glasses (Queens), 900 Oneonta (Old Vic), Telstar (Ambassadors), Body and Soul and  costumes for The Big Knife, (both Albery), Murder By Misadventure (Vaudeville), A Cooks Tour (Shaftesbury Theatre), Excuses (Soho Theatre), Amen Corner (Tricycle), Eugene Onegin (Lyric Hammersmith), Fully Committed (Menier), Haunted (Arts); Disappeared (Royal Court); Single Spies (Bath), Dead Funny (Chichester); Having A Ball(Birmingham), Roots (Oxford Stage Company – Barclays TMA Award nomination Best Design).  Dance: Private City/Track and Field (Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet); Sonata In Time(Scottish Ballet); Rhyme Nor Reason and Party Game (Norwegian National Ballet) and The Nightingale (Dutch National Ballet). Television: 20^th Century Blues (BBC), The Nightingale (NOS), RAI Prize for Best Design, Prix Italia. www.timshortall.com

Johanna Town – Lighting Designer

Johanna was formerly head of lighting at the Royal Court. Her West End work includes the recent Betrayal, as well as Fat Pig, Via Dolorosa, Speaking in Tongues and Little Malcolm and his Struggle Against the Eunuchs. Among many shows at the Court she designed My Name is Rachel Corrie (plus West End and New York), Rhinoceros, My Child, The Winterling, Terrorism, Under The Whaleback. Johanna has designed many shows for Out of Joint (most recently Bang Bang Bang) and for many of the UK’s major venues. See her website: www.johannatown.co.uk

Andy Smith – Sound Designer

Andy is the resident sound designer at the Octagon Theatre Bolton and has collaborated with Out of Joint and the Octagon on Bang Bang Bang (also Royal Court – listen to the brilliant soundtrack of Congolese dance music here) and Mixed Up North. Other productions include Sweeney Todd, Romeo and Juliet, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Price and more.

Tim Hoare – Associate Director

Tim is currently an associate director at Out of Joint and was recently a staff director at the National Theatre, assisting Sam Mendes on King Lear. He was co-founder and Artistic Director of Chichester Festival Theatre’s “Festival on the Fly”, a temporary venue celebrating CFT’s 50th season, for which he directed the world premiere of Penelope Skinner’s play Fred’s Diner. Other directing work includes What People Do (Old Vic Tunnels/Viscera Theatre); Yes, Prime Minister (redirection of a production by Jonathan Lynn, CFT and national tour); Number 1 (Bush Theatre); Henry V Trafalgar Studios/National Theatre Tbilisi, Georgia); Bash (Barons Court Theatre). As an associate and assistant director, work for Chichester Festival Theatre includes South Downs and The Browning Version (transferring to the Harold Pinter Theatre, West End), Top Girls (Out of Joint, tour and Trafalgar Studios), Alice in Wonderland, The Master Builder, Pygmalion and Yes, Prime Minister; and Eigengrau (Bush Theatre); Slaves (Theatre 503).