A Reading of AGATHA CHRISTIE’S A Daughter’s a Daughter A Play in Three Acts on 14 September 2019 at Palace Theatre, Paignton. The play takes place between 1945 and 1949 at the flat of Ann Prentice, in a red brick Victorian mansion block near Sloane Square, London.
CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY In Order of Appearance
Edith (Ann’s housekeeper) Tina Gray
Ann Prentice Sarah Mowat
Richard Cauldfield (Ann’s suitor) Marcus Knibbs
Dame Laura Whitstable (an old friend of Ann) Louise Faulkner
Sarah Prentice (Ann’s Daughter) Chloe Newsome
Jerry Lloyd (Sarah’s suitor) Mike Evans
Lawrence Steene (another suitor of Sarah) Matthew Hebden
Basil Mowbray (a new friend of Ann) Martin Lewton
Doris (“considerably younger” than Ann) Shannon Rewcroft
Introduced and directed by Julius Green
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MIKE EVANS Mike appears regularly in the Christie-inspired “Murdér Express” interactive theatre events, including most recently as French Detective Inspector Gilbért in The Murdér Express: Jewel of the Empire.
Mike’s other theatre credits include Hannay in The 39 Steps (Criterion Theatre, West End), Bogeyman in New York Rep’s production of Stalking the Bogeyman (Southwark Playhouse), William Shakepeare in Shakespeare’s Sister (Theatre Royal Haymarket), Tommy Shelby in Feasty Blinders (Café de Paris), Toby in Passing By (The Albany), George in The Evacuee (Chelsea Theatre), Daniel in Tell Me Lies (Birmingham Hippodrome), Solange in The Maids (Edinburgh fringe and Tour), Armand in Camille (Theatre Royal Haymarket), Claudio in Measure for Measure (Tour), Hammon & Askew in The Shoemaker’s Holiday (The Rose), Soldier in Troilus & Cressida (Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre), Jolyon in Enf of Fun (New Diorama), Andy in Married Sex (Etcetera Theatre) and Marquis de Sade in The Divine Marquis (Baron’s Court Theatre).
Television and film credits include James in the award-winning film Addiction and Forgotten, Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (BBC), Jacob in The Masterplan and Carl in Betrayed. Previous rehearsed readings include The Seagull (Young Vic), Cross Talk (Park Theatre), Saab Story (Park Theatre).
LOUISE FAULKNER Louise trained at Arts Educational School, London.
For The Agatha Christie Theatre Company: Gerda in its inaugural production of The Hollow, Louise in Murder On The Nile. In the staged collective of radio plays known as Murder On Air Louise played Fay in Personal Call, Lola Valdez in A Yellow Iris, Mrs Petter/Lady Enderby in Butter In A Lordly Dish and aboard The Balmoral (an Agatha Christie cruise of the Canaries) Mrs Boyle in Three Blind Mice. Edith in A Daughters A Daughter (rehearsed reading Agatha Christie Festival 2016)
Regional Repertory: Jacqueline De Severac in Murder on the Nile, Griselda in Murder at the Vicarage, Mitzi in A Murder Is Announced. Georgie Bukatinski in The Full Monty, Amanda in Private Lives, Beverly in Abigail’s Party, Rita in Educating Rita, Bella Manningham in Gaslight, Jo in John Godber’s The Office Party, Olwen Peel in Dangerous Corner, Lydia Cruttwell in Terence Rattigan’s In Praise of Love.
Other theatre includes: Olive in Joking Apart (Brighton Open Air Theatre), Ann Graham in The Cheeky Chappie (Brighton Fringe 2019) Ruth in Round and Round the Garden (National Tour), Linda in A Handful of Mustard Seed (Bush Theatre), Relinquish (Old Vic Tunnels), Washerwoman/Judge in Wind in the Willows (Hong Kong & Singapore Tour), Donna Marie in Blood Brothers (West End & National Tour), Clare in Sweet Panic (West End) and Violet Evans in Waiting at the Water’s Edge (Theatr Clwyd). Film: Daddy Long Legs (Met Film), The Film Club (Creative Badger Films). Audio: Louise played Bev Tarrant in the BBC licensed serialisation of Dr Who and has recorded many roles in over fifteen audio dramas for Big Finish Productions.
She is co-founder pf The Dickens Theatre Company and has played Miss Haversham, Emily Cratchit and more unusually Ebenezer Scrooge, in past productions. Their three-handed Victorian adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth is touring this Autumn: www.dickenstheatrecompany.co.uk .
TINA GRAY Tina trained at the Drama Department of the Royal Academy of Music.
She plays Miss Ackroyd, Max Irons’ devoted secretary in the recent film of Agatha Christie’s The Crooked House starring Glenn Close. Last Spring Tina played Miss Marple (“The Spinster”) in Murder, Margaret, and Me at Salisbury Playhouse and she also played Mrs Sadler in Murder at the Vicarage for BBC Radio 4. She is delighted to be back in Torquay, having played the Grandmother in the world premiere reading of The Lie last year.
Theatre includes Talking Head – Soldiering On (Leeds Playhouse), The Importance of Being Earnest (Salisbury Playhouse), Tartuffe (Tobacco Factory, Bristol), Damned Rebel Bitches (Poorboy, tour of Scotland), Steel Magnolias, Don’t Look Now (Hornchurch), The Singing Stones (Arcola), The History Boys (National Theatre), The Ghost Train (Brockley Jack), To Kill a Mockingbird, Habeus Corpus, Enjoy, Pygmalion, Noises Off (York Theatre Royal), A Passionate Woman (Keswick), Endgame, The White Devil (Liverpool Everyman), On Golden Pond, A Woman of No Importance, Flamingoland, Perfect Days (New Vic), The Glass Menagerie, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Martin Chuzzlewit (Coventry), Our Ellen (ongoing one-woman play, written for her by Richard Osborne), Lady Cynthia in Relative Values…and thirteen pantomime fairies, across the land.
Television includes Scarborough, The Last Kingdom, Scott and Bailey, Doctors, Heartbeat, Coronation Street. Film includes Hill, Streets in the Sky, and five Rosamund Pilchers adaptations for German TV. Radio includes over 1,500 Radio plays and readings for the B.B.C. including The Archers, The Vicar of Wakefield, The Piano, Mill on the Floss, Persuasion. Tina was a member of the BBC Radio Drama Company from 1993-4.
MATTHEW HEBDEN Matthew is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
His first West End role on graduating was the part of Detective Sergeant Trotter in the 50th Anniversary of The Mousetrap, which he performed in front of Her Majesty the Queen. He later returned to The Mousetrap to play Giles Ralston in Shanghai and will be touring India in the role in November. For The Agatha Christie Theatre Company he played Oliver Costello in Spider’s Web and Thomas Clegg in Witness for the Prosecution.
His many other theatre credits include Claudius in Hamlet and the Knight in The Canterbury Tales, both for REL productions, Lysander in A Midsummer Nights Dream, Lucentio in The Taming of the Shrew, Westmorland in Henry V and Paris in Romeo and Juliet, all for the British Shakespeare Company, as well as Tesman in Recording Hedda for the Ibsen Stage Company. He also played Gilbert in the National tour of the award winning comedy The Sinking of the Titanic. His most recent national tour was playing Doctor Sparling in a revival of RC Sherriff’s Home at Seven. His screen work includes Alain in the feature film Sink, Postumus Leonatus in Sweet Swan of Avon, Albert DeSalvo (the “Boston Strangler”) in an ITV documentary and the award-winning Devil Town.
MARCUS KNIBBS Marcus trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.
Theatre includes The Verdict with Clive Mantle and Jack Shepherd (Middle Ground Theatre Company, National Tour), Grandad’s Island (Engine House, Two National & International Tours), My Fair Lady, South Pacific (Aberystwyth Arts), Charles Wesley 1707 (JTC Two National Tours), Nixon’s Nixon (Understudy, Comedy Theatre, West End), Pocahontas (DisneyLand, Paris), Gotcha, Taking Steps, Aladdin, The Hired Man, An Inspector Calls, and this autumn; One Man Two Guv’nors (The Torch Theatre).
Pantomime includes, for Duggie Chapman Productions: Aladdin (Southport), Dick Whittington (Bolton), Aladdin (Billingham). For Qdos: Jack and the Beanstalk (in 35 Haven Holiday Parks!). For UK Productions: Cinderella (Grimsby), Mother Goose (Bath), Jack and the Beanstalk (Hayes), Cinderella (Tunbridge Wells), Jack and the Beanstalk ( Bath), Jack and the Beanstalk (Malvern), Cinderella (New Brighton), Jack and the Beanstalk (Bournemouth), Sleeping Beauty (Rhyl), Cinderella (Bromley), Sleeping Beauty, (Mansfield), Sleeping Beauty (New Brighton), Sleeping Beauty (Sunderland), Jack and the Beanstalk (Bournemouth). Last year; Beauty and the Beast (Blackpool), and this year; Beauty and the Beast (Theatre Royal, Bath).
Television and radio includes Brookside (Mersey TV), Dream Team (Sky One), Watchdog (BBC), Jonathan Creek (BBC), Sam the Spaceman (BBC Radio Drama for Blue Peter). Marcus is delighted to be taking part in this reading of A Daughter’s a Daughter, which marks his first professional association with Agatha Christie. He does have a tenuous link with Christie however; he grew up in Kingsthorpe, Northampton, birthplace of the inimitable Joan Hickson, perhaps the world’s favourite Miss Marple.
SARAH MOWAT Sarah’s appearances in Agatha Christie’s work include readings of The Lie (International Agatha Christie Festival, Torquay 2018), Ann Prentice in A Daughter’s a Daughter (Agatha Christie Conference, Cambridge 2017), and The Yellow Iris (International Agatha Christie Festival, Torquay 2016); Murder on Air (Agatha Christie Theatre Company, 2015); and, for the 2001 Agatha Christie Theatre Festival: Kay Mostyn in Murder on the Nile, Sarah Prentice in A Daughter’s A Daughter, Sarah King in Appointment with Death, Nurse in The Patient, Sandra Grey in The Rats, Noreen Somers in Afternoon at the Seaside, Singer in The Yellow Iris, QC in Witness for the Prosecution, Nezzemut in Akhnaton, Mrs Boyle in Three Blind Mice and Lucia Amory in Black Coffee.
Other theatre includes The Kitchen and The Voysey Inheritance (both at the National Theatre), the role of Linda in the long-running musical Blood Brothers, and tours of Jane Eyre, Gasping, and Alfie. TV work includes EastEnders and Mr Selfridge. Audio work includes The Prisoner, Cyberman, Dalek Empire, Doctor Who: The Return of the Daleks and Doctor Who: The Sirens of Time.
CHLOE NEWSOME Chloe has appeared for the Agatha Christie Theatre Company as Midge Harvey in The Hollow, Jaqueline de Severac in Murder on the Nile and Vera Claythorne in And Then There Were None. She has also played various roles for the Company in Murder on Air, and gave readings from Christie’s plays at the 2016 Oxford Literary Festival.
In 2010 she played Alix in the premiere of Louise Page’s new adaptation of Love From a Stranger at the Mill at Sonning, and in 2015 she was honoured to be asked by Mathew Prichard to voice his grandmother in a talk given by him to mark the 125th anniversary of her birth. In 2019 she appeared in the world premiere reading of The Lie at the International Agatha Christie Festival in Torquay.
Chloe’s extensive stage work includes Alphabetical Order at Hampstead Theatre, tours of Dangerous Corner and The Importance of Being Earnest, the Jane Austin classics Emma for John Adams at Basingstoke and Pride and Prejudice for the Good Company. She also appeared for the Good Company in Chekhov’s The Sneeze and as Desdemona in Othello. Other Shakespeare plays include The Taming of the Shrew (Bianca) A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Hermia and Puck) and Twelfth Night (Viola) all of which were performed open air at both Stafford Castle and Kirkstall Abbey. She has twice appeared at the Chester Gateway theatre; in The Young Idea by Noël Coward and the Ealing comedy Shooting Star directed by her hero, the late Frith Banbury. Other theatre credits include Treehouses at The Union in Southwark, and the thriller Wait Until Dark and Spring and Port Wine at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, directed by Alan Dosser. Alan also directed Chloe in The Life and Crimes of William Palmer for Yorkshire Television.
Other television includes Paulette in Sharpe’s Waterloo and, of course, five years on Coronation Street in the role of Victoria Arden/McDonald. Film includes Alice in Lost Christmas opposite Eddie Izzard, A Picture of Me and The Jealous Gods.
MARTIN LEWTON Martin is an actor, writer and theatre director with more than one hundred productions to his credit in the UK and internationally.
His latest play Scream Queer Murder – a comedy thriller about the gay characters in a murder mystery writer’s novels (in which he also plays the part of Patrick) premieres at this year’s International Agatha Christie Festival tomorrow evening, following a very successful “try-out” at the Palace Theatre Paignton in March. He is also the author of Death By Murder! which has toured the north of England and his stage play One Fat Lady was performed at the West Yorkshire Playhouse by Tina Gray (playing Edith tonight). Martin is Artistic Director of the award-winning theatre company Theatre North which specialises in LGBT theatre accessible to gay and straight audiences alike. He is Director of ¡Barcelona Solo! International Festival of Solo Performance and he is a Fellow of Birkbeck Centre for Contemporary Theatre where he has premiered many performance pieces. Martin also teaches acting, writing and devised theatre at the Institute of the Arts Barcelona, Spain.
Stage work includes – Titus in Titus Andronicus, Bottom in A Midsummer Nights Dream and the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet (northern tours) Frank in Educating Rita (Victoria Theatre Settle), Ian in Sarah Kane’s Blasted (The Lowry and national tour) and Rod in his own play Life Models (Lancaster Grand Theatre). Recent theatre work includes Billy Budd Sailor (winner of the Star of the Brighton Festival), Naked Homo and Lord Arthur’s Bed (Kings Head Theatre Islington) Cock (Brighton Festival) Handel’s Cross (International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival) Code of Conduct (Barcelona) and Mirando The Gay Tempest (International Tour). His latest performance-piece Queer Bodies was seen at Gay Sitges Pride in Barcelona in June this year. Television includes Emmerdale and Mooncat.
SHANNON REWCROFT Shannon is from Scarborough and trained at Drama Studio London (Spotlight Prize Nominee 2014) and Northumbria University, achieving a First Class Honours BA(Hons) degree in Performance.
Theatre: includes Wait Until Dark (Original Theatre Company, UK Tour), Shadowlands (Birdsong Productions, UK Tour), AniMalcolm (Story Pocket Theatre, UK Tour), Stig of the Dump (Stephen Joseph Theatre) A Christmas Treasure Island (Hull Truck Theatre),The Accrington Pals (Fairfield Halls) Cosmic (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Santa’s Rusty Robot (Imagine Theatre), Roses and Castles (Portsmouth New Theatre Royal) The Mother Lands, Coda (Theatre 503). Film & Television: Random Acts: Fish Tank Girls (Channel 4), Gorka (Fodor Films), Elpis (Short film), Bet (Short film)
JULIUS GREEN Julius is an Olivier award-winning theatre producer and a Fellow of the Birkbeck Centre for Contemporary Theatre, University of London.
He produced the 2001 Agatha Christie Theatre Festival (a twelve-week season of Christie’s complete stage works as then known), and in 2006 he founded the Agatha Christie Theatre Company for Bill Kenwright Ltd, which has since sold over two million tickets for its performances of Agatha Christie plays throughout the UK.
In 2012 he was invited to write the introduction to HarperCollins’ sixtieth anniversary edition of The Mousetrap and Other Plays, and in 2015 HarperCollins published his book Agatha Christie; A Life in Theatre. The leading authority on Christie’s work as a dramatist, his numerous appearances as a speaker on the subject include the Oxford Literary Festival, the International Agatha Christie Festival in Torquay, the National Theatre’s ‘Platform’ series and the Cambridge Agatha Christie Conference. In 2017 he became the archivist for the historic production records of The Mousetrap and in 2018 HarperCollins published a revised and updated edition of Agatha Christie; A Life in Theatre in paperback. He is also the author of How To Produce A West End Show (Oberon Books, 2012) and a regular columnist for The Stage newspaper.
