Written by Beth Flintoff
Directed by Hal Chambers
8th-27th October 2018
Reading Minster of St Mary the Virgin, central Reading
1173. England is in turmoil as King Henry II faces a rebellion by his own sons. In the middle of the night, Henry catches his wife Eleanor in the act of trying to escape, dressed as a boy, to join their ranks. Found in her possessions is a fragment of a poem that reminds him of happier days: an Easter weekend in Reading, a decade before.
Reading, Easter 1164. Nobles, bishops, and royalty from across the globe have arrived to witness the Consecration of Reading’s world-famous Abbey. Founded by King Henry I to commemorate the death of his son, the Abbey has witnessed the turmoil of the Civil War and now, forty years later, has finally been completed. It should be a weekend filled with joy, but Henry’s relationship with Archbishop Thomas Becket has reached a crunch point, and his famous romance with the glorious Queen Eleanor seems to have lost its spark. Meanwhile for would-be poet Bart and his friend Amaria, living in the shadow of the Abbey, it is a weekend that will change their lives forever.
A romantic drama set in the 12th Century Renaissance, this is the final instalment of the Conquerors Trilogy.
Creative team:
- Writer - Beth Flintoff
- Director - Hal Chambers
- Assistant Director - Annie Kershaw
- Production Designer - Bek Palmer
- Composer - Luke Potter
- Movement Director - Sammy Fonfe
- Costume supervisor - Bianca Ward
- Costume Assistant - Mia Bell
- Wardrobe Mistress - Hannah Pearson
- Stage Manager on book - Catherine Harmer
- ASM - Mim Evison
- Lighting Designer - Oliver Welsh
Interns and Work Experience; Katie McKenna, Liam West, Rianne Thompson, Rhiannon Ford, Holly Burns, Sarah Beth Lockwood.
Cast
Annabelle Brown - Eleanor of Aquitane
Training: Mountview and the VCA.
Theatre includes: An Elizabethan Christmas, Speak Low if You Speak Love, Encounters (Hampton Court Palace); The Mousetrap (West End); Lysistrata, Salome (TLC); Julius Caesar, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest (Principal Theatre Company); O Little Town, Whisky Dusk (Specifiq); Dick Barton (Warehouse Theatre); When Harry Met Sally (National Tour;) A Christmas Carol (King’s Head).
Concerts include The Battle of Britain, Fire!, Zambezi Tales, Widecombe Fair, Dreamtime Tales with the RPO and LMP for Classical Road Show; and Agincourt for Agincourt 500.
Audio work includes of The Rise of Banda Singh Badur (English dub), and several series of children’s stories for Ziptales.
Annabelle directed and composed The Ballad of Robin Hood (Southwark Playhouse), and composed and music directed A Study in Scarlet and The Canterbury Tales (Southwark Playhouse and National Tour) for TACIT theatre.
She is a founder director of Scaffold Shakespeare Company.
Bethan May James - Marie
Training: Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.
Theatre credits include – Pride & Prejudice (Nottingham Playhouse), The Revenger’s Tragedy (Nottingham Playhouse), All My Sons (Talawa Theatre), Moon on a Rainbow Shawl (Talawa Theatre), A Christmas Carol (Birmingham Repertory Theatre), All My Sons (Manchester Royal Exchange), Future For Beginners (Wales Millennium Centre), B.F.G (Derby Playhouse).
Television credits include – Friday Night Dinner (Big Talk), Casualty (BBC), The Collection (Amazon), Cuffs (Tiger Aspect), Stella (Sky1), Public Enemies (BBC One), Jukebox Juniors (CBBC).
Film credits include - Belle; Table Manners & On a Knife Edge.
Dominic Alled - Gerald
Theatre credits include: The Crucible Bristol Old Vic; Forty Years On and Peter Pan York Theatre Royal; Lorca is Dead Southwark Playhouse; Fable Greenwich Theatre, Neverland Vaults Festival; Providence and A Common Man Edinburgh Festival; The First Hippo on the Moon UK Tour; The Great Gatsby Guild of Misrule; The Atlantis Project PunchDrunk; Tartuffe, Antigone, Metamorphosis, Macbeth, The Boy James, A Little Princess, Treasure Island and Outland Belt Up Theatre; Sherlock Holmes - A Working Hypothesis and The Bridge That Tom Built Flanagan Collective.
Mark Middleton - Henry II
For RBL: Dogberry/DonJohn/Friar Francis in Much Ado About Nothing (Greenwich), Prince/Apothecary in Romeo & Juliet, Off the Block
Training: The Bridge.
Theatre includes: Understudy Man 1/Man 2 (The 39 Steps, Fiery Angel, National No.1 Tour), Pistol/Canterbury (Henry V, Temple Church/French Tour), Scrooge (A Christmas Carol, Munich Tour) Mercutio (Romeo & Juliet, Cockpit Theatre), Sergeant Major (Journey’s End, Greenwich), Oberon (Midsummers Nights Dream, Tour), Doc and Dennis Shepherd (The Laramie Project, Cockpit Theatre).
Alongside acting,
Mark is a qualified Academy of Performance Combat Stage Combat instructor and Dad.
Oliver Hoare - Bart
For RBL: Off the Block 2018
Training: Bristol Old Vic Theatre School
Theatre Includes: Dave Davies in Sunny Afternoon Ed Hall/Sonia Friedman, Careless in School For Scandal and Mercutio in Romeo And Juliet Tobacco Factory, Loki in Ragnarok Eastern Angles, Tabaqui in The Jungle Book West Yorkshire Playhouse, Isaac Vengerovic in Sons Without Fathers Belgrade Theatre/ Arcola, Ben Gun in Treasure Island and Spiller in The Borrowers Nuffield Theatre, Pompey in Antony and Cleopatra Chichester, Filch in The Beggar’s Opera Regent's Park, Alec D'urberville in Tess Of The D’urbervilles BOVTS (Tour), Tybalt In Romeo And Juliet Tucked In Productions
Television Includes: Peter in Thanks For The Memories ZDF Germany, Peter in People Just Do Nothing Roughcut Television.
Film Includes: Sam in One Crazy Thing Canary Wharf Films Ltd, Julian in Wrong Turn 5 20th Century Fox, Kurt in Crusade In Jeans Kasander Films, Herman in House Of Boys Delux Prods.
Sarah Goddard - Amaria
Sarah’s credits include: Polstead (Eastern Angles), Hetty Feather (West End / National & International tours), 2066 (The Almeida), Mistress Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor (OSC), Cinderella (ENB), Jack (York Theatre Royal), Cinderella (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing (OSC), Katherine in The Taming of The Shrew (The Orange Tree), Them With Frozen Tails (Network of Stuff), AMND (Sprite), Roxanne in Cyrano (OSC), The Borrowers, The Emperor’s New Clothes (Mac Birmingham) The Steppe Brothers (Rejects Revenge), Agamemnon (AOD), Twelfth Night (Bold & Saucy), Mephistophilis in Dr. Faustus (Brute Farce), Rossignol in Marat/Sade (Arcola).
Sarah has also worked on a fair bit of physical, devised and site-specific theatre with various innovative companies, including Theatre in a Shop Window (Coup de Theatre) & Bluebeard in Brompton Cemetery.
She also performed a male impersonation in Ken Campbell’s iconic 24 hour The Warp!
Sarah is also a drama practitioner & is currently working on her own show ‘In Miniature’.
Toby Davies - Thomas Beckett
For RBL: Henry I in Henry I of England, Capulet in Romeo and Juliet and Andy in Off the Block 2015.
Training: Bristol Old Vic Theatre School (Acting) & St Andrews University (English lit.)
Theatre includes: Raife Clutch in The Great British Bump Off Hexagon, Macduff in Macbeth China Plat/Warwick Theatre tour, Giles Ralston in The Mousetrap West End, Alphabetical Order Bath Theatre Royal tour, Balmoral Hampstead Theatre tour, Stepan in The Department of Smelling Pistakes Publick Transport/Tobacco Factory tour, The Guard in Frozen Fresh Glory tour, The Draper in Moll Flanders Southwark Playhouse.
Film and TV includes: The Firm Nick Love, The Bent Penny Darrel J. Butlin, Return as Faulty Leftheris Eleftheriou, King to Castle Rahdy Elwan, Lab Rats Sam Washington. Le Creuset & Sky TV commercials.
Yanick Ghanty - Roland/Jocilyn
Yanick graduated from East 15 Acting School with a BA in Acting and Stage Combat in 2013. Before graduating Yanick secured his first professional role an actor performing all of his own stunts. Screen credits include the award-winning film ‘Watch Over Me’ and ‘Alt’. Theatre credits include the lead role ‘Amit’ in the largest British Asian National Tour of ‘Bring on the Bollywood’ and two world premieres at Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre, ‘The Owl & The Pussycat’ (Eric Idle) and Alan Pollock’s ‘Godiva Rocks’. Yanick also spent a year in Australia presenting physics on the ABC Television Network. Yanick is delighted to be joining this cast.