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| THE EUROPEAN Premiere of DIRTY WORKS A Play by JAMIE LINLEY Directed by KEVIN KITTLE Presented by Stiff Upper Lip Theatre Company and Covent Garden Productions in association with The Villar-Hauser Theatre Development Fund THE UNDERBELLY, BABY BELLY ONE Niddry St, Cowgate, EDINBURGH 4 – 27 August 2005 |
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Reviews Smack of Authenticity by Serena Davies, Daily Telegraph, August 10, 2005 “Love it or hate it, Dirty Works, from the Big-Apple British company Stiff Upper Lip, is already the most talked about play in the Underbelly programme. It’s a raw, expletive-riddled catalogue of drug abuse, robbery and that icy way people treat each other when they’re so addled that prostitution is a career ambition. Although fiction, it’s drawn directly from writer Jamie Linley’s experiences of life at the bottom of the pile in a London suburb and is perhaps more appropriate for a Royal Court programme than fun-loving, tipsy Fringe audiences." The List, Steve Cramer, 11-18 August 2005 “There’s more than a hint of Edward Bond’s Saved about Jamie Linley’s play…a edgy power which betokens a strong future for this debut dramtist.” The Sunday Mail, Top Ten Theatre, July 31, 2005 “ This is about as internationally diverse as it gets - a gritty play set in London from a New York theatre company featuring fresh talent from Scotland and Ireland. Be prepared for close-to-the-bone language in this gripping tale of drugs, sex and crime in the capital’s seedy underworld.” Claire Smith, August 8, 2005 “With more than 100 uses of the "C" word and graphic scenes of drug abuse and depravation this is a play that sets out to shock. Set among the petty criminals, junkies and no-hopers of a grim sink estate, this gritty drama is a million miles from heroin chic or from japes of the Trainspotting variety. Pretty boy Darren fancies himself as an ideas man, but he is just a lairy lad; Tracey, a real beauty, is unable to turn her back on the drugs; Tommo, the local hard man, thinks he is Mr Big but he is just two steps up from a wino. The dialogue, spattered with swear words and "know what I means" is the authentic language of the streets. The realities of shooting up, hustling and selling sex are exposed in all their unremitting ugliness. The cast, who are mostly Brits based in New York, are all chillingly convincing. Laoisa Sexton is particularly mesmerising as the smack-hungry lap dancer whose sexuality and life are draining away, and Christine Rendell is eerily accurate as a desperate and bewildered old soak. Writer Jamie Linley, who also takes the part of a schizo junkie mystic, has a good ear and has drawn his characters with compassion and honesty. Chilling, intense and skin crawlingly nasty…” Three Weeks, August 9, 2005 "WARNING: Not for the easily offended, puritanical or politically correct. A brutal play of drug dealing, junkies, prostitution and general desperation in a London overspill estate - Dirty Works is bleak, foul-mouthed and fetid - exactly what the ironically-named Stiff Upper Lip Theatre Company wanted it to be. It’s the stage version of Trainspotting but darker, murkier and far more hellish. It might just be better than a course of methadone to persuade users to clean up. Swear words are often all that is distinguishable and much is lost through the fast talking of some characters but it is a tight performance brilliantly underlined with black humour. It is sick, morbidly depressing and strangely compulsive." The Cast MICKY CAMPBELL (Carl) Originally from Northern Ireland has lived in NYC for the last eighteen years. His film and television credits include Mick in Barry Levinson’s An Everlasting Piece and James in the BBC’s I Shot The Law. Micky has studied in NYC with Gene Frankel and Marcia Haufrecht. MARTIN EWENS (Gary) Martin Ewens is from Birmingham, England. He has recently appeared in The Poverty Row Horror Show, OBOE Player, King John and The Man who Hated Shakespeare. He has film and television credits here in the US and back home in the UK. MARTIN HILLIER (Tommo) Martin Hillier was classically trained at Webber Douglas Academy in London. Credits include; Inspector LeStrade in The West End Horror at Bay Street Theatre, Ged Murray in Comedians at La Mama. Simon in The Fox at the Here Arts Center. Antipholus of Ephesus in Comedy of Errors for Vpstart Crow in Virginia. Gregory Lunn in Overruled and Henry Apjohn in How he Lied to her Husband at the King’s Head Theatre, London. Carbon Castell Jaloux in Cyrano de Bergerac at The Bridewell Theatre, London. Nicholas in One for the Road at Theatre Clwyd, Wales. Ronnie Worthington in Out of Order at the Theatre Royal in Windsor, England and on tour worldwide. This is Martin's first full production at 'The Greenwich' and he is delighted to be part of the world premier of Dirty Works; which he has been involved with since its first reading at Greenwich Street over 2 years ago. JAMIE LINLEY (Lanky/Author) This is Jamie's first full-length play. He is currently working on his next, Lagerphrenia. AIDAN REDMOND (Frank/Dole Clerk) Recent engagements include performance readings of Blodeuwedd by Welsh playwright Saunders Lewis, at The Workshop Theatre Main Stage for the 2004 Midtown Theatre Festival, at the Zipper Theatre for the Stage One Reading of Slammed by Barry Alexander Brown and at the Greenwich Street Theatre for The Third Option, by Cat Bistransin, directed by Ludovica Villar-Hauser. Aidan also played Pitchfork in the inaugural Stiff Upper Lip production of The Pitchfork Disney directed by Kevin Kittle at the Greenwich Street Theatre. In his native Ireland, Aidan has toured extensively with leading roles in Hamlet, Julius Caesar and a Midsummer Night’s Dream. He made his television debut in 2001 on the popular BBC/RTE series Bachelor’s Walk and has appeared in several TV commercials in the British Isles. Aidan has a BFA in Drama and Theatre Studies from Trinity College, Dublin. CHRISTINE RENDEL (Mrs. B/Mum) AEA-SAG-AFTRA has appeared in regional theaters throughout her native Britain, the Middle East, and New York. New York credits include Lettice in Lettice and Lovage, Mrs.Lovett in Sweeney Todd, Madame Arcati in Blithe Spirit, Anna in Mind the Gap’s US premiere of the acclaimed Under The Blue Sky, Bea in Beholden, and Victoria in The Education of Miss Ida. She is a founding member of Mind The Gap Theatre, and has also performed in a number of independent films, industrials and voiceovers. LAOISA SEXTON (Tracey) Laoisa Sexton has performed in Ireland and the USA. She studied in New York with MARY DOYLE at the NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAYHOUSE, JOE PARADISE’s improv group, MARK HALL AMITIN and ROY SCHATT at THE ACTOR’S STUDIO, at LEE STRASBERG’s and the ENSEMBLE INSTITUTE. Most recently she appeared as Meg in the Dublin production of Brendan Behan’s The Hostage, she also appeared in Dublin as May in Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love at THE NEW THEATRE. New York credits include Joe Penhall’s Some Voices, Incalculable Factor written and directed by Bryan Robinson and Blue Notes directed by Wayne Maughins at LA MAMA. Lots of independent film work in New York including Blur, Babyshakes, Gloss, Till Death Do Us Apart, The Beatle Fan… Recent TV credits include Fair City, (RTE, Irish national soap). LOUISE KARAGH TRAYNOR (Trisha) Louise Karagh Traynor is a native Glaswegian, living in New York for the past six years. She studied for two years with Marcia Haufrecht at the Common Basis Theatre in Hell's Kitchen, and after several student graduate films, is making her stage debut in New York. VICTOR VILLAR-HAUSER (Darren) Victor Villar-Hauser most recently played Darren in Stiff Upper Lip’s production of Dirty Works at the Greenwich Street Theatre. Other theatre credits include Robin in Sara Kane’s Cleansed at the Ohio Theatre, the lead role of Presley Stray in Stiff Upper Lip’s production of The Pitchfork Disney, Ray in the Greenwich Street Theatre’s production of Joe Penhall’s Some Voices, and the Understudy for the lead role of John Everett Millais in the Off-Broadway production of The Countess at the Lambs Theatre. His training has included the two-year Meisner program with Maggie Flanigan at The William Esper Studio. He is also the co-founder of the Leftfield Workshop reading series of new works at the Greenwich Street Theatre and most recently is a founding member of Stiff Upper Lip. His film roles include Ham in Ham and the Hotspurs, an NYU thesis film directed by Justin Nowell that will be doing the festival routes shortly. KEVIN KITTLE (Director) has worked as Joseph Chaikin’s assistant director and with Arthur Miller and Sam Shepard for the Signature Theater Company. He has directed numerous productions in such New York City theaters as The Joseph Papp Public Theater, The John Houseman, The Neighborhood Playhouse, The Harold Clurman, Ensemble Studio Theater, Chashama, Sullivan Street Playhouse, The Zipper, The Vital, Expanded Arts, and Access Studio Theater, as well as regionally. His most recent productions include Philip Ridley’s The Pitchfork Disney with Stiff Upper Lip and Joe Penhall’s Some Voices with The Villar- Hauser Development Fund, both at The Greenwich Street Theatre; And Mirasaki Danced (starring Michael Warren Powell) for Circle East; Burnt, which he co-developed with Rhett Rossi at The Present Company Theatorium; The Woolgatherer at The Flatiron Playhouse; the NYC premiere of Carter Lewis’ Soft Click of a Switch; and The House of Yes at The Currican, Watching and Waiting at The Judith Anderson, and Life During Wartime with Aaron Stanford (2001 Off-Off Broadway Review Award for Outstanding Production) all with Inertia Productions, with whom he is resident director. As co-developer and dramaturge/director, Kevin has worked on David Dannenfelser’s When Words Fail… at the NY International Fringe Festival, the script of which is published in Plays and Playwrights for the New Millennium, Vol. One and Peter Handy’s East of the Sun and West of the Moon, which was a finalist in the Samuel French One Act Festival and is published by Samuel French. His Los Angeles production of Chet Whell’s Economic Subterfuge, starring Jason Huber, was nominated for an LA Weekly Award. Kevin is an associate professor of Acting in the BFA program at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University and is an associate director of the Youth Theater of New Jersey, where he teaches in their Summer Theatre Institute in residence at Columbia University.
COVENT GARDEN PRODUCTIONS ZETNA FUENTES
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