An Incident at the Border Read online

  Stephen McGill in association with Neil McPherson for

  the Finborough Theatre presents

  The World Premiere

  First performance at the Finborough Theatre: Sunday, 22 July 2012

  AN INCIDENT AT THE BORDER

  by Kieran Lynn

  Cast in order of appearance

  Olivia Florence Hall

  Arthur Tom Bennett

  Reiver Marc Pickering

  The performance lasts approximately 80 minutes.

  There will be no interval.

  Director Bruce Guthrie

  Designer Sophia Simensky

  Lighting Designer Humphrey McDermott

  Sound Designer Paul Roberts

  Music Zands Duggan and Louise Morgan

  Stage Manager Brittany Spinelli

  Producer Stephen McGill

  Assistant Director Becky Catlin

  Deputy Stage Manager Anna Sheard

  Casting Assistant Lauren Grant

  Our patrons are respectfully reminded that, in this intimate theatre, any noise such as rustling programmes, talking or the ringing of mobile phones may distract the actors and your fellow audience-members.

  We regret there is no admittance or re-admittance to the auditorium whilst the performance is in progress.

  An Incident at the Border is performed in repertoire and on the set of The Fear of Breathing, designed by Philip Lindley, which plays Tuesday to Saturday evenings, and Saturday and Sunday matinees, until 11 August 2012.

  Tom Bennett| Arthur

  Trained at the Guildford School of Acting. Theatre includes Pushing Up Poppies (Theatre503), The Merry Wives Of Windsor, She Stoops To Conquer, Marat Sade, Accidental Death Of An Anarchist, Country Wife and For Services Rendered (GSA).

  Film includes Shadow Dancer, Breathe, Franklyn and Blessed. Television includes Phoneshop, Upstairs Downstairs, The Hunt For Tony Blair, Silent Witness, Doctors, Minder, Pulling, Holby Blue, Mistresses, Love Soup, Midsomer Murders, Booze Cruise, EastEnders, Foyle’s War, My Hero, Red Cap and The Worst Week Of My Life.

  Florence Hall | Olivia

  At the Finborough Theatre, Florence appeared in You May Go Now – A Marriage Play (2009).

  Trained at Drama Centre.

  Theatre includes Birdsong (Comedy Theatre),

  The Importance Of Being Earnest (Library Theatre, Manchester), Middlemarch (Richmond Theatre), The Kitchen, In A Foreign Bed, As You Like It, The Second Mrs Tanqueray, You Can’t Take It With You, The Changeling, The Prince of Homburg, Paradise Lost and Richard III (Drama Centre).

  Film includes Truth Or Dare and The Telemachy. Television includes Big Bad World, May Day, Holby City, Jonathan Creek and Doctors.

  Marc Pickering | Reiver

  Trained at the Guildford School of Acting. Theatre includes The Honeymoon Suite (Hull Truck Theatre), The Merchant Of Venice (Arcola Theatre), The Elephant Man (Trafalgar Studios), The Wizard Of Oz (Royal and Derngate Theatres, Northampton), The Glee Club (Hull Truck Theatre) and The Long And The Short And The Tall (Pleasance London).

  Film includes Sleepy Hollow, Calendar Girls, The Warning, Kill Keith, The Best Years, The Task, I Want Candy, Cashback, Secret Passage and The Queen Of Sheba’s Pearls. Television includes Cricklewood Greats, Fried Brain Sandwich, Britain’s Got The Pop Factor and Dalziel and Pascoe.

  Kieran Lynn | Playwright

  Trained as an actor at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and works as a director and playwright. He has been a member of the Royal Court Young Writers programme, the Playwrights Studio Scotland mentoring programme, the BBC Sparks Residential Course and the Old Vic 24 Hour Plays. He recently completed a year-long attachment at Hampstead Theatre. His plays include The Recurring Rise and Fall (Hampstead Theatre), An Advert for the Army (Òran Mór, Glasgow), A Volunteer from the Audience (Everyman Theatre, Liverpool) and Pushing Up Poppies (Hill Street Theatre, Edinburgh, and Theatre503, London). Recent productions include The Last Dictator (Òran Mór, Glasgow), The Bicycle Thieves, a new play based on the Italian film of the same name (Create Festival, London, in the Olympic Park) and his latest play Bunnies, produced by the Bike Shed Theatre, Exeter, winner of a Peter Brook Empty Space Award, which will transfer to London later this year.

  Bruce Guthrie | Director

  Trained at the Guildford School of Acting (BA Hons in Acting) and on the National Theatre Directors Course. Directing includes Staff Director for Mother Courage and Her Children, The Observer and Burnt by the Sun (National Theatre), Twelfth Night (Fort Canning Park, Singapore), Hitchcock Blonde (Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff), Karen’s Wishes (Mayfair Theatre), Gloucestershire (Arcola Theatre), Stories by Heart (National Theatre), The Actresses Franchise League (Novello Theatre and Prince of Wales Theatre), The Long and the Short and the Tall (Pleasance London), Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me (The Venue, Leicester Square, and Gateway Studio Theatre, Edinburgh). Associate Direction includes The Bridge Project’s Richard III (Old Vic, BAM and International Tour), All My Sons (Apollo Theatre) and You Can’t Take It With You (Southwark Playhouse). Assistant Direction includes The Girl with a Pearl Earring (Theatre Royal Haymarket and Cambridge Arts Theatre) and The Lord of the Rings (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane). Resident Direction includes Shadowlands (Novello Theatre). Bruce was Artistic Director of Creative First Theatre from 2004 to 2007, an Assistant Producer for Andrew Welch Ltd in 2008, and is currently Associate Artistic Director of PapaTango Theatre Company.

  Sophia Simensky | Designer

  At the Finborough Theatre, Sophia was Costume Designer for Events While Guarding the Bofors Gun (2012)

  Trained in Design for Performance at Wimbledon College of Art. Theatre design includes You and Me (Rich Mix), Oranges on the Brain (Pegasus Theatre, Oxford), Ink (Chase the Crane at the Edinburgh Festival) and The Changeling (Underbelly, Edinburgh). Costume design for film includes Screaming Guns. As well as working in production design, Sophia has contributed to a number of visual arts projects including Showflat in 2010 and her current collaborations with Nastassja Simensky.

  Humphrey McDermott | Lighting Designer

  Humphrey has worked professionally within the entertainment lighting industry throughout the UK and Europe for over twenty years. Theatre includes Starlight Express, The Rocky Horror Show, Grease, Les Misérables, The Lion King, Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, Pushing Up Poppies and Mamma Mia!. Since he became involved with Mamma Mia! in 2004, Humphrey has helped produce ten international productions in seven different languages. Humphrey is currently the Associate Lighting Designer for Rock of Ages, and is proud to be the Lighting Designer for the new Beatles show Let It Be, opening at the Prince of Wales Theatre in the autumn. As well as being a supporter of the Make a Difference Trust, Humphrey is also a trustee and creative consultant for Momentum, a charity supporting children with cancer and other life-limiting conditions.

  Paul Roberts | Sound Designer

  Paul started his career at Clwyd Theatr Cymru, spending two years there before moving to Cardiff, where he trained in Stage Management and Technical Theatre at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Theatre includes Blood Wedding, Night Must Fall, The Odd Couple, Hitchcock Blonde (Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama), Pushing Up Poppies (Hill Street Theatre, Edinburgh) and The Get Together (Sherman Cymru). Paul works primarily as a freelance Theatre and Events Technician.

  Zands Duggan and Louise Morgan | Music

  Louise and Zands met at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, performing as percussionists in concert halls and theatres in London and farther afield. Between them, they have toured the world with theatre companies and musical ensembles, performed with the National Theatre, Old Vic and the Royal Shakespeare Company and recorded music for EMI and for television. Their firs
t piece for film will be premiered during London Fashion Week.

  Becky Catlin | Assistant Director

  Directing includes Fresher The Musical, Smile, Bluebird, The Winterling, The Country, Shoot/Get Treasure Repeat (New Theatre, Nottingham), The Infant (Vivian Cox Theatre, Cranleigh), Bluebird (National Student Drama Festival), Hand and Heart (The Hand and Heart Gallery, Nottingham) and The Retreat (Edinburgh Festival). Assistant Direction includes Seizing Cinderella (HighTide Festival), Roots (Mercury Theatre, Colchester, New Vic Theatre, Stoke, Hull Truck Theatre, Hull, and Nottingham Playhouse) and Inside Out of Mind (Nottingham Playhouse). Dramaturgy includes First Stage (Finger in the Pie’s Mimetic Festival), Hand and Heart, Smile and The Retreat.

  Brittany Spinelli | Stage Manager

  Trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. She is also currently working as the Construction Manager on Balance – Designing for Performance (Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama at the Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf). Theatre includes Our Country’s Good (Richard Burton Theatre, Cardiff), Alfie (Caird Studio, Cardiff), Arabian Nights (Bute Theatre, Cardiff). Brittany has also worked at Venue 13 (Edinburgh Festival). In America, Brittany has worked at the August Wilson Center and the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center, Pittsburgh.

  Anna Sheard | Deputy Stage Manager

  Trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Theatre includes Mary Stuart (Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff), The Stone (Caird Theatre, Cardiff), Balance Design Exhibition 2011 (Bute Theatre, Cardiff, and Bargehouse Gallery, Southbank), Night Must Fall and Our Country’s Good (Richard Burton Theatre, Cardiff), Filumena (Almeida Theatre), The Vanishing Elephant (Claque Theatre Company) and Yeshua Messiah (Absolute Gospel Productions).

  Stephen McGill | Producer

  Stephen formed his own production company in early 2012 after working as co-producer for Poppy Productions Ltd since 2010. He has previously worked on the worldwide productions of Mamma Mia! as well as the London productions of Billy Elliot and Jersey Boys. Theatre includes Pushing Up Poppies (Theatre503 and Hill Street Theatre, Edinburgh), The Lost Christmas (Waterloo East Theatre), In The Act (Theatre Royal, Stratford East) and a rehearsed reading of Our Boys (Prince of Wales Theatre). He attended the Stage One Workshop for new producers in October 2011. Forthcoming productions include The Tailor-Made Man in Spring 2013.

  Production Acknowledgements

  Poster and Leaflet Design | Tom Jewett

  Rehearsal Space | Clapham Community Project

  Marketing | Jo Hutchison International

  Press | Amanda Malpass 0207 031 8188

  Winner – Eight awards at the OffWestEnd Awards 2012 “A theatre in a class of its own: last year’s programme was so good that it was worth moving to West Brompton for... Its first new writing premiere of the year...suggests that 2012 in London’s only wine bar theatre, will be as impressive as it was in 2011.” Time Out

  “A disproportionately valuable component of the London theatre ecology. Its programme combines new writing and revivals, in selections intelligent and audacious.” Financial Times

  “A blazing beacon of intelligent endeavour, nurturing new writers while finding and reviving neglected curiosities from home and abroad.” The Daily Telegraph

  Founded in 1980, the multi-award-winning Finborough Theatre presents plays and music theatre, concentrated exclusively on new writing and genuine rediscoveries from the 19th and 20th centuries. We aim to offer a stimulating and inclusive programme, appealing to theatregoers of all ages and from a broad spectrum of the population. Behind the scenes, we continue to discover and develop a new generation of theatre makers – through our vibrant Literary team, our internship programme, our Resident Assistant Director Programme, and our partnership with the National Theatre Studio providing a bursary for Emerging Directors.

  Despite remaining completely unsubsidised, the Finborough Theatre has an unparalleled track record of attracting the finest creative talent, as well as discovering new playwrights who go on to become leading voices in British theatre. Under Artistic Director Neil McPherson, it has discovered some of the UK’s most exciting new playwrights including Laura Wade, James Graham, Mike Bartlett, Sarah Grochala, Jack Thorne, Simon Vinnicombe, Alexandra Wood, Al Smith, Nicholas de Jongh and Anders Lustgarten.

  Artists working at the theatre in the 1980s included Clive Barker, Rory Bremner, Nica Burns, Kathy Burke, Ken Campbell, Jane Horrocks and Claire Dowie. In the 1990s, the Finborough Theatre became known for new writing including Naomi Wallace’s first play The War Boys; Rachel Weisz in David Farr’s Neville Southall’s Washbag; four plays by Anthony Neilson including Penetrator and The Censor, both of which transferred to the Royal Court Theatre; and new plays by Richard Bean, Lucinda Coxon, David Eldridge, Tony Marchant, Mark Ravenhill and Phil Willmott. New writing development included a number of works that went on to become modern classics including Mark Ravenhill’s Shopping and F***king, Conor McPherson’s This Lime Tree Bower, Naomi Wallace’s Slaughter City and Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman.

  Since 2000, new British plays have included Laura Wade’s London debut Young Emma, commissioned for the Finborough Theatre; James Graham’s Albert’s Boy with Victor Spinetti; Sarah Grochala’s S27; Peter Nichols’ Lingua Franca, which transferred Off-Broadway; and West End transfers for Joy Wilkinson’s Fair; Nicholas de Jongh’s Plague Over England; and Jack Thorne’s Fanny and Faggot. The late Miriam Karlin made her last stage appearance in Many Roads to Paradise in 2008. Many of the Finborough Theatre’s new plays have been published and are on sale from our website.

  UK premieres of foreign plays have included Brad Fraser’s Wolfboy; Lanford Wilson’s Sympathetic Magic; Larry Kramer’s The Destiny of Me; Tennessee Williams’ Something Cloudy, Something Clear; the English premiere of Robert McLellan’s Scots language classic, Jamie the Saxt; and three West End transfers – Frank McGuinness’ Gates of Gold with William Gaunt and John Bennett, Joe DiPietro’s F***ing Men and Craig Higginson’s Dream of the Dog with Dame Janet Suzman.

  Rediscoveries of neglected work have included the first London revivals of Rolf Hochhuth’s Soldiers and The

  Representative; both parts of Keith Dewhurst’s Lark Rise to Candleford; The Women’s War, an evening of original suffragette plays; Etta Jenks with Clarke Peters and Daniela Nardini; Noël Coward’s first play, The Rat Trap; Charles Wood’s Jingo with Susannah Harker; Emlyn Williams’ Accolade with Aden Gillett and Graham Seed; and Lennox Robinson’s Drama at Inish with Celia Imrie and Paul O’Grady.

  Music Theatre has included the new (premieres from Grant Olding, Charles Miller, Michael John LaChuisa, Adam Guettel, Andrew Lippa and Adam Gwon’s Ordinary Days which transferred to the West End) and the old (the UK premiere of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s State Fair which also transferred to the West End, and the acclaimed Celebrating British Music Theatre series, reviving forgotten British musicals including Gay’s The Word by Ivor Novello with Sophie-Louise Dann, Helena Blackman and Elizabeth Seal.

  The Finborough Theatre won The Stage Fringe Theatre of the Year Award in 2011, won London Theatre Reviews’ Empty Space Peter Brook Award in 2010, the Empty Space Peter Brook Award’s Dan Crawford Pub Theatre Award in 2005 and 2008, the Empty Space Peter Brook Mark Marvin Award in 2004, four awards in the inaugural 2011 OffWestEnd Awards and swept the board with eight awards at the 2012 OffWestEnd Awards including Best Artistic Director and Best Director for the second year running. Accolade was named Best Fringe Show of 2011 by Time Out. It is the only unsubsidised theatre to be awarded the Pearson Playwriting Award bursary for writers Chris Lee in 2000, Laura Wade in 2005 for James Graham in 2006, for Al Smith in 2007, for Anders Lustgarten in 2009, Simon Vinnicombe in 2010 and Dawn King in 2011. Three bursary holders (Laura Wade, James Graham and Anders Lustgarten) have also won the Catherine Johnson Award for Pearson Best Play.

  www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk

  118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED

  [email protected]

  www.finbor
oughtheatre.co.uk

  Artistic Director | Neil McPherson

  Resident Designer | Deputy Chief Executive | Alex Marker

  General Managers | Lauren McGee, Isabella Riggs

  Assistant General Manager | Elizabeth Hawes

  Pearson Playwright-in-Residence | Dawn King

  Playwrights-in-Residence | Bekah Brunstetter, James Graham, Anders Lustgarten, Colleen Murphy, Simon Vinnicombe

  Associate Director | Justin Audibert

  Cameron Mackintosh Resident Composer facilitated

  by Mercury Musical Developments and Musical Theatre

  Network UK | Craig Adams

  Literary Manager | Francis Grin

  Literary Associate Music Theatre | Max Pappenheim

  Technical Manager | Miguel Figueiredo

  Assistant Technical Manager | Jude Malcomson

  Associate Designer | Philip Lindley

  Marketing | Gemma Bealing

  Resident Casting Directors | Lucy Casson, Hayley Kaimakliotis

  Resident Assistant Directors | George Ransley, Dan Pick, Jack Ryder(Dan Pick is on attachment from the MFA in Theatre Directing at Birkbeck, University of London.)

  Resident Assistant Producer | Luke Holbrook, India Pool(India Pool is on attachment from the MA in Creative Producing at Birkbeck, University of London.)

  And our many interns and volunteers.

  The Associate Director position is supported by The National Theatre Studio’s Bursary for Emerging Directors, a partnership between the National Theatre Studio and the Finborough Theatre.

  The Finborough Theatre has the support of the Pearson Playwrights’ Scheme. Sponsored by Pearson PLC.

  The Cameron Mackintosh Resident Composer Scheme is facilitated by Mercury Musical Developments and Musical Theatre Matters