What’s On
Stayed tuned for further updates
2024
Dates to be confirmeD
2023 Twelfth night
2023 Director’s Note
Twelfth Night or What You Will
“If music be the food of love, play on…”
Twelfth Night is one of Shakespeare’s most loved romantic comedies and, like last year’s The Tempest, it also begins with shipwreck and loss. It focusses on a young woman, (Viola) who believes that she has lost her twin brother (Sebastian), and how her actions to survive catalyse the world around her. This is a world replete with distinctive characters from every walk of life: countesses, stewards, sea-farers, priests, fools and knights; characters epicurean and puritan, generous and cruel, naive and wise.
Shakespeare’s understanding of the human condition is profound and complete. Writing a programme note, it’s hard to commit to one idea or interpretation, because he offers several prismatic lenses on who we are, what we most desire and what we are prepared to do to fulfil it.
This is especially true for Twelfth Night. It seems incredibly modern – tackling questions of identity, gender and sexuality. It’s poetic and philosophical in its examination of love and madness, longing and loss. It intrigues through disguise, duality and deception and it is deeply satisfying in its final revelation.
Why does Shakespeare make such an effort to reflect these different facets of humanity in Twelfth Night? And what, if anything, do we learn from all these refracted images of our unique selves? Could he be trying to show us that despite the differences in our identities – of gender, sexuality, class or origin – we are unified by something that surpasses all these: – the universal need to be loved.
– Sioned Jones, January 2023
Actors
2023 Cast
2024 cast TO BE CONFIRMED
Lee Drage
Antonio/Sea Captain
Lee is an actor and comedian originally from Northampton. As part of award-winning comedy duo Omar&Lee, he has performed at VAULT festival, Brighton Fringe and Edinburgh Fringe and was nominated for an Offie (Best Show) for their online interactive show Shit Samaritans.
Lee trained at Guildford School of Acting. His theatre credits include Aloe Aloe (Bush Theatre), The Spanish Tragedy (Old Red Lion), Chariots of Fire (Gielgud, West End), Oh What A Lovely War (UK tour), The Water Engine (Old Vic), The Hot Mikado (Watermill Theatre), Saturday Night (Jermyn St Theatre). His TV credits include Silo (Apple TV).
Lee is very much looking forward to bringing some Shakespearean joy across London this summer!
Richard Emerson
Malvolio/Officer
Richard’s theatre work includes Chess (ENO, London Coliseum), Manhattan Parisienne (The Other Palace), A Chorus of Disapproval (Harold Pinter Theatre), il ritorno d’ulisse in patria (La Pietra, Florence), How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (Wilton’s Music Hall), The Vaudevillains (Assembly, Edinburgh), The First Man (Jermyn Street Theatre), Major Barbara (West 52nd St Theatre, New York City), The Lie (Vienna’s English Theatre), and Uncle Maroye (Marin Držic Theatre, Gdansk Shakespeare Festival).
Richard’s Shakespeare credits include Romeo and Juliet (Fort Lovrijenac, Dubrovnik and Bermuda Shakespeare Festival); Hamlet (Salisbury Playhouse); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet (Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch); Twelfth Night (Forest Forge Theatre Company) The Taming of the Shrew (GSC), The Tempest (RETZ) and Twelfth Night (Royal Touring).
Extensive further repertory at Salisbury, Watford, Northampton, Basingstoke, Harrogate, Colchester, Chipping Norton, Southwold & Aldeburgh, Bury St Edmunds, Hornchurch and the Lyric Hammersmith.
Film work includes The Last Photograph, Radio, The First Man and Not For Sale.
Toby Gordon
Orsino/Sir Toby Belch
Yorkshire-born Toby trained at LAMDA.
Toby’s theatre credits include Small Change (Omnibus Theatre); The Wolf of Wall Street and The Great Gatsby (Hartshorn Hook); York Mystery Plays (York Minster) and Antigone (Barbican).
This is Toby’s second time performing Twelfth Night as he previously played the role of Feste whilst studying. His other Shakespeare credits include As You Like It (York Theatre Royal).
Priscille Grace
Maria
Priscille Grace is a French actress and singer based in UK. She graduated from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama after having studied classical music with the Maîtrise de Paris Choir at the National Conservatoire of Paris, where she grew up.
Priscille’s credits include Reputation (The Other Palace), Little Match Girl (ORNC Greenwich), Dido’s Bar (Royal Docks) and Cinderella (Oxford Playhouse).
Priscille is excited to make her Shakespeare debut as Maria in Twelfth Night with Shakespeare in the Squares.
Lucy Ireland
Viola
Lucy trained at Guildford School of Acting.
Lucy’s theatre credits include Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Theatre Royal, Nottingham), Footloose (UK & International Tour), From Here (Chiswick Playhouse), and The Gravy Bunch (Bread & Roses). Credits whilst training include Anne Boleyn, Betty Blue Eyes and Our Town.
Her workshops include Obella, The Bachelor Girls and The Devil’s Advocate.
Lucy is also one half of writing partnership, Barrow & Ireland with Ben Barrow. Their new musical, From Here had its world premiere production at Chiswick Playhouse in July 2021.
Marissa Landy
Feste
Marissa is a Northern actor, writer and composer now based in East London. She trained for her MA at Mountview after gaining a First for her BA in Drama at Queen Mary University. She is the founder and Artistic Director of Baloney Theatre Company.
Marissa’s credits include A NON-EMERGENCY (Small UK tour and Ed Fringe), Publico (Teatru Manoel, Malta), The Cat’s the Thing (Ed Fringe and Drayton Arms), Same Old, Same Oldies (Ed Fringe).
Carys McQueen
Olivia
Carys trained at Rose Bruford College, BA Hons Actor Musicianship.
Carys’s theatre credits include Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club (Playhouse Theatre, winner of 7 Olivier Awards); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (UK Tour), The Tale of Peter Rabbit (UK Tour); Pardoned (The Other Palace); Publico (Manoel Theatre); Max and Ivan: Commitment (Soho Theatre); Raymond Briggs’ ‘Father Christmas’ (Lyric Hammersmith).
On TV, Carys has appeared in Life of Ryan (Mixing Productions).
Fred Thomas
Sebastian/Sir Andrew Aguecheek
Fred made his professional debut playing Malcolm in Macbeth at the Greenwich Theatre.
Subsequent roles include Salomé in Oscar Wilde’s Salomé at the Southwark Playhouse, and Solinus in The Comedy of Errors.
Fred has also appeared in two short films and on the radio.
Behind the Scenes
2023 Crew
2024 Crew to be confirmed
Sue Fletcher
Founder Producer
Sue Fletcher had a forty-year career in book publishing, including as co-founder of Headline and Deputy MD of Hodder & Stoughton. She has an MA in Theatre and Performance from Queen Mary, University of London, and in 2011 was one of the judges for the Olivier Awards. She goes to the theatre three or four times a week and remains captivated by the magic of live performance.
Martin Neild
Founder Producer
Martin Neild worked in publishing for over thirty years. He worked for Macmillan in Australia,Africa and London and became Chief Executive of Hodder & Stoughton Publishers in 1993. He is Co-Chair of the Oxford School of Drama, Chair of the Chipping Norton Literary Festival and a trustee of the Michael Cuddigan Trust which gives grants to young composers. He, too, is a regular and passionate theatregoer.
Emily Stuart
Designer
Emily is a costume designer living and working in London. Previous credits for Shakespeare in the Squares are The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet and Much Ado About Nothing. Other recent credits include Applause and Company for GSA and Robin Hood for Greenwich Theatre.
Jane Frisby
Casting Director
Jane has been the Shakespeare in the Squares casting agent for The Tempest 2022 and Twelfth Night 2023. She is currently running Happy Hour for Director Lesley Manning at the Gatehouse Highgate and Bed for Director Matthew Gould at Brighton and Edinburgh Festivals … and many, many short films and feature films…
Lily Brown
Wardrobe Assistant
Theatre as Assistant Stage Manager: Killing The Cat – ASM cover (Riverside studios); The Massive Tragedy of Madame Bovary (Jermyn Street Theatre); Something In The Air (Jermyn Street). Theatre as Stage Manager: Sorry for your loss (Kings Head); By the way, Meet Vera Stark (RCSSD); Imagination playground (Sheffield Crucible).
Sioned Jones
Director
Sioned loved directing The Tempest for Shakespeare in the Squares last summer. Before then, she had over 30 years’ experience as an actor with several appearances at the National Theatre and in the West End. She can next be seen on TV in FBI International. She is also a keen ceramicist.
Francesca Gregson
Executive Producer / Marketing Manager
Francesca is the founder of Distrikt Communications, a London-based agency that puts creative companies in front of public audiences. Francesca began working for Shakespeare in the Squares as Marketing Manager in 2022 and was delighted to be asked back as an Executive Producer this year. Francesca’s other theatre clients include Unfortunate: The Untold Story of Ursula the Sea Witch and The Arts Centre, Hounslow.
Annemarie Lewis Thomas
Music Director
MD credits include Billie The Kid (Workshop), The Wizard of Poz (2 Brewers), From Up Here (Trafalgar Studios), Annie (No 1 tour), Black Eyed Susan (Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds), Rent (Olympia Theatre Dublin), Composer credits include J (Film), Oh My, Nellie Bly, Dangerous Daughters & Around The World in 80 Days (all published by Concord).
Kathryn Corlett
Graphic Designer
Kathryn is a Graphic Designer and Illustrator and has had the pleasure of creating the publicity artwork for Shakespeare in the Squares since 2018. She studied Graphic Design at Falmouth College of Arts and has 18 years of experience as a professional designer.
Alex Pearson
Executive Producer / Assistant Director
Alex is an experienced Director and Producer, who has worked at a large number of venues throughout London and the rest of the country, on a multitude of different productions, including plays, musicals and operas. Alex has a passion for Shakespeare, and is progressively working through his entire cannon, either as Assistant Director or Director. Alex is delighted to be back with Shakespeare in the Squares, this time also as a Producer.
Heather Cooper
Company Stage Manager
Heather hails from Mississauga, Canada and has had the pleasure of making theatre in the UK for five years. When not touring with theatre she enjoys trying to keep her houseplants alive. Recent credits: Beauty and the Beast (Imagine Theatre), The Cherry Orchard (The Yard Theatre & English Touring Theatre).
Colette Robinson-Collcutt
Costume Supervisor
Colette graduated from Wimbledon College of Arts and has since worked on multiple fringe and west end shows over the past 5 years as costume supervisor and assistant. Her latest shows include How to Succeed in Business at Southwark Playhouse and Ruth at Royal Academy of Music.
Bethany Fulcher
Assistant Stage Manager
Bethany is a Stage Manager and soon graduating student at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Alongside her work on a range of productions at Central, she has been the Stage Manager for the National Tour of Quiet Rebels and managed a range of workshops for developing musicals.
Lucy Mason-Lockett
Stage Manager
Lucy studied Stage Management at RADA and has since worked on a variety of productions. These include ASM on 9to5 The Musical (Savoy Theatre & UK/ Ireland tour), DSM on Oleanna (The Arts Theatre), Dr Who Time Fracture & Guardians of The Galaxy (immersive theatre), and SM on Little Scratch (New Diorama)
Previous Years
Past Productions
Twelfth Night
2023
The Tempest
2022
A Midsummer Night's Dream
2019
As You Like It
2018
Romeo & Juliet
2017
Much Ado About Nothing
2016