A Whisper of Smoke

Cast and Company

Directors

Kamaal Hussain: credits include The Selected Few at the New Diorama Theatre (Finalist at the Sitcom Mission 2010); Welcome to the Jungle, at the Leicester Square Theatre (Runner –up at the Sitcom Trials 2009); Macbeth, Forced Entertainment, Sheffield; The Snow Queen, Leicester Haymarket Theatre Studio; The Red Shoes, Garrick Theatre, Atrincham, The Hypochondriac, at the Y Theatre, Leicester; Bellows as part of The Smoke Festival at The Kings Head Theatre and Public Interest at the New Diorama. Kamaal is Joint Artistic Director of Clever as Clever; an associate artist at the Playground Development Studio, and an affiliate director with Out of Order Theatre Company.

Ed Simpson: For 12 months, Ed has been based at the Theatre Royal Winchester where he heads the participation and learning departments. He spent the last ten years as a director, mostly working in many regional theatres including the Anvil & Haymarket (Basingstoke), Royal & Derngate (Northampton), The Lyric (Belfast). In London he has worked at the National theatre, The Globe and numerous fringe venues. On an odd point Ed has now directed three Shakespeare productions on the African continent, including in 2009 Julius Caesar at Leptis Magna in Libya, and now is looking for an excuse to do it again. Macbeth in the DRC anyone?

Writers

Matthew Bates: Matt is a writer and actor, having contributed to topical comedy shows such as Newsrevue, the Treason Show, and once, to his shame, a nob gag in the 11 O'Clock Show. He has written historical performance pieces for the National Trust at Sutton House, co-wrote a two person adaptation of Dickens' A Christmas Carol which toured to Munich, and has a drawer full of unfinished scripts.

As an actor, he also played the writer of Kafka's Motorbike in the movie Bridget Jones' Diary.

Matt is an associate artist with Out of Order Theatre and has appeared in Bellows (The Smoke Festival) and Tail of Two Dogs as well as participating in developing the company’s other productions.

Emma Blundell

Francesca Paterson: Francesca has written for ArtsEditor London, Roar (King’s College, London) and was the editor in chief of Satyrica (KCL Classics department) as well as contributing to both the London Student and National Student. Whilst she has written for the stage before this is the first time her writing has been performed professionally.

She also acts and can be seen in the short film Kvinnerfrisen and is currently taking a Masters in Shakespeare Studies.

Francesca worked with Out of Order as dramaturg on Antigone in 2009/10. It is to date the only instance in which her degree in Classical Studies has been directly useful for anything other than pub quizzes. She has an ongoing dramaturgy role with the company.

Rosamund Williams: A graduate of King's College London, Rosamund has had poetry published before (in Pomegranate ezine and the London Library magazine), but this is the first time her writing will performed on stage. She did once direct a tragedy in the original Greek, and though she would at some point like to repeat the experience she hopes that the next play will be in English rather than a language that only about five members of the audience understand.

Samantha Wright: Sam has won several awards for excellence in playwriting in Canada. She was invited to join the Tarragon Theatre’s Playwright's Unit and she completed the Young Writers Programme at the Royal Court Theatre. Her plays include Hush, (Pleasance Dome and the Arcola Theatre - Fringe First Nominated) and The Fetch (awarded The Special Merit Prize, Theatre BC’s National Playwriting Competition, and staged in both London and British Columbia).

Sam has appeared on stage in Toronto, London, and New York, making her West End debut in the UK Premiere of The Viewing Room and recently starring in the music video for Polaris Award Winning band 'F*cked Up's new rock opera David Comes To Life.

Sam is an associate artist with Out of Order Theatre, having both performed and written for the company as well as assisting with the development of ongoing productions.

Cast

Martin Ritchie

Jolyon Westhorpe