Theatre company Papatango has announced the full cast for the world première of Clive Judd’s Here.
The play will open at the Southwark Playhouse from 11 November 2022, playing to 3 December 2022.
Set in the West Midlands, Here is billed as a tender and funny story about family and feeling, and will be directed by Papatango’s Artistic Director George Turvey.
The cast includes EastEnders star Lucy Benjamin as Monica, plus Mark Frost (BBC’s Sherwood) as Jeff, Sam Baker-Jones as Matt and Hannah Millward (Peter Pan Reimagined) as Jess.
Alongside George Turkey as director, the creative team includes Jasmine Swan (Set and Costume Designer), Bethany Gupwell (Lighting Designer) and Asaf Zohar (Composer and Sound Designer).
Clive Judd’s debut play won the 2022 Papatango New Writing Prize, chosen from 1,553 scripts.
More about the cast of Here
Lucy Benjamin plays Monica. Lucy is perhaps best known as Lucy Fowler in EastEnders, for which she received a National Television Award nomination for Most Popular Actress. She also won the Royal Television Society Midlands Award for Acting Performance for her portrayal of Jan Fisher in Doctors. Other television credits include: The Detectorists, Casualty,The Dumping Ground, New Tricks, Holby City, Missing, Kingdom, Dangerfield, The Afternoon Play, Staying Alive, Class Act, Murder Most Horrid, The Bill, Jupiter Moon, Press Gang, Close to Home, Bottom, Up The Elephant and Round The Castle, Me and My Girl, Beau Geste, Doctor Who, Dramarama and Stig Of The Dump. Film credits include: Eleven and Not Alone. Theatre credits include: Henry VI Parts ll & lll (RSC); Love Letters, In Basildon and Deadly Murder(Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch); Hairspray and Framed(national tours); Peter Pan (The Mayflower); The Play What I Wrote and The Pocket Dream (York Theatre Royal); Spiders Web and Meet Me at Mimi’s (Mercury Theatre, Colchester); Worzel Gummidge (Birmingham Rep & Cambridge Theatre);Annie (Adelphi Theatre) and Barnardo (Royalty Theatre).
Mark Frost plays Jeff. Theatre credits include extensive work in Steven Berkoff’s devising company and in his various productions of Oedipus (including at Liverpool Playhouse/Nottingham Playhouse) and Bible Stories (New End, Hampstead). Other theatre work includes Batman Live (global tour); A Christmas Carol (Sherman Theatre); A Man For All Seasons (York Theatre Royal); The Breadwinner, Once Bitten, Chains, Major Barbara and The Madras House (Orange Tree Theatre); Dealer’s Choice, Elegy For A Lady and The Yalta Game (Salisbury Playhouse) and Bonded (Birmingham Rep). Television credits include:Unforgotten; Silent Witness; Django; Sherwood; The Larkins; Hetty Feather; The Last Czars; Poldark; Stella; New Blood; Rocket’s Island; The Mill; Doctors; The Bill; Brookside; Hope Springs; Law & Order UK; Jonathan Creek; Casualty; Midsomer Murders; Holby City; To Walk Invisible: The Brontë Sisters; Single; Terri McIntyre; The Stretford Wives; Call Red; Midnight Movie andThe Mystery of Men. Film credits include: Mayhem; Prey; The Last Trace; A Hundred Streets; Stoned; Hello You; Faust and Blue Juice. Short film credits include: Wake and Where There’s Smoke.
Sam Baker-Jones plays Matt. Here will be his professional stage debut. Television credits include: The Walk-In; DI Ray; Make Me Famous; Noughts and Crosses; Before I Die and Doctors. Film credits include: Passing Through.
Hannah Millward plays Jess. Her theatre credits include:Peter Pan Reimagined and Rebel Music (Birmingham Rep) and This Beautiful Future (Yard Theatre). Television credits include: Bliss and Broadchurch.
Clive Judd is a writer, director and bookseller originally from Dines Green in Worcester, who now lives in Birmingham. He was educated at the University of Manchester and subsequently trained as a director on the Regional Theatre Young Director Scheme, the inaugural Foundry Programme at the Birmingham Rep, and the National Theatre Studio Director’s Course. Here is Judd’s first play. His story There Has Been a Delay is currently being adapted for audio, and We Can Collect The Keys, a collaboration with the artist Patrick Wray, was published by Exit Press in 2022. As a director, his credits include The MP, Aunty Mandy and Me (Leicester Curve), Captain Amazing (Live Theatre), Rails (Theatre by the Lake), This Will End Badly and Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs (Southwark Playhouse), and Dyl and Sparks (Old Red Lion Theatre).
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