ONE VOICE AT THE OLD VIC to Feature Monologues by Mark Watson, Amelia Bullmore, and Yasmina Reza

The Old Vic today announced the next One Voice at The Old Vic which will take place on 7 July featuring new monologues written by Mark Watson and Amelia Bullmore performed by Katherine Parkinson and Niamh Cusack as well as a monologue by Yasmina Reza.

The programme on 7 July features Statuesque written by Mark Watson, performed by Katherine Parkinson and directed by Annabel Bolton, Anyway written by Amelia Bullmore, performed by Niamh Cusack and directed by Max Webster and Robert Toscano from Happy Are the Happy by Yasmina Reza, directed by Chelsea Walker.

One Voice celebrates the rawest of theatre forms - a single voice on a stage without scenery, without costume and with nothing to rely on but words. This series of monologues is specially commissioned by The Old Vic with one-off performances from renowned actors.

BIOGRAPHIES

Annabel Bolton is an Associate Director of The Old Vic Theatre, and has directed and produced many high profile events both in the UK and USA. She is currently directing The Divide which opens at Edinburgh International Festival this summer, before transferring to The Old Vic. Previous credits as director include Future Conditional (Co-Director with Matthew Warchus, The Old Vic), Love Story (Walnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia), 24 Hour Plays Celebrity Gala, Scenes from Romeo and Juliet with West Side Story, Variety Nights at The Old Vic and many workshops. Credits as Associate Director include Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for Sam Mendes, Hay Fever for Howard Davies, Million Dollar Quartet for Eric Schaeffer, Love Story for Rachel Kavanaugh, Deathtrap and La Bête for Matthew Warchus, Backbeat for Iain Softley (Citizens Theatre, Glasgow), The Norman Conquests for Matthew Warchus (The Old Vic and on Broadway); Complicit for Kevin Spacey (The Old Vic); Speed-the-Plow for Matthew Warchus (Recklinghausen, Germany). Assistant Director: The Lord of the Rings and Stones in His Pockets (UK tour). Film credits include Music Coordinator for Pride and for television Up the Women (BBC workshop).

Amelia Bullmore's most recent play Di And Viv And Rose opened at Hampstead Theatre before transferring to the West End and has since been performed in Israel, Poland, Germany, Australia and New York. Her other writing credits for the stage include Mammals (Bush Theatre, National Tour and Los Angeles) which was shortlisted for the WhatsOnStage Best New Comedy Award and co-won the Susan Smith Blackburn Award, an adaption of Ibsen's Ghosts (Gate Theatre, Citizens Theatre Glasgow) and a short play for The Old Vic's 24 Hour Plays all of which were directed by Anna Mackmin. For television, Amelia has written episodes of This Life, series 2 (Writers Guild Best Television Drama), Attachments and Scott and Bailey series 2, 3 and 4. She devised and co-wrote a series of ten-minute films, Black Cab. She was a Dennis Potter Award finalist in 2000 for her television screenplay The Middle. Amelia's radio writing includes four series of Craven, Cash Flow (part of the From Fact to Fiction series) and the afternoon plays The Middle, Family Tree, Looking for Mr King and The Bat Man. She currently has three TV projects in development.

Niamh Cusack's credits include Ticking (Trafalgar Studios), The Rehearsal (Minerva Theatre, Chichester), Afterplay (Sheffield Crucible), The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time, The Enchantment, His Dark Materials (National Theatre), Playboy Of The Western World, Cause Célèbre, Dancing At Lughnasa (The Old Vic), Aberdeen's English, Nabakov's Gloves (Hampstead Theatre), Breathing Corpses (Royal Court), As You Like It, The Art Of Success, Romeo and Juliet, Othello and Mary After The Queen (RSC). Niamh's television credits include Silent Witness, New Tricks, Best Of Men, Henry IV, Lewis, Midsummer Murders, Fallen Angel, The Last Detective, Miss Marple, Paddington, Too Good To Be True, State Of Mind, Trust, Little Bird, Always And Everyone, Rhinoceros, Colour Blind, Trauma, Heartbeat, Angel Train, Poirot, Jeeves and Wooster, Chalkface, A Marriage Of Inconvenience and Till We Meet Again. Her film credits include The Ghoul, Departure, Testament Of Youth, Chick Lit, In Love With Alma Cogan, Hereafter, 5 Minutes Of Heaven, The Closer You Get, Playboys, Shadow On The Sun, Paris By Night, Lucky Sunil and Fools Of Fortune.

Katherine Parkinson's theatre credits include Dead Funny (Vaudeville Theatre), Before The Party (Almeida Theatre), Absent Friends (Harold Pinter Theatre), 66 Books (Bush Theatre), School For Scandal (Barbican Theatre), Season's Greetings (National Theatre), c*ck(Royal Court Theatre), The Age of Consent (Bush Theatre), The Seagull (Royal Court Theatre), The Lighting Play (Almeida), Other Hands, Flush (Soho Theatre), The Unthinkable (Sheffield Crucible), Antigone, The Increased Difficulty of Concentration (The Gate), Camille (Lyric Hammersmith) and Frame 132 (Donmar Warehouse). Katherine's television credits include The Kennedy's, Humans, Number 9: Sardines, In the Club, The IT Crowd, Inside Number 9, Knocking on Dave's Door, Doc Martin, Whites, The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff, The Honourable Woman and Sherlock. Film credits include Guernsey, The Boat That Rocked, St Trinians 2, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People and Easy Virtue.

Yasmina Reza's plays have been adapted in over 35 languages and performed throughout the world. Her plays 'Art' and God of Carnage won both the Olivier and Tony Awards, and the latter was adapted for film by Roman Polanski as Carnage (2011, César for Best Scenario). In 2010 she directed her first film, Chicas.

Plays include Conversations après un enterrement (Conversations after a burial), La Traversée de l'hiver (Winter Crossing), L'Homme du Hasard (The Unexpected Man), Trois versions de la vie (Life x 3), Une pièce espagnole (A Spanish play). She has also published a number of books which have been translated in many countries: Bella Figura, Comment vous racontez la partie (How you talk the game), Heureux les heureux (Happy are the happy, Winner of Le Monde's Prix littéraire), Hammerklavier, Une Désolation (Desolation), Adam Haberberg, Dans la luge d'Arthur Schopenhauer (On Arthus Schopenhauer's Sledge), Nulle part (Nowhere) and L'aube le soir ou la nuit (Dawn Dusk or Night).

Chelsea Walker is the winner of the RTST Director Award 2017. She has twice been a finalist for the JMK Young Director Award and was awarded the runner up prize in 2016. Chelsea's most recent production was Low Level Panic at the Orange Tree Theatre, which was nominated for four OffWestEnd Awards, including Best Director. Credits as director include Low Level Panic (Orange Tree Theatre), P'Yongyang by In-Sook Chappell (Finborough Theatre), Klippies by Jessica Sian (Southwark Playhouse), Chicken Dust by Ben Weatherill (Finborough/Curve Leicester), Lean by Isley Lynn (Tristan Bates). Credits as assistant director include Wild dir. James MacDonald (Hampstead Theatre), The Little Mermaid dir. Simon Godwin (Bristol Old Vic), Routes dir. Simon Godwin (Royal Court), Candida dir. Simon Godwin (Theatre Royal Bath). Chelsea is a script reader for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the Bruntwood Prize; she is a Stage Business facilitator at The Old Vic and has directed three productions for Southwark Playhouse's Young Company. As the winner of the RTST Award 2017, Chelsea will direct a revival of a classic play in 2018 for a UK tour, to be produced by Nuffield Southampton Theatres, English Touring Theatre and Theatr Clwyd.

Mark Watson is a multi-award-winning comedian and star of numerous TV shows including Dave's Road to Rio, BBC's We Need Answers, Live At The Apollo, Mock The Week and Have I Got News For You, and his own cult Radio 4 series Mark Watson Talks A Bit About Life. He is also the author of six novels, the most recent of which The Place That Didn't Exist was released in summer 2016 to critical acclaim, and a graphic novel Dan and Sam, written with Oliver Harud, published in October 2015.

Max Webster is fast emerging as one of the most exciting young directors working in the UK and internationally. He was The Old Vic's first Baylis Director and is now an Associate Director at the theatre. Recent work includes Cover My Tracks (The Old Vic), The Winter's Tale (Lyceum, Edinburgh), King Lear (Royal and Derngate, Northampton/UK Tour), Mary Stuart (PARCO Productions, Tokyo), Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare's Globe and international tour), Orlando, To Kill a Mockingbird and My Young and Foolish Heart (Manchester Royal Exchange), Opera Highlights (Scottish Opera and tour), James and the Giant Peach and My Generation (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Twelfth Night (Regent's Park Open Air Theatre), Skewered Snails (Iron Oxide/Southbank Centre), Anna Karenina (Arcola), The Chalk Circle (Aarohan Theatre, Nepal), Carnival Under the Rainbow and Feast Kakulu (Hilton Arts Festival, South Africa). Upcoming work includes Fanny and Alexander (The Old Vic).

oldvictheatre.com