Brian Doherty, Eleanor Worthington-Cox & More to Star in TOMCAT at Southwark Playhouse

The winner of the seventh Papatango New Writing Prize, Tomcat by James Rushbrooke will receive a four week run at Southwark Playhouse from Wednesday 28 October (press night: Friday 30 October 8pm) to Saturday 21 Nov 2015. The director is 2014 JMK Award winner Kate Hewitt, who is currently Associate Director on Sam Mendes' Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in the West End.

The cast has just been announced as Brian Doherty (Enobarbus in Antony and Cleopatra, RSC), Edward Harrison (George Boleyn in Wolf Hall, RSC and West End), Diana Kent (Madre Marguerita in The Heresy of Love, RSC; Madame Michaud in Suite Francaise), Susan Stanley (Serena in F*ck The Polar Bears, Bush Theatre) and the youngest ever winner of an Olivier Award, Eleanor Worthington-Cox (Matilda in Matilda, RSC and West End; The Enfield Haunting).

Eleanor will play the lead role of Jessie; this will be her first theatre role that isn't shared with other children, and her first independent creation of a new role.

The design team is set and costume designer Lily Arnold (The Jew of Malta, RSC; The Solid Life of Sugar Water, Graeae and National Theatre), lighting designer Johanna Town (Dear Lupin, West End) and sound designer Richard Hammarton (The Crucible, Old Vic).

The Papatango New Writing Prize has launched the careers of many hugely successful new playwrights. It is unique in the UK - no other annual new writing initiative guarantees its winner a full production and publication, championing début playwrights with maximum impact.

Papatango discoveries include BAFTA-winner Dominic Mitchell, Off West End Award and RNT Foundation Playwright Award winner Dawn King, Louise Monaghan (BBC Radio Four), Luke Owen (Unscorched, Milan Playwriting Festival) and Fiona Doyle (Deluge, Hampstead Theatre; now on attachment at the National Theatre Studio).

About Tomcat

"Oh, she's dangerous. But not because of her genes. Because of you."

In the not-too-distant future, the world is better than ever. Diseases and disorders have been wiped out by genetic screening. But 12 year old Jess doesn't belong. She slipped through the net, and there's something dangerous in her DNA, something that must be 'cured'.

Charlie is watching Jess. He'll do whatever it takes to keep society safe.

As debate over genetic screening rages, with Richard Dawkins recently questioning the rights of foetuses with Down's Syndrome, Tomcat's urgent vision questions the lengths to which we will go to keep humanity healthy.

When you can learn everything about a person on a computer screen, does that mean there's nothing left to discover?

Playwright James Rushbrooke, 33, is from Gloucester. He consults on advocacy rights and participation programmes for children, and has written and delivered several award-winning training programmes for children in care. He took his BSc in Psychology and Drama from UWE.

Tomcat will be his first full production. Other writing credits include Photo Finish and The Crab Bucket (Waterloo East Theatre). He most recently wrote Back For The Cat, an extract of which was performed for the Old Vic New Voices Festival (Old Vic Theatre) in July 2015.

Director Kate Hewitt is currently Associate Director on Sam Mendes' production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Theatre Royal Drury Lane). She trained as a performer with the National Youth Theatre and at Goldsmiths and LISPA. She was the recipient of a Jerwood Assistant Director Award (2012) and the JMK Directors Award (2014). Directing credits include Far Away (Young Vic) and Portrait (Edinburgh Festival and subsequent UK tour).

She has just finished working with the National Youth Theatre on their Epic Stages Project.

As Associate Director, Medea (Headlong), Electra (Gate Theatre and Latitude Festival).

As Assistant Director, Wild Swans (Young Vic and ART Boston), Clybourne Park (Royal Court and Wyndham's), Through a Glass Darkly (Almeida) and Breathing Irregular (Gate Theatre).

Kate is the co-founder and co-creator with You Need Me, an international theatre company whose credits include How it Ended (Arcola and Edinburgh Festival) and Certain Dark Things (Tobacco Factory, Bristol and Edinburgh Festival).

Brian Doherty plays Tom. Theatre includes: Death of a Comedian(Soho/Abbey/Lyric Belfast); The Father, A Steady Rain (Theatre Royal Bath); From Here to Eternity (Shaftesbury Theatre); Narratives (Royal Court); Famine (Druid Theatre Co.); Antony and Cleopatra, The Winter's Tale, Little Eagles, The Drunks, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, King Lear, Great Expectations, Macbeth (RSC); God in Ruins (Soho Theatre); Aristocrats (National Theatre); Stones in his Pockets (Duke of York's Theatre); Three Sisters, Down the Line, Translations, Tarry Flynn (Abbey Theatre); The Glass Menagerie, On The Razzle, What the Butler Saw, Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme (Red

Kettle); Pentecost, Improbable Frequency, Boomtown (Rough Magic); Studs, Dectire (Passion Machine); Emma (Storytellers); Zoe's Play (The Ark); Car Show (Corn Exchange). Film includes: Perrier's Bounty, Garage, Bloodlines. Television includes: Call the Midwife, Law & Order UK, Raw, Pure Mule, Casualty, Fair City, Doctors, Glenroe, The Bombmaker, The Chief, The Wild West.

Diana Kent plays Caroline. Theatre includes Long Day's Journey Into Night (Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh); The Heresy Of Love (RSC); All My Sons (Leicester Curve Theatre); Carousel (Stanhope Productions); Breaking the Silence (Nottingham Playhouse); Lovely and Misfit (Fishwick Productions); Phaedra's Love (Barbican); Caligula (Donmar); The Prisoner's Dilemma, Love in a Wood, Talk of the City and Roberto Zucco (all for the RSC); An Inspector Calls (National Theatre); Arcadia (Northampton/Salisbury Playhouse); Venice Preserved (Royal Exchange); Madame de Sade (Almeida); Parallel Vision, Panorama (Kings Head); The Stick Wife, Figaro Gets Divorced (Gate Theatre); Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Ambassadors Theatre); The Secret Rapture, Of Mice & Men (Manchester, Library).

Film includes Suite Francaise; A Long Way Down; Turn Out; One Day; The Awakening; How To Lose Friends and Alienate People; There For Me; Brothers of the Head; Morlang; Billy Elliot; Wings of a Dove; A Kid in the Arabian Nights & Heavenly Creatures.

Television includes The Jesus Code; The Missing; Undeniable; Whitechapel; MI High; Switch; World Without End; The Titanic; The Jury; The Bill; Doctors; Margaret; Messiah V; Silent Witness; Death Becomes Him; Elizabeth I; Bombshell; Holby City; Midsomer Murders; Murder Squad; Ultimate Force; Nicholas Nickleby; Band of Brothers; Heartbeat; Jason & the Argonaughts; Close Relations; Beggar Bride; Crossing the Floor.

Edward Harrison plays Charlie. Edward most recently returned from New York where he played George Boleyn in the Broadway production of Wolf Hall with the RSC. Prior to that, he appeared in the New York transfer of Kenneth Branagh's Macbeth and opposite Jude Law in West End production of Henry V, directed by Michael Grandage. Further credits include The Rivals (Theatre Royal Haymarket), Henry IV (Theatre Royal Bath), The Taming of the Shrew (US Tour), Cyrano (US Tour), Time and the Conway's, Joking Apart (Nottingham Playhouse), Sex and the Three Day Week (Liverpool Playhouse), Cyrano de Bergerac (Chester Performs), Noises Off!, The Norman Conquests, Neville's Island (Torch Theatre), A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing (Lord Chamberlain's Men), Dangerous Liaisons, She Stoops to Conquer (Mappa Mundi National Tour).

On television, Edward played Adrian in Doctor Who Series 8 for the BBC.

Susan Stanley plays Rachel. Susan trained at LAMDA and most recently played the lead role of Serena in Tanya Ronder's F*ck The Polar Bears (Bush Theatre). She recently played the role of Portia Coughlan (Old Red Lion Theatre; nominated for Best Female Performance, Off West End Awards 2015).
Other theatre credits include The Separation (Theatre503); Almost Maine (Park Theatre); The Separation (Project Arts Centre, Dublin); The Last Confessions of a Scallywag (The Mill at Sonning) and Bedbound (The Lion and Unicorn).
Film credits include Hotel Amenities (winner of Best Actress, Malaga Film Festival, 2013); Shadows in the Wind; This Chair is Not Me and The End of The Nine Till Five); Timelarks and Resurrecting the Streetwalker. Susan is co-founder of theatre company Pixilated.

Eleanor Worthington-Cox plays Jessie. Eleanor was the youngest ever winner of an Olivier Award, for Best Actress in a Musical in Matilda (RSC and West End). Since then she has appeared as Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird (Regent's Park Open Air Theatre) and Blousey Brown in Bugsy Malone (Lyric Hammersmith). Tomcat will be her debut in an unshared, original creation.

Film includes Young Aurora in Maleficent.

TV includes The Enfield Haunting, Cucumber and Hetty Feather.

Designed by Lily Arnold. Lily trained at Wimbledon College of Art. Theatre and opera includes So Here We Are (High Tide/Royal Exchange); Blake Remixed (Little Mighty); Things Will Never be The Same Again (Tricycle Theatre); The Solid Life of Sugar Water (Graeae);The Jew of Malta; King Lear; The Taming Of The Shrew; The Rape of Lucrece (RSC); Beached (Marlowe Studios/Soho Theatre); The Edge of our Bodies; Gruesome Playground Injuries (Gate Theatre); Peddling (High Tide Festival Theatre); Minotaur (Polka Theatre); World Enough and Time (Park Theatre); The Boss of It All (Assembly Roxy/Soho Theatre); A Season in the Congo and The Scottsboro Boys (Young Vic, Clare Space); Happy New (Trafalgar Studios); Ahasverus (Hampstead Downstairs) A Midsummer Night's Dream (Cambridge Arts Theatre); Opera Scenes (National Opera Studio); Red Handed (The Place, London).

Forthcoming productions include Up and Out Christmas Sprout (Northern Stage); Forget Me Not (Bush Theatre); Jeramee, Hartleby and Ooglemoore (Unicorn Theatre) and The Box of Photographs (Polka Theatre). lilyarnold.com

Photo Credit: Maneul Harlan

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