Cast

Penelope Beaumont
Penelope trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
For Shakespeare’s Globe: Paulina in The Winter’s Tale; Leanoto in Much Ado About Nothing; Vincentio in The Taming Of The Shrew and Lord Stanley in Richard lll.
For the RSC: Elizabeth in Richard lll; Bodice in Bond’s Lear; The Marquise de Merteuil in Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Ambassadors, West End); Octavia in Anthony And Cleopatra; Lady MacDuff in Macbeth; Madelaine in Moliere, The Premiere Of Good (The Warehouse, London); Cyrano De Bergerac and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Other theatre includes: The Duchess in The Duchess Of Malfi, Myra in Hay Fever; Anna Petrovna in Wild Honey (Salisbury); Rosalind in As You Like It ; Lydia Languish in The Rivals (Theatr Clwyd); Kate in She Stoops To Conquer (York); Bedroom Farce, Look Back In Anger (Vienna); Nora in The Doll’s House, Amanda in Private Lives, Viola in Twelfth Night (Ipswich); Vivvie in Mrs Warren’s Profession (Watermill Newbury).
Her screen appearances include: EastEnders, Recovery, Wire In The Blood, Mrs David, The Bill, Midsomer Murders, Family Affairs, Murder Without Motive, Black Easter, Bad Girl, Gaudy Nights, Cyrano De Bergerac, Moliere, Medics, Prime Suspect and Poirot.


Tessa Churchard
Theatre credits include: The Fabulist (Old Red Lion); Lady Of Leisure (Liverpool Playhouse); As You Desire Me (Playhouse Theatre); Galileo’s Daughter, Man And Superman and Don Juan (Peter Hall Company, Bath Theatre Royal); Still Life/The Astonished Heart (Liverpool Playhouse); Belinda in Noises Off (Piccadilly Theatre/ATG National Tour); Remember This (Royal National Theatre); Communicating Doors, Lady Windermere’s Fan (Theatre Royal, Northampton);Point Of Death (Liverpool Playhouse); The Diary Of Anne Frank (Basingstoke Haymarket Theatre).
Film and television credits include: Doctors (BBC); The Grain Chest (CK Productions); Family Affairs (Talkback Thames); Casualty (BBC); Harringham Harker (BBC); Jeeves And Wooster (ITV) and The Bill (Talkback Thames).


Emma Cleasby
Theatre credits include: Private Lives (Basingstoke Haymarket); The Islander (Lincoln); Night Swimming (Nuffield, Southampton); Closer (Manchester Library Theatre); Vurt (Contact Theatre, Manchester); The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe (RSC); Richard lll (English Shakespeare Company); Robin Hood (The Wilde Theatre).
Television credits include: Sylvia Ramsden in Coronation Street; Brooks in 55 Degrees North; Hear The Silence; The Project; Hollyoaks; Holby City; Sweet Dreams and Heartbeat.
Film credits include: Doomsday; One Hundredth Of A Second and Dog Soldiers.


Simon Dutton
This is Simon’s first appearance at Watford Palace Theatre.  He joined the National Youth Theatre at 16 and then trained at Central.
Other works of Noel Coward are: the world stage premiere of Brief Encounter playing Alec opposite Hayley Mills (National tour); Garry Essendine in Present Laughter at Birmingham Rep, directed by Gerard Murphy; Elyot in Private Lives at Theatr Clwyd directed by Terry Hands and Owen in Philip Prowse’s production of Semi-Monde at the Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue.
He recently co-produced and played opposite Sophie Ward in Henry Green’s Nothing at the E59 St Theatre in New York, a Robert David Macdonald production originally done at the Citizens, Glasgow and re-directed by Philip Prowse.
Simon is a director of TBFL Productions and with Lee Shale has made two documentaries – Wheels Within Wheels about cyclist Tom Simpson, and Cry Of The Guitar about Scottish flamenco guitarist David Dunlop.
TV includes: Simon Templar in The Saint; the eponymous The Man In The Brown Suit (CBS) and more recently Titus in Caesar – Rise And Fall Of The Roman Empire (BBC).
Films include: Memed in Memed My Hawk directed by Peter Ustinov; Richard Gere’s brother in King David (Paramount) and Ramberti in Dangerous Beauty (Warner Bros).


Robin Hooper
Formerly at Watford Palace Theatre: Grumbold and Romeo And Juliet.
Many seasons at the Glasgow Citizens and Half Moon Theatres: John, Paul, George, Ringo And Bert (West End); Artist And Admirers (Riverside Studios); Bloody Poetry, Star-Gazy Pie (Royal Court Theatre); Bright Room Called Day (Bush); The Public (Theatre Royal Stratford East); The Art Of Success (Paines Plough). 
Recent theatre includes: Saturday,Sunday And Monday (Chichester Festival Theatre); The Importance Of Being Earnest (Nottingham Playhouse); What The Butler Saw (Theatre Royal Northampton); Dead Funny (Theatre Royal York and Octagon Theatre Bolton); My Night With Reg (Victoria Theatre Stoke on Trent).
Films include: Terence Davis Trilogy; Prick Up Your Ears; Fellow Traveller.
Television work includes: Martin Chuzzlewit; The Office; Monarch Of The Glen and Riot At The Rite (BBC).
Plays written for the theatre include: The Move (NT Platform and tour); Astonish Me (Not The RSC Festival); Queer Fish (BAC); Free From Sorrow (The Tristan Bates Theatre) and Not The Love I Cry For (Arcola).
Previously the Literary Manager of both Paines Plough New Writing and the Royal Court Theatre.


Becky John
Becky trained at Mountview Theatre School.
Theatre credits include: Amazed And Surprised (Royal Court); Matilda (RSC workshop); Cariad (Operating Theatre Company); Essex Girls and Protection (IV Play Theatre Company) and Cabaret and Gypsy (Porthcawl).
Theatre credits whilst at Mountview: Same Old Moon; Gas Station Angel; Semi-Monde; King Lear; Summer And Smoke; She Stoops To Conquer and The Cherry Orchard.
Television credits include: Good Girls (BBC).
Film credits include: Lauren’s Diary; Belonging, Tales Of Pleasure Beach and 3 Blind Mice.
Radio includes: The Breakfast Show BBC Radio Wales.
Becky was also nominated for the Spotlight Prize for Best Actress.


Aicha Kossoko
Aicha Kossoko’s theatre work includes The Evocation of Papa Mas for Told By An Idiot; The Magic Carpet at the Lyric, Hammersmith; Celestina at Birmingham Rep and the Edinburgh International Festival; Signes de vie with the Igi Theatre Company; The Vagina Monologues at the Arts Theatre; Monkey at the Young Vic; Wedding Story at the Soho Theatre; the title role in Andromache with Living Pictures; Macbeth and Yerma at BAC; The Old Curiosity Shop at the Southwark Playhouse; The Cherry Orchard, Demons and Dybbuks, The Black Dahlia and Buried Alive with Method and Madness; The Two Gentleman of Verona at the Globe; Vanessa Redgrave’s production of Antony and Cleopatra at the Riverside Studios; Julius Caesar at the Alley Theatre, Houston; and Inheritance with Eastern Angels.
Her recent films include: The Fever and Claude Chabrol’s La comédie du pouvoir. She is often heard on BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service in programmes as diverse as The Number One Ladies Detective Agency and Today.