The cast for By the Pricking of My Thumbs - Shakespeare's Nastiest Bits at the Customs House in South Shields has been announced.
Produced by KG Productions in association with the Customs House, By the Pricking of My Thumbs is devised and directed by BTG NE Editor Peter Lathan, assisted by Helen F Dobson with choreography by Dora Frankel.
Leading the cast of is Donald McBride, a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, who has just returned from a 6 month national tour of The Pitmen Painters. He also played in the Customs House productions of The Tempest (2009) and Romeo and Juliet (2010). He is a long-standing member of Live Theatre and has played in countless productions throughout the UK.
He is joined by Neil Armstrong, a familiar face not only on the region’s stages but on TV. An actor, director, playwright and musician, Neil has been a constant fixture on the NE stage for more than twenty years.
Arabella Arnott is another of the region’s well established actors on stage and on screen.
Jamie Brown is a long-standing member of the 1623 Theatre Company in Derby (which specialises in Shakespeare) and he has also appeared at the Customs House in The Machine Gunners, The Man with the Donkey and Romeo and Juliet.
Allie Garside makes her Customs House debut. She has previously worked with The November Club and Kinetic Theatre and at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Robbie Lee Hurst is a poet, improviser and painter as well as an actor. He is a founder member of Monkfish Productions and last toured in one-man show Artic Convoy.
Alex Kinsey is another familiar face on screen and on stage. He has worked at Live Theatre and Northern Stage and played Romeo in the Customs House production of Romeo and Juliet.
Dylan Mortimer has appeared in many Cloud Nine productions and for Farne Productions and played Trinculo in the Customs House’s The Tempest.
Steven Stobbs has previously appeared at the Customs House in The Machine Gunners and The Mysteries and has also worked with Bede Productions and Lobster Productions.
Two newcomers join the cast: Sarah Boulter has previously appeared in a number of amateur productions (including playing Juliet) and Holly Irving is a dancer who has worked extensively with Dora Frankel Dance.
Between them the eleven actors play 32 characters.
By the Pricking of My Thumbs runs at the South Shields venue from 25th to 27th September.