Tom Giles plays King Rat
Theatre credits include Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear (National Theatre); The Winter’s Tale (National Theatre); Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch); Rothschild and Sons (Park Theatre); The ‘Neath (The Vaults); Ragtime (Charing Cross Theatre); Royal Vauxhall (Latitude Festival/Edinburgh Fringe); Shakespeare Untold: Titus Andronicus (Shakespeare’s Globe/UK Tour); Rumplestiltskin (MAC, Belfast); Muse of Fire (Shakespeare’s Globe); One Sandwich Short of a Genius (UK Tour); Raven Boy (Infectious Theatre); Merlin (Royal & Derngate); Walk in the Light (National Theatre); The Tempest (Theatre Royal, Bath); Merrie England (Finborough Theatre); The Recruiting Officer (Donmar Warehouse); As Within, So Without (Live Theatre); Pinocchio (Hull Truck Theatre), and The Merchant of Venice and Much Ado About Nothing (UK Tours). He has also appeared in Emmerdale (ITV).
Sèverine Howell-Meri plays Dick Whittington
Theatre credits include Us Against Whatever (Hull Track/Liverpool Everyman); Cinderella and the Beanstalk (Theatre 503) and Bottled R&D (Lyric Hammersmith/Bush Theatre), and television credits include Hanna; Casualty; Doctors and Random Acts.
Harry Jardine plays Nathaniel
Theatre credits include In The Willows (UK Tour - Metta Theatre); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Lyric Hammersmith and Filter Theatre); The Secret Seven (Storyhouse, Chester); Twelfth Night (Filter Theatre – UK, USA and India Tour); Octagon (Arcola Theatre); Shakespeare in Love (West End); Faster Higher Stronger Straighter (Dominion Studio) and Les Miserables (West End). Television credits include Doctors and film credits include Two Man’s Land; Journey’s End; Master of Ceremonies; and In the Heart of the Sea.
Vedi Roy plays Lady Lush
Theatre credits include As You Like It (National Theatre/Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch); Cindy (Sevana/Spinster films); Pop Music (Paines Plough/Birmingham Rep/Latitude Festival); Aladdin (Watford Palace Theatre); Miss Meena and the Masala Queens (Rifco Theatre Company/Watford Palace Theatre); The Quite Remarkable Adventures of the Owl and the Pussycat (Sell A Door/Belgrade Theatre); Laila the Musical (Rifco Theatre Company/Watford Palace Theatre); The Hunting of the Snark (Sherman Theatre/RGM Productions) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Theatre Royal Haymarket).
Bree Smith plays Grandma
Theatre credits include Evita (Regents Park Open Air Theatre); West Side Story (Royal Exchange Theatre); The Book of Mormon (Prince of Wales Theatre); Scrooge the Musical (Leicester Curve Theatre); Wonderland (UK Tour) and Eugenius! (London Palladium).
Lizzie Winkler plays the Mayor
Theatre credits include Keith? (Arcola Theatre); Quiz (Chichester Festival Theatre/Noel Coward Theatre); The Suicide, Frankenstein, The Power of Yes, The Revenger’s Tragedy, Major Barbara, A Matter of Life and Death and The Man of Mode (National Theatre); Rebecca (Kneehigh tour); Boeing Boeing (Sheffield Crucible); The Country Wife (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester); The Taming of the Shrew (Derby Playhouse) and The Prince of Homburg (Donmar Warehouse). Her screen credits include Upstart Crown, The Johnny & Inel Show and Doctors.
Francesca Zoutewelle plays Alice
Theatre credits include The Funeral Director (Southwark Playhouse and UK tour); Cllisto: A Queer Epic (Arcola Theatre); All My Sons (Rose Theatre Kingston); Hamlet (Park Theatre and Trafalgar Studios) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (tour and Filter Theatre). On screen, her credits include Mr Turner and Agatha Raisin.
David Watson - Book and Lyrics
David Watson’s plays include Pieces of Vincent (Arcola/Paines Plough), Flight Path (Bush/Out of Joint) and Just a Bloke (Royal Court Young Writers Festival.) His adaptations include Ibsen’s Ghosts (Home, Manchester) and Phillip Pullman’s I Was a Rat (Birmingham Rep.) He has written extensively for community and prison companies, with work including Henrietta (Cardboard Citizens), and Housed (Old Vic Community Company), and wrote the book for musical The Realness (Big House/Hackney Downs Studios.) Short plays of David’s have been produced by venues including the Kiln, Paines Plough and the Lyric Hammersmith.
For television, he wrote for three series of L8R (Actorshop/BBC), developed with schoolchildren across Newham, for which he won three Children’s BAFTAs. He wrote the screenplay for short film The Hope Rooms (Rather Good Film/Bill Kenwright Productions). He lives in Walthamstow with his wife and son.
Robert Hyman - Music and Lyrics
Robert has worked extensively at Theatre Royal Stratford East for the last 20 years both as a Composer and Musical Director. That body of work includes music and lyrics for Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel (2018 Winner Great British Pantomime Awards for Musical Supervision), Cinderella (Olivier Award nominated), Pinocchio, Aladdin, Red Riding Hood and Dick Whittington (with Trish Cooke), as well as songs for The Snow Queen and Hansel and Gretel, and scores for 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea and Make Some Noise. He was also Musical Director for the hit musicals Tommy (Ramps on the Moon), The Big Life (Including West End), Come Dancing and Takeaway (Theatre Royal Stratford East) as well as most Theatre Royal Stratford East pantomimes since 1998. Other projects include conducting a choir of 5000 at the O2, Musical Director for World Children’s Ensemble (Royal Albert Hall) and Reasons to be Cheerful (UK tour).
John Haidar - Director
As director, credits include: Richard III (Headlong), Mercury Fur, Saved (Guildhall), Disco Pigs (Trafalgar Studios and Irish Repertory Theatre, New York), Last of the Boys (Southwark Playhouse), The Little Match Girl (Birmingham REP and UK Tour), The New Electric Ballroom (RADA), The Beauty Queen of Leenane, A Skull in Connemara, The Lonesome West (CAM FM), Macbeth (Cambridge American Stage Tour), The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Glass Menagerie (Corpus Playroom), Romeo and Juliet, The Alchemist (ADC Theatre).
As associate or assistant director, credits include: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Harold Pinter Theatre), The Plough and the Stars (National Theatre), I See You (Royal court), Photograph 51 (Noel Coward Theatre), The Changeling, 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, Antony and Cleopatra (Shakespeare's Globe).
John trained at RADA. He has worked as associate or assistant director at the Royal Court, the National Theatre and in the West End with directors including Howard Davies, Michael Grandage, Jeremy Herrin and James Macdonald. He was selected for the National Theatre Directors' Course 2016.
