The Cast
John – Gwydion Calder
M – Peter Neenan
W – Annie Swift
F – Phil Rea
The Production Team
Director and Set Design – Colin Judges
Lighting Design – James Booth
Lighting Operators – Olly Coulthard, Rhiannah Price
Costume Design – Stewart Snape
Sound Design – Kevin Middleton, Ennestina Duah
Sound Operator – Ennestina Duah
Production Assistant – Carl Latham
Stage Manager – Judy O’ Dowd
Assistant Stage Managers – Molly Hines, Rhiannah Price
Photography – Graeme Braidwood (Graeme Braidwood photography)
All photographs copyright © 2021 Graeme Braidwood Photography
Cast Biographies
Gwydion Calder
Gwydion loves to perform and hopes you enjoy the show! Some of his favourite credits include Rooster Hannigan in ‘Annie’, Max DeWinter in ‘Rebecca’, and a Santa-Claus-carrying penguin in some show twenty-five years ago. He is passionate about improving performing artists’ health and wellbeing.
Peter Neenan
Before a career in teaching Modern Languages, Peter did a course at the Birmingham School of Acting and with the National Youth Theatre. He recently rejoined The Crescent and has previously appeared in The Real Inspector Hound, Silly Cow, Judas Kiss and The Deep Blue Sea.
Annie Swift
Annie joined The Crescent in the summer of 2019, playing Vi in This Happy Breed, followed by Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire. After the pandemic paused production, Cock will be her third show with The Crescent, playing the succinctly named ‘W’. She can’t wait for you to see it!
Phil Rea
Phil last appeared as the eccentric cryptographer Dillwyn Knox in ‘Breaking the Code’. It’s been a long three years. Welcome back. He cannot reveal anything about his current character except that he has no name (like Clint Eastwood), on an initial (like Judi Dench). The similarity to both ends there.
Director’s Note
The idea for ‘Cock’ came to Mike Bartlett after being taken to a cock fight while working in South America. The set-up, with a small space surrounded by very close spectators watching two ‘performers’ literally tearing each other apart inspired this play (hence the title). The original production at the Royal Court had an exceptionally strong cast – ‘John’ was played by Ben Wishaw (Q in recent James Bond films and the voice of Paddington bear), ‘M’ by Andrew Scott (Moriarty in ‘Sherlock’ and the ‘hot’ priest in ‘Fleabag’), Katherine Parkinson (‘The IT Crowd’ on Channel 4 and ‘Home, I’m Darling’ at the National Theatre) and Paul Jesson (Cardinal Wolsey in ‘Wolf Hall’ and ‘Bring up the Bodies’ (RSC) and Geoffrey Howe in ‘The Crown’ (Netflix).
In his introduction to the play, Mike Bartlett states ‘There is no scenery, no props, no furniture and no mime. Instead the focus is entirely on the drama of the scene’. This is obviously a real challenge to both the actors and the audience. Nevertheless, in this production we have done our best to respect the playwright’s wishes!
Colin Judges – Director