The Watermill Theatre in association with Eleanor Lloyd Productions
Agatha Christie’s gripping thriller follows the daring and dizzying adventures of Tommy & Tuppence through 1920s London.
Home from the War, flat-broke and unemployed, our twenty-something heroes embark on a daring business scheme: ‘The Young Adventurers Limited’… willing to go anywhere, willing to do anything. But their first assignment plunges them into more danger than they ever imagined and they quickly find themselves sucked into a perilous world of political intrigue, criminal conspiracy, murder and mayhem.
Launching as part of the 125th anniversary celebrations of the author’s birth, The Secret Adversary takes to the stage for the very first time in this inventive new adaptation shot through with fast-paced action, comedy, live music and a dash of romance.
See production photos here
See rehearsal pictures here
For tour information click here
Director Sarah Punshon
Designer Tom Rogers
Original Music and Musical Arrangements
by Alex Silverman
Movement Director John Nicholson
Lighting Designer Howard Hudson
Sound Designer David Gregory
Magic Consultant John Bulleid
Choreographer Lucy Cullingford
Kieran Buckeridge
Julius
Theatre includes Pinafore Swing and Thieves’ Carnival for The Watermill Theatre. Other theatre includes The History Boys, Our Country’s Good, The Recruiting Officer, Private Lives, The Deep Blue Sea, Loot, The Woman in Black, The Good Companions and All My Sons for Keswick Theatre by the Lake; Two and Merlin for the Dukes, Lancaster; Blithe Spirit, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Moonlight and Magnolias and The Mikado for the SJT, Scarborough; David Copperfield, Travels with my Aunt, Return to the Forbidden Planet and Dick Barton for Oldham Coliseum; Hamlet for the Nuffield Theatre, Southampton.
Film and Television include Dementamania (Ronin Pictures); Ye Olde Dragon’s Den, Pearly Gates and Worried about the Boy (BBC); Heartbeat (ITV) and Coronation Street (Granada).
Nigel Lister
Sir James
Trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
Theatre includes: Much Ado About Nothing (The Hague International Shakespeare Festival); Sex and Docks and Rock ‘n’ Roll (Red Ladder); The Comedy of Errors (Stafford Shakespeare Festival); Second from Last in the Sack Race (Esk Valley Theatre); A Christmas Carol (Kings Head Theatre, Islington); Play Up! Play Up! (I love West Leeds Festival); Thomas Saves the Day (Hammersmith Apollo/UK and Asian tour); The Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth, The Merry Wives of Windsor and The Importance of Being Earnest (Oxford Shakespeare Company); Cider with Rosie (Bristol Old Vic).
Television includes: WPC 56, Doctors, The Bill, Steel River Blues, Murder Investigation Team, Dream Team, Footballers Wives.
Elizabeth Marsh
Rita / Kramenin
Elizabeth has performed at the National Theatre, in the West End, in film and television, and at theatres all around the country.
Previous productions at The Watermill include: Daisy Pulls it Off, Merrily We Roll Along, Gondoliers, Carmen, and Pinafore Swing.
Elizabeth also works as a director and choreographer.
Emerald O'Hanrahan
Tuppence
Emerald trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Theatre credits include Daisy in Daisy Pulls It Off (The Watermill); Cecily in The Importance of Being Earnest and Travesties (Birmingham Rep) and A Christmas Carol (Royal & Derngate). She plays Emma Grundy in The Archers, and is regularly in radio drama across the BBC.
Television and film include Silk and Casualty (BBC); Doc Martin (ITV) and the lead in Queen's Mile, a short film due for festival release this year.
Morgan Philpott
Whittington
Morgan trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
For The Watermill Theatre: Pinocchio, Arabian Nights, Treasure Island, Gulliver’s Travels and The Snow Queen.
Other Theatre: Henry V (Creation Theatre); Larisa and the Merchants (Arcola); Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Merry Wives of Windsor (Guildford Shakespeare Company); The Sound of Music (Kilworth House); Dick Turpin’s Last Ride (Bury St. Edmunds Theatre Royal); Larkrise to Candleford (New Perspectives); Twelfth Night and George’s Marvellous Medicine (Birmingham Stage Company); James and the Giant Peach (Northampton Theatre Royal); Pinocchio (Polka Theatre); Much Ado About Nothing, Othello and Sir Jonathan Miller’s production of Hamlet (Shakespeare at The Tobacco Factory).
Garmon Rhys
Tommy
Garmon studied at LAMDA. He played the lead role of Wilfred Owen in Simon Godwin’s production of Regeneration which toured the UK in Autumn 2014.
Theatre while training includes: I Love You Because, On The Razzle, As You Like It, Boys, Macbeth.
Film includes: VP (Take Cover Films); Pushaway (LAMDA).
Sophie Scott
Annette
Trained at The Oxford School of Drama.
Theatre: Mary in It’s A Wonderful Life (Offie Best Actress nomination) and The Prostitute/ The Uptown Dame in Red Sky Blue Sky (Bridge House Theatre); Mrs Dearly in 101 Dalmations (New Vic); Dusa in Dusa, Fish, Stas & Vi (Finborough Theatre); The Kreutzer Sonata (La MaMa E.T.C., New York, & Gate, London); Radio Times (The Watermill); The Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare’s Globe & Broad Stage, L.A.); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Rose Theatre, Kingston); Twelfth Night (Donmar West End); The Portrait of a Lady (The Peter Hall Company, Theatre Royal, Bath); Uncle Vanya (ETT).
Television: Breathless, Spit Game, Distant Shores.
Radio: Home Front, Bajazet.
The Telegraph
‘…there’s no doubting the polish of the players or the quality and promise of the leads, Garmon Rhys’s Tommy and Emerald O’Hanrahan’s Tuppence.’
‘The pair look so peachy-perfect in their dapper costumes, and are so infectiously animated by their escapades…’
Daily Mail****
‘It’s a tongue-in-cheek adaptation.’
The Stage
‘Sarah Punshon, as director and co-adaptor, gets the atmosphere spot-on, by channelling the story through a meta-theatrical device that observes it as a kind of music hall entertainment, complete with jaunty renditions of songs like Look for the Silver Lining.’
‘They summon the spirit of Agatha Christie faithfully, yet maintain a playful air of drama and improbable jeopardy…’
‘Punshon and her inventive designer Tom Rogers produce some dizzyingly brilliant perspective changes on the tiny Watermill stage that are worthy of Robert Lepage.’
British Theatre Guide
‘…a cracking world stage première of The Secret Adversary.’
‘This splendid Tommy and Tuppence thriller cleverly adapted by Sarah Punshon and Johann Hari is an inventive funny spoof played at a breath-taking pace by the seven highly talented actor-musicians.’
‘Tom Roger’s luscious design is highly ingenious…’
‘There is so much to delight in this rollicking fun play including music pastiches, a comical, thrilling chase scene and some striking song and dance routines…’
Newbury Weekly News
‘Chosen for the world stage premiere of the 1922 crime story, The Watermill can be proud of this outstanding production, directed by Sarah Punshon. And that sound isn’t Agatha Christie turning in her grave – she’s cheering.’
Whatsonstage ****
'A topping start to the Queen of Crime's anniversary year.'
'The Watermill and designer Tom Rogers work their magic once again...'
The Henley Standard
‘There's hardly a theatrical trick missed in this whirlwind of a show which takes Christie's earliest work and turns it into a fullscale entertainment.’
‘The top notch cast of seven combine music and acting abilities to invest the normally thin Christie characters with more than two dimensions…’
‘It's a riotous two hours and should lift the deepest of glooms…’
Oxford Times
‘…the action scenes are interspersed with expertly performed song-and-dance numbers.’
‘The seven-strong cast revel in every challenge presented to them, and transmit much energy and humour.’
‘Garmon Rhys (only recently out of drama school) makes a strong impression as Tommy, while Emerald O’Hanrahan (she plays Emma Grundy in The Archers) fizzes as Tuppence.’
Newbury Theatre
‘Designer Tom Rogers’ set… provides an excellent setting for the many different scenes, and allows for quick and effective scene changes.’
‘Tommy and Tuppence are played by Garmon Rhys and Emerald O’Hanrahan with just the right level of naïveté, energy and enthusiasm.’
‘This adaptation is a potpourri of styles, with elements of musical, farce, slapstick, magic and melodrama.’