Meet the Notes from a Small Island cast and creative team!

30 January 2023

This January, we’ve welcomed our wonderful Notes from a Small Island cast and creative team to the Watermill for our first show in 2023! 

Bill Bryson will be played by Olivier Award nominated Mark Hadfield (Thérèse Raquin – Olivier, NT, Into the Woods – Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre).  He is joined by Bryony Corrigan (The Play That Goes Wrong – West End & Broadway, Magic Goes Wrong & Peter Pan Goes Wrong – West End), Wendy Nottingham (Vera Drake, Mr Selfridge, Peaky Blinders), Anne Odeke (As You Like It, The Merry Wives of Windsor & The Comedy of Errors – Shakespeare’s Globe), Steve Pinder (Brookside, C4, Wicked – UK and Ireland tour), Akshay Sharan (Jack Absolute Flies Again – National Theatre, 2018 Stage Debut Award for ‘Best Actor in a Play’ for The Reluctant Fundamentalist – Yard Theatre) and Hayden Wood (The Play That Goes Wrong & Doctor Who: Time Fracture – West End, Richard II – Arcola). Together they will play over seventy-five hilariously eccentric characters from Calais to John o’ Groats. 

This brand-new comedy, based on Bill Bryson’s beloved memoir, is adapted by BAFTA and Oliver Award winning playwright Tim Whitnall, with direction by Artistic Director Paul Hart and design by Katie Lias, the duo behind last year’s acclaimed SPIKE. 

We’re now two weeks into rehearsals and laughter has been pouring out of the rehearsal room, as our abundantly versatile cast bring over eighty wonderfully eccentric characters to life from across the length and breadth of Britain. 

Writer Tim Whitnall has been in the room offering incredible insights into the history behind the people and places that Bill visits on his travels.  Backstage, we’ve also spied some vintage M&S knits, C&A dresses and a 90s Roses chocolate box, so be prepared for a nostalgia trip featuring some British icons! 

We’re delighted to share some pictures from the rehearsal room to let you in on some of the action.  

If you’re planning to come and travel Britain with us from The Watermill, be sure to book your tickets soon as availability is already very limited for this fantastic show! 

3 Feb – 18 Mar 

Tickets from £15 

Best availability from 20 Feb. Book now at www.watermill.org.uk/bryson or by calling the Box Office on 01635 46044.