Cast – Other Desert Cities

Theatre includes: The Life of Galileo and The Alchemist (National Theatre); Othello (Sheffield Crucible); Much Ado About Nothing (Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds); One Night in November (Belgrade Theatre, Coventry): Richard II and Coriolanus (Almeida – London, New York and Tokyo); Gates of Gold  (Library Theatre, Manchester); The Tempest and Troilus and Cressida (Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory); Uncle Vanya (Bristol Old Vic and Galway Festival); Kes and Separate Tables (Manchester Royal Exchange); Rebecca (National tour). Television includes: Wolf Hall, The Musketeers, Upstairs Downstairs, Doctor Who, Attila the Hun, Doctors, Life on Mars, Foyle’s War, The Brides in the Bath, Only Fools and Horses.

Mary trained at The Guildford School of Acting and The Arts Educational School Tring. Her theatre credits include: Queen Margaret in the Henry VI Trilogy, Mariana in Alls Well That Ends Well, Patience in Henry VIII, Lady Celia in Anne Boleyn (all for Shakespeare’s Globe); Lady Rochford in Anne Boleyn (ETT & Shakespeare’s Globe); What You Will: Pop-Up Shakespeare (Shakespeare’s Globe and Olympics); Toinette in Le Malade Imaginaire (The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse); Nurse Whitehall in Picture Ourselves in Latvia (Finborough Theatre); Mrs Loomis in Inherit The Wind (The Old Vic); May in Merry Wives The Musical (The Royal Shakespeare Company); Tatiana in Two Cities (The Salisbury Playhouse); Mrs T/Bear in Avenue Q (Noel Coward Theatre);  Factory Girl in Les Miserables (The Queens Theatre); Choir in Les Miserables 25th Anniversary Concert (O2 Arena); Rizzo in Grease (UK Tour); Victoria in Toys (Jermyn Street Theatre). Her TV and film credits include: Emilia in Othello (Shakespeare Uncovered Sky Arts); Grace Darling in True Stories (BBC); Kelly in The Eternal Not.  Mary is the Artistic Director of The Actors Class.

Diane trained at RADA. After a season for the Leicester Phoenix with Widowers’ Houses, Billy Liar, Live Like Pigs and Look Back in Anger and her television debut with the lead role in The Visitors (BBC), she joined the RSC to play Cordelia in King Lear for Trevor Nunn. This was followed by lead roles in Dr Faustus and As You Like It. Her theatre credits include Edward II, Love’s Labour’s Lost, King Lear (this time as Regan), Twelfth Night and She Stoops to Conquer (Prospect Theatre Company); Heartbreak House (Royal Exchange), The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd and The Beggar’s Opera  (Nottingham Playhouse); Jumpers, The Daughter-in-Law and The Importance of Being Earnest (Birmingham Rep), first appearing as Gwendoline and more recently as Lady Bracknell. Other appearances with RSC include: The Bite of the Night, Hess Is Dead and Some Americans Abroad. Diane has appeared in the award winning national tour of Shadowlands as Joy Davidman, the wicked Regina in Little Foxes and as Kate in All My Sons. She has appeared at the Royal Court in No-One Was Saved, The Love of a Good Man and The Dragon; and the Hampstead Theatre Club in David Hare’s Slag.

West End appearances have included Dusa, Fish, Stas and Vi, Half-Life (National Theatre), Why Me?, Edward II, An Ideal Husband, An Inspector Calls and Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Regent’s Park.

More recently Diane has appeared in The Daughter-in-Law (Library Theatre, Manchester); Autumn and Winter (The Orange Tree); she played Vi in Wife After Death (UK Tour); Grace in The Winslow Boy, Sheila in Relatively Speaking, Madame Arkadina in The Seagull, Eve Davenport in Cause Celèbre, Gertrude in Hamlet (Edinburgh Festival); Judith Bliss in Hay Fever, Mrs Lintott in History Boys (National Theatre); B in Three Tall Women and Clare Short in Called to Account at the Tricycle Theatre.

Television appearances have been many and varied and include: Fairly Secret Army 1 and 2, House of Cards 1-4, The Aristocrats 1 and 2, The Chamber, The Irish RM, Poirot, Inspector Morse, Coronation Street, The Wilderness Years, Heartbeat, Midsomer Murders, The Clarion Van, Kingdom, Doctors and the television film Forgiven. Film appearances include Lady Macduff in Roman Polanski’s Macbeth, The Wilderness Years, Leaving Lily, An Error of Judgement, Autobiography of a Princess, Who’s Harriet, Red Hot and The Queen of Anna.

Born in California, Kate has had an extensive career on stage, screen and radio on both sides of the Atlantic. Theatre includes: in London (following more than 100 productions in the USA) Fatal Attraction, Lost in Yonkers, The Children’s Hour and Bakersfield Mist (West End); II Samuel 11 etc, The Sweetest Swing in Baseball and Ice Cream (Royal Court) and The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek and Execution of Justice (Southwark Playhouse). Film includes: Little Lord Fauntleroy, Reds, Invitation to the Wedding, Murder Story, Fierce Creatures, Company Business, Night Watch, The Passion of Darkly Noon, Surviving Picasso, Stiff Upper Lips, Batman, The Human Bomb, The Good Night and Last Chance Harvey. Television includes: Bergerac, Oppenheimer, Lace, Hold the Dream, Hedgehog Wedding, Afterward, Pulaski, Into the Shadows, Perfect Scoundrels, Master of the Games, Capital City, The Upper Hand, Space Precinct, Tender is the Night,  Survivors, Poirot, Inspector Morse, Wavelength, Frank Stubbs and American Voices. Other work includes: narrating numerous audio books and she plays Anna Madrigal in the ongoing dramatization of Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City on BBC Radio 4.

James trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. His theatre credits include: The Final Revelation of Sherlock Holmes (The Pleasance); Robin Hood (The Globe/Borough Market);  Profumo: The Musical (Waterloo East); Dinner (Barons Court Theatre); A Midsummer Nights Dream (The Globe/Borough Market); The Hairy Ape (Southwark Playhouse); The Alchemist (White Bear); The Merchant Of Venice (Rose Theatre); Hamlet Smith (Southwark Nursery Festival); The Eight: Reindeer Monologues (Above The Stag), Palace Balls (Jermyn Street Theatre). TV/Film credits: Stu (Stuart) and Ollie (Once Upon A Time), Angel of Decay (October/Discovery), Cerberus (SweetDoh), Our World War (BBC), Foyles War (ITV), Pride (feature), The Great Train Robbery (BBC), Obsession: Dark Desire (October/Discovery), Miracle Landing On The Hudson (Raw/Nat Geo), Emmerdale (ITV), Waking The Dead (BBC). Radio and voiceover credits: 2 Pipe Problems (Radio 4), The Tate Movie Project (Aardman), voice of Swiss Development Group (PRCo) and Orphans In Need (SweetDoh).