Past Productions
Elephant
in association with The Seagull
2024
In a house balanced on an eroding cliff in North Norfolk, Manny gets a surprise visit from his estranged sister, Jessie. Inexplicably, she’s brought along a petty criminal, Lee Farrier, trussed in a sack. As a rising tide eats away at the foundations, a local girl, Cally, arrives, prompting all four to admit what’s really brought them together, the lies they’ve told, and the strangely redemptive power that might just be buried beneath their feet.
Cast: Robin McLoughlin, Henri Merriam, Ben Elder, Rachael Cummins
Written by: Jeremy Page
Directed by Dawn Finnerty
Music: Mark Fawcett
Design: Fern Blevins
Hollyhocks
2024
fEAST Theatre is proud to present The Hollyhock Trilogy: three poignant and bizarre love stories.
A lonely woman falls in love with her postman, a dog walker and a primary school teacher swap dark secrets from their past, and an ageing trapeze artist dreams of the beautiful woman who dropped him.
These darkly funny tales of loneliness and lust are guaranteed to warm any winter’s evening.
Written and directed by Rob John
Cast: Dawn Finnerty, Owen Evans
Music: Mark Fawcett
Little Red Riding Hood
2023
Co-production with Wells Maltings
That wolf’s got a bad temper, hasn’t he? When he’s not blowing little pigs’ houses down or eating seven little kids, he’s frightening girls in woods, hiding their grannies and trying to turn them into snacks. Or is he? This Christmas, the people who brought you Twas the Night Before Christmas and Hansel & Gretel are back with more silly stories, mad songs and ridiculous rhymes. Plus a wolf on trial for his life, and a little girl who may not be all she seems… Fun for all Ages 4+ All children must be accompanied by an adult.
Cast: Hatty Ashton, Martin Atkinson
Written by: Nick Lane
Directed by Dawn Finnerty
Music: Mark Fawcett
Design: Fern Blevins
Elephant: Research and Development
June 2023
On Friday 2nd June 2023 fEAST presented extracts from Elephant at The Seagull Theatre.
In a project funded by a bursary from The Seagull four actors, (Mark Finbow, Henri Merriam, Ben Elder, Anna Buttery) director Dawn Finnerty, designer Fern Blevins and sound designer Mark Fawcett began to explore the characters, dynamics and the technical challenges of a story set in a house which is falling into the North Sea.
Canada Boys
2022
Back again by popular demand and with its original cast Rob John’s much-loved play sets off on its third regional tour. Set 1912, The Canada Boys is based on the true story of a group of workers at J & J Colman. The famous mustard company, concerned by rising unemployment in Norwich, offered some of its employees the opportunity of a new life on the other side of the Atlantic. ‘The Canada Boys’ is the story of two brothers who’d never ventured further west than Wymondham but who dared to imagine a new life for themselves in ‘The British Dominion of Canada.’
This funny, sad and thought-provoking play which resonates with Norfolk voices and Norwich locations examines the relationship between a progressive company and its workers before the First World War. The Canada Boys is a play about ambition, love, duty, family and mustard
Written and directed by Rob John
Cast: Owen Evans, Dawn Finnerty, Robin McLoughlin, Tabitha Woodgett
Design: Tabitha Woodgett
Sound design: Mark Fawcett
Hansel and Gretel
2021 and 2022
Co-production with Wells Maltings
Imagine an enchanted forest.
And deep in that forest is an enchanted house.
An enchanted house that’s totally made of sweets!
Yes, you read that right! A house with chocolate doors and gingerbread floors, marshmallow chairs and windows made of gummy-bears!
This Christmas, join a girl called Gretel and a boy called Hansel as they journey through the forest on a daredevil adventure that’s a sweet treat for children of 7-11 years old and their grown-ups. Featuring fun songs and puppetry with a distinctive Norfolk twist on the classic tale, Wells Maltings is proud to present Nick Lane’s funny, festive show for families.
Cast: Rachael Cummins, Tom Girvin
Written by: Nick Lane
Directed by Dawn Finnerty
Music: Mark Fawcett
Design: Fern Blevins
Rosa Mendoza
2021
February 2016. Keith and Pamela Dawson owners of the award-winning Poppyland Guest House in Cromer proudly promise their guests impeccable standards and a traditional, old-school, UK holiday experience.
But The Poppyland is struggling to recruit English staff and Pam and Keith reluctantly take on an eccentric Spanish chambermaid with dubious qualifications and a colourful past.
Rosa Mendoza a free-spirit from Andalucia arrives in Cromer and nothing at The Poppyland will ever be the same again.Rob John’s new Norfolk play explores an explosive triangular relationship over four tumultuous years in a dark comedy for our times.
Cast: Dawn Finnerty, Robin McLoughlin, Katie-Anna Whiting
Written and directed by Rob John
Design: Fern Blevins
Dulcie and Walter
2021
Inside these ol’ bodies, these ol’ shells, is whole worlds you can’t know about…’
The year is 1970. Dulcie and Walter have lived all 50 years of their married life on a small farm in Norfolk. They ‘chunder on’ with stories and gossip but Walter is becoming frail. Both of them are determined to spend the rest of their lives on the farm with the spring hawthorn and the autumn blackberries.
Visits from Dulcie’s great-niece Mary reveal that beneath the ‘chunderin’ and funny stories, Walter and Dulcie’s relationship has not only rubbed along but involved some moments of glory and some of heart-breaking despair. They also harbour long-buried family secrets that Mary is determined to uncover, and Dulcie is determined to keep buried.
Dulcie and Walter is a profound, life-affirming and hilarious play about the sacrifices women make, growing old and staying wild, and chewin’ the cud over a nice bowl of lamb stew.
Cast: Rachael Cummins, Catherine Herman, Barbara Horne, David Redgrave
Directed by Dawn Finnerty, written by Catherine Herman
Design: Fern Blevins
Music: Mark Fawcett
MERRILY ON HIGH
2020
Funny, thought-provoking and poignant, with a dash of the macabre, these stories will bring some much-needed light and warmth to Christmas 2020.
O Come Let us Adore Him, written and directed by Rob John.
Su is 49. She has always been single but a man in a van is on his way and the mince pies are ready.
Comfort and Joy by Robin McLoughlin, directed by Dawn Finnerty.
Shane is a department-store Santa with a liking for Ruby Port and a few dark secrets under his acrylic beard.
The Triumph of The Skies written and directed by Rob John
19 year old Ade is getting ready for the biggest night of his year but as the Christmas clock ticks someone is missing.
Cast: Owen Evans, Dawn Finnerty, Sam Thompson
SIGNAL FIRES –
STORIES FROM THE EAST
2020 and 2021
Signal Fire (n): a fire or light set up in a prominent position as a warning, signal, or celebration.
Stretching from Cornwall to Aberdeen; SIGNAL FIRES will connect audiences and touring theatre companies in a collective national act of story-telling.
As part of this event Norfolk-based fEAST theatre are coming to Wells-next-the-Sea and Great Yarmouth to present: Stories from the East
In this socially distanced, Covid-safe, outdoor show 7 actors from fEAST will perform songs and scenes from several of our best known shows and offer a glimpse of some new yet-to-be-performed work. The performance will take us on a journey through time and place from Yarmouth beach in the early 19thCentury to Cromer and Norwich before the First World War via a 1943 US airbase near Wroxham and a medieval legend from our mist-shrouded saltmarshes.
Cast: Sally Blouet, Owen Evans, Dawn Finnerty, Robin McLoughlin, Sam Thompson, Katie-anna Whiting and Tabitha Woodgett.
Directed by Dawn Finnerty, written by Rob John & Robin McLoughlin
TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS
2019
Emily’s excited! Tomorrow’s Christmas and there’s an i-pad shaped present under the tree with her name on it. If only she could get to sleep…If only anyone could get to sleep…
The problem is, a very wicked man, with a very wicked plan (with a very silly name) has kidnapped all the Christmas dreams!
Can Emily save the day?
fEAST’s first family show, ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’ was a co- production with Wells Maltings.
Cast: Amy Lunn, Marcus Churchill
Directed by Dawn Finnerty, written by Nick Lane
INTO THIN AIR
2018
It’s 1982. The Falklands War is on the telly, Dexy’s Midnight Runners haunt the airwaves and fifteen-year-old Norfolk schoolgirl Susan Kemp is going off the rails. And then she vanishes… into thin air. Thirty five years later her brothers Pete and Melvin are still living in the shadow of Susan’s disappearance. Rob John’s new play is a compelling mystery, a tender family memoir and a sad comedy of ambiguous loss.
Cast: Owen Evans, Dawn Finnerty, Robin McLoughlin & Charlotte Price
Directed by Rob John
SALT
2018
Join Pip Langore as he tries to make sense of his family’s odd and troublesome history.
In Morston, North Norfolk, 1944, his Grandmother ‘Goose’ rescues a German airman buried up to his neck in the marsh. Nine months later the German vanishes in a makeshift boat, leaving Goose with a newborn daughter, Lil. Taught to read the clouds by her mother, Lil is a strange child. When she becomes the object of two brothers’ desire, her life takes a tragic turn.
As he comes of age between the land and the sea, can Pip avoid the family’s marsh-fever and find happiness or will he, too, lose himself in Norfolk’s wetlands?
Set across four decades of blood, smoke, mud, tears and fish, Salt is a funny and tragic play about the relationship between people and the landscape they live in, with live music and a strong regional flavour.
Cast: Sally Blouet, Owen Evans, Tom Girvin, Robin McLoughlin, Katie-Anna Whiting, Sam Thompson
Directed by Dawn Finnerty, from the novel by Jeremy Page, adapted by Robin McLoughlin
WINTER ’53
2016
The third play in Rob John’s Norfolk trilogy is set in the fictional Norfolk coastal village of Boxham in the months leading up to the catastrophic floods of January 1953 this sad but funny play explored the complex and turbulent relationships of the Spence family as they struggle to make sense of past events in the face of conflicting memories.
Cast: Dawn Finnerty, Robin McLoughlin & Tabitha Woodgett
Chorus : Les Ash, Jude Booker, Josh Duckmanton,
Graham Hampton, Lyn Irons, Mark Irons,
Angie Maddigan, Lydia Smart & Joan Spall
Directed by Mandy McKenna
PARACHUTE
2015
Set in wartime Norfolk Parachute explores the relationship between an American airman and the members of a family who farm alongside one of the many US airbases. Brash and charming with a limitless supply of oranges and chewing gum 2nd Lt Jimmy Finch a navigator on a B24 heavy bomber is welcomed into the Cubitt’s home but will his arrival damage the fragile relationships of the family at Box Farm?
Cast: Owen Evans, Dawn Finnerty, Robin McLoughlin & Tabitha Woodgett
Directed by Rob John
THE CANADA BOYS
2013/14
Set in Norwich in 1912, Rob John’s play is based on the true story of a group of workers at the world famous Colman’s mustard factory. Concerned by rising unemployment in Norwich, the company offered some of its employees the opportunity of a new life on the other side of the Atlantic. ‘The Canada Boys’ is the story of Jack and Eddie Craske two brothers who’d never travelled west of Wymondham but whose lives are about to change forever.
Cast: Owen Evans, Dawn Finnerty, Robin McLoughlin & Tabitha Woodgett
Directed by Rob John
BATTERY
2012
A new play by emerging young Norfolk writer Beatrice Armstrong directed by Mandy McKenna is a haunting, poetic and blisteringly funny piece about life, death, sibling rivalry and cake. The Johnston sisters, celebrated psychic mediums, are charlatans who fake apparitions and cheat clients but their lives are littered with the ‘real ghosts’ of their pasts.
Cast: Alice Brown, Robin McLoughlin & Tabitha Woodgett
Directed by Mandy McKenna
ONE-EIGHTY
2011
Former darts genius Norman ‘Rhino’ Hamilton has fallen from grace. Once ranked 4th in the world and enjoying a life of C-List fame and fortune, Norman sees it all fall through fingers when his best mate, wife and throwing action all desert him on the same night. ‘One Eighty’ is a sad comedy about love and redemption
Cast: Owen Evans, Robin McLoughlin, Sarah Langrish-Smith & Hayley Thompson
Directed by Mandy McKenna
