
Wolves Are Coming For You
by Joel Horwood
produced by The Jack Studio Theatre
Someone has seen a wolf. Where did it come from? How many are there? Someone must be able to do something about them. Otherwise, how will our children get to school? And how will we all get to line-dancing in the village hall?
Set over one extraordinary day in an ordinary village, Wolves Are Coming For You explores just how much wild we’re comfortable with.
A celebration of storytelling and community, this production is produced by the Jack’s in-house team.
Press for this production
Director Kate Bannister has somehow made a complex show with just two players covering many characters and their individual stories appear simple, uncluttered and fun to watch. The Jack Studio theatre is strong on community and welcomes people back to its theatre for this magical show… It’s a high-quality show, very atmospheric and entertaining. ★★★★ London Pub Theatres
the team has not lost their magic touch… Brigid Lohrey and Grace Cookey-Gam play all the villagers expertly and engagingly… Kate Bannister’s intuitive direction, Karl Swinyard’s set, Philip Matejtschuk’s sound and Robbie Butler’s lighting and video work wonders to create a mystical atmosphere that captures the ever changing beauty and threat of nature. ★★★★ Fairy Powered Productions
Brigid Lohrey and Grace Cookey-Gam excel at portraying these different personalities…a particularly timely choice after the year we’ve all just lived through… As ever, the Jack Studio team have put together a high-quality production, with light and sound design from Robbie Butler and Philip Matejtschuk respectively creating real atmosphere and tension as the night draws in on this rural community. Karl Swinyard’s attractive woodland set completes the illusion. A welcome return for the Jack’s in-house team; let’s hope we don’t have to wait another 18 months for the next one. Theatre Things
It makes for good theatre… A thoughtful experience, with bold and confident acting throughout. ★★★★ Lastminute Theatre Tickets
a terrific set by Karl Swinyard…there is no faulting the performances of Brigid Lohrey and Grace Cookey-Gam…beautifully staged ★★★★ ReviewsGate
Hats off to Brigid Lohrey and Grace Cookey-Gam, who performed every character with style London Theatre 1
thoughtfully lit by Robbie Butler, together with sound designer Philip Matejtschuk’s bucolic palette… there is something pleasingly gothic about its timeless allegory. British Theatre Guide
Nominated for FOUR Off West End Awards:
Lead Performance in a Play – Grace Cookey-Gam & Brigid Lohrey
Director – Kate Bannister
Lighting Design – Robbie Butler
Creative Team
Wolves Are Coming For You by Joel Horwood
Directed by Kate Bannister
Design: Karl Swinyard
Lighting Design & Video: Robbie Butler
Sound Design: Philip Matejtschuk
Dance Choreography: Aimee Louise Bevan
Assistant Director & Stage Manager: Laurel Marks
Cast
Grace Cookey-Gam & Brigid Lohrey
Wolves Are Coming For You Programme
The Company
Brigid Lohrey (Player One)
Brigid is thrilled to be a part of the reopening of The Jack Studio Theatre. She has appeared in several Jack Studio productions in the past including playing Lady Cromerty in Around the World in 80 Days, Mel in Shakers and Antonia in Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay. Recently Brigid has been rehearsing with The Bard in the Yard and will be touring Kent gardens this summer as William Shakespeare asking audiences to help write his latest masterpiece The Scottish Play (www.bardintheyard.co.uk).
Brigid can currently be seen on your TV in the Brut Commercial with Vinnie Jones and has just finished filming with Dua Lipa for a Vanity Fair Lie Detector Project. She can also be seen in an Estonian Maritime Museum as the Ships Cook in an Augmented Reality Interactive Exhibition. Short films this year that have premiere soon include: Dr Hooffenhoffer in Baby Thump, Helen in Samuel, and Penny Appleby in The Confessional. Brigid is an experienced audiobook narrator and has many audiobooks available on Audible, including Who Do You Trust? by Kirsty Ferguson, Home Sweet Home by Lilly Mirren and coming soon Whitsunday Dawn by Annie Seaton. She won an Outstanding Achievement award for Narration at the MLC awards 2020. She is also an Examiner for LAMDA, so in between acting assignments she assesses acting and communications exams across the country. More information on her website www.brigidlohrey.com or follow her on twitter @brigidlohrey
Grace Cookey-Gam (Player Two)
Grace is delighted to be returning to live performance on the Jack Studio Theatre stage, having previously encountered the warmth of their audiences in 2016 as Agnes in The Awakening. Other theatre credits include: Richard III & Romeo & Juliet (Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre, Blenheim Palace), othellomacbeth (Lyric Hammersmith & HOME), Kiss of the Spiderwoman (Menier Chocolate Factory), Di & Viv & Rose (Stephen Joseph Theatre/New Vic), #Hashtag Lightie (The Arcola), and she has recently filmed roles for Riding Lights Theatre Company’s online passion play Breaking Day and Pericles (for the York International Shakespeare Festival).
Television and Film includes: Soulmates (AMC), Dawn (Hulu/MGM), Tyrant (Fox), Saved (ITV), Justice League (Warner Bros). For BBC Radio: Things Fall Apart (Radio 4) & Words and Music (Radio 3). Grace studied Acting at the City Lit, graduating in 2013. She is also a Singer, having first studied Classical Music at Birmingham University and has a background in arts education. She loves all forms of voicework and has read stories and poems for the Liars League, Arachne Press and The Poetry Book Society. She is represented by Rebecca Singer Management.
The Play
Wolves Are Coming For You was first performed in a co-production between Pentabus Theatre Company and Everyman Theatre Cheltenham in 2017, on a tour of the UK. It is published by Nick Hern Books, www.nickhernbooks.co.uk
Joel Horwood (Writer) Joel is a playwright whose work for theatre includes The Ocean At The End of the Lane (adapt. Neil Gaiman. National Theatre); Berberian Sound Studio (Donmar Warehouse); The Little Match Girl (Shakespeare’s Globe/Bristol Old Vic), an adaptation of Jon Klassen’s I Want my Hat Back which received an Olivier Award nomination for Best Family and Entertainment Show (National Theatre); This Changes Everything (Tonic Theatre) which was nominated for a WGGB ‘Best New Play’ Award; A Series of Increasingly Impossible Acts (Lyric Hammersmith/UK Tour); I Caught Crabs in Walberswick (Eastern Angles at the Pleasance, Edinburgh/UK Tour/Bush); Food which won a Fringe First Award (Traverse, Edinburgh) and Mikey the Pikey (Pleasance, Edinburgh). Joel is working with Maria Aberg on a version of The Great Gatsby.
Work for screen includes Skins and The Reward which won the RED connector Grand Prize in 2008. Joel has also adapted the Radiohead album OK Computer for BBC Radio 4
The Creative Team
Kate Bannister (Director) has been Artistic Director of the Jack Studio since 2005. During this time she has programmed & produced over 400 performance events at the venue, including new writing, revivals, musical theatre, comedy and film. Selected productions at the Jack Studio include: Precious Little, As A Man Grows Younger, Cinderella – A Fairy Tale, Lifeboat (nominated for two Offies), Kes (nominated for four Offies, including Best Production & Best Director), The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (nominated for four Offies, including Best Production), Tom Molineaux (also UK tour), The Hound of the Baskervilles, Better Together, The Haunting, A Cool Million, 1938 – Hitler Takes Vienna, rock paper, scissors, Shipwrecked! An Entertainment, Spank House, Pool, The Mystery of Irma Vep (nominated for five Off West End Awards, including Best Production and Best Director), The Ghost Train, The Libertine, Borderland, Around the World in 80 Days. Further productions include: Ollie Reed: Wild Thing (Ambassadors Theatre, West End, St. James Theatre, Gilded Balloon, UK & Ireland Tour), Hamlet, Associate Director for Blue Apple Theatre (Winchester Theatre Royal), The Miracle (Broadway Theatre), Amah (Tara Arts), Leonce and Lena, The Girls’ Consent, A Bill of Divorcement (Greenwich Playhouse), A Fan’s Club (New Wimbledon Theatre, Edinburgh Festival), Orion (Wilton’s Music Hall), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Blue Elephant Theatre), Alice and A Christmas Carol (regional tours). Kate has also worked as a freelance theatre designer, designing over forty productions for tour and Off West End venues, including English Theatre Frankfurt, Oval House, BAC main space, Theatre Royal Stratford East, Riverside Studios, Lyric Hammersmith, Arcola Theatre and Jermyn Street Theatre.
Since the theatre’s closure in March 2020, Kate has run the two online digital projects, CONNECT and Past Present Future, producing and directing short films and online workshop events.
Karl Swinyard (Set Designer) has been Theatre Manager and Producer at the Jack Studio Theatre for fifteen years. He has been Production Manager and Designer on all in-house shows, including: Cinderella – A Fairytale, Lifeboat, Kes, The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, The Hound of The Baskervilles, Write Now Festivals 1 – 7, Shipwrecked!, The Mystery of Irma Vep, She Stoops to Conquer, Fighting, Jane Eyre, Great Expectations, Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay!, The Importance of Being Earnest, Xanthippe, Worlds Apart, A Christmas Carol (twice!) and Teechers. As Designer: Tom Molineaux, Hamlet Our Brother (Jack Studio), Pass the Baton (Theatre Royal, Stratford East), A Mother Speaks, The Smilin’ State (Hackney Empire Studio), Five Guys Named Moe (English Theatre Frankfurt), The Dorchester, No Shame No Fear, Preacherosity, My Matisse (Jermyn Street Theatre), A Fans’ Club (New Wimbledon Theatre, Edinburgh Festival), Purlie, Notes Across A Small Pond, The Ballad of Little Jo (Bridewell Theatre), Question Time (Arcola Theatre), Orion (Wilton’s Music Hall), Measure for Measure Malaya (Riverside Studios), Twelfth Night Courtyard Theatre, You Don’t Kiss (Stratford Circus), Uncle Ebenezer (BAC), Amah (Tara Arts), The Girls’ Consent and A Bill of Divorcement (Greenwich Playhouse).
Philip Matejtschuk (Sound Designer) is an Offie-nominated sound designer/composer and a graduate of RADA’s PgDip in Sound Design. Recent work includes: The Prince And The Pauper (Watermill Theatre), Maggie May (Finborough), The Invisible Man, Cinderella: A Fairytale (Jack Studio Theatre), That Girl (Old Red Lion), For King And Country (Southwark Playhouse), Beirut (Park Theatre), Heartbreak House (Union Theatre); and Thark (Drayton Arms).Other credits: Adding Machine: A Musical (Finborough); The Burnt Part Boys (Park Theatre); Othello (Rose Playhouse, Waterloo East Theatre & Theatrelab NYC); & The Hound of the Baskervilles (Jack Studio Theatre). Philip also engineered sound across all 2019 Christmas Trails for Culture Creative, including Christmas@Kew and Alice@The Palace, Blenheim (& Chicago, Belton, Bedgebury, Dunham Massey, Edinburgh and Stourhead). Nominated for Best Sound Designer at OffWest- End Awards: Sea Life (2016) and Dead Party Animals (2014) – both The Hope Theatre. ‘Highly Commended’ in the ‘Creative Innovation in Sound’ category at the Theatre & Technology Awards 2017 for Brimstone and Treacle (The Hope Theatre). Co-design & associate work includes: Eden (Hampstead), The Other Place (Theatre By The Lake), Duet For One (Oxford Playhouse & tour), How to Date a Feminist (Arcola), Pig Farm (St James), Stevie (Hampstead) and King Lear (Cockpit).
Robbie Butler (Lighting Designer & Video) has lit productions at Theatre by the Lake, The Unicorn Theatre, The Marlowe Theatre, Southwark Playhouse, The Park Theatre, Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Opera Holland Park. Further credits include collaborations with the Wardrobe Ensemble, Tarento Productions, The Orwell Foundation, Abandoman, The Octagon Theatre Bolton, The Royal Danish Opera and Teatro Real, Madrid. He was the winner of the ETC Award from the ALD, and has twice been nominated for an Off West End Award for best lighting design. https://www.robbiebutler.com/
Laurel Marks (Stage Manager and Assistant Director) has been an Actress, Stage Manager, Producer and Lighting Designer since graduating Fourth Monkey Training Company in August 2017. She is an Associate Artist of The Jack Studio Theatre and The Hope Theatre. She is also a Company Member of Arrows & Traps Theatre Company. Credits: As Producer – The Hope At Home Series (The Hope Theatre, Online) & Float (Short Film). As Lighting Designer – Trestle Dir. Matthew Parker (The Jack Studio Theatre), Talking Gods (Arrows & Traps TC, Online), Before I Am Lost Dir. Ross McGregor (Etcetera Theatre). As Actress – Chaplin: Birth Of A Tramp, TARO & Gentleman Jack Dir. Ross McGregor (The Jack Studio Theatre). As Stage Manager – Kes, Lifeboat, Precious Little & As A Man Grows Younger Dir. Kate Bannister (The Jack Studio Theatre). The White Rose Dir. Ross McGregor (The Jack Studio Theatre), Dracula and Jekyll & Hyde Dir. Ross McGregor (The Jack Studio Theatre & Mill Studio, Guildford), This Show Does Not Contain Nuts Dir. Amanda Sharkey (Clapham Grand), Charles Darwin: Collapsing Creation Dir. Jessica Jefferies (The Jack Studio Theatre), The House Of Yes Dir. Matthew Parker (The Hope Theatre) & Deputy Stage Manager on Lord Of The Flies Dir. Ricky Dukes (Greenwich Theatre).
Aimee Louise Bevan (Dance Choreography) was born in London and studied Dance at Kingston University and Musical Theatre at The Associated Studios. She also gained training in puppetry at Little Angel Theatre. Aimee currently works as an actor, dancer and puppeteer alongside being a movement director. Her Movement Direction credits include Nadia’s Gift (Jack Studio Theatre) and High School Never Ends (Waterloo East Theatre). Performance credits include: Upsy Daisy/Makka Pakka in In the Night Garden Live (Tour), Nat in Reach for the Stars (Little Angel Theatre), Fairy Flutterby and Dance Captain in Puss in Boots (Belgrade Theatre Coventry), Becca in Birthright (Vaults Festival), Small Island (The National Theatre), Sister/Queen and Dance Captain in Cinderella: A Fairytale (Jack Studio Theatre), Andrea in Lego Friends To The Rescue, Naarky in The Magic of Startown (Tour).Aimee was extremely excited to return the Jack Studio Theatre, to help mould this emotional piece.
This production is made possible thanks to the Culture Recovery Fund.