THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST - CAST BIOGRAPHIES
Ashley Cook - Algernon Moncrieff
Ashley trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art.
Theatre includes; King Lear (Old Vic/English Touring Theatre), The
Mousetrap (St. Martin’s Theatre, West End), A Midsummer Night’s
Dream (Belgrade Theatre, Coventry), Romeo and Juliet (Derby Theatre),
A Doll’s House and The Importance of Being Earnest (Lincoln Theatre
Royal), She Stoops to Conquer and The Daughter-in-Law (Perth Theatre),
The Art of Concealment and How to Cook a Country (Riverside Studios,
London), F***ing Men (Finborough Theatre, London) and The
Bootmaker’s Daughter (Brighton Festival).
Other work includes; Love and Understanding (Battersea Arts Centre),
Stonewall (Pleasance Edinburgh/Drill Hall, London), Cahoot’s Macbeth
(King’s Head Theatre, London) and Much Ado About Nothing (Antic
Disposition).
Film & TV; The Bill (Talkback Thames), The Basil Brush Show (BBC),
Patrick Hamilton: Words, Whisky and Women (BBC), Love in a
Dangerous Time (Ne’er Do Well Films), Don Justino de Neve (National
Gallery - 2011 Virgin Media Award Nomination) and A Mind of Her Own
(Carey Films).
Radio includes; Bad Memories, Development, Inside the Whale, Inside
Stories, Q&A (Sony Gold Award, Best Drama), Life Class, Sharp Focus and
My Turn to Make the Tea (BBC Radio 4).
Paul Sandys - Jack Worthing
Paul trained at Webber Douglas and the Central School of Speech and
Drama as the two schools merged in 2005.
Theatre credits include; Friend or Foe (UK Tour), Peter Pan (The New
Vic), Out Of The Sun (Hen & Chickens), The Turn Of The Screw (UK Tour)
and The Accidental Lives Of Memories (White Bear).
Television includes; Grange Hill, Yesterday We Were In America and
Londoners. Paul also played the lead in short films A Matter Of The
Heart and Wrong Stop. Other credits include playing Griffin, one of the
original characters in audio sitcom Rubbishmen.
Judith Paris - Lady Bracknell
For the National Theatre; Juno The Tempest, Ena Muller in Spring
Awakening, Lady Montague in Romeo and Juliet, Joy Ferret in Jean
Seberg, Dorothy Moore in Jumpers, Victoire in A Little Hotel On The Side,
Muriel the Zealot Goat in Animal Farm, Valeria in Coriolanus.
For the RSC; Celia in As You Like It, Mrs Winthrop and Mrs Medlock in
The Secret Garden (Stratford and West End), Hecuba (West End,
Washington, New York).
Other theatre includes; Ambassador (West End), Comedy of the
Changing Years (Royal Court), Lust (West End), Oliver! (West End),
Medea (West End & Broadway), Captain Oates’ Left Sock (Royal Court),
The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Regent’s Park), King
John (The Globe) and Hobson’s Choice (Chichester Festival Theatre).
TV includes; Dr Who (BBC), A Touch of Frost (ITV), Mind Games (ITV),
Inspector Wexford Mysteries (ITV), 2.4 Children (BBC), The Two Ronnies
(BBC), Dance to the Music of Time (Channel 4), The Camomile Lawn
(Channel 4).
Film; Carlotta’s Seamstress in The Phantom of The Opera. Judith also
worked with director Ken Russell on 8 films - Isadora, Dante’s Inferno,
The Dance of the Seven Veils, Prisoner of Honor, The Devils, The Savage
Messiah, The Rainbow and Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
Helen Keeley - Gwendolen Fairfax
After graduating from University of East Anglia, Helen Keeley trained at
Drama Studio London on the One Year Postgraduate Acting Course.
She represented her school in the prestigious Spotlight Prize, a showcase
of the best graduating actors of 2012. The Importance of Being Earnest
is her professional stage debut.
Helen Phillips - Cecily Cardew
Helen trained at The Central School of Speech and Drama.
Theatre credits include; Jill Mason in Equus (London Classic Theatre),
Anne in The Diary of Anne Frank (Upstairs at The Gatehouse & Broadway
Theatre, Catford), Alys Faiz in Dear Heart (Faiz Mela Centenary), Ivy
Samways in Dad's Army - Marches On (UK No 1 Tour) and Violet in State
Fair (Finborough Theatre and London's Trafalgar Studios).
Laoisha O’Callaghan - Miss Prism
Theatre includes; The Young Europeans (The Project), Marat/Sade (The
Granary), Picnic (The Granary), The School for Scandal (The Granary),
Hamlet (European tour), Dracula (European tour), Othello (UK tour), As
You Like It (Cambridge Festival), A Midsummer Night’s Dream
(Cambridge Festival), Tartuffe (Two Way Mirror), Macbeth (Brockley
Jack), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (West End), The Plough and the Stars (UK &
Ireland tour) and Proper Red Stuff (Greenwich Playhouse).
TV & Film; A Different Light (Frame of Mind Films), In Deep (BBC),
Macbeth (Jeamland Productions), Queen and Country (BBC) and Doctors
(BBC).
Laoisha plays the role of Aoife in RTE’s Fair City.
Peter Cadden - Canon Chasuble
Peter has just appeared in The Sunshine Boys at the Savoy Theatre,
playing the TV Director. Before this, he played Man in The Recovery
Position (Lion & Unicorn). Last year Peter played Doctor in King Lear for
West Yorkshire Playhouse, Engstrand in Ibsen’s Ghosts (London Classic
Theatre) and a Gendarme in A Flea In Her Ear (Old Vic).
Other theatre includes; Holmes in The Creeper (UK Tour), Listener in
Ohio Impromptu (Gate Theatre Dublin) and Varrius in Measure for
Measure (Sir Peter Hall Company, Bath Theatre Royal and RSC Stratford),
Sarcastic Bystander in Pygmalion (Old Vic), Sir John Middleton in Sense
and Sensibility (Northcott Exeter) and Kraler in The Diary of Anne Frank
(Birmingham Rep).
For London Classic Theatre; Paddy Rice in Molly Sweeney, Kemp in
Entertaining Mr Sloane, Ralph in Frozen and George Pye in Humble Boy.
Jonathan Ashley - Lane/Merriman
Jonathan played Trivelin in London Classic Theatre’s tour of The Double
Inconstancy.
Trained at Webber Douglas Academy, his credits include The Tempest
and Hansel and Gretel (Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds), Abigail’s Party,
Arsenic and Old Lace, One for the Pot, Ladies in Retirement, Hay Fever
and Salad Days (The Jill Freud Company at Southwold and Aldeburgh),
Mansfield Park (Redgrave Theatre, Farnham), Arms and the Man
(Cambridge Theatre Company), The Secret of Theodore Brown (Unicorn
Theatre), Scaramouche (Brighton Festival), The Hooligan Clown (Lyric
Theatre, Hammersmith), The Snow Queen (Pomegranate, Chesterfield),
Stiffs (Hen and Chickens), King Lear (Courtyard Theatre), Scapin’s Tricks
and The Winter’s Tale (Wimbledon Studio Theatre), Waiting for Godot
and The Dumb Waiter (Albany Empire), The Way of the World
(Gatehouse Theatre) and Landscape (Finborough Theatre).
Film and TV include; Dead Man’s Cardy, Petite, The Score, Divine Magic
and Flying Colours.