Programme for the Jermyn Street Theatre production of Reunion

2. REUNION
by John Caine
AUTHOR’S NOTE
In ‘Brief Interviews’ by Larry
McCafferey, published in 1993,
American writer David Foster
Wallace said, “Since an ineluctable
part of being a human self is
suffering, necessarily a vicarious
experience, more like a sort of
‘generality of suffering.’ We all
suffer alone in the real world, true
empathy’s impossible. But if a piece
of fiction can allow us to identify
with a character’s pain, we might
then more easily conceive of others
identifying with our own.”
Although it tells a story that carries
growing resonance in our ageing
society, Reunion is a piece of
fiction. I set out neither to support
nor oppose the idea of voluntary
euthanasia, or assisted suicide.
Faced with death, especially a death
that is self determined, the need to
continue the concealment of
unpleasant truths is diminished.
Death bed confessions are cherished
for their honesty, and for their
inevitable brevity. Antonia and
Raymond have more time to
examine their past lives, to
acknowledge their mistakes,
confess breaches of trust, and
eventually to reach a sort of
reconciliation.
In spite of George Bernard Shaw’s
view that, “Art should never be
anything other than didactic,” I do
not believe that it is the proper role
of a playwright to attempt to
‘forcibly educate’ his audience, or
to try to persuade playgoers to
adopt one argument over another.
No doubt we won’t all agree that
each of us suffers alone in the real
world, or that true empathy is
impossible, but I’m with David
Foster Wallace in believing that, “a
piece of fiction can allow us to
identify with a character’s pain.”
John Caine

3. REUNION
The action of the play takes place over 24 hours in the kitchen/living room of
Antonia and Raymond Dean’s home.
CAST
Antonia Dean
Raymond Dean
ROBERTA TAYLOR
PETER GUINNESS
PRODUCTION
Director
Designer
Lighting Designer
Sound Designer
Stage Manager
Assistant Director
Operator
Casting Director
ANTHONY BIGGS
NICOLAI HART-HANSEN
DAVID W. KIDD
PHIL HEWITT
VICTORIA CARTWRIGHT
JAMES BARRY
JUSTIN EMRYS SMITH
SARAH BIRD
PRODUCED BY POLPO PRODUCTIONS LIMITED
IN ASSOCIATION WITH JERMYN STREET THEATRE
For Polpo Productions
Associate producer
Production photography
Press Office
MARTIN TEMPIA
DAVID CHARTERS
MARC BRENNER
DAVID BURNS

4. ABOUT THE PLAY
Diagnosed with an incurable and
relentlessly progressive degenerative
disease, Raymond, a sixty-year old
lawyer, decides that he wants to
commit suicide. To accomplish his
objective, he needs the help of his wife
Antonia, an ex-teacher. During the
course of the play Raymond tries to
persuade Antonia that he is entitled to
make the decision, and that she should
help him.
Raymond does not believe in God, and
has no religious concerns about killing
himself. Nor does he believe that
anyone else has the right to interfere in
his decision.
“I just want you to help me to leave.”
However, as a lawyer, he does
appreciate the potential legal
implications for Antonia, if she does
agree to assist in his suicide.
For Antonia, a practising Catholic, the
criminal consequences that might
result from helping Raymond to die,
are of less concern than the religious
and moral issues. As she tells him “I
don’t care if it’s a crime or not. If it
would make you better I’d be willing
to commit any crime. You’re asking
me to commit a mortal sin.”
As they struggle towards a resolution
of what both of them, from their
different viewpoints, consider to be
the crucial questions, they gradually
reveal more of the thoughts and
emotions that they have kept hidden,
during the twenty-five years of their
marriage.
As the discoveries of medical science
increase the life expectancy of many
more people in the developed world,
the moral and ethical questions
become more complex. The right to
die becomes as important as the right
to live. Australia, the Netherlands,
Switzerland, and one state in the USA,
already have faced up to the social, and
political consequences that inevitably
follow attempts to legalise voluntary
assisted euthanasia.
In Britain, as they would be in most
other countries of the western world,
Antonia and Raymond are forced to
confront the final question on their
own, both of them in their different
ways, uncertain of the consequences.

5. PETER GUINNESS
Raymond Dean
TRAINED at the Central School of
Speech and Drama.
RECENT THEATRE CREDITS INCLUDE:
The Pianist (Manchester International
Festival, Royal Exchange Theatre and
Hong Kong Festival) and Reading
Hebron (Orange Tree Theatre).
OTHER THEATRE CREDITS INCLUDE:
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Oleanna, The Second Mrs Tanqueray
(Citizens Theatre, Glasgow) Little
Foxes (Donmar), As You Like It, Moby
Dick (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester) Women Beware Women, Ion,
Macbeth, Two Noble Kinsmen, The Rover, Flight, They Shoot Horses Don't
They? Sarcophagus (RSC) The Tempest, Too Clever by Half (Old Vic) Doctor
Faustus, Measure For Measure (Young Vic) A Doll's House, The Seagull
(Birmingham Rep) The Power and the Glory (Chichester) The Changeling
(Manchester Contact) The Tempest (Nuffield, Southampton) Good Person of
Szechwan, The Caretaker (Greenwich) Webster (Old Red Lion) Caucasian Chalk
Circle, Fitting for Ladies, Doctor Knock, Diary of a Scoundrel, King Lear and
Hamlet (Orange Tree).
RECENT TELEVISION CREDITS INCLUDE: Hidden, Zen, New Tricks, Ashes to
Ashes, Silent Witness, Kipling: A Remembrance Tale, The Bill and Bleak House.
FILM CREDITS INCLUDE: Secret Passage, Greenfingers, Conclave, Sleepy
Hollow, Christopher Columbus: the Discovery and Aliens 3.
RECENT RADIO AND AUDIO CREDITS INCLUDE: Dr Who: The Beast of Orlock,
Phantom of the Opera, Never Never Land and The Waves.
Peter can presently be heard online reading Dracula's Guest and Other Dark
Tales by Bram Stoker.

6. ROBERTA TAYLOR
Antonia Dean
TRAINED at the Central School of Speech
and Drama
FOR GLASGOW CITIZENS THEATRE:
Song At Twilight, In Quest Of Conscience,
Sweet Bird Of Youth, Casanova Undone,
Design For Living, Mother Courage, Hidden
Fires, The Representative, An Ideal
Husband, Faust, Private Lives, French
Knickers, A Woman Of No Importance, A
Waste Of Time, Maskerade, Seven Deadly
Sins
OTHER THEATRE CREDITS INCLUDE:
Pygmalion (Garrick Theatre), The Entertainer (Manchester Royal Exchange),
Romeo And Juliet (Lyric Hammersmith), A Free Country (Tricycle Theatre), The
Seagull (Birmingham Repertory), Winding The Ball (Manchester Royal
Exchange), Heat Of The Day (Shared Experience), Arms And The Man
(Manchester Royal Exchange), The Two Noble Kinsmen (RSC), The Lorencaccio
Story (RSC), Sons Of Light (RSC)
TELEVISION CREDITS INCLUDE:
The Bill (Gina Gold), Bleak House (Mrs Pardigle), Doctors, The Super Girlie
Show, The Passion, Eastenders ( Irene Hills), Silent Witness, The Knock,
Sharman, Dangerfield, The Turnaround, In Suspicious Circumstances, Demob
(Ottie Pond), After The Dance, One Way Out, Inspector Morse: ‘Wolvercote
Tongue’
FILM CREDITS INCLUDE:
The Witches, Tom And Viv

7. JOHN CAINE - Writer
John Caine’s plays include Uncle Laurie and The Committee at The Playhouse
Theatre, Salford, When the Wind Blows at Actors and Writers London, Mister
Lowry at Bristol Old Vic. On the Knocker a play for radio, LBC award winner,
Television drama A Dish to be Eaten Cold for North South Productions. His first
novel, A Nest of Singing Birds was awarded the Lichfield Prize.
ANTHONY BIGGS - Director
Anthony is Associate Director of Jermyn Street Theatre, where his recent
productions include Sarah Daniels’ Soldiers’ Wives with Catherine Shipton, Charles
Morgan’s The River Line (**** Critics Choice in Time Out, Times, Daily Telegraph,
WhatsOnStage and Independent) and Ibsen’s Little Eyolf with Imogen Stubbs and
Doreen Mantle. Other credits include: Many Roads To Paradise, All I Want For
Christmas, Words Of Honour: The Mafia Exposed (Jermyn Street Theatre), Decade,
The Working Girl, Savage/Love (Theatre503), Hiding (Watford Palace), This Story of
Yours (Old Red Lion), He has directed for Shakespeare’s Globe, Menagerie and
LAMDA, and was Education Associate at ETT, Projects Director at Theatre503, and
Resident Assistant Director at Watford Palace. In July Anthony will direct the UK
premiere of Ibsen’s St John’s Night at Jermyn Street Theatre.
NICOLAI HART-HANSEN - Designer
Recent Work includes: Fanciulla del West (OperaUpClose), Season of New
Choreography, Rambert Dance Company (Queen Elizabeth Hall), Desert Boy, An
African Cargo (Nitro Theatre), Playing the Victim (Royal Court Theatre) Some Girls
are Bigger than Others (Lyric Hammersmith) The Lily of The Valley (ROH2), Private
Fears in Public Places (Royal Theatre Northampton), Here be Monsters (Rejects
Revenge) Habe Kein Angst, Three Days of Rain, Winter Under the Table, The
Mapmakers Sorrow (Copenhagen), Mine (Kaos Theatre), La Boheme (European
Chamber Opera), Medea in Jerusalem (Rattlestick, New York), Orpheo (Scarlett
Opera), Dolores (Arcola Theatre).
DAVID W KIDD - Lighting Designer
David is an international lighting designer working in theatre, dance, ballet and
opera. Dance productions include Absent Made Present (New Commissions, Royal
Opera House), Peter and the Wolf (European/UK Tour and New York) and
Andersen’s Fairy Tales (Sofia Ballet). Opera includes Die Walküre (Denmark).
Previous lighting designs at Jermyn Street include Many Roads To Paradise, Little
Eyolf and The River Line.

8. Theatre credits in UK, Europe, off Broadway and London’s West End include Bully
Boy, Woody Allen’s Writer’s Block, The House of Bernarda Alba, Unsuspecting
Susan, Paul Merton Live! at the Palladium, The Anniversary, The Female Odd
Couple, Three Sisters (TMA Award Best Design) and FEN.
PHIL HEWITT - Sound Designer
Recent designs include: Lighting and sound – I Never Get Dressed Til After Dark
On Sundays (Cock Tavern), A Cavalier for Milady (Cock Tavern, Jermyn Street),
Danger/Memory (Jermyn Street), Cosi (King’s Head), The Two Character Play
(Tennessee Williams festival, Provincetown, US), Soldier’s Wives (Jermyn Street)
Lighting– A Butcher of Distinction (Cock Tavern/King’s Head), Don Giovanni (Soho
Theatre), First Light, Mr Darwin’s Tree, Happiness (King’s Head), Rapid Write
Rewind (Theatre503) Sound– Little Eyolf, The River Line (Jermyn Street).
VICTORIA CARTWRIGHT - Stage Manager
Victoria gained her BA (Hons) Drama and Media Arts at St Mary's College,
Twickenham. She has worked extensively around the London Fringe as a stage
manager and production assistant. Stage management credits at Jermyn Street
Theatre include Soldiers Wives, The River Line, Little Eyolf and Many Roads To
Paradise.
JAMES BARRY - Assistant Director
James most recently assisted Anthony Biggs on Soldier’s Wives by Sarah Daniels,
and Gormenghast: Titus Groan for Blackshaw. Other recent assisting includes
Carmen and The Magic Flute for CoOperaCo (AD/London, Director/tour), The Art
of Concealment by Giles Cole (Brighton) and Hi Ho by Dominic Mitchell. He was
the resident assistant producer at Theatre503 2010/11 for Coalition, PLAYlist, The
Wind in the Willows and Bonnie and Clyde.
MARTIN TEMPIA - Producer
Martin has over twenty years’ experience as a film and television producer and has
worked for a range of production companies, including Brookside, Mediaset, and
Hat Trick Productions. As an independent Producer, he has produced TV dramas,
including the award winning Rachel’s Dream, starring Kate Beckinsale and
Christopher Eccleston and feature films, including Liam, written by Jimmy
McGovern and directed by Stephen Frears, which won the Marcello Mastroianni
award at the 57th Venice International Film Festival.
He is currently developing 25 Miles a feature film project written by John Caine
and ‘People Who Care’ a TV project, written by Frank Cottrell-Boyce.

9. Roberta Taylor and Peter Guinness
Roberta Taylor
Anthony Biggs
REHEARSAL PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARC BRENNER

10. Anthony Biggs and Roberta Taylor
Peter Guinness
Roberta Taylor and Peter Guinness
REHEARSAL PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARC BRENNER

12. WELCOME TO JERMYN STREET THEATRE
THE STAGE 100 AWARDS: BEST FRINGE THEATRE 2012
NOMINATED FOR THE PETER BROOK EMPTY SPACE AWARD 2011
PAST:
The Jermyn Street Theatre was once the changing rooms for the staff of the Getti Restaurant
(formerly the Spaghetti House Restaurant) upstairs. In late 1991, Howard Jameson had a vision
- to transform the space into a luxury studio theatre in the heart of the West End. Materials,
expertise and services to the value of £280,000 were donated by 56 British companies and with
major donation from Laings Builders, our challenge was complete. We opened our doors in
August 1994. In 1997 our efforts were further rewarded by a National Lottery Grant from the
Arts Council of England, enabling us to provide even better facilities for our customers.
PRESENT:
The theatre is run by the Trustees, and ably assisted by a committed band of volunteers. The
trustees of the theatre would like to invite you or your company to become a sponsor. This can
be either sponsoring a chair, programmes, a production or even the theatre itself. This will help
others realise and fulfil their dream. We hope that you respect all our endeavours and hard
work by supporting us in any way you can.
FUTURE:
• A commitment to new writing. Either producing an in-house production or giving the
opportunity to an external producer to produce new work of the very highest quality in writing,
design and delivery.
• Supporting and giving space to one New Musical per year. We hope to give a London home
to one new musical per year; affording the very best talent the opportunity to have their work
seen on the London stage.
• Unknown and forgotten classics. The question here is: “why are we not doing these plays?”
We are keen to find forgotten works or works never produced by the finest and most lauded
playwrights of the last 100 years. 2011 saw revivals of Ibsen’s Little Eyolf, Arthur Miller’s
Danger: Memory and Charles Morgan’s 1952 classic The River Line. We believe the studio
space at Jermyn Street Theatre can showcase these exceptional writers with works that are
unknown or forgotten. In July 2012 we have honour to present the UK premiere of Henrik
Ibsen’s St John’s Night.
In all cases the production bar would be at its highest possible level. Producers and artists will
be encouraged into making bold and exciting choices in how they produce and deliver the work.
Our aim is to give the audience the “wow factor” in all that they see. By creating three strands
of output it is hoped that the different styles, and the different audiences those styles appeal to,
will cross-fertilise; thus creating new audiences for new work.
Visit the website to find out about our forthcoming productions
www.jermynstreettheatre.co.uk