Oliver! at the Watermill – full company revealed

Alice Fearn will play Nancy in the forthcoming production of Oliver! at The Watermill Theatre, Newbury

The Watermill has announced its full company for its upcoming summer production of Lionel Bart’s multi-award winning musical Oliver!, opening on Friday 31 July and playing until Saturday 19 September.

Directed by Luke Sheppard, this brand new production will bring an immersive and site responsive twist to Bart’s much-loved musical, with London’s murky Victorian underworld reimagined in and around the rural theatre’s atmospheric converted mill.

Nancy is played by Alice Fearn, with Ashley Artus as Fagin, and Kit Orton as Bill Sikes.

The cast also features Tomm Coles (Mr Sowerberry); Rachel Dawson (Bet); Joey Hickman (Noah); Deborah Hewitt (Charlotte); Graham Lappin (Mr Bumble); Rhona McGregor (Mrs Sowerberry); Susannah Van Den Berg (Widow Corney) and Steve Watts (Mr Brownlow).

For the first time, The Watermill’s professional company will be joined by three teams of aspiring young performers from the local community, as part of the theatre’s ongoing commitment to develop and nurture emerging talent.

Oliver! is directed by Luke Sheppard, choreographed by Tim Jackson, designed by Tom Rogers, with lighting design by Howard Hudson and sound design by Tom Marshall. Musical supervision and arrangements are by Paul Herbert, who as recipient of the Cameron Mackintosh Resident Composer Award, was based at The Watermill last year. Oliver! is adapted from William David Brohn’s original orchestrations and presented by arrangement with Cameron Mackintosh and the Southbrook Group.

Alice Fearn – Nancy. Theatre credits include: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Savoy Theatre); Shrek (Theatre Royal Drury Lane); Les Misérables (Queen’s); The Woman in White (Palace Theatre); Sweeney Todd (Pie Shop, Shaftesbury Avenue); Annie Get Your Gun (Young Vic) and Into the Woods (Regent’s Park Open Air).

Ashley Artus – Fagin. Theatre credits include: The Lion King (Lyceum Theatre, West End); Oliver! (UK tour/Cameron Mackintosh); Les Misérables (international tour/Cameron Mackintosh); Skellig (Young Vic); Two Gentleman of Verona (Exeter Northcott); A Taste of Honey (Watford Palace Theatre); Shopping & F***ing (Royal Court/Out of Joint); The Pirates of Penzance (New Vic Theatre); The Mikado (New Vic Theatre); Fortune’s Fool (Chichester Festival Theatre); Romeo and Juliet (Hammersmith Lyric Theatre) and Gypsy (West Yorkshire Playhouse).

Kit Orton – Bill Sykes. Theatre credits include: Tom Jones in Tom (UK tour); Spamalot (West End and tour); The Hired Man (Mercury Theatre/Leicester Curve); Spend Spend Spend and Martin Guerre (Watermill Newbury); Dickens Abridged (Arts Theatre); Twelfth Night (Perth Rep); Peter Pan (Canal Theatre Dublin) and Hot Mikado (UK tour).

Luke Sheppard (director) most recently directed the world premiere production of Sue Townsend’s The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾ at Leicester’s Curve theatre, the European premiere of In the Heights (Southwark Playhouse) and was associate director for Matilda (RSC). Other productions he has directed include The History Boys (South Hill Park), Next Fall, 101 Dalmatians and The Adventures of Pinocchio (Castle Theatre) and Soho Cinders (Arts Ed). As associate director, Sheppard has worked on Singin’ in the Rain (Palace Theatre and Chichester Festival Theatre), and as assistant director on Into the Woods (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre).