Programme
Back in 2024 Nicky, Esther and I were looking for a project to work on together. We kept
coming back to the story of Katharine of Aragon (there are various spellings of her name, we use the one used by our partners at Peterborough Cathedral where Katharine is buried). Esther, through Whispered Tales, had created a project about Katharine for the Tower of London, and Nicky had written a short piece for Hampton Court Palace about Katharine’s daughter Mary and Jane the foole. We found ourselves drawn to a story that felt, at best, only half-told, and one that despite being 500 years old, resonated deeply with the world today. So today’s performance brings together Nicky’s moving writing, Esther’s brilliant direction and Steve’s atmospheric sound design, all in conversation with the history and the architecture of the incredible and historic spaces we perform in to offer (we hope) a fresh perspective on Katharine’s story.
Esther, Nicky and Matthew
The Cast - Live
Creative Team
TOUR GUIDE Chileya Mwampulo
DIRECTOR and CO CREATOR ESTHER SIMPSON
Stephanie Greer
ORIGINAL MUSIC and SOUND DESIGN STEVE GIBBS
AND OUR FUNDERS
CHOREOGRAPHY LISA SIMPSON
THANKS TOO TO :-
KATHARINE - THE DANCER Olena Hrabchak
Harwich, Ipswich, Colchester, Braintree Chester Cathedral and Peterborough Cathedral
Audio Cast
in order of appearance
KATHARINE Laura Andresen Guimarães YOUNG HENRY / PRINCE ARTHUR Isaac Lancel Watkinson HENRY VII / THOMAS WOLSEY Andrew Lancel HENRY VIII Joe Allen MARY Aniela Werenowska Recorded at Wave Break Studios, Walton on the Naze and Whispered Tales, Leicester
WRITER and CO CREATOR NICOLA WERENOWSKA
PRODUCER and CO CREATOR MATTHEW LINLEY
LIBRARY POP UP ASSOCIATE SOFIA BAGGE HISTORICAL ADVISOR JACKSON VAN UDEN historywithjackson.co.uk
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT TENDRING AND ESSEX AMALIA PRESS PHOEBE CARLISLE
for Chloe Nelkin Consulting info@chloenelkinconsulting.com
PRODUCED BY SLAGET THEATRE with WHISPERED TALES
WITH THANKS TO OUR INCREDIBLE PARTNERS AND THEIR BRILLIANT STAFF TEAMS:-
Chester Cathedral, Eastern Angles, Essex Libraries, Harwich Arts and Heritage Centre, Peterborough Cathedral, Suffolk Community Libraries Arts Council England, Tendring District Council, Wivenhoe Society Sophie Leigh Barrow, Niamh Handley Vaughan, Ian McEwan, Julia Payne, Mer Richardson, Theatre Porto, Jess Twyman, The Ukranian Centre (Liverpool), Pippa Pickles and all at Colchester Castle. KATHARINE is proudly made in Harwich at Harwich Arts and Heritage Centre To find out more about the project visit our website at www.thekatherineproject.com
and subscribe (for free) to our substack where we post regular updates at matthewlinley.substack.com
Biographies (in alphabetical order) JOE ALLEN The voice of Henry VIII Joe Allen is a professional actor with over 20 years’ experience working across theatre, film and television. His career has included acting with the Royal Shakespeare Company, performing in the West End and major UK touring productions, as well as screen credits including Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again!, The Royal Variety Performance, and NBC’s The Grinch LIVE. Recent theatre credits include Mr D/ Dionysus in The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical at The Other Palace, Eddie in the Rocky Horror Show 50th Anniversary UK Tour and work with Mischief Theatre, including as Associate Director on Thespians the Musical. Alongside performing, Joe works as a creative and mentor, supporting emerging performers as they navigate training, auditions and the professional industry. His approach is always warm, practical and rooted in his own experience — helping performers understand what makes them distinctive, trust their instincts and bring more of themselves to their work.
STEVE GIBBS Composer and Sound Designer Steve Gibbs is a versatile musician, composer and sound designer specialising in immersive and binaural sound. He has created original music and sound designs for companies including Metro-Boulot-Dodo, Watch This Space, Bathysphere and Whispered Tales. His work combines an eclectic range of musical styles with innovative sound design, creating distinctive soundscapes for theatre and site-specific performances.
LAURA ANDRESEN GUIMARÃES The voice of Katharine Laura is a British-Portuguese actor and musician. She has been fortunate to work in a huge variety of creative format’s; as an actor in London’s West End to playing Saxophone at the world cup. She is delighted to be the voice of Katherine.
OLENA HRABCHAK Katharine Olena Hrabchak is a dancer and Choreographer from Ukraine. Olena likes to combine storytelling and movements in her performances, and her main aim is to tell stories about migration, displacement and cultural identity.
Olena trained as a professional dancer in Contemporary, modern, Theatre credits: Dirty Dancing (UK jazz, commercial, ballet and traditional & Ireland Tour), Love’s Labour’s Lost (Shakespeare In The Squares), Aladdin Ukrainian dance. (Leeds City Varieties), The Rainbow (Perth Theatre & Concert Hall), Midsummer (The Mercury, The Barn), ANDREW LANCEL Unbelievable (West End & Tour), Othello The voice of Henry VII, (The Watermill Theatre), Swallows & Thomas Wolsey and an Armenians (Cumbria Opera Group) and Just So (The Watermill Theatre). Ambassador Other credits: An Evening with Pink Floyd (UK Tour), Star Sisters (R&D), Katherine of Aragon (Whispered Tales), Associate MD (Perth Theatre), Saxophonist and Vocalist at 2022 FIFA World Cup & The Clockmaker’s Daughter in Concert (Cadogan Hall).
STEPHANIE GREER Tour Guide: Chester Cathedral and Peterborough Cathedral Stephanie trained at Bretton Hall gaining a first-class honours degree in Acting, later training as an aerialist with Barnton Circus. She has enjoyed a successful and diverse career both nationally and internationally. Her work spans theatre, circus, screen and radio. She is an associate artist at Tmesis Theatre, performing and devising shows such as Sealskin (Liverpool Everyman and International Tour). Her recent work includes Sleep Can Wait! and Stage Left (Unity Theatre) and new circus show Don’t Feed The Explorers (The Birdcage Stage). Alongside her work as a performer, Stephanie is a strong trade unionist and activist and is currently an Equity councilor as well as the Chair of Equity’s Class Network - which is committed to creating more opportunities for working class people, creating a fairer, more representative industry for all.
Andrew Lancel starred in 300 episodes of ITV’s The Bill as Detective Inspector Neil Manson earning three National Television award nominations and as the villainous Frank Foster in Coronation Street winning a host of awards including Villain of the Year in the British Soap Awards. He recently appeared The Thief His Wife and The Canoe and The Hack for ITV and Father Brown for BBC. Since 2023 he has played Steve James in Unforgotten. He has host of tv film and credits to his name including the ground-breaking Cardiac Arrest as Dr Andrew Collin, Barry Pearce in Bad Girls, Father Ian in Liverpool One, Harvey in Queer as Folk and Connor Rice in City Central. Film work includes Wide Eyes and Legless and Bolan’s Shoes. He has headlined numerous major theatre productions in the West End and across Britain including Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music, Brian Epstein in Epstein: The Man Who Made The Beatles, Brian Clough in The Damned United, Juror 3 in Twelve Angry Men and Brian Epstein again in smash hit Cilla the Musical. He has appeared in repertory and world premieres at the Almeida and Chichester Festival. He recently played Harold Pinter in Stumped at Hampstead Theatre (which was also filmed) with Stephen Tompkinson, Kiss Jonathan Harvey’s one man play Swan
Song which toured nationally and had a London run winning him an Offie.. An accomplished singer he has toured with his own show, three times sang at the Royal Albert Hall and won Celebrity Stars in their Eyes. A regular voice he appears in the Our Daily Bread Evening Meditation throughout the year which recently hit its 9 millionth download. Andrew lives in Liverpool with his wife Louise, children Isaac and Freya and dog Olly.
ISAAC LANCEL WATKINSON The voice of young Henry VIII and Prince Arthur Isaac’s theatre credits include Young Patrick in Mame at Hope Mill, Manchester and touring. Young Clyde in Bonnie and Clyde The Musical, Arts Theatre, London, Colin in The Secret Garden, London Palladium and Miracle on 34th Street, Liverpool Playhouse. He played Young Jimmy in the award-winning film Bolan’s Shoes. On TV Isaac played Kyle in Jimmy McGoverns Time 2 and Adam in Rules of the Game both for the BBC. He has also appeared as a soloist on a Michael Mckyntyre’s Big Night Out, This Morning, Songs of Praise and again at the London Palladium. He recently graduated from The Hammond, Chester.
MATTHEW LINLEY Producer Matthew is a freelance producer and arts manager. He is currently Head of Producing (Stephen Joseph Theatre) and Associate Producer: National Touring for RABBLE Theatre as well as Chair of the National Rural Touring Forum. Shows in development include Shuff & Byng and KATHARINE (both for Slaget Theatre) and William the Conqueror (RABBLE Theatre). Recent work: for SJT includes the UK Theatre Nominated musical Calendar Girls (national tour), Handbagged, All at Sea and The Trials of Romeo Oscar; for RABBLE Theatre Glitch and Henry 1 and for Funnelwick Limb Twelve Yuletide Yarns, The Chronicles of Atom and Luna and The Mystery of Raddlesham Mumps. Other producing highlights include
The Ballad of Maria Marten (Eastern Angles/SJT), Nina a story about me and Nina Simone (Unity Theatre/ Riksteatern) and Little Red (Theatre Porto / Unity Theatre / Eastern Angles).
CHILEYA MWAMPULO Tour Guide: Harwich, Ipswich, Colchester, Braintree Chileya is a Zambian born actor, playwright and director. She is an associate artist at the Mercury Theatre, Colchester, where she recently completed their playwriting program and has previously completed their Mercury creatives program. She is an NYT member and a Fourth Monkey alumni. Credits include Judith Moone in the world premiere of The Manningtree Witches by A.K. Blakemore adapted by Ava Pickett at The Mercury Theatre, directed by Natasha Rickman and Gail in the New Wolsey and Eastern Angles production of Teechers by John Godber, directed by Jake Smith.
ESTHER SIMPSON Director and Co-Creator Esther Simpson is a multi-awardwinning theatre director and creative producer, whose accolades range from the Total Theatre Award for Best Newcomer at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe to Time Out’s Critics’ Choice. Her distinctive theatrical vision has led to prestigious commissions from the National Theatre, as well as Protect The Beats, commissioned for Liverpool’s Eurovision celebrations in 2023. Specialising in immersive, sitespecific theatre, Esther has created numerous productions for National Trust properties, English Heritage sites and cathedrals across England, transforming historic spaces into captivating theatrical experiences.
ANIELA WERENOWSKA Young Mary Aniela loves drama and singing and hopes to be a professional actor one day. She is a member of Colchester PQA and regularly participates in her school’s musical productions.
NICOLA WERENOWSKA Writer and Co-Creator
Nicola Werenowska is a multiaward winning playwright/radio dramatist/librettist and experienced community engagement practitioner from a working-class background who is committed to exploring underrepresented voices. Nicola was 16 when she was a runner up in the Royal Court Young People’s playwriting competition but due to the debilitating effects of her undiagnosed disability it took her another 15 years before she wrote professionally, following her lifechanging dyspraxia diagnosis. Her work has been produced widely across the UK and she has been on attachment to Graeae Theatre, the National Theatre studio, High Tide Theatre (Peggy Ramsay/Film 4 residency) and a member of the Royal Court National Writers group. She is Associate Artist at the Mercury Theatre Colchester. www.nicolawerenowska. co.uk