OP news

Antonia Goddard (2012) wrote and produced a critically acclaimed one-act play, I am Turpin, which was performed at Theatre N16 in October 2017. The play, which centres around Dick Turpin’s final days in prison, starred Hugh Train as the eponymous anti-hero and Phoebe Sparrow (Downton Abbey, Inside No. 9) as his gaoler Abigail. The play received stellar reviews and will be restaged by Harlow Theatre as part of their 2018–19 season.

Stephen Reicher (1974) was interviewed by Jim Al-Khalili on The Life Scientific on BBC Radio 4. Stephen, a social psychologist at St Andrews University, spoke about the positive and negative sides to a crowd, and the role of crowd leaders. If you missed it, you can hear it on BBC iPlayer.

A chapter written by Adrienne may (1958) appeared in Trans Britain: Our Journey From The Shadows, edited by Christine Burns MBE and published in January. Adrienne has written a number of novels under her pseudonym, Adrienne Nash. Alastair Whatley (2002) is completing his fourth and final UK tour of Sebastian Faulks’s Birdsong, which has been seen by over 200,000 people since 2013. Alastair’s spring season has been a busy one, as his Original Theatre Company has also completed a national tour of The Importance of Being Earnest – a play he vividly remembers studying in the Junior Mummery – and is currently directing a new comedy – Monogamy.

helen Petrovna (2006, neé Duckhouse) is currently on tour with the Broadway and West End smash hit Legally Blonde The Musical. Helen is playing Brooke Wyndham in the show, which is based on the popular film of the same name.

Colin mcFarlane (1980) starred alongside Liam Neeson is his latest film The Commuter, which was released in January. The action-packed film sees Neeson caught up in a deadly criminal conspiracy while on his daily commute home from work, with McFarlane playing Sam the conductor. Colin will also be back on our screens soon in his role as Ulysses in the upcoming fourth season of Golden-Globe nominated series Outlander.

midé Adenaike (2013) and the Sons of Pitches are going on another UK tour this autumn. He said “I’m really pleased to say that I’m embarking on a fourth tour with the Sons of Pitches. It’s been a hectic time and we are putting a lot of work in to make this the biggest one yet! I’m ever grateful to The

Perse for supporting me in my earliest days as an aspiring beatboxer!” More information about the tour, including ticket information, can be found at thesonsofpitches.co.uk.

George Dean (2006) writes: In February nine Old Perseans of various vintages – from Ed Cassels (2004) to Tom Sherwin (2011) – took part in the Cambridge to Casablanca Cycling Cricket Club’s (CtCCCC) tour to Rwanda. Ed Pearson (2006), a member of the touring squad, spent two years living in Kigali as project manager for the Rwanda Cricket Stadium Foundation, constructing the country’s first international standard ground, which opened in October 2017. Prior to the tour the club raised over £13,000 for Cricket Builds Hope, the charity that will be responsible for the ongoing running of the ground.

The squad completed six matches, winning three and losing three, with stand-out performances from Will Hammond (2006), Rory Davidson (2006) and James Coe (2007). The highlight was a game against the national team, in which CtCCCC lost by just two runs. In December, Old Perseans made their debut in the Thames Hare & Hounds alumni race, finishing in third place, behind Winchester and Sherborne. Congratulations to tim harrison (2017), Simon Sampson (2005), John hale (2006) and hugh Chatfield (2013) on a superb performance!

for the 2017 cycling season, Felix Barker (2013) took a year out of his engineering degree at Cambridge to ride for the elite/ u23 development team Cycling team friuli, based in udine, italy.

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