Shady Dolls Theatre Company
in association with NXT presents

DEADSTOCK

By Steven Dykes

Part Gothic fairy-tale / part polemic, Deadstock tells the story of a young woman struggling with the recent suicide of her father, whose entire dairy herd has been forcibly culled at the height of a rural pandemic. As a fearsome storm hits the isolated farm, the girl draws two men into a dangerous game, the climax of which will reveal the full horror of her plan to revive the ‘spirit’ of her ravaged land.

In the tradition of our collaborations with Steven Dykes, the company creates from a vital current affair a performance of urgency, mischief and passion. Dark art with a light touch.

CAST & CREW

Steven Dykes : : Director & Playwright

Steven Dykes is an actor, director and playwright. As a founder member and Associate Artist with NXT (New Cross Theatre) he has played an integral role in developing the company’s distinctive relationship between research and practice through the promotion of new work, publications and collaboration with international arts organizations and universities.

Dykes’s plays include Homestead (The Courtyard at Covent Garden); A Light Gathering of Dust (Gateway Theatre, Edinburgh & Olney Theatre, Maryland); Kolonists (Bridge Lane, London & the Pelican Studio, New York); The Happiness Compartment (The Theatre at 46 Walker Street, New York and Greenwich Playhouse, London); and The Swing Left (Unlimited Theatre, Leeds).  He has provided English versions of the Estonian play Cold Come, Cranes Gone (Bridge Lane, London and Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh) and Leoncavallo’s La Bohéme for the ENO (The Coliseum). With NXT’s Artistic Director, Nesta Jones, he co-compiled File on Mamet (pub. Methuen).

Dykes has worked extensively in the United States, where he performed as an Associate Artist with The Theatre Exchange, Minneapolis; lectured at the University of Wisconsin and Concordia College, Minnesota; and collaborated with Theater M, New York; the Potomac Theatre Project, Washington DC; the University of West Virginia; Middlebury College, Vermont; and the Stephen F Austin State University, Texas.

Laura Churchill : : ‘Myrrah’  

As a close ensemble we are equally committed to the development and direction of Shady Dolls; my duty as Artistic Director is to oversee the creative and administrative organisation, pulling together the different facets of the business to ensure an overall coherent, productive and innovative theatre company. In addition to this, utilising my skills as a fine artist I manage the design aspects of Shady Dolls such as publicity, website, costume, set and image.

In addition to producing, designing and promoting theatre each Doll is a talented performer and being on stage is where we all belong! I perform regularly in the Shady Dolls’ notorious Cabarets, and played ‘Loti’ in The Spoils, ‘Mara Lee’ in Homestead and various characters including ‘Mary Magdalene’ and ‘Intern’ in The Erotica Project.   

Gareth Kieran Jones : : ‘Ondriy’

Luis Alberto Soto : : ‘Allen’         

Clare Baker : : Stage Manager

Victoria Johnstone : : Designer

Rachel Nicholson : : Lighting Design