A Woman of No Importance  

 by Oscar Wilde. Directed by Colette Dockery.
A Woman of No Importance

Wednesday 2 to Saturday 12 September

At the Tower Theatre, Stoke Newington

Why have a wicked past if you’re going to keep it a secret?

Gerald Arbuthnot, a young man of modest means, is invited to join an aristocratic house party at Lady Hunstanton’s lavish country estate. Dazzled by the witty and glamorous guests, he is thrilled to be offered the post of personal secretary to the rich and powerful Lord Illingworth. But why is Gerald’s mother so against this opportunity of a lifetime? The dynamics of the house party foreshadow an explosion of hidden secrets and societal double standards in a world “made for men and not for women”.

First performed at the Haymarket Theatre in 1893, A Woman of No Importance is a layered exploration of morality, gender, and Victorian hypocrisy, wrapped in Oscar Wilde’s trademark wit.

Buy Tickets
Wednesday 2 September at 7.30pm
Thursday 3 September at 7.30pm
Friday 4 September at 7.30pm
Saturday 5 September at 3pm
Saturday 5 September at 7.30pm
Tuesday 8 September at 7.30pm
Wednesday 9 September at 7.30pm
Thursday 10 September at 7.30pm
Friday 11 September at 7.30pm
Saturday 12 September at 3pm
Saturday 12 September at 7.30pm

Age Guidance: 12+. Content Advice

Cast
Rachel Arbuthnot : Dixi Taylor
Mrs Allonby : Alexandra Charalambous
Hester Worsley : Bethany Collins
Lady Jane Hunstanton : Alison Liney
Lady Caroline Pontefract : Vyvian Shaw
Lady Stutfield : Roslyn Cuffe Kelly
Lord Illingworth : Jonathan Buckingham
Gerald Arbuthnot : Luke Yianni
Mr Kelvil : Matthew Ibbotson
Dr Daubeny : Bob Hough
Sir John Pontefract : Bob Bradick

Production Team
Director : Colette Dockery
Set Design : Phillip Ley
Costume Design : Christine Bowmaker
Lighting Design : Alan Wilkinson
Sound Design : Matthew Ibbotson

Stage Manager : Sarah Ambrose
Assistant Director : Cade Featherstone
Lighting Operator : Jonathan Ringshall
Sound Operator : Chris Shiel

  • ‘A Woman of No Importance’ in rehearsal
  • ‘A Woman of No Importance’ in rehearsal
  • ‘A Woman of No Importance’ in rehearsal
  • ‘A Woman of No Importance’ in rehearsal
  • ‘A Woman of No Importance’ in rehearsal
  • ‘A Woman of No Importance’ in rehearsal
  • ‘A Woman of No Importance’ in rehearsal
  • ‘A Woman of No Importance’ in rehearsal

Photography by Cade Featherstone

Dixi TaylorDixi Taylor joined the Tower Theatre last year, and this is her second performance with the company. She was very involved with theatre throughout school and university and performed in shows such as The Little Shop of Horrors, All My Sons and Guys and Dolls. She did her first show with Tower Theatre last year, a pantomime, and is excited to do something a bit different this time.
Alexandra CharalambousAlexandra Charalambous has been a Tower Theatre member since 2018 and trained in repertory theatre in London. She has performed across a range of theatre groups in London and Hertfordshire including Incognito Theatre Group, Potters Bar Theatre Company, HDOS and, of course, the Tower. Previous productions include Judy in Home, I’m Darling, Doris in Flare Path and Lucia in Black Coffee. Her last Tower production was The Wolves playing Soccer Mom. She is very excited to be returning to the Tower stage and performing in her first Oscar Wilde play.
Bethany CollinsThis is Bethany Collins‘ first production with the Tower Theatre. She studied Drama and partook in numerous shows in Stoke Newington Secondary School & Sixth Form, which is where her interest in theatre began. She is currently studying English Literature at the University of Sheffield but continues to sustain her love of acting with the university’s theatre society.
Alison LineyAlison Liney has been a company member for nearly thirty years. She last appeared on the Tower stage as Miss Marple in The Mirror Crack’d and went on to make her professional debut as mad Aunt Agatha in Happy Room at the King’s Head Theatre, transferring for a week at the Theatre Royal, Windsor where she had a luxurious dressing room all to herself! She has since come down to earth, working as ASM on Moby Dick in London, Brighton and Cornwall and chivying matinee audiences as Front of House Manager. She is delighted to be playing a grand lady with a houseful of servants.
Vyvian ShawVyvian Shaw has been a Tower member since 1998 appearing in several musicals and three shows at the Minack Theatre in Cornwall. She was last seen at the Tower in After Life but has recently been involved in a rehearsed reading of The Mirror and the Light as part of a Hilary Mantel weekend at All Hallows by the Tower (the other one).
Roslyn Cuffe KellyThis is Roslyn Cuffe Kelly‘s debut performance with the Tower, after joining the company earlier this year. It will mark her overdue return to the stage (and how she missed it!) She is excited to join this talented cast in their production of A Woman of No Importance.
Jonathan BuckinghamOriginally from Stockport, Jonathan Buckinghamis a keen actor who has appeared on stages across London, Bath, Manchester, Glasgow and Sheffield. He performed most recently at the Tower in a production of Ink, playing Brian McConnell. His other performances this past year include Phèdre, Staying Alive and Blood Wedding.
Luke YianniLuke Yianni is fairly new to the Tower, but has had so much fun in everything he’s done here and has loved working with the cast to put on A Woman of No Importance. I hope you have as much fun watching it as we have had making it!
Matthew IbbotsonMatthew Ibbotson joined the Tower in 2018 and has appeared in productions of Kafka’s Dick, To Kill A Mockingbird, Gainsborough’s Girls, A Passage To India, Bouncers, Twelfth Night, The Boy Who Fell Into A Book, Labour of Love, The Fan and, most recently, Shakespeare in Love. When not acting he can often be found in the tech. box providing sound design or operating lights and is a current member of the Tower’s Board of Trustees, having previously served on the Management Committee.
Bob HoughBob Hough graduated from Exeter University´s English and Drama course some time ago. His fortune has declined since his first role with the Tower Theatre as God in Kleinzeit. Subsequently he has gone downhill: tortured half to death in Death and the Maiden; abandoned in Endgame; kicked and crushed to death respectively in Entertaining Mr Sloane and The Crucible; a heart attack in Baba Shakespeare; in The Doctor’s Dilemma he was dragged from death’s door only by a miracle serum. He has survived in other plays even escaping the noose-happy hangman in Hangmen. In A Woman of No Importance he is looking forward to dressing up as a 19th Century Archdeacon, including gaiters and apron. Elsewhere, he was a member of Personas Libro (Project Fahrenheit 451); details on request.
Colette DockeryA Woman of No Importance is Colette Dockery‘s twelfth show for the Tower. Past directing credits include Oleanna, Mojo, The Slab Boys, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, Two, The Woman who Cooked her Husband, Blue/Orange, The Beauty Queen of Leenane and, most recently, Stones in His Pockets. She started as an actor with the Tower, moving into directing 15 years ago.
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