Festen by Thomas Vinterberg, Mogens Rukov & Bo Hr. Hansen Adapted for the English stage by David Eldridge Directed by Allan Stronach
		Wednesday 19 - Saturday 29 November, 2025 At the Tower Theatre, Stoke Newington

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Photography by Marc Gascoigne

Cast List Helge – who is celebrating his 60th birthday : Martin Shaw Else – his wife : Stephanie Irvine Christian – his elder son : Joshua Picton Michael – his younger son : Alexander Dalton Helene – his daughter : Laura Riekkola Poul – his brother : Daniel Watson Grandfather – his father : Andrew Robinson Mette – Michael’s wife : Grace Maltman Gbatokai – Helene’s boyfriend : Kieron Mieres Helmut – managing director of Helge’s company : James Collins Lars – manager of Helge’s hotel : David Lindley-Pilley Pia – a waitress : Medea Manaz Kim – the head chef : Jason Rosenthal Little Mette – Michael and Mette’s daughter : Eloise McCreedy or Millie Howard

Production Team Director : Allan Stronach Set Design : Angelika Michitsch Costume Design : Peter Westbury and Sheila Burbidge Lighting Design : Nick Insley Sound Design : Laurence Tuerk Stage Manager : Gary O’Keefe Assistant Directors : Ellie Stone, Millie Howard ASM : Sandra Monero Lighting Operator : Juliet Webster or Nick Insley Sound Operator : Laurence Tuerk Movement Director and Intimacy Co-ordinator: : Trinidad Prieto Asensio Fight Directors: Richard Kirby, Lindsey Royan Set Construction and Get-In : Keith Syrett, Phillip Ley, Dina Banderra, Celine Barrière, Max Batty, Jenny Black, Emma Brown, Freya Alexander, Alex Burton, Jennie Foot, Rosie Longworth, Sumair Shaikh, Ateş Togrul, Olga Walkowska, Millie Weston, and members of the cast & crew Video Trailer produced by Stephen Ley

	Joshua Picton is an actor and theatre maker. He trained at East 15 Acting School and his professional credits include performing on stage at the Vaults, Edinburgh Fringe and a National Tour. He's also narrated several audiobooks. This is his second production for the Tower Theatre - he appeared in the short play When You Go to Ireland in 2023. He is excited about taking on the role of Christian.			Laura Riekkola is a Finnish actor based in London. She trained as an actor and director at the School of the Science of Acting, where she developed a strong foundation in performance and character work. She recently shot a short film called One Soul at a Time and her previous stage credits include Fay in Loot, Joan in Time and the Conways and Rachel in Deposit. With a passion for compelling storytelling Laura continues to explore challenging roles and collaborative projects in the UK and internationally.
	Alexander Dalton, also known as Sacha, is an American actor originally from Los Angeles. He studied Film at the University of Southern California and moved to London to pursue a career in Acting.			Grace Maltman is making her Tower Theatre debut in Festen. She trained at ArtsEd and later with Andrew Darren Elkins. Her previous stage work includes Under Milk Wood (Sherman Theatre) and Tomorrow Night Live (Seven Dials Playhouse), while her screen appearances include Anok!, Sticky Toffee Pudding and The Unsaid. Outside of acting, Grace is pursuing a degree in Chemistry. She’s delighted to be part of such a talented company in Festen.
	This marks Martin Shaw’s twelfth outing with the Tower Theatre since he joined in 2011 — clearly, he just can’t stay away. He’s toured to Paris with The Taming of the Shrew, As You Like It and Much Ado About Nothing, and performed across London and his native Northern England. He was last seen on the Tower’s main stage as the intense and enigmatic Roberto in Death and the Maiden (2022).			This is Stephanie Irvine's ninth production with the Tower, following Shakespeare in Love (2025), The Chimes (2024), Princess and The Hustler (2024), The Fan (2024), Richard III (2023), Improbable Fiction (2022), Coram Boy (2022), and Mules (2021). Stephanie used to be a radio journalist at the BBC World Service and now works for an environmental charity planting community orchards.
	Festen is James Collins' second show for the Tower Theatre. A BA Acting graduate from Arts Educational Schools London, James has appeared in many plays including Ned Allyn in Shakespeare in Love, Cloten in Cymbeline, Don John in Much Ado About Nothing, Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Michael in Immaculate, the Lawyer for the Defence in Machinal and Nick in What the Butler Saw. James has also appeared in several musicals and operas including Leo Bloom in The Producers, Rafe Rackstraw in HMS Pinafore, the Tenor Soloist in Mozart’s Requiem and chorus in Don Giovanni, Il Trovatore, Un Ballo in Maschera and L'Elisir D’Amore. James is an artistic director for New Tricks Theatre company, for which he was co-author and director of the play Back to Where.			Daniel Watson has appeared in 27 productions for the Tower. He has been on tour with the Tower 8 times, acting in Paris in As You Like It, The Taming of The Shrew, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. He also acted at the Minack in David Copperfield and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and in the Rockport USA tour of Pygmalion. He played roles in four Noel Coward plays - Tonight at 8.30, Sail Away, Relative Values and Fallen Angels. Other favourite productions he was cast in include Richard III, Dead Funny, The Homecoming, Nell Gwynn, The Real Inspector Hound and Shakespeare in Love.
	This is Andrew Robinson's third appearance on the Tower stage after Crime and Punishment and Shakespeare in Love. An actor since the age of 3, he is a veteran of over 90 productions both acting, directing, writing for the stage and designing sets, sometimes all in the same production. Trained in Drama at Berkshire College of Education, he has performed in Sheffield, Birmingham, Reading and Frankfurt and, for the last 45 years in various London groups, most recently the Incognito Theatre in Barnet. He has played roles as varied as Shakespeare’s Hamlet, King Lear, Berowne and Demetrius; Ibsen’s Solness and Judge Brack, Sir in The Dresser, Ratty in The Wind in the Willows, Nonancourt in The Italian Straw Hat and Squire Weston in Tom Jones. His directing resumé includes La Ronde (twice), Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Women Beware Women, Six Characters in Search of an Author and The Regina Monologues. He has written several original plays and adapted half a dozen more for performance.			Medea Manaz recently completed her training at the Collective Acting Studio and has since performed in the Kafkaesque-horror Corpse Flower at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and will feature in the upcoming feature film, Isobel, set to come out in 2026.
	Festen is Jason Rosenthal’s Tower Theatre debut - and very pleased he is to be a part of this powerful production too. Previous roles have been in King Lear, Vampire and The Habit of Art, starring as Arturo Ui in The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (no big deal), and recently turning up in Romeo and Juliet and inadvertently orchestrating their untimely deaths as the Friar at South London Theatre. His last role was as Sir Henry Baskerville in Streatham Theatre’s comedic Hound of the Baskervilles.			David Lindley-Pilley discovered London's thriving am-dram circuit back in 2022 and has since starred in KDC Theatre's productions of Henry IV, The Bus (including a bizarre tour to Bulgaria) and A Weekend Away at the Hotel Decevoir. He's also had a peek at the scene in South London, with roles in Putney Theatre Company's Scandaltown and the Debut Theatre Company's Doubt. This is David's second time performing with the Tower, playing the office grump in After Life earlier this year.
	Kieron Mieres has been acting for over ten years and in that time he has donned many a wig, many a frock and many an accent. From his initiation at the National Youth Theatre to his dramatic escapades at Bristol University, to his off-West End stints (with amongst other theatre companies KDC and SEDOS), it is fair to say that Kieron has been around the theatrical block a few times. He has appeared at the Tower twice before, in Fix Up (2019) and, just recently, in Black Men Walking.			This is Eloise McCreedy's seventh show with the Tower Theatre having just played Mary Lennox in The Secret Garden. Eloise graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre. Her other credits include Patricia Milligan in London Wall (Tower Theatre), Trudi in Apologia (Putney Theatre Company), Becky in An IQ Test For My Birthday (Tower Theatre), Sibyl in Private Lives (Richmond Shakespeare Society), Sonya in Crime and Punishment (Tower Theatre), Grace in The Dark Room (Tower Theatre), Shirley in Hangmen (Tower Theatre) and Harriet Smith in Emma (Questors Theatre).
	Millie Howard is a director, playwright, actor, and jazz singer from North London with more than 15 years experience in the theatre. Festen is their first appearance at the Tower but it is their second production as they've been Assistant Director both for this and for How to Disappear Completely and Never be Found last year. Millie made their directorial debut at the Camden Fringe Festival with Dandelions and Poppy in 2023. They wrote their first play, Leviathan, in 2022.			Festen is the 21st play Allan Stronach has directed at the Tower. Other shows have included Sweeney Todd, Road, The Rise & Fall of Little Voice, Entertaining Mr. Sloane and the Tower’s production of the American comedy Sordid Lives at the Edinburgh Festival and at their London home. Also at the Edinburgh Festival he was Assistant Director to the legendary Ed Wilson on The National Youth Theatre’s production of Murder In The Cathedral at St. Giles Cathedral. With other companies he has produced mainly musicals including the British Amateur Premiere of Godspell which was performed as a midnight matinée in order to be the first amateur version on stage. As a teacher in Sheffield Allan adapted the novel Kes into a play.  This was subsequently published and for the next 25 years was performed in schools throughout the country as well as on the professional stage in the UK and Australia.