The Cast and Crew are now on stage busy in rehearsals for our lastest production, Breaking the Code, opening on Friday 8th November 2024.
Breaking the Code is the story of Alan Turing the genius mathematician, cryptographer, philosopher and the father of modern computing. Without his work to crack the Enigma Code the second world war would likely have dragged on for many years more, no doubt at the cost of countless lives. His subsequent work to conceive of, then lay down the foundations for, computing as we know it was vital to the advancement of the field. The technology we rely on today to communicate his story is covered in his exceptional fingerprints.
However this is not so much the story of those achievements or even his legacy, but the story of Turing himself. His personal life. His relationships. What drove him to the heights. His faults, foibles and frustrations. Ultimately it is the story of the way we as a country betrayed one of our national heroes by prosecuting him for the crime, as was then, of following his passions as a gay man. And then of his untimely death.
It is a skilfully crafted story, written by Hugh Whitemore and based on a biography of Turing by Andrew Hodges. To tell it we have been very fortunate in bringing together an incredibly talented and experienced cast who, together, are enthusiastically drawing all the drama, nuance and emotion from the narrative. And that is no small feat as the script makes great demands on them, particularly on our lead, Giles Davidson who brings both power and vulnerability to his performance.
The other cast members include (in order of appearance) Phil Povey as the dogged Manchester Detective Sergeant Mick Ross, new member Rachel Davies as his strong but affectionate mother, Sara Turing, Edward James as schoolfriend Christopher Morcom AND Nikos from Ipsos in act 2 (speaking entirely in Greek!), Chris Smalley as his enigmatic but shifty young ‘bit of stuff’ Ron Miller, Fi Billington as authoritative MI5 agent Jane Smith, Gary Simpson as Bletchley’s affable but firm head of cryptology Dillwyn Knox and Lisa Tatler as the bright and tender Pat Green, Turing’s fellow cryptographer and frustrated admirer.
We also have a top-notch technical team in Scott Crawford, Rob Murtagh and Neil Yates on lighting and visual displays and David Proffit on sound who are working to frame and enhance the story with captivating visual effects and soundscapes. Our Stage Manager is Chris Ratcliffe with Cath Dunne as both her Assistant Stage Manager and props guru. Last, but by no means least, is Joanne Yates as our ever helpful prompt.
We all owe a great deal to Alan Turing. We hope you will join us next week to see this wonderful play.
