Agreement

Ruairi has just moved back to Belfast after living and working in London for 25 years. He has worked off-Broadway in All That Fall with Michael Gambon and Eileen Atkins, and in the West End with Philadelphia Here I Come. He has worked at the Royal Court, the National Theatre, the Donmar Warehouse, the Bush, and the Southwark Playhouse in productions such as Gary Mitchell's Trust, Brian Friel's Molly Sweeney, Willy Russell's Educating Rita, and Owen McCafferty's Scenes From the Big Picture. He was also the Player King to Benedict Cumberbatch's Hamlet at the Barbican. Ruairi has appeared in eight different productions at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast, including playing Reverend Hale in the Crucible, which reopened the theatre. He has appeared in the Lyric/Abbey co-production of Owen McCafferty's Fire Below, and most recently in his own highly acclaimed one-person show Lies Where it Falls, which he will be relaunching later in the year. In TV and film he has appeared in Downton Abbey, Silent Witness, Waking the Dead, The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, and The Catherine Tate Show. He has won three Earphones Awards for his work on audiobooks and has been nominated for a British Theatre/Sunday Times award for his performance in Philadelphia Here I Come. He also co-directed and produced the award-winning film Mind the Time with Stage Beyond Theatre Company.

Lyric Theatre credits include: Dockers, Group—The Musical, and La Chunga.

Other theatre credits include: Cyprus Avenue (Royal Court, Abbey, MAC Belfast, Public NYC); Re-Energize (Derry Playhouse); The Titanic Boys (Grand Opera House, Belfast); Group—The Musical (Edinburgh Fringe Festival); Chronicles of Long Kesh (Tricycle, Waterfront Hall, CQAF, NI tour); Antigone (Waterfront Hall); Scenes from the Big Picture (Waterfront Hall, the National); Don Juan in Soho (Donmar); The Wrong Man (New Strung, Edinburgh Fringe Festival); The Duke of Hope (Tinderbox); Energy (Derry Playhouse); Mojo Mickybo (UK tour); Militiaman—One Man Show (Crescent Arts/Partisan); and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Kabosh, An Grianán). 

Television credits include: Hijack ( Apple TV+); FBI International (CBS); The Capture (Heyday/BBC); Das Boot (Bavarian Fiction); The Terror (AMC); The Musketeers (BBC); The Fall (Artists Studio/BBC); Omagh (Kirwan Prods) Sunday (Box TV/C4); and Eureka Street (BBC). 

Film credits include: The Return (Othaca/Picomedia); Ballywalter (Empire Street); Nowhere Special (Picomedia); Jonjo Mickybo (Working Title); and The Goldfish Bowl (Cinemagic).

Richard Croxford’s career has included acting, writing, and directing for numerous theatre companies locally, nationally, internationally, and for London's West End on three occasions. Favorite acting roles include Scrooge in Christmas Carol, Beadle Bamford in Sweeney Todd, Tiger Brown in Threepenny Opera, Shylock in Merchant of Venice, Lord Goring in An Ideal Husband, Chris Keller in All My Sons, Dracula in Dracula, Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, and Pip in Great Expectations. 

In the late 90s, Richard started moving into directing theatre. He took over as artistic director of Replay Productions in 2000, producing work for children and young people, and then the Lyric Theatre, Belfast in 2008, overseeing the launch of the new theatre's artistic program until the end of 2013. 

Most recently, Richard has been working as a freelance actor again for TV (Bloodlands, Heaven, Mother’s Day, Mrs. Wilson, and Soft Border Patrol) and in feature films (The Quarry, Trautmann, and upcoming blockbuster Dungeons And Dragons as Lord Neverember.) He is also a busy voice-over artist, and is regularly heard doing commercials on U105 and is the UK voice of Ridddle for Facebook. 

Richard was last seen performing at the Lyric in the delightful Kiss Me Kate as Harrison Howell.

Dan is an actor, writer and director from Belfast. Recent television appearances include Three Families, Ruby, Shopped, Rat, The Paddy Raff Show, To Be Frank...Carson, Rello, and Bloodlands. On stage he has performed his plays The Boat Factory (UK, Ireland, Brussels, NYC) and Frank Carson: A Rebel Without a Pause (Edinburgh Fringe), which was also the subject of a BBC documentary.

Recently he wrote and directed The Belfast Blitz - It’ll Never Happen Here (W5 Belfast). He also directed Snow White (Dundee), Defending the Caveman (Irish tour), and one-woman shows Mrs. Jones’s Diary (Roz Sheridan—Irish tour), Nobody Puts Bernie in the Corner (Roz Sheridan—Irish tour), and Truth, Love or Promise (Nuala McKeever—Irish tour). Current writing projects include Belfast Harbour 175, Titanic: She Was Alright When She Left Here, and More than a Name—based on Colin Breen’s trilogy A Force Like No Other: The Real Stories of the RUC Men and Women Who Policed the Troubles. 

Dan is a trustee of Arts and Business NI and a passionate advocate and lobbyist for the arts. He has served on the board of the Lyric Theatre and NI Actor’s Equity Committee; as an associate artist for the Prison Arts Foundation; and as a weekly columnist for the Sunday Life newspaper. He is a patron of Bruiser Theatre Company and regularly lends his support to the Youth Justice Agency, Probation Board NI, NIACRO, the Integrated Education Fund, and the Carson Arts Bursaries. He presents and co-authors television and radio documentaries.

Martin Hutson plays Tony Blair. He most recently performed in God Of Carnage (Lyric Hammersmith). His theatre credits include Small Island, The Voysey Inheritance, The Mandate (National Theatre); Candida (Orange Tree Theatre); The Bay at Nice (Menier Chocolate Factory); Julius Caesar, Titus Andronicus, The Heart of Robin Hood, As You Like It (RSC); The Master Builder (The Old Vic), The Libertine (Glasgow Citizens Theatre); Butley, Taken at Midnight, Ghosts, Taking Sides, Collaboration (West End); If Only, Anthony and Cleopatra (Chichester Festival Theatre); Thursday (ETT/Adelaide Festival); The Comedy of Errors, As You Like It (Sheffield Theatres); The Rubenstein Kiss, R+D (Hampstead Theatre); The Rivals (Bristol Old Vic); The Jew of Malta (Almeida Theatre); Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice (Birmingham Rep); and The Tempest (New Vic Theatre). 

Martin has been nominated twice for the Ian Charleson Award for his performance in Ghosts and As You Like it (Sheffield). 

His television credits include: Endeavour, The Trial of Christian Keeler, Tutankhamun, The Honourable Woman, Foyle’s War, The Passion, Who Gets the Dog, A Very British Sex Scandal, and New Tricks. His film credits include: Backdraft 2, Dragonheart: Battle for the Heartfire, Atonement, Virtual Sexuality, and One For The Girls.

Andrea has worked extensively in theatre throughout Ireland and the UK. Most recent productions include Sadie (Lyric Theatre), Cyprus Avenue (Belfast, Dublin, London, New York), and Sive (Gaiety Theatre Dublin).

Recent TV work includes Line of Duty (BBC) and Red Rock (Virgin Media). Andrea can be seen in the new police series Blue Lights, which will hit BBC screens at the end of March. 

Film work includes The Teacher, by Farah Nabulsi, and Baltimore, both due for release in 2023.

Ronan Leahy's credits include: Drum Belly, King Lear, Curse of the Starving Class, Macbeth, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Romeo and Juliet, Henry IV, Da, Observatory, At Swim-Two-Birds, The Passion of Jerome, By the Bog of Cats, The Doctor's Dilemma, The Well of the Saints, The Corsican Brothers, Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, Philadelphia Here I Come! (Abbey); and Translations, Living Quarters (Lyric/Abbey). 

Other theatre credits include: Staging the Treaty (Anu); Least Like the Other (Irish National Opera); Borstal Boy (Gaiety); Wuthering Heights, An Enemy of the People, Festen, All my Sons (Gate); Hecuba, The Effect, The Critic, Travesties, Life is a Dream, Solemn Mass for a Full Moon in Summer (Rough Magic); The Colleen Bawn, Gentrification (Druid); The Winter’s Tale, The Hairy Ape (Corcadorca); Medea, Titus Andronicus, La Musica (Siren); Roberto Zucco, Wideboy Gospel (Bedrock); The End of the Road, Whereabouts, The Flesh Addict (Fishamble); and The Chairs (Tinderbox). 

Television credits include: The House Across the Street (Ch 5); Amber (RTÉ); Single Handed (Element); Roy (Jam); The Catalpa Rescue (Perpetual); Proof (Subotica); and Amongst Women (BBC/RTÉ). 

Film credits include: The Flag (Treasure); Gridlock (Failsafe); Out of Innocence (Defiant); Pursuit (An Pointe); The Break (Stanley’s Deathpark); Priest (Magna); and Batman Begins (Warner Bros).

Conan McCarty's film and television credits include: The Gilded Age (HBO/Engler), Bull (CBS/Tejada), Hunter (Amazon/McCormick), Sneaky Pete (Amazon/Canaan Mann), The Closer (TNT), Nurse Jackie  (Showtime/Buscemi), Law and Order (NBC). 

Broadway credits include: Fool for Love Old Man, A Life in the Theatre, A Few Good Men, Macbeth. 

Off-Broadway credits include: Morning’s at Seven (Peccadillo/Wackerman), Othello (NYTW), When We Go Upon the Sea (59E59), Rounding Third (Houseman), Dark Rapture (Second Stage), Beyond Therapy (Phoenix), Henry IV, pt. 1 (Central Park). 

Regional theatre credits include: Moon for the Misbegotten (Playhouse on Park), Frankenstein (Denver Center/Buntrock), Good People (Shadowland Stages), To Kill A Mockingbird (STNJ/Joe Discher), Sorrows and Rejoicings (City Theatre/Douglas), The Underpants (Arizona Theatre Co/Jory), Peter Pan (ATL/Jon Jory), Antony and Cleopatra (SFStLouis/Donahue), Much Ado About Nothing (STNJ/Scott Wentworth), Henry IV, pt. 2/Henry V,(Shakespeare Santa Cruz), Othello (Indiana Rep/Wentworth), Troilus and Cressida (Alabama Shakes/Gash).

Owen’s first feature film, Ordinary Love, starring Liam Neeson and Lesley Manville and directed by Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn, was released in December 2019. Owen is working on a second feature, Breathing, for producer Brian Falconer. 

He is also currently working on new play commissions for the Donmar Warehouse and for Michael Grandage Productions. 

Owen has a commission with BBC Northern Ireland/Out of Orbit Productions for an original TV series in development.

His new play Fire Below premiered at the Lyric, Belfast and the Abbey Theatre, Dublin in November 2017. Quietly received its US premiere in New York in July 2016. It was first produced at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin where it was nominated for Best New Play at the Irish Times Theatre Awards. In 2013 the Abbey production played at the Traverse Theatre during the Edinburgh Festival and transferred to the SOHO Theatre, London. Owen McCafferty’s recent play Death of a Comedian was a co-production between The Abbey, the Lyric, Belfast and SOHO, and was shown in Dublin, Belfast, and London. His previous play Unfaithful was produced at lovegolglove Traverse Theatre in 2014 to great acclaim and again in London in August 2016 starring Niamh Cusack and Sean Campion. 

Owen has recently written the libretti for 2 short operas—May Contain Flash Photography and lovegolglove. Other recent work includes the new play Absence of Women, produced by the Lyric Theatre Belfast in February 2010 before transferring to the Tricycle Theatre in London. Owen directed his own version of Antigone for Prime Cut in Belfast in autumn 2008. Shoot the Crow, which was first staged at the Druid Theatre, Galway, has had a number of further productions, including a London production at the Trafalgar Studio that was nominated for Best New Comedy at the Olivier Awards. Owen’s version of JP Miller’s Days of Wine and Roses for Scamp Film and Theatre, and RJK Productions, directed by Peter Gill and starring Anne Marie Duff and Peter MacDonald, had a highly successful first run at the Donmar Warehouse and has since been produced many times domestically and abroad. His play Titanic (Scenes from the British Wreck Commissioner’s Inquiry 1912) was the inaugural production at The MAC Belfast in 2012. 

Previous work includes Scenes From The Big Picture at the National Theatre which won the John Whiting Award, the Meyer-Whitworth Award, and the Evening Standard Charles Wintour Award for New Playwriting. The play was revived in Belfast by Prime Cut in 2007 and has had several international productions. Closing Time was produced for the National Theatre’s Loft Season. Further work includes a production of Cold Comfort, which Owen directed himself and brought to the London fringe, an adaptation of Ionesco’s The Chairs, No Place Like Home and Court Room No 1 for Tinderbox Theatre Company in Belfast, and Mojo Mickybo for Kabosh Theatre Company, a play which has been revived many times at home and abroad. His plays for radio include The Elasticity of Supply and Demand and The Law of Diminished Returns. 

A film based on Mojo Mickybo has been produced by Working Title, directed by Terry Loane.

Charlotte won the BWW Irish Award for Best Director for Agreement. The play also won Best Play and Best New Play. Agreement was nominated for Best Play at the UK Theatre Awards, and Alastair Campbell called it the “Cultural Even of 2024” on The Rest is Politics. It can be seen again at the Lyric Belfast 9—30 March, before heading to the Irish Arts Centre in New York from April 11—May 12 2024. 

Charlotte is a stage director and dramaturg specializing in political theatre and new writing, with an emphasis on the development of British musicals. She is currently developing a contemporary political musical with composer Ruth Chan and lyricist Darren Clark; a quirky British romantic comedy with writers Bateman, Hughes and Conley; a children’s crime caper with composer and lyricist Jonny Berliner with a libretto by Rhys Jennings; and a political one-woman musical satire by Richard Hough and Ben Morales Frost.

After graduating with first-class honors for drama at the University of Manchester and training at Augusto Boal’s Centre of the Theatre of the Oppressed in Rio de Janeiro, Charlotte’s career started at the Donmar Warehouse, where she was the resident assistant director between 2004—2005. For the Donmar, she directed Kiss of the Spider Woman and Lower Ninth (for Donmar at Trafalgar Studios). Charlotte was also associate director on Frost/Nixon to Michael Grandage and Piaf to Jamie Lloyd for both the Donmar West End transfers at the Gielgud and Vaudeville respectively. 

Credits include: Agreement (Lyric Theatre); The Wicker Husband (Watermill Theatre); Indecent Proposal (Southwark Playhouse); Our Girls, Our Game (British Youth Music Theatre); On Hostile Ground (presented online as part of Royal and Derngate’s “Made in Northampton” new musical theatre festival); A Room of One's Own (London Library); The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Southwark Playhouse/Stream.Theatre); I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (The Chiswick Playhouse); The Dickens Girls (BYMT, New Wolsey, Ipswich); The Return of the Soldier (Hope Mill Theatre, New Wolsey); Talking Heads (Gala Theatre, Durham); Shangri-La (Finborough Theatre); Venice Preserv’d (Spectators’ Guild); Brazil and Casablanca (Secret Cinema); The Incredible Doctor Guttman (Karen Simpson Productions); Sunset Baby (Gate Theatre); Titanic; Scenes from the British Wreck Commissioner’s Enquiry (Mac, Belfast); Zephaniah, 2 John, Ezra (the Bush Theatre’s 66 Books); Decade (503); My Dad’s A Birdman (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield); Honk Honk You Donky Donk (Old Vic); About Bill (Landor Theatre); Blair’s Children (Cockpit Theatre); Gladiator Games (Sheffield Studio, Theatre Royal Stratford East); When Five Years Pass (The Arcola); How Long is Never, Bloody Sunday, Justifying War (Tricycle); and Waiting for Lefty (Battersea Arts Centre). 

She co-wrote the synopsis for Christopher Wheeldon’s new ballet Strapless for the Royal Opera House. She is currently developing two new ballets. 

Charlotte has been recognized for numerous awards: Agreement was nominated for Best New Play at the UK Theatre Awards 2023. The Wicker Husband was the winner of the inaugural MTI Stiles & Drewe Mentorship Award, It was also selected to be showcased at the prestigious NAMT Festival of New Musicals in New York in 2018. Here, by Alex Young and Kate Marlais, won the 2015 S&S Award for best international unproduced musical, in conjunction with Leicester Curve Theatre. 

The London Lit Festival in 2021, which featured her film A Room of One’s Own, was highly commended at the FutureBook Event Award. 

“Henry,” “Two Ways to Australia,” “My Wicker Man,” and “Haus Potsdam” from musicals she is developing have all been nominated for a Best New Song—Stiles and Drewe Prize in 2023, 2020, 2016, and 2015. 

Bloody Sunday—Scenes from the Savile Inquiry, where Charlotte was an associate director to Nicolas Kent, won the 2006 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre. 

She received a nomination for a 2006 Whatsonstage Theatregoers Choice Award for Gladiator Games; the same play was part of a season at Stratford East, which was nominated for the 2007 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre. Waiting for Lefty was a finalist for 2003 James Menzies Kitchin Award for Young Directors (BAC).

Julia Perez is a New York based stage manager and production manager. She's worked on the Broadway production of Funny Girl; Off-Broadway on Little Shop of Horrors, The Refuge Plays, Torched!, Quarter Rican, My Broken Language, The Play That Goes Wrong, Wolf Play, for all the women who thought they were Mad, and Emojiland; and regionally throughout New England at Trinity Repertory Company, the Gamm, the Peterborough Players, Northern Stage, and others. She's also worked previously at Irish Arts Center on Jean Butler's What We Hold and on several events and concerts. She’s delighted to be back with this lovely team for Agreement!

Sam Shapiro has stage managed 17 IAC shows! Sam coaches and manages performing artists, her former students are on Broadway, TikTok famous (5 million followers), an America's Got Talent Golden Buzzer, and accepted to top Musical Theater university programs.