Finborough Theatre Presents DUSA, FISH, STAS AND V, Now thru Aug 3

Jagged Fence in association with Neil McPherson for the Finborough Theatre will present DUSA, FISH, STAS AND V by Pam Gems, and directed by Helen Eastman, beginning today, 9 July - Saturday, 3 August 2013.

"My loves, what are we to do? We won't do as they want any more, and they hate it. What are we to do?"

Commemorating the centenary year of the death of suffragette martyr Emily Wilding Davison, the first full professional production in more than 35 years of Pam Gems' feminist classic Dusa, Fish, Stas and Vi, opens at the Finborough Theatre for a four week season from Tuesday, 9 July 2013 (Press Night: Thursday, 11 July 2013 at 7.30pm).

Four determinedly 'liberated' - and very different - women ricochet around a tiny shared flat, while trying to pull together the shattered strands of their lives: Dusa is struggling to regain her children from their father, Fish is losing her lover to another woman, Stas is on the game to finance the course she wants to study at university, while Vi steadfastly refuses to eat....

A bitingly sardonic modern classic, widely regarded as an historic icon of early feminism, Dusa, Fish, Stas and Vi was first seen at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1976 under the title Dead Fish, Michael Codron transferred the play to the West End under its new title where it enjoyed a huge success and established Pam Gems as a major new voice in British theatre.

Playwright Pam Gems (1925-2011) turned to playwriting after bringing up four children. Closely involved with the Women's Theatre Group at the Almost Free Theatre, she went on to enjoy a long association with the Royal Shakespeare Company, from Queen Christina (1977) and Piaf (1978) to Camille (1984), The Da nton Affair (1986) and The Blue Angel (1991). La ter plays included Stanley (premiered at The National Theatre, starring Ant ony Sher, which won both the Evening Standard Award and the Olivier Award for Best Ne w Play, and also nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play) and Marlene (nominated for a Tony Award). She also was a prolific adapter of th e works of many of the great European playwrights including Chekhov's Uncle Vanya (Hampstead Theatre), The Cherry Orchard (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield) Ibsen's The Lady from the Sea (Almeida Theatre) and Lorca's Yerma (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester).

Director Helen Eastman returns to the Finborough Theatre where she directed The Monument, Fair (a nd its subsequent National Tour and West End run at Trafalgar Studios), The Gabriels and three productions from live poetry company, Live Canon. Trained as a director at LAMDA after graduating from Oxford University. Theatre includes Circus Etc (The De La Warr Pavillion), Wild Raspberries (Citizens Theatre, Glasgow), Bug Off (OTC Dublin and tour), Cure at Troy (Delphi Interna tional Festival and Tour), Bridgetower (Hackney Empire and Tour), Dido and Aeneas (National Tour for English Touring Opera), Speakout (Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch for English Touri ng Opera), Splat (Greenwich Theatre), Felt Effects (Theatre503), Hansel and Gretel (Cor k Opera House), The Sweet Science of Bruising (National Theatre Studio), Cloudcuckooland, nominated for a Total Theatre Award (Nation al Tour), Agamemnon (Cambridge Arts), Pots and Plays (site specific a t Ashmolean Museum), Dear Father Christmas, Where's Father Christmas, Bicycle Boy (Oxford Playhouse). Helen is Artistic Director of Live Canon, for whom she has created theatre and site specific shows, installations and digital performances throughout the UK. She was one of twelve women invited to create work in the Phenomenal People series at the Festival Hall. She is Associate Artist of Oxford University's APGRD. She is also a playwright and librettist and has written plays and operas for Oxford Playhouse, The Royal Society, Sheffield Crucible, Queens Hornchurch, Greenwich Theatre, Chester Open Air Season, ETO and the Young Vic.

Jagged Fence returns to the Finborough Theatre where they have produced two sold out critically acclaimed productions - Ours by T.W. Robertson (2007) and Love on the Dole (2010). Founded in 2006 by Artistic Director Emily Dobbs, Jagged Fence is a bold, ambitious and innovative UK b ased theatre company with a diverse artistic policy that includes new writing, original adaptations and contemporary reappraisals of European, British and American classics. Jagged Fence have established a reputation for fresh, fearless theatre and artistic excellence.

The Cast
Emily Dobbs | Stas
Theatre for the Finborough Theatre includes Ours (2007) and Love on the Dole (2010).
Trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama.
Theatre includes The Seagull, The Hostage (Southwark Playhouse), As You Like It (Riverside Studios and National Tour), St ars in the Morning Sky, Dance Hall Days, Gotcha, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Riverside Studios), Fall of Humanity (Gate Theatre), Can't Stand Up For Falling Down (Arcola Theatre), Puppets and Prophets (Theatre503) and Macbeth (National Tour).
Television includes The Bill and Primeval.

Helena Johnson | Vi
Trained at Oxford University and the Drama Centre.
Theatre includes The Three Sisters (Oxford Playhouse), Private Lives (Old Fire Station, Oxford), Miss Julie (Drama Centre), Pericles (Shakes peare's Globe), Father Christmas (Oxford Playhouse) and Three Women (Live Canon). Helena has also wo rked extensively as part of the Live Canon ensemble performing poetry at regional theatres and events around the country.
Film includes EXIT.

Olivia Poulet | Fish
Theatre includes The Captain of Kopenick (National Theatre), Fred's Diner (Chichester Festival Theatre), Top Girl s (Ambassador Theatre Group), Shivered (Southwark Playhouse), A Voyage Round My Father (Salisbury Playhouse), Fiasco (Soho Theatre), The Queef of Terence, Bird Flu Diaries (Pleasance Edinburgh), Map Of The Heart (Salisbury Playhouse), Major Barbara (Royal Excha nge Theatre, Manchester), The Lesson (King's Head Theatre) The School for Scandal(Derby Playhouse) and Age Sex Loc@tion (Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith).
Film includes In the Loop, Stalking Ben Chadz, Day of the Flowers, Heroes and Villains and Killing Me Softly.
Television includes Living The Dream, The Thick Of It, Without You, Dappers, Margot and Mez, Sherlock - The Blind Banker, Spinners And Losers: Opposition Extra, Margaret, The Secret Diary Of A Call Girl, Outnumbered, Whatever Love Means, Friends and Crocodiles, Love Soup, The Rotters Club, Inspector Lynley, Silent Witness, Teachers, The Bill and Acorn Antiques.
Radio includes Sex, Latte, Paperclips.

Sophie Scott | Dusa
Trained at Cambridge University and The Oxford School Of Drama.
Theatre includes The Kreutzer Sonata (La Mama E.T.C., New York City), Radio Times (Watermill Theatre, Newbury), Lark Rise to Candleford (National Tour), Othello (Ludlow Festival) ,The Kreutzer Sonata (Gate Theatre), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Rose Theatre, Kin gston), The Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare's Globe and Tour), Twelfth Night (Donmar at Wyndham's Theatre), The Portrait of a Lady (The Peter Hall Company a t Theatre Royal, Bath),Uncle Vanya (English Touring Theat re) and Blood, Only We Who Guard (Royal Court Theatre).
Television includes Throwaway, Spit Game and Distant Shores.

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