Due to popular demand, The Whisky Taster has been extended to play until Saturday 27th February
Barney and Nicola are advertising wonder kids. They win accounts with wit, charm and a secret weapon – Barney's ability to feel, smell and taste colours, and to translate these sensations into words.
Lately Barney has been finding things far too colourful and wishes his full throttle London life was more black and white, but Nicola is hell bent on winning accounts at all costs.
When the two hire an old Scottish Whisky Taster to help them with a new campaign, his strange wisdom slows the Londoners to a stop, just as the deadline looms.
A technicolour story about seeing things too clearly in a city that never stands still.
James Graham won the Catherine Johnson Award for the Best Play 2007 for Eden's Empire (Finborough). His previous plays include Little Madam and Sons of York at the Finborough, where he is Writer in Residence; Tory Boyz (Soho Theatre) and suddenlossofdignity.com (Bush).
Please be advised, this play contains real cigarettes
We've also got some very special FREE post-show events lined up on the following dates:
Monday 1st February – Synaesthesia Panel Discussion
What does it feel like to see colours when you hear music? Actually see the calendar year in front and behind you, or taste unrelated flavours when you hear different words? James Wannerton – President of the UK Synaesthesia Association – will be shedding some light on synaesthesia, a condition which affects Barney in The Whisky Taster. He will be joined by playwright James Graham and director James Grieve.
Monday 8th February – Playwrights respond to The Whisky Taster
In an evening in aid of the UK Synaesthesia Association, playwrights Ben Ockrent, Nick Payne, Mina Maisuria, Molly Davies and Frazer Flintham have each written a five minute play in response to The Whisky Taster.
Directed by Ant Stones, the five plays will each explore a different one of the five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste and smell.
Tuesday 16th February – Whisky Talk and Tasting
If you're a whisky fan, join us for this talk by the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. Includes an onstage tasting demonstration with James Graham and James Grieve, with a chance for audience members to take part in the sampling.
Monday 22nd February – A Q&A with The Whisky Taster cast
To mark the final week of The Whisky Taster, we're pleased to be holding a special post-show Q&A with members of the cast.
Events will take place at the end of the show and run for 30-40 minutes. Open to all Whisky Taster ticket holders. Subject to availability
Emma has been an Associate Artist of the Bush Theatre and her credits here include Three Birds, Where’s My Seat, Like A Fishbone, The Whiskey Taster, If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet, 2nd May 1997, Apologia, The Contingency Plan, Wrecks, Broken Space Season, 2000 Feet Away, My Romantic History and Tinderbox.
Theatre credits include Great Expectations (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Elizabeth (Royal Opera House), The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe (Birmingham Rep), The Oresteia (Home Theatre, Manchester), Wuthering Heights, The Merchant Of Venice, Consensual (NYT), The Effect (Sheffield Theatres), Henry The Fifth (Unicorn Theatre, Imaginate Festival), All My Sons (Talawa Theatre, UK Tour), Hello/Goodbye, The Blackest Black, #aiww: The Arrest Of Ai Wei Wei, Lay Down Your Cross, Blue Heart Afternoon (Hampstead Theatre), Each His Own Wilderness, Widower’s House (Orange Tree Theatre), Accolade (St James Theatre), Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (Royal Exchange, Royal And Derngate And Northern Stage), Pitcairn (Out of Joint, Chichester Festival Theatre & UK Tour), Saints (Nuffield), The Colby Sisters Of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Tricycle Theatre), Pests (Clean Break, Royal Exchange & Royal Court), Carthage (Finborough Theatre, Coriolanus, Berenice, The Physicists, Making Noise Quietly, The Recruiting Officer (Donmar Warehouse), All My Sons, A Doll’s House, Three Birds, The Accrington Pals, Lady Windermere’s Fan (Royal Exchange), Much Ado About Nothing (Old Vic), Nut (National Theatre), OMG! (Sadlers Wells, The Place & Company Of Angels), There Are Mountains (Clean Break, HMP Askham Grange), The Promise (Donmar Warehouse at Trafalgar Studios), You Can Still Make A Killing (Southwark Playhouse), The Sacred Flame (English Touring Theatre), Black T-Shirt Collection (Fuel UK Tour and National Theatre), Invisible (Transport UK Tour & Luxemborg), Much Ado About Nothing (Wyndhams Theatre, West End), Precious Little Talent (Trafalgar Studios), Charged (Clean Break, Soho Theatre), Men Should Weep (National Theatre), Travels With My Aunt (Northampton Theatre Royal), Sisters (Sheffield Theatres), Pornography (Birmingham Rep/Traverse and Tricycle Theatre), Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat (National Theatre), Europe (Dundee Rep, Barbican Pit).
Emma is the Associate Sound Designer for the National Theatre’s production of War Horse. She won the Falstaff Award for Best Sound Design/Original Score for her work on Coriolanus at the Donmar Warehouse in 2014.
Lighting designer
James Graham is a playwright and film and television writer who won the Pearson Playwriting Bursary in 2006 and went on to win the Catherine Johnson Award for the Best Play in 2007 for his play Eden‘s Empire.
James’ play This House premièred at the Cottesloe Theatre in September 2012, directed by Jeremy Herrin, and transferred to the Olivier in 2013 where it enjoyed a sell out run and garnered critical acclaim and a huge amount of interest and admiration from current and former MP’s for his rendition of life in the House of Commons.
James’s play Tory Boyz for the National Youth Theatre caused a storm during its run at the Soho Theatre and received excellent reviews for its portrayal of young, gay men in the modern Conservative Party. His play The Whisky Taster premiered at the Bush Theatre in early 2010 to uniformly excellent reviews.
James has written the book for Finding Neverland the musical with music by Gary Barlow. It opened in Boston in Summer 2014 and transfers to New York in Spring 2015. His new play The Vote will air on real time on TV in the final 90 minutes of the 2015 polling day.
His first film for television, Caught in a Trap, was broadcast on ITV1 on Boxing Day 2008. James was picked as one of BroadcastMagazine’s Hotshots in the same year. He is developing original series and adaptations with Tiger Aspect, Leftbank, Kudos and the BBC.
His film X and Y is being produced by Origin Pictures and BBC Films and was on the prestigious ‘Brit List’, the list of the best unproduced screenplays in the UK. He is currently adapting the bestselling book Gypsy Boy as a feature film also for BBC Film and working with the Weinstein Co. on an adaptation of Mrs Queen Takes the Train.
Lucy has previously designed Wrecks, Broken Space Festival, 2,000 Feet Away, Tinderbox and The dYsFUnCKshOnalZ for the Bush Theatre (with whom she is a former Associate Artist).
Recent theatre credits include Twelfth Night for the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre; Dreams of Violence (Out of Joint); Shades for the Royal Court’s Young Writers Festival; Macbeth (Edinburgh Lyceum/Nottingham Playhouse); Nina and Gas Station Angel (repertoire, LAMDA); Timing (Kings Head) and When Romeo Met Juliet (BBC)
She designed Artefacts (Nabakov Theatre Company / Bush Theatre) and Some Kind of Bliss (Trafalgar Studios), both of which transferred to the 2008 ‘Brits off Broadway Festival’ in New York and other theatre credits include Be My Baby (New Vic Theatre); Rope (Watermill Theatre); Closer (Theatre Royal Northampton); The Long and the Short and The Tall (Sheffield Lyceum); The Prayer Room (Birmingham Rep/Edinburgh Festival); Ship of Fools (set, Theatre 503); The Tempest (set, Box Clever National Tour); The Unthinkable (Sheffield Crucible Studio); Almost Blue (Riverside Studios, winner of Oxford Samuel Beckett Trust Award); Dr Faustus (The Place); Touch Wood (Stephen Joseph Theatre); Breaker Morant (Edinburgh Festival); Richard III (Cambridge Arts); Flight Without End, Lysistrata, Othello (LAMDA); Generation (Gate Theatre) and Season of Migration to the North (RSC New Writing Season).
Lucy graduated from Motley Theatre Design School in 2003, having also gained a BA in Fine Art from the University of Newcastle.
Theatre includes: House of Special Purpose (Chichester Festival Theatre); A Miracle (Royal Court); See How They Run; The Children's Hour (Manchester Royal Exchange).
Television includes: Kingdom; The Palace; Trial and Retribution; Heartbeat.
Film includes: Happy Go Lucky.
Theatre includes: On the Waterfront (Haymarket, West End); Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night (RSC); Much Ado About Nothing (Liverpool Playhouse); The Life of Galileo, Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads (National Theatre), Frankie & Johnny in the Clare de Lune (Nuffield Southampton); The Retirement of John Stevens (Lakeside Theatre, Nottingham); Romeo & Juilet (ESC).
Televison includes: Ashes to Ashes; Doctors; The Bill; Family Affairs; Mersey Beat; Heartbeat; London's Burning; The New Adventures of Robin Hood.
Film includes: The Wolfman; Invisible Eyes.
Theatre includes: Troilus and Cressida; The Frontline; We the People; Othello (Globe); Macbeth (Royal Exchange); Carthage Must Be Destroyed (Theatre Royal, Bath); Ghosts (Bristol Old Vic); Mary Stewart (National Theatre of Scotland); The Crucible; Tamar's Revenge; Dog in the Manager; Pedro; The Great Pretender (RSC); The Alice Trilogy; The Weir (Royal Court); Blue Eyes and Heels; Angels and Saints (Soho Theatre); Professor Bernhardi (Oxford Stage Company/ Dumbfounded Theatre); Bread and Butter; Sergeant Musgrave's Dance (Oxford Stage Company); Crave (Paines Plough); Hamlet (Belgrade Theatre, Coventry); The Real World; The Baby; Paddy's Market; Sleeping Beauty; Gamblers; Macbeth (Tron Theatre, Glasgow); Anna Weiss; Shining Souls; The Architect (Traverse Theatre); The Found Man (Traverse Theatre).
Television includes: Being Human; Beehive; Holby City; Rebus - The First Stone; Doctors; Murder Rooms; Glasgow Kiss.
Film includes: Loch Ness.
Theatre includes: The Lady from Debuque (Haymarket Theatre); His Dark Materials (National Theatre); Dark Corners (Theatre Royal Windsor); A Midsummer Night's Dream /Much Ado About Nothing (Regent's Park Open Air Theatre); When We Are Married (Chichester Festival/Savoy Theatre); Tess of the D'Urbervilles (Derby/Salisbury Playhouse); Getting On (West Yorkshire Playhouse); The Lucky Chance (Derby Playhouse); A Taste of Honey (Theatre Clwyd); Towards Zero (Redgrave Theatre); Taming of the Shrew (The Mercury Theatre).
Television includes: Marple: A Pocket Full of Rye; Doctor Who; Mysterious Island; Friends & Crocodiles; Rosemary & Thyme; Hitler: Rise of Evil; Shackleton (2002 BAFTA Winner: Drama Serial); Darwin; Roger Roger; Casualty; Highlander; Karaoke; Bliss; Frank Stubbs Promotes.
Film includes: Valkryie; After Thomas; Heroes & Villians; Master and Commander; Tea with Mussolini; Jane Eyre; Angels & Insects.
