Director, actor and producer Alastair Whatley is the artistic director of the Original Theatre Company.
He is currently starring as Oliver in the company’s touring production of Torben Betts’s Invincible, directed by Christopher Harper.
As an actor Alastair was most recently seen on stage as Teddy Graham in Terence Rattigan’s Flare Path. His credits also include: Three Men in a Boat, Birdsong, See How They Run, Dancing at Lughnasa, The Madness of George III, Vincent in Brixton, Journey’s End and Henry V at the RSC.
He is the director of Shadowlands by William Nicholson which is currently touring the UK. Alastair’s direction credits also include touring productions of Birdsong, The Private Ear and the Public Eye, Our Country’s Good, Twelfth Night and Journey’s End. He has produced all 16 of the Original Theatre Company’s productions.
I recently spoke to Alastair about why Original Theatre chose Invincible as their next project, life on the road and his advice for actors about to take on the touring life…
It’s a very busy time for the Original Theatre Company! Invincible is very different to the company’s recent shows, what drew you all to it?
Absolutely, it is very different and that’s exactly what drew us to it. We’ve always wanted to live up to our name, Original Theatre. We did some old classics – like Birdsong and Flare Path – in an original fashion, but they weren’t true originals… whereas with Birdsong this is the first time it has ever been seen out in the regions. For a play about the North South divide, it seems a crime that it has only previously been done in London. It very much feels like a new piece of work for us.
