The Musketeers
Athos – Chris Howlett
Porthos – Christopher Nairne
Aramis – James Needham
D’Artagnan – Pete Hawkins
The Court
Cardinal Richlieu – Duncan Coutts
Milady deWinter – Catherine Sumnall
Queen Anne – Penny Sarginson
Rochfort – Daniel Scott
The Rest
Lord Buckingham / Captain of the Cardinal’s Guard – Miles Gould
Captain Treville – James Morton
Bonacieux – Elizabeth Baldwin
Wuffian – Sally Close
Constance – Andrea Watts
Planchet – Jo Reynolds
The People in Charge
Director – C Howdle
Producer – Ben Parker
Technical Guru – Richard Owen
The Details…(in alphabetical order)
Elizabeth Baldwin – Bonacieux
Elizabeth is small, dark, and dangerous when cornered. She reprises the part of Bonacieux her- a funny little thing that talks no sense whatsoever. This is exactly similar to Elizabeth when drunk, an event which happens with alarming regularity.
Sally Close – Wuffian
Being utterly bereft of talent, Sally was made furniture mover every single year in the primary school nativity play. By year 6 she had taken the hint and stopped trying to sing or act. Her only other dramatic experience is OULES. Having initially harboured ambitions towards floristry or ice-cream van driving, she nearly went on to become a Wurlitzer organ player (but now seems to be studying physics). In descending order of length of employment she has also been a multimedia technician, a bakery cleaner and a bacon fryer. she likes jazz, OULES and drinking tea.
Duncan Coutts – Cardinal Richlieu
Duncan has nine lives and a prehensile tail. Frequently found upside down, climbing in windows, and generally getting up to mischief, this young scallywag was the perfect candidate for the evil cardinal. Duncan feels most comfortable wearing a dress; the cardinals robes allow him to continue his fine tradition.
Miles Gould- Lord Buckingham & Captain of the Cardinal’s Guard
Miles Gould made his Edinburgh debut in 1997, playing a corpse in Angus Graham-Campbell’s Blood and Honour. So awestruck was he by this touch of stardom that he did not return for the next five years. But all good things come to an end, and, though he resisted the lure of the stage for years, eventually he gave in and admitted his true calling as an OULE. He plays Lord Buckingham and the Captain of the Cardinal’s guard, and denies utterly that his casting has anything to do with going out with the director. “It was her,” he insists, “I was directing her when it started”.
Pete Hawkins -D’Artagnan
Pete is the strong silent type- he is extremely quick to get his sword out in public when out of costume, and only several calls to the Chief constable and a substantial transfer of funds allows him to travel to Edinburgh. Pete is available for panto, weddings, funerals, and barmitzhvahs.
C Howdle- Director
Despite a professed intention to spend her student lifetime studying for her law degree, an evil fairy enticed Cath into the gin-quaffing, pun-making, punt- lazing world of OULES after only three days at Oxford. Although Cath nobly struggled to break free through some serious drama, OULES overcame her in the end by making her their president. She has so far directed several plays, acted badly and done every job in the average theatre,thankfully not all at once. She also contributes the occasional bad pun to a script.
Chris Howlett- Athos
Chris has a dark and terrible secret – he is a mathmo. This, admittedly, is no longer a secret. Nor is it hugely dark or terrible. However “Chris has a light grey and mildly unpleasant fact” just didn’t cut it. Anyway, he believes he’s meant to waffle about past productions here. Er, a CULES Red Riding Hood – as the prince, and Bingo Little in a CULES Jeeves production, and more Gilbert and Sullivan than anyone should admit to. He is also overjoyed to finally be entitled to the letters BA – although they haven’t been conferred yet.
James Morton- Captain Treville
After almost a decade away from the stage James found himself taking a pantomime role on his year out after much coercion by a tuba. That role and a seat on the script committee for the next three productions gave him an education in pantomime he’s not likely to forget. A knee injury having finally cured him of his rowing obsession it was at the start of his third year that he discovered CULES and vica-versa. Three terms and an election to president later James now finds himself studying light entertainment whilst dabbling in engineering in his spare time.
Christopher Nairne- Porthos
Kit is a reluctant mathematician at University College. He acts (not at all well) and stage manages (more successfully) in numerous productions around Oxford, occasionally at the same time. When not counting, thesping or propping [up the bar? – Ed.], he is a keen punter, sailor, railwayman and lethargee extraordinaire. This is his first visit to Edinburgh. It’s lovely.
James Needham – Aramis
James’ ancestors left East Anglia shortly before the Great Potato Famine, with just the clothes on their backs, a sheep each and 14,000 metric tonnes of potatoes. Since causing the dissolution of the monasteries, he has led a quiet life collecting suspension bridges and inventing the letter ‘P’. In his spare time he likes to be elevated to the peerage and work for the National Trust, sleeping in stately homes and scone testing. His performance today is by kind permission of his mother and the number 6. The cast see James as being like a healthy tonic – invariably with Gordon’s and always drunk.
Richard Owen- Technical Guru
Richard was at Oxford for 4 years and did too much theatre. Not only has he meddled with lighting design and production management, he has also performed with OULES on about 2 occasions (he forgets exactly how many, this was OULES afterall). He also managed to co-found TAFF (www.tabsareforflying.co.uk) the society for Oxford University theatre Technicians… Having been an Engineering student, Richard fell straight into his current job as an Engineer at a “Top tier supplier to the Automotive industry”. In his spare time (What’s that?) he helps at his local theatre and enjoys writing about himself in the third person.
Ben Parker – Producer
Why Ben decided to produce this play, nobody will know. The director’s horrid, the cast and crew are borish, and many of them have body odour problems. The fringe is overated. Oh and this website’s rubbish too.
Jo Reynolds- Planchet
Jo is a first year at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, currently reading Social and Political Sciences, but soon to change to the study of bizarre mating rituals, or Social Anthropology. Her acting career has spanned almost a decade, comprising of a variety of small to medium roles in such acclaimed school productions as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. On leaving school, she planned to leave her thespian past in Stockport, but public demand, or at least the enthusiasm of the Light Entertainment Society, coaxed her back onto the boards and briefly, into the director’s chair. Being offered the part of Planchet has eased her fears of forever being typecast as a witch – she can’t wait!
Penny Sarginson – Queen Anne
At school Penny harboured an ambition to write comedy plays in Latin. However, having realised that career prospects in this field were limited, the next best thing seemed to be to go to Cambridge, study Classics and join CULES. Six years later she finds herself doing a PhD in Latin linguistics and occasionally dabbling in things lightly entertaining. The only other time she has been cast as a girl, rather than boy or animal, she played a princess. She likes to think of this role as a promotion.
Daniel Scott – Rochefort
Daniel has just finished his first year studying Maths at Cambridge and, incidentally also his first year of a long and successful acting career (that’s what he tells himself anyway). He took part in various comical, fun and pretty strange shows with CULES and was somehow made to believe taking his talents (they’re around somewhere, honest) to Edinburgh would be a good idea. When not on stage he is involved in a local church and is, as his friends would say, a ‘good christian lad’ (some of the time!) Other than this he can probably be found in the college bar with (hopefully) one or two friends, or ‘acquaintances’ as they’d rather be known.
Catherine Sumnall – Milady de Winter
Catherine is a first year student, reading Geography, and occasionally even some longer words too. She pursues soil particularly avidly – if only it didn’t keep running away… She is reputed to have a fine arm and great aptitude for hurling feather dusters, a skill which has earned her much merit, but not quite enough abject fear, within CULES. She also very much likes beards, preferably on men, although moose will suffice. Although she claims to hail from Stoke-on-Trent, unfortunately she can still be heard in Sidney Sussex college, Cambridge, where motions are being passed to force her to hail from even further away. On her home world, she is worshipped as a god…anyone with a suitable planet should contact her immediately.
Andrea Watts – Constance
Andrea plays a role which is unnatural to her real life – a beutiful flirtatious heroine. She thinks that the most difficult part of the production will be kissing a gentleman on stage: public shows of affection are not something that Andrea is wont to do. In her spare time, Andrea enjoys most bovine creatures.