Kay Adshead


Kay Adshead is a poet, playwright, theatremaker, actress and producer.

Early life and education

Adshead was born in Cheetham Hill, Manchester, moving to Stretford where she was educated at Stretford Girls’ Grammar. She was a child actress with the Stretford Children’s Theatre. She trained as an actress at RADA, where she won the Emile Littler award for outstanding talent and the Bryan Mosley award for individual skill in stage-fighting. She graduated in 1975.

Career

She has played leading roles in film and TV, including Cathy in the BBC classic series Wuthering Heights, Beryl Stapleton in Hound of The Baskervilles, Linda in Mike Leigh’s BBC TV film Kiss of Death, and Sue McKenna in the Film on Four Acceptable Levels.
Theatre performances include Moll Gromer in Thee and Me and Muriel in Harlequinade at the Royal National Theatre. She was Betty in Touched and sang the role of Clara Twain in White Suit Blues at The Old Vic, both directed by Sir Richard Eyre. She was Constanze in the nationwide tour of Amadeus with Keith Michell for Triumph Apollo Productions. She played Eve, Zoo, Savvy and Newly-Born in Cambridge Theatre Company’s production of Back To Methusalah culminating at the Shaw Theatre. She was Tanzi in Trafford Tanzi at the Mermaid Theatre, learning to wrestle for the role, and Liz in Juicy Bits in the main house at the Lyric Hammersmith.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Kay Adshead appeared in lead roles in fringe and experimental theatre productions and had several guest appearances in television programmes including The Bill, Dick Turpin, Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV, Over To Pam, an episode of Victoria Wood's sitcom dinnerladies, A Bit of Fry and Laurie, an early episode of One Foot in the Grave, Mother’s Ruin, and Family Affairs.
She has also played leading roles in regional and repertory companies, including playing Viola in Twelfth Night at Nottingham Playhouse, with Tim Piggott-Smith as Orsino and Anthony Sher as Malvolio. She was Sissy in People Are Living There with Margaret Tyzack at the Royal Exchange, Manchester, Diaphanta in The Changeling, and Avril in Semi-Detached at the Bristol Old Vic with Pete Postlethwaite. She was Judith in Herod at The Sheffield Crucible, Josie in Steaming at the Harrogate Theatre, singing the role of Mrs Johnson in Blood Brothers at The Swan Theatre, Worcester, and Gila in Not Quite Jerusalem at the Liverpool Playhouse.
Adshead has directed plays including On the Verge by Eric Overmyer at The Man in The Moon, The Possibilities by Howard Barker, Fen by Caryl Churchill and Entertaining Strangers by David Edgar, all at The Lyric Hammersmith Studio. She has written and directed Bones at The Bush, The Singing Stones at The Arcola and Acts of Defiance at Theatre503. She devised and directed The Enquiry and The London Summer and If Anyone Recognises These Young People, all at the Roundhouse studio.

Mama Quilla theatre company

In 1999, with Lucinda Gane, she cofounded theatre company Mama Quilla. Mama Quilla has produced The Bogus Woman at the Traverse and the Bush, Bites at the Bush Theatre and Bones at the Haymarket, Leicester, and the Bush. The Bogus Woman, Bites and Bones were also produced internationally and all have been published by Oberon Books.

Playwright credits

Her credits as a playwright include:The Still Born – 1983 – Soho TheatreThatcher's Women – 1987 Paines Plough / Tricycle Theatre – Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist 1987-88After the Party – 1987 – Altered States Theatre Company / Liverpool Playhouse / Young Vic Metal and Feathers – 1988 – Cockpit Theatre Ravings: Dreamings – 1993 – Library Theatre, ManchesterThe Slug Sabbatical – 1995 – The Red Room Theatre Company / Calouste Gulbenkian Award Bursary for performance poetryBacillus – 1996 – The Red Room Theatre Company following rehearsed readings at the Cockpit Theatre and the Hampstead TheatreJuicy Bits – 1998 – Main House, Lyric, HammersmithBogus People's Poem – 2000 – The Red Room Theatre Company / BACThe Bogus Woman – 2000–2001 – The Red Room Theatre Company and Mama Quilla Productions / Traverse Theatre / Bush Theatre : Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist 2001–02The Snow Egg – 2001 – Play for Children Tiebreak Theatre tourLady Chill, Lady Wad, Lady Lurv, Lady God – 2001–2002 – National Theatre, part of Shell ConnectionsAnimal – 2003 – Soho Theatre, National TourBites – 2005 – Mama Quilla Productions / Bush Theatre - Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist 2005-06Bones – 2006 – Bush TheatreBones – 2007 – Calypso Productions, Dublin, and La Compagnie Yorick, ParisOthers – 2008 – LAMDA Long ProjectStuffed – 2008 – Mama Quilla Productions / Broadway Theatre, Barking Five Crimes Reconstructed – 2009 – Mama Quilla Productions / Broadway Theatre, Barking Possessed – 2009 – Soho Theatre Three Police Statements Taken from Working Girls – 2010 – Mama Quilla Productions with English Collective of Prostitutes and City Lit To Dismember – 2010 – John Lyons Theatre Protozoa – 2010 – The Red Room Theatre Company / Jellyfish TheatreSweet Papaya Gold – 2010 – Mama Quilla Productions / Broadway Theatre, Barking Boys Talking – 2010 – Mama Quilla Productions / Broadway Theatre, Barking The Last Little Girl – 2011 – La Compagnie Yorick / Theatre Vitry at Cine Robespierre, ParisIf Anyone Recognises These Young People – 2011 – Mama Quilla Productions / Broadway Theatre, Barking Breaking – 2011 – John Lyons Theatre From the Streets of Revolution – 2012 – Roundhouse Matter – 2012 – Mama Quilla Productions / Broadway Theatre, Barking F.O.M.O. – 2013 – Mama Quilla Productions / Broadway Theatre, Barking I Am Sad You Are Dead Mrs. T. – 2013 – Theatre503 Happy Ending – 2013 – Natural Shocks, Edinburgh Festival Veil – 2014 – Mama Quilla Productions, small tour / The Alchemy Festival, South Bank The Singing Stones – 2015 – Mama Quilla Productions / the Arcola Primrose, Entering Incomplete Map Data Area, Three Lotus Flowers for Acts of Defiance – 2015 – Mama Quilla Productions / Theatre503

Awards