Ashton, Fox, Harris Lead TACTICAL QUESTIONING At Tricycle Theatre

Today, 5 May 2011, Nicolas Kent announces full casting for the world premiere of the Tricycle Theatre production - Tactical Questioning: Scenes from the Baha Mousa Inquiry. The cast comprises Dean Ashton (Payne), Christopher Fox (Rodgers), Luke Harris (Cooper), David Michaels (Mercer), Alan Parnaby (Sir William Gage), Simon Rouse (Ingram), Mark Stobbart (Redfearn), Rick Warden (Major Peebles) and Thomas Wheatley (Elias).

Tactical Questioning: Scenes from the Baha Mousa Inquiry, edited by Richard Norton-Taylor, examines the British Army's handling of detainees in Iraq and the death of Baha Mousa in 2003, and will run at the Tricycle Theatre from 2 June until 2 July, with press night on 6 June 2011. Nicolas Kent directs, with assistant direction by Sophie Lifschutz. Designs are by Polly Sullivan, lighting by Charlie Hayday and sound and projections by Ed Borgnis.

On 14 September 2003, at the Haitham Hotel in Basra, Iraq, Baha Mousa and nine others were arrested by the British Army as suspected insurgents. Two days later Baha Mousa was dead. A post-mortem examination revealed that he had suffered from asphyxiation and had received at least 93 injuries to his body whilst in the Army's custody. In 2008 the Secretary of State for Defence announced a public inquiry into Baha Mousa's death and the treatment of those detained with him.

Tactical Questioning: Scenes from the Baha Mousa Inquiry brings together scenes from the Public Inquiry which examined the shocking events that took place over those two days of detention and the British Army's treatment of detainees. The Tricycle's production is staged following the oral hearings completed in October last year and before Sir William Gage publishes his final report and recommendations this summer.

Dean Ashton's stage credits include The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists for the Chichester Festival Theatre and Liverpool Everyman, an opera version of A Streetcar Named Desire at the Barbican and King Lear for the Royal Shakespeare Company Academy. His television credits include Coronation Street, The Bill, Collision and Doctors.

Christopher Fox has previously been onstage at the Tricycle in The Colour of Justice, which transferred to the West End and the National Theatre and was also filmed for the BBC. Further theatre credits include All My Sons, The Glass Menagerie, Hamlet and Look Back in Anger, all for Exeter Northcott. His television credits include the role of DS Matt Carter in The Bill between 2007 and 2010 as well as Ultimate Force, All the King's Men, Dangerfield, The Vice and Foyle's War.

Luke Harris' theatre credits include Forty Years On and It Shouldn't Happen to a Dog for the West Yorkshire Playhouse. His television credits include the forthcoming Channel 4/ Daybreak Pictures comedy Naked Apes as well as Eastenders, Doctors, The Life of Riley and Casualty and film credits are Incorporated, Highlight, Resonance and Caught in the Rye.

David Michaels has previously appeared at the Tricycle in The War Next Door, Called to Account and Justifying War. His other stage credits include The Constant Wife and Death and the Maiden for the Salisbury Playhouse, Herding Cats and Betrayal for the Theatre Royal, Bath, the latter also on tour, Three Sisters for the Birmingham Rep and The Changing Room for the Royal Court. His recent television credits include Doctors, The Bill, Missing, New Tricks and Spooks. Michaels is soon to be seen in the forthcoming feature film The White Hare. His previous film credits include Jump, Nowhere in Africa, Misterioso and Money for Nothing.

Alan Parnaby was last at the Tricycle in the Laurence Olivier award-winning Bloody Sunday: Scenes from the Saville Enquiry, also at The Abbey Theatre, Dublin. His other Tricycle credits are Four Knights in Knaresborough and Guantanamo ‘Honor Bound to Defend Freedom'. His further theatre credits include Factory Birds for the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Scraps for the Orange Tree, and Ten Times Table and King Lear for the Derby Playhouse. His extensive credits for the Royal Exchange Theatre include Dr Faustus and The Merchant of Venice. On television his credits include Justifying the War, directed by Nicolas Kent, Bringing Down the House, Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps and Doctors. His film credits are David, Dead Man's Folly, Clockwise, Steaming and To Catch a King.

Simon Rouse's extensive theatre credits include When We Are Married at the Garrick Theatre, The Changing Room at the Royal Court and Duke of York's, Sweet Bird of Youth at the Theatre Royal Haymarket and Tis Pity She's A Whore, Lorenzaccio, Coriolanus, Anthony and Cleopatra and Titus Andronicus all for the Royal Shakespeare Company. His work on television includes The Bill, Minder, Casualty and Coronation Street and his film credits are Pop Pirates, Parker and The Ragman's Daughter.

Mark Stobbart's theatre credits include Up on the Roof for the Chichester Festival Theatre, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for the Royal Shakespeare Company and War and Peace and Let Him Have Justice for the National Theatre Studio. His television work includes The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Little Britain and Auf Wiedersehen Pet and film credits are The Tournament, Life, Bad Timing and The Reunion.

Rick Warden was in The Great Game: Afghanistan at the Tricycle Theatre in 2009 and 2010 as well as the USA tour. His other theatre credits include Stoning Mary and Sweetheart for the Royal Court and Dealer's Choice for the National Theatre. His recent television credits include Holby City, Apparitions, Primeval, Rome, Rome II and Hustle II. On film his credits include Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist and Bride and Prejudice.

Thomas Wheatley has appeared in the Tricycle's tribunal plays Called to Account, Bloody Sunday: Scenes from the Saville Enquiry, also at The Abbey Theatre, Dublin, Justifying War, Srebrenica, Nuremberg and Half the Picture. His other theatre credits include Oliver Twist for the Lyric Hammersmith, Celebration at the Lincoln Center, New York and The Novice and The Master & Margarita for The Almeida Theatre. His television credits include The Murder Room, Auf Wiedersehen Pet and Fields of Gold and Foyle's War. His film credits are Death at a Funeral, Where Angels Fear to Tread, The Living Daylights and Mr Jolly Lives Next Door.

Nicolas Kent, Artistic Director of the Tricycle Theatre, has most recently directed Greta Garbo Came to Donegal and the critically acclaimed trilogy The Great Game: Afghanistan. The Great Game premiered at the Tricycle in 2009 and returned in 2010 for a limited run before embarking on a US Tour. In February this year The Pentagon commissioned two performances of the trilogy which were performed in Washington DC. Other productions Kent has directed as Artistic Director of the Tricycle include The Great White Hope, which he also staged for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Trouble in Mind, Wine in the Wilderness, A Love Song for Ulster, Macbeth, 10 Rounds, the 20th anniversary production of Mustapha Matura's Playboy of the West Indies, Walk Hard-Talk Loud, How Long Is Never?, Darfur A Response and The War Next Door. He has directed all the Tricycle Tribunal Plays and the controversial Called To Account in which Tony Blair was put on trial for crimes of aggression against Iraq. His television directing credits include The Workshop, Pentecost, Sharing Time, Colour of Justice, Justifying War and Half the Picture. In 2006 Kent received an Evening Standard award for ‘pioneering political theatre' and last year received the Liberty Human Rights Arts award.

Richard Norton-Taylor joined The Guardian in 1975 as their Europe correspondent based in Brussels and since 1998 he has been Security Affairs Editor. He wrote Half The Picture with John McGrath, scenes from the Scott Inquiry which was presented at the Tricycle, the Houses of Parliament and on BBC2, and won a Freedom of Information Campaign Award and Time Out Drama Award. Since then he has edited most of the tribunal plays at the Tricycle including: Nuremberg, The Colour of Justice (Time Out Award), Justifying War, Bloody Sunday (winner of the 2006 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre) and Called To Account - all of which were later broadcast by the BBC.

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