Hatty
View her full CV and training below:
- 2020, Digital live stream, Henrietta, MILTON, Reykjavík Fringe Festival, Hatty Ashton
- 2020, Stage, Susanna Strickland, MOTHER COUNTRY, Norwich Arts Centre, Sonia Suzette Williams
- 2019, Stage, Baloo the bear & Banderloop the monkey, THE JUNGLE BOOK, Strange Fascination Theatre, Simon Micheal Morgan
- 2019, Comedy, Hat, FRIENDOLOGY, Bring Our Your Dead Productions, Greg Hanson
- 2019, Web Series, Amanda, SEX, LATTES AND HIDEOUS DATES, D.O.E. Ltd, Sean Lerwill
- 2018, Documentary, Witch, WITCHES OF WEST SUFFOLK DOCUMENTARY, Bring Out Your Dead Productions, Greg Hanson
- 2018, Pantomime, Understudying Fairy, Evil Fairy and Princess, SLEEPING BEAUTY, Theatre Royale Bury St Edmunds, Karen Simpson
- 2018, Stage, Edith Flotman, Gatekeeper Puppet, Rebel, 1548 THE STORY OF KETT’S REBELLION, The Common Lot, Simon Floyd
- 2017, Pantomime, Understudied Fairy, Tommy the Cat, Dick Whittingto, DICK WHITTINGTON, Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds, Karen Simpson
- 2017, Stage, Rebecca West, Mary Phillips, Ghost Child Puppet, E, COVENANT, Bring Out Your Dead Productions, Greg Hanson & Lucy Farrant
- 2016, Stage, The Woman, RATS IN THE WALL’S AND OTHER TALES, Bring Out Your Dead Productions, Greg Hanson
- 2015, Stage, Ellie, THE SEVENTH TRAIN, Quirk House Productions, Jackie Carreira
- 2014, Corporate, Crazy Lady, BEER LAB, Green King, Christopher Longman
- 2013, Stage, Speed & Lucetta, THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, Bring Out Your Dead Productions, Greg Hanson
- 2012, Educational, Sally, THE LAND OVER THE PAGE, Upside-Out Productions, Mark Wheeler
- 2012, Stage, Margaret Kemp, STILL SMALL VOICE, The Hal Company, Danusia Iwaszko
- RADA, Foundation Course, 6 months
- Clown and Bouffon for 1 month at Ecole Philippe Gaulier
- Dark Clown weekend with Peta Lily
- Clown weekend with Mark Winstanley
- Motion capture intensive courses with Lyndall Grant and Captivate Action
Find Hatty on:
Mother Country
I was first invited to take part in a short R&D and script in hand performance of Mother Country by Mags (Chalcraft-Islam, writer) in 2018. I was so excited to have been asked to come along that even my fear of Norwich’s one way system was banished from my mind as I leapt at the opportunity! On the day I was introduced to a role I would end up becoming quite familiar with, that of Susanna Strickland.
I played opposite the marvellous Jo Martin (the RSC, Holby City and Doctor Who) as Mary Prince, who had been a part of the project from its very beginning. On getting home, I was straight to my computer, hunting down books, documentaries and anything else I could find on Mary Prince, Susanna Strickland and their worlds.
Several months later and we had received funding for further exploration of the revised script. This time Oyin Orija (Hilda and the Northern Powerhouse, Hull Truck Theatre, Spotlight) took on the role of Mary Prince, and Sonia Williams was flown over from Barbados to be our director. We had a short week of working on the piece, followed by a script in hand performance to an invited audience.
Then came another break as we awaited further funding, before finally being able to bring our work to the stage! After 8 days preparing for the off-book, scratch performance at the Norwich Arts Centre, in front of the public and key funders, we hoped ‘Mother Country’ would get the run it deserved … and it did!
We were all chomping at the bit, lined up for a full run at the Edinburgh Fringe, as well as Latitude Festival, amongst a string of other performances across the UK when, as we all know, COVID-19 reared its ugly head. For now, this incredible piece is on simmer ready for its hopeful 2021 debut.
Sell-out scratch performance of new play, Mother Country
“Mother Country, a new play by award-winning writer, Mags Chalcraft-Islam and acclaimed director, Sonia Williams was debuted to an appreciative full house at NAC last night.
The ‘scratch’ performance on Wednesday 29 January was the first time it was seen by an audience.”
“Outstanding + hugely powerful play and performance.”
“It was A-maz-ing !!!” – Twitter comments
The show was born from a collaboration between the descents of the enslaved and slave holders. Mags Chalcraft-Islam’s ancestors owned plantations in the West Indies; Sonia Williams is from Barbados.
Together they re-imagined the encounter between Britain’s first black female writer, Mary Prince, and her own collaborator, the abolitionist Susanna Strickland.
Norwich Arts Centre is proud to support this show:
“Congratulations to everyone involved!”
‘Mother Country’ written by Mags Chalcraft-Islam & Directed by Sonia Williams.
‘Mother Country’ Dress rehearsals Oyin Orija and Hatty Ashton, Photograph by Kelly Robb
‘Mother Country’ rehearsals Oyin Orija and Hatty Ashton, Photograph by Richard Howes
Milton
It was so uplifting when I got a message from my friend Andrew Sim, comedian and bouffon, about creating a little something to be streamed as part of the Reykjavik Fringe festival. Rather than sitting in the darkness and wallowing at the closed curtains of the arts, he challenged me to explore and harness it! I did and so the “Milton” short story was born. I watched the stream live, which happened to be my birthday. It was brilliant seeing all the acts and what they had to offer. So thank you to Andrew/Linda and Reykjavik Fringe so, so much. Let’s do it again!
Still from ‘Milton’, Hatty as Henrietta
Hatty as Henri Ate Her
Friendology
‘Friendology’ (2019) was a passion project for Greg Hanson (Co-Artistic Director, BOYD) and myself; a comic two-hander performed as part of the Bury St Edmunds Fringe Festival. Borne out of the trials and tribulations involved with working together and creating our earlier project ‘Covenant’, as well as a sometimes turbulent best-friendship, this included an array of creative mediums such as clown, poetry and a toilet brush. We loved it, and the audiences loved it as we made them cringe their way through our little adventure. We will definitely be revisiting these wonderfully rocky shores again.
Greg Hanson and Hatty Ashton in ‘Friendology’ rehearsals. Photographed by Krysten Newby
‘Friendology’ poster with my Bring Out Your Dead Productions co-founder Greg Hanson. A raucously well received comedy about friendship through the ages and sexism.
Jungle Book
An outdoor touring production of the classic tale by Rudyard Kipling and reimagined by Strange Fascination Theatre. It was utterly exhausting and wonderful fun performing in some beautiful places around the Norfolk and Suffolk countryside.
Hatty Ashton as Baloo the the bear in ‘Jungle Book’
Amy Lunn as Banderleep the monkey (on top) Hatty Ashton as Banderloop the monkey, in rehearsals for Stage Fascination Theatre’s ‘Jungle Book’
The Witches of Suffolk
In 2017, BOYD partnered with Moyse’s Hall Museum to lead the Heritage Lottery Funded Witches of West Suffolk Project, exploring the horrific story of the East Anglian Witch Trials. The project included community research groups, school workshops, a guided history walk around Bury St Edmunds, and a documentary made in collaboration with West Suffolk College media students, all with the guidance of professor Malcolm Gaskill, the leading authority on the subject.
As the centrepiece, we adapted the story into an original folk musical, Covenant, which was staged at the museum. This sold out its entire run and was enthusiastically received by audiences and critics. As well as being a part of the production and writing of ‘Covenant’, I played the role of Rebecca West; a young woman who we know gave evidence against her mother. She was subsequently hanged as a witch during the 1645-47 hunt, led by Mathew Hopkins, the self-appointed Witch Finder General.
‘Witches of West Suffolk’ Logo by Kristen Newby
Cover photo created by Kristen Newby
On the set of the ‘Witches of West Suffolk’ documentary.
Hatty as Rebecca West under the noose.
Hatty Ashton as Rebecca West in ‘Covenant’ by Bring Out Your Dead Productions. Photo by Andy Abbott.
Research community group recruitment poster by graphic designer & artist Krysten Newby
Jack Westgate as Mathew Hopkins and Hatty Ashton as Rebecca West in ‘Covenant’. Photo by Andy Abbott.
Panto Time!
Hatty has understudied all the female roles (and Tommy the cat) in the Bury St Edmunds Theatre Royal pantomime on multiple occasions. She was thrilled to make it on stage in their 2017/18 production of ‘Dick Whittington’ as Alice Fitzwarren and Tommy the cat.
“I love Panto and all the traditions that come along with it, it is such a part of theatre history and the buzz it gives the audience is worth all the blood, sweat and slosh!” – Hatty Ashton.
Hatty as Alice Fitzwarren in the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds production of ‘Dick Whittington’. Photo by Tony Kelly
Hatty Ashton as Alice Fitzwarren and Tommy the cat in the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds production of ‘Dick Whittington’.
Production photo by Tony Kelly.
Production photo by Tony Kelly.
The Story of Kett's Rebellion
1549! ‘The Story of Kett’s Rebellion’ was such a treat to be a part of, learning the fascinating and heartbreaking true story of the Norfolk revolt led by Robert Kett.
The 1540s saw a crisis in agriculture in England. With the majority of the population depending on the land, this led to outbreaks of unrest across the country. Kett’s rebellion in Norfolk was the most serious of these. The main grievance of the rioters was enclosure, the fencing of common land by landlords for their own use. Enclosure left peasants with nowhere to graze their animals. Some landowners were forcing tenants off their farms so that they could engross their holdings and convert arable land into pasture for sheep, which had become more profitable as demand for wool increased.[1] Inflation, unemployment, rising rents and declining wages added to the hardships faced by the common people.[2] As the historian Mark Cornwall put it, they “could scarcely doubt that the state had been taken over by a breed of men whose policy was to rob the poor for the benefit of the rich”.[3] – Wikipedia
Hatty as Edith Flotman in ‘1549! The Story of ‘Kett’s Rebellion’
