CAST AND CREATIVE TEAM ANNOUNCED FOR THE WORLD PREMIERE OF
CATHERINE DYSON’S THE LAST PICTURE
York Theatre Royal, English Touring Theatre (ETT) and An Tobar and Mull Theatre today announce the full creative team and cast for The Last Picture. This brand-new play by Catherine Dyson provides a thought-provoking exploration of empathy, imagination, and collective memory from the perspective of an emotional support dog, Sam.
Directed by John R. Wilkinson, the play will see actor and storyteller Robin Simpson take on the role of Sam as he takes a group of school children on a trip around an exhibit focusing on Europe in 1939. York Theatre Royal audiences will be familiar with Robin from recent appearances as their beloved pantomime Dame. His recent theatre credits include Footloose, Beautiful: The Carol King Musical, Sense & Sensibility (Pitlochry Festival Theatre), Gaslight and Men of the World (Devonshire Park Theatre), Guy Fawkes (York Theatre Royal) and Abigail’s Party (Harrogate Theatre).
The creative team is completed by Natasha Jenkins (Designer); Benny Goodman (Lighting Designer); Max Pappenheim (Sound Designer); and Alexia Kalogiannidis (Movement Director).
Opening at York Theatre Royal on 6 February 2026, with a preview on the 5 February, the play will run in York until 14 February 2026, before touring with ETT to HOME Manchester, Bristol Old Vic and Yvonne Arnaud Theatre. The play was one of the winning scripts selected by the RSC for their 37 Plays competition in 2023.
Robin Simpson said: “I am delighted to be back at York Theatre Royal, this time in the Studio theatre and in a very different kind of production. When I first read Catherine’s extraordinary script I was blown away by how moving and thoughtful it was. The character of Sam is so unique and I am really looking forward to the challenge of the role and going out on tour to venues across the country.”
Catherine Dyson said, “It’s so wonderful to work with John and the creative team on the play and to be putting it in front of an audience with the very talented Robin Simpson as our Sam. Seeing your work turned into reality on stage is such a joy and I can’t wait for audiences to experience the show.”
Director John R. Wilkinson: “The Last Picture will offer audiences a profoundly human and immersive journey and we have an incredible team on board to bring the play to life. Robin has a wonderful versatility as a performer – York audiences already know and love him as our warm and funny panto dame – and I am so excited to see what he does with the role of Sam. So much of the show relies on the audience’s imagination and how Sam gets us to experience that together and Robin for me, is the perfect actor to take us on that journey. I can’t wait for rehearsals to start!”
York Theatre Royal, ETT and An Tobar and Mull Theatre present
THE LAST PICTURE
By Catherine Dyson
Director: John R. Wilkinson
5 February – 14 February 2026
Imagine yourself in a theatre in 2026. Now picture yourself as a Year 9 student on a school trip. And then as a citizen of Europe in 1939 as history takes its darkest turn.
While you imagine, Sam will be by your side. Sam is an emotional support dog. Sam is here to look after you. Sam will keep everyone safe.
This play is about empathy – its power, its limits, and what it asks of us. It’s about our shared past, our present, and the choices we face today.
Catherine Dyson is a writer and performer. Her writing credits include The Luminous, On Track, Thunder Road (UK tours), Peter Pan (Sherman Theatre), Bitcoin Boi (Riverfront Theatre), Believers (South Street Arts Centre), and Transporter (Theatr Iolo, UK and Kolkata tour – also produced in Austria); and for audio, The Egg Man (BBC Radio 4) and Mansfield Park (eight-part adaptation for Audible). She is an Associate Artist with RedCape Theatre, Theatr Iolo and Paptertrail, currently on attachment at the National Theatre, and a member of the 2025 Orange Tree Theatre Writers Collective.
John R. Wilkinson is a multi-award-winning director with Cerebral Palsy. Wilkinson reunites with ETT following his direction of Tonderai Munyevu’s Mugabe, My Dad and Me, which won Best New Play at the UK Theatre Awards. He was named the 2024 Clore Fellow and is the tenth recipient of the Genesis Future Director Award at the Young Vic. Wilkinson is an Associate Director at York Theatre Royal, and a Trustee of Middle Child, the Stephen Joseph Theatre, and Pilot Theatre.
Robin Simpson plays Sam. His theatre credits include Footloose, Beautiful: The Carol King Musical, Sense & Sensibility (Pitlochry Festival Theatre), Gaslight and Men of the World (Devonshire Park Theatre), Guy Fawkes (York Theatre Royal), Abigail’s Party (Harrogate Theatre), Classic (Edinburgh Fringe & Hope Mill Theatre/Her productions), Macbeth/ Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre), Dirty Laundry (Claybody Theatre), Almost a Sacred Duty, Anna of the Five Towns, Beryl, A Voyage Round my Father and Laurel and Hardy (New Vic), Chamaco (HOME), Neverland (Lakeside Arts), Boeing Boeing,Bedroom Farce, David Copperfield, The Hound of the Baskervilles; The Road to Nab End and Travels with my Aunt (Oldham Coliseum), The Travelling Pantomime, The Wind in the Willows, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Seagull, Hansel and Gretel, The Railway Children; Pinocchio, Pygmalion and The Little Mermaid (York Theatre Royal), Inside Out of Mind (Meeting Ground Theatre Co.), Grandpa in my Pocket (Nottingham Playhouse), Lost Boy Racer (Lawrence Batley Theatre), We Love You City! (Coventry Belgrade), Me, as a Penguin, It’s a Lovely Day Tomorrow, Flat Stanley (West Yorkshire Playhouse), A Passionate Woman (Chester Gateway and The Theatre by the Lake), Frankie and Tommy, The Rivals, Red Skies over the Severn, The Century Plays (The Swan Theatre).
Robin has played the Dame in York Theatre Royal’s pantomimes since 2020 and is due to appear in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 2026/27. His television credits include: The Continental (from the world of John Wick), Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Doctors, Holby City, Waterloo Road,Liverpool 1, Home Fires, and See No Evil – The Moors Murders.
Natasha Jenkins is the Designer. Her theatre credits include: Prendre Soin (Théâtre National de Strasbourg) Expendable (Royal Court Theatre. Winner Best Stage production Asian Media Awards 2025) An Enemy of the People (Duke of York’s Theatre. Costume Designer); LOVE (National Theatre/Park Avenue Armory/Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe/Wiener Festwochen. Nominated for Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Scenic Design); Danton Reloaded (Thalia Theater Hamburg. Costume Design); The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Theatre By The Lake); The Process, Professor Bernhardi (Theatre Freiburg. Costume Design); Scissors (Sheffield Theatres); Une mort dans la famille (Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe); Faith, Hope and Charity (National Theatre/Wiener Festwochen/European Tour); Eine Griechische Trilogie (Berliner Ensemble. Costume Design); Beyond Caring (National Theatre/The Yard/Schaubühne/European Tour); Uncle Vanya (HOME Manchester. Costume Design); The High Table (Bush Theatre); In Basildon (Queens Theatre Hornchurch); Richard III (Perth Theatre); Clockwork Canaries (Drum Theatre Plymouth); Stand By (Utter. Fringe First Winner); The Whip Hand (National Theatre of Scotland/Traverse Theatre/Birmingham Rep); Monstrous Bodies (Dundee Rep); 20b (Birmingham Rep/European Tour); Damned Rebel Bitches (Poorboy Scottish Tour); Jane Eyre (Guildhall) Disney’s Freaky Friday (Arts Ed); Romeo and Juliet (RADA); Let The Right One In (LAMDA)
TV and Film Design credits include: LOVE (BBC1/Cuba Productions); 7 Keys (Jeva Films SXSW ’24); award winning short films including BARE and Thursdays ( BFI Network dir. Lorna Tucker), A Sharp Arrow (Sundance ’23, dir. Sandy Thompson), The Everlasting Club and Ma’am (Bumble Female Film Force Winner 2019, dir. Joy Wilkinson), Myrtle and Annekas Problems (dir. Patricia McCormack), Loose Ends (dir. Natalie Burt), Forgiveness (dir. Conor O’Callaghan), Here We Are (dir. Pamela Carter). Music Video Design includes: Anywhere But Here (Rag’n’Bone Man & P!nk).
Benny Goodman is the Lighting Designer. Benny Goodman is a freelance lighting designer based in Glasgow and London. He has worked in theatres across the UK and Europe in a variety of projects and productions, and is a creative collaborator with theatre company, Wonder Fools.
Theatre credits include: Close (The Citizens Theatre Glasgow); The Mountain Top (The Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh); Gods Of Salford (Not Too Tame/Lowry Theatre); Treasure Island (Scottish Theatre Producers); Twelfth Night (Shakespeare North); Aganeeza Scrooge (Tron Theatre); Beauty & The Beast, Cinderella and Snow White (Bard In The Botanics/Byre Theatre); When Prophecy Fails (Groupwork); Four Walls (Derby Theatre); La Performance (Tron Theatre/Paris IVT); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Orange Tree Theatre); Hamlet (Saint Stephen’s Theatre); Hang (Tron Theatre); Sense Of Centre (Dance Base Edinburgh); Julius Caesar (Company Of Wolves Scottish Tour); Palace Of Varieties (Derby Theatre); Learning From The Future (OGR Torino); The Tempest (Tron Theatre); Meet Jan Black (Ayr Gaiety); Maim (Tron Theatre); I Can Go Anywhere (Traverse Theatre); The Drift (National Theatre of Scotland); The Afflicted (Summerhall); Country Music (Omnibus Theatre); 549: Scots of the Spanish Civil War (UK Tour); The Mistress Contract (Tron Theatre); Daddy Drag (Assembly Roxy); Where We Are: The Mosque (Arcola Theatre, London); Sorella Mia (The Place, London); Disarming Reverberations (St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh); Heroines (Theatre Gu Leor, Stornoway); Humbug (Tramway, Glasgow); Snow Queen (Associate – Dundee Rep Theatre); Like Animals (Tron Theatre); Ayanfe Opera (Bridewell Theatre, London) Lampedusa (Citizens Theatre); Circle of Fifths (Tron Theatre/Cockpit Theatre London). For more on his work: bennygoodman.co
Max Pappenheim is the Sound Designer. Recent theatre credits include: Christmas Day (Almeida Theare); The Forsyte Saga (Royal Shakespeare Company/Park Theatre); Noughts and Crosses, Twelfth Night (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); A Raisin in the Sun (Headlong); The Night of the Iguana (Noel Coward Theatre); The School for Scandal, Crooked Dances (Royal Shakespeare Company); Cruise (Apollo Theatre/Duchess Theatre); Coram Boy, Macbeth (Chichester Festival Theatre); Shed: Exploded View (Royal Exchange); A Doll’s House Part 2, The Way of the World (Donmar Warehouse); The Cardinal, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Usagi Yojimbo, Johnny Got His Gun, Teddy (Southwark Playhouse); Personal Values, The Habits,The Invention of Love, King James, Nineteen Gardens, Blackout Songs, Linck and Mülhahn, Labyrinth (Hampstead Theatre); The Children (Manhattan Theatre Club/Royal Court); Village Idiot, One Night in Miami (Nottingham Playhouse); Henry V (Shakespeare’s Globe/Headlong); Hamlet (Bristol Old Vic); Ophelias Zimmer (Schaubühne/Royal Court); Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going To Happen, Old Bridge (Bush Theatre); The Homecoming, My Cousin Rachel (Theatre Royal Bath); Playhouse Creatures, Churchill in Moscow, Humble Boy, Blue/Heart, The Distance (Orange Tree Theatre); Single White Female, Picture You Dead, Art, The Syndicate, Murder in the Dark, The Mirror Crack’d, Wish You Were Dead, The Circle, Looking Good Dead (National Tours).
Opera and Ballet credits include: Kirsten Flagstad (Bergen International Festival); The Limit (Royal Ballet); The Marriage of Figaro (Salzburg Festival); Miranda (Opéra Comique, Paris); Hansel and Gretel (BYO/Opera Holland Park); Scraww (Trebah Gardens).
Online includes: The System, Barnes’ People, The Haunting of Alice Bowles (Original Theatre); 15 Heroines (Digital Theatre).
Max is an Associate Artist of Orange Tree Theatre, The Faction and Silent Opera.
Awards includeOff West End Award for Sound Design for Old Bridge.
Alexia Kalogiannidis is the Movement Director. Alexia Kalogiannidis is a movement artist who works across movement direction, choreography, movement research and performance. Her practice centres on physical storytelling, character embodiment, and close observation of human behaviour. She is interested in how detailed physicality and intentional movement shape the audience’s experience by influencing the often subconscious, visual information they interpret from the body on stage.
Alexia works collaboratively with directors and performers to explore how movement can reveal relationships, inner worlds, and unspoken tensions within a narrative. Drawing from a wide range of movement practices and embodied research, she develops physical languages that are responsive to text, atmosphere and the human dynamics at the heart of a production.
She trained at London Contemporary Dance School and then went on to completing a Masters at Northern School of Contemporary Dance. Since graduating, she has worked as a freelance movement artists across the UK and Europe, contributing to projects in film, theatre, photography, and visual art.
LISTINGS THE LAST PICTURE
York Theatre Royal
5 February – 14 February
Box Office: www.yorktheatreroyal.co.uk / 01904 623568
HOME, Manchester
18 – 21 February 2026
Box Office: www.homemcr.org / 0161 200 1500
Bristol Old Vic, Bristol
24 – 28 February 2026
Box Office:www.bristololdvic.org.uk / 0117 987 7877
Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford
5 – 7 March 2026
Box Office: www.yvonne-arnaud.co.uk / 01483 440000