A Matter of Law was the first play that TJ&M created, it was written by Michael Harris, as his first-ever play, and was awarded the best new piece award at Brum Fest 2019.
The first version was just under an hour-long, and so this limited the number of witnesses we could use in the production.
To this day we still get asked
"Did she do it?"
The answer is always,
'You decided".
The 2022 version of A Matter of Law was bigger and better than ever before. New witnesses came forward, giving the audience (Jury) more to take on board, making that decision all that much harder.
Did she do it? Only you can decide.
We had two Guilty and two Not Guilty verdicts.
This award-winning show takes you the audience and throws you into the courtroom as the Jury in this challenging trial. Trever Frankield has injuries that can’t simply be explained as accidental, but how did these injuries happen? The prosecution will argue that Edwina Frankield his wife has inflicted them and that she has systematically abused this poor defenceless man. However, the defence claims that Mr Frankield has serious mental health issues and that he is himself abusive to Edwina, she's just trying to be a supportive long-suffering wife. You will get to hear the case for the Prosecution and the Defence, see witness testimony, and then at the end of this gritting piece of theatre – you the audience must decide if Edwina Frankield is Guilty or Not Guilty of the charges laid against her.
Frances is a vocalist, actor, voice actor, and audio producer. Film and stage credits include Dorothy Frye in Start Square Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet Francesca Rose in Faith She has just published her production of The Chavman Chronicles written by Db Morgan available on Audible and is soon to release a new album with Project Sparrow. You can access her back catalog of music with Tracing Arcs on Spotify, iTunes, and Amazon and as Shelly Bass in 2022 release of urbane vengeance thriller MorrisMen.
She is delighted to be taking on the role of Edwina, and can't wait to see this show on stage!
Tim is 61 and has been appearing on stage for 22nd years in a variety of plays and musicals with Rickmansworth Players, most notably, Henry Saunders in Lend Me a Tenor, 2013, Horace Vandergelder in Hello Dolly in 2016, Grumpskin the dwarf in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, 2018 and more recently, Gloucester in King Lear Jo Emery Productions, and Stanley Baldwin in The Fort both 2021, he appears regularly as Del Boy Trotter and Uncle Albert in Comedy Dining's Only Fools and 3 Courses and also Manuel in Only Fools at Fawlty immersive Theatre shows.
Tim is really looking forward to playing Trevor and bringing awareness of the subject matter to a wider audience.
Alexandria is a music program producer for B:Music and active broadcaster with shows across the BBC, Brum Radio & New Style Radio. She's an avid champion of emerging artists from in and around the West Midlands and uses her live music platform Amplify Sounds to promote exciting new talent.
She is delighted to be back in the robes as Susan Smithers having played her in the Online Version.
"I will prove that she is guilty!"
William's various television parts have included most recently in 2021 playing ‘Davy Fellowes’ as a guest lead in an episode of the daytime series ‘Doctors’ for the BBC directed by Peter Fearon and the part of ‘Sidney’ in a new series ‘Funny Girl’ to be seen this year with Gemma Arterton director Oliver Parker. Starting out he played ‘Phil’ a Birmingham football hooligan alongside Gary Oldman in ‘The Firm’.
Repertory Theatre seasons have included playing ‘Clarence’ in ‘Richard III’ at the Curve Theatre, Leicester with director Nikolai Foster, Previous theatre work has included ‘Charles Darnay’ in ‘A Tale of Two Cities at the Theatre Royal, Northampton, ’Antonio’ in ’Twelfth Night’ at the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham, ‘Eddie’ in ‘Blood Brothers’ at Aberystwyth alongside rep seasons at Crewe, Eastbourne, and Malvern. National tours and West End Productions of ‘A Coat of Varnish’ and ‘Beethoven’s Tenth’ for Triumph Apollo productions..
Bill has played ‘Scrooge’ in a touring production of ‘A Christmas Carol’ previously he was ‘Magwitch’ in ‘Great Expectations’ for Tread the Boards Theatre in Stratford Upon Avon following on from his ‘Doolittle’ in ‘Pygmalion’ which he will be reprising this summer. He was heard on BBC Radio in ‘The Ambridge Chronicles’ an Archers Special.
Favorite parts have been ‘Eddie’ in Joe Orton’s ‘Entertaining Mr. Sloane’ and ‘Chief Inspector Hubbard’ in ‘Dial M for Murder’ both at The Blue Orange Theatre in Birmingham.
Michael is one of the founding members of TwoJens&Me and is also the writer of this piece of theatre. He has written 4 Novels, and three plays and is very excited to be a part of A Matter of Law 2022. He has moved from the prosecution counsel (which he played in both the stage and online versions) to the role of Judge this time.
His other credits are The Other Side (Frank Bramwell, Theatre Birmingham), An Audience with Sir John Falstaff (Frank Bramwell), which toured in 2018. He has also been involved in various local film shoots but is most comfortable on the stage. He wrote and directed For Those We Leave Behind which was staged in the 2021 Birmingham Festival.
"This is a powerful play that tackles a very important subject, that often gets overlooked, we are delighted to shine the theatre light on this subject".
2022 is a busy year for Michael as he is also Directing 'Four to Jump' which will be in the 2022 Birmingham Festival.
Lee found their love for performing arts at a young age taking part in their very 1st musical ‘Grease’ with Stageworkz Theater company.
After 8 years of musicals & showcases, Lee decided to make this a career, so whilst studying performing arts at school & college, began training at the Pauline Quirke Academy of performing arts, and now teaches there as a film & television assistant.
Over the last few years, Lee has had many incredible experiences such as; acting in 2 consecutive 4 & 5 star plays at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, taking a lead role in a West End musical, singing with various bands & singers & completing my RADA Shakespeare awards. As well as being an aspiring actor / musical Theater performer, Lee has also got a profound passion for songwriting & rock music & hopes to pursue this by producing & releasing music in the near future.
AMOL will be my 1st show with TwoJens&Me & Lee is really excited to be taking on this moving, new project.
"This will be a real challenge taking on four different roles in the same show, but I am looking forward to the challenge!"
Ian has returned to his original love of acting, 5 years after pursuing his interest in music.
He has acted in a wide variety of stage plays for Masque theatre. More recently he joined the Actor’s Company at the Royal & Derngate theatre based in Northampton and is currently working on “Caucasian Chalk Circle” by Brecht. He has also been a support artist in film and TV productions including Benediction, Fortune Cookies and Grantchester. He is very much looking forward to taking part in TJ&M’s production of A Matter of Law.
Nathan has worked as a technician on a number of plays at the Blue Orange Theatre. He is Calm under pressure and is a safe pair of hands.
Phil took part in the play For Those we Leave Behind, and helped in some of the set work for that show - and agreed to take on the building of the set for A Matter of Law and I think you will agree he has done a wonderful job.
Thank you to Mark and the team at BlueOrange Arts for lending us their lighting desk and lights, and also to JW Theatres and the Blue Orange Theatre for allowing us to use the space and again lending us some of your equipment.
We are also grateful to the charity Breaking the Silence for being here to run the workshop on Friday and to inspire us to share the story of domestic abuse and help people to see that it happens to men and women and that we can all make a difference.
Some startling facts about domestic abuse.
Sometimes lies are better than facing the truth.
A Matter of Law - Promo
A Matter of Law CAST 2022
Just who is Edwina Frankield? Is she a vicious abuser as the Prosectuiton states, or a victim of living with a man whose mental health needs professional care? You Decide!
Just who is Trevor Frankield? Victim or is he actually suffering from mental health issues, is he the abuser?
Just who is Susan Smithers?
Just who is Percival Dempsey?
Frances who plays Edwina Frankield in this play.
Tim who plays Trevor Frankield
Alexandria Carr who plays Susan Smithers
William who plays Percival Dempsey in this play.
Michael who plays the Judge, and also wrote this piece and is the director.
Lee who plays four roles in this play.
Ian Who plays three roles in this play.
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