After several years in amateur dramatics, Pip turned professional in 1996. He has since played a wide variety of roles, including Salieri in Amadeus by Peter Shaffer, Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night, Edmund Kean in Flashes of Lightning and Falstaff in Henry IV Part I, for which he won the Bristol Evening Post, Best Actor award. Other recent work includes Septimus Harding in The Barchester Chronicles with Wessex Actors Company, the title role in Macbeth and Henry in Lion in Winter (winning Best Actor in South West) for The Merlin Theatre in Frome. Pip recently played Hitler in the BBC’s Days that shook the world.
Pip first became well known for his portrayal of Tony Hancock in Hancock's Last Half-Hour by Heathcote Williams which became a 'fringe cult' at the Edinburgh festival over four seasons. Hancock also played for a month at the Polish National Ballet Theatre in Warsaw and has toured all over the UK.
In 1997 Pip wrote Adolf and it
premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Southside Laboratory (cap 24) and
won widespread critical acclaim including Spirit Of The Fringe Award. It
returned to Edinburgh in 1998 at Roman Eagle Lodge, and repeated its success
selling out two shows a day and winning a nomination for The Stage Awards, Best
Actor. Also in 1998, Pip premiered his own adaptation of Louis de Berniere's
Labels at Southside and played Elsie in Elsi and Norm’s Macbeth at
the Roman Eagle Lodge.
In 1999, Adolf was redirected by Guy Masterson returned to Edinburgh for a third
season, this time to the prestigious Assembly Rooms Edinburgh Suite as part of
the British Council International Showcase. Simultaneously, under his own
banner, he also presented three new works; In The Line Of Duty at
Komedia, Southside, and Don’t Touch Me There and Don Quixote of Netley
Abbey at the Café Royal. He also performed Hancock’s Last Half Hour at the Café Royal. At this festival Pip performed four shows a day –
never again!
Edinburgh 2000 saw Adolf return to the Assembly Rooms Music Hall (cap
650).
In 2001, Pip again collaborated with Guy Masterson on Resolution which
was nominated for a Scotsman Fringe First Award and The Stage Best Actor Award.
Resolution has since toured the UK and on a major tour of Holland.
In 2003 Pip premiered a new solo show Only the Lonely. At Roman Eagle
Lodge to rave reviews ‘Stunning… Utton has struck gold again’ -
The Guardian. This is a very different style from Pip’s previous shows - he
sings and tries to be funny!
In 2004 Pip returned to serious work with Son of the Father a
two-hander that premiered in Edinburgh at The Pleasance Courtyard, again to
great reviews.
Between the Edinburgh festivals of 1999
and 2004, Pip’s work has toured widely.
Adolf has played in Hong Kong, where it was the
highest grossing show of the 1999 City Festival, The Netherlands, Belgium,
Australia, New Zealand, Estonia, Eire, Norway, Finland; a main city tour of
India and three seasons in Berlin as well as continuous domestic touring. So far
in 2005 it is scheduled for a season in Singapore (March) and for a tour of The
Netherlands (April/May). It has been translated into four different languages.
Resolution
played major tours of The Netherlands, Belgium, and Eire as
well as touring widely in UK, and is planned for a season in Berlin 2005. It has
been translated into four languages and a tour in Flemish is planned 2005/6.
Only The Lonely has toured the UK, The
Netherlands, Belgium and Eire.
Son of the Father is to tour the UK 2005 and The
Netherlands 2006. It is being translated into three languages.
Currently Pip is working on a new piece about the great twentieth century
painter Francis Bacon.
Pip is a Fourth-term director of the Edinburgh Fringe Board, Artistic Director of the Wessex Actors Company, Playwright in residence at the Merlin Theatre Frome, and Artistic Director of his own touring company.
Although he would very much like one, Pip has neither an acting nor literary agent at present!