Pip Utton

Pip Utton - The Man

 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. 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. It has been translated into four languages.

Only The Lonely has toured the UK, The Netherlands, Belgium and Eire.

Son of the Father toured the UK 2005 and The Netherlands 2006. It is being translated into three languages.

Edinburgh Fringe 2005 saw the premiere of Bacon, a piece about the great twentieth century painter Francis Bacon. Again Pip received great reviews and the play has gone on to win the ‘Best Play’ award at the 2006 Kiel International Monodrama Festival and an Argus Angel at the 2007 Brighton Festival. Bacon toured the UK, Ireland, Germany and The Netherlands, where it played for a week at the prestigious Gemeentemuseum in The Hague. A season in Berlin is planned for 2008 and a further tour of The Netherlands in 2009.

For the 2007 Fringe Pip performed ‘Adolf’ again and premiered his latest play Chaplin at the Pleasance Dome. It was a resounding success and is currently on tour in the UK. Next year will see a 37 venue tour of Chaplin in the Netherlands before transferring to Berlin. Chaplin has also been invited to represent Great Britain in the United Arab Emirates at the Fujairah International Monodrama Festival.

This year Pip has toured Adolf and Chaplin in a 37 venue tour of the Netherlands. And both were performed at the Prague Fringe. Chaplin has toured the UK and later this year will go to both Germany and Poland.

Resolution has been performed in Flemish in Belgium and Adolf performed in Estonian in Estonia.

Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2008saw the world premiere of Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of The Worlds. This is an exciting and challenging project using Jeff Wayne’s soundtrack and the original unabridged script. It is 30 years this year that Jeff’s ‘War of the Worlds’ album was released. Not only is this the first one man performance of the work but the first time that the full original script has been performed live.

Pip is still writing his play about a mid-life crisis - not his own!

2008/2009 will see a new production of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, another major tour of the Netherlands, a possible Adolf run in Toronto, more UK touring of all Pip’s plays and hopefully the premiere of at least one new work.

Pip is a Fifth term director of the Edinburgh Fringe Society Board, an Affiliated Artist at the Merlin Theatre Frome, Associate Artist of Take Art Somerset, and Artistic Director of his own touring company.

AND he still needs an agent!!!!!

[ Home ] [ The Man ] [ Theatre Company ] [ The Plays ] [ Performance Diary ] [ Edinburgh Fringe ] [ Promotional Material ] [ Contact Me ]

Copyright © 2004 to 2010 Pip Utton Theatre Company