Additional Information
Tom Mothersdale
Since graduating from Drama School, Tom has been working constantly across stage and screen. Tom is soon to appear in his first feature film Black Noise, directed by Simon Blake.
In television, he has most recently been seen in Channel 4’s Brian & Maggie, and Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light. He’s also recently featured in Marco Kreuzpaintner’s Netflix series Bodies, J Blakeson’s series Culprits for Disney+, Amazon’s Alex Rider and War of the Worlds S2 for Fox. Other television credits include Chris Murray’s series Van der Valk, his recurring role in USA Network’s Treadstone as well as Sky’s second series of A Discovery of Witches. Tom also features in Hanna, Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams – The Hood Maker and King Charles III and Bad Robot’s cult film Overlord produced by J J Abrams and directed by Julius Avery.
In theatre, Tom most recently starred in the critically acclaimed adaptation of Measure for Measure at the RSC. Prior to this, he featured in PJ Harvey musical London Tide at the National Theatre, and Love and Other Acts of Violence at the Donmar. He led Simon Stephens’ Blue Water and Cold and Fresh, part of the Out West triple bill of new plays at the Lyric Hammersmith. This was Tom’s third time working with Simon, having previously collaborated with him on A Thousand Stars Explode in the Sky and The Cherry Orchard at The Young Vic directed by Katie Mitchell, for which he received an Ian Charleson award. Tom played Richard III for Headlong, and starred in Caryl Churchil’s plays, Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp. at The Royal Court. Other credits include The Woods at The Royal Court, Dealing With Clair written by Martin Crimp at the Orange Tree Theatre, Boys and The Glass Menagerie for Headlong, John at the National Theatre written by Annie Baker and directed by James Macdonald, Oil at the Almeida Theatre and Cleansed directed by Katie Mitchell at the National Theatre.
Tom was listed as one of the Top 5 young actors to watch in 2019 in The Sunday Times Culture Magazine.
Honor Swinton Byrne
Honor Swinton Byrne made her acclaimed debut as Julie in Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir and its sequel. She is currently filming War for Sky/HBO and stars as Princess Beatrice in Amazon’s A Very Royal Scandal. She recently wrapped David Mackenzie’s Fuze. Other credits include Drift opposite Cynthia Erivo and Netflix’s The Crown.
Shubham Saraf
On screen, Shubham is set to star in acclaimed Indian director Dibakar Banerjee’s English-language debut, an adaptation of Keith Gesson’s novel A Terrible Country. He’s recently wrapped the Apple TV+ show Star City, opposite Rhys Ifans and Anna Maxwell Martin, as well as a lead role on the feature film Cliffhanger starring opposite Lily James and Pierce Brosnan. He will soon be seen in Gurinder Chadha’s new feature Christmas Karma opposite Hugh Bonneville and Eva Longoria, and a lead role on a Luc Besson feature Hell In Paradise.
Shubham played one of the leads in Apple TV’s Shantaram (a 12-episode series based on the acclaimed book), starring opposite Charlie Hunnam. Other leading credits include the BBC series A Suitable Boy (directed by Oscar winner Mira Nair), Netflix’s Criminal, where he is a series regular, and the award-winning and record-breaking BBC/Netflix series Bodyguard.
On stage, Shubham starred opposite Matt Smith in Thomas Ostermeier’s An Enemy Of The People in the West End last year. In 2022 he played the lead role in The Father and the Assassin in the Olivier at the National Theatre to huge critical acclaim. Reviews have described him as giving a ‘hilarious, tragic, titanic tour de force performance’, and he was nominated for Best Actor at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards. In 2021 he was Benvolio, opposite Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley, in the production of Romeo and Juliet filmed at the National Theatre.
Marli Siu
Theatre includes: The Cherry Orchard (Donmar/St Ann’s Warehouse); The Ocean at the End of the Lane (National Theatre); Misalliance (Orange Tree); Little Red and the Wolf (Dundee Rep and Noisemaker); Much Ado About Nothing and The Witness for the Prosecution (Dundee Rep).
Television includes: Twenty Twenty Six; Everything I Know About Love; Alex Rider; The Irregulars; Grantchester and Still Game.
Film includes: Black Church Bay; Wicker; Apartment 7A; Our Ladies; Run and Anna and the Apocalypse.
Safe Passage
Dead Poets Live donate all the proceeds from our shows to Safe Passage, a charity which helps unaccompanied child refugees and vulnerable adults in Europe find safe, legal routes to the UK. Safe Passage’s legal team works with families living in the UK who are trying to reunite with relatives that are asylum seekers in Europe and on dangerous journeys. The aim is for refugees to avoid falling into the hands of smugglers or risk life-threatening routes to Britain.
Only half a per cent (0.54%) of the UK’s total population is made up of asylum seekers and refugees, and when accounting for population size, the UK ranks 19th overall in Europe for asylum applications received. Those that do come to the UK do so for various reasons – many make the journey to reach family and friends, because of cultural ties, or through no choice of their own, because of the actions of traffickers. Most of the Ukrainians we have supported at Safe Passage wanted to come to the UK because they saw Britain as a welcoming country that respected human rights. However, the vast majority of even the small number who attempt to reach the UK end up in Calais and Dunkirk with no access to safe routes. Between 2010 and 2020, only 6% of unaccompanied children who received asylum in the UK arrived via a safe route. Since the Government closed the two major safe routes for unaccompanied children, 83% fewer refugees have arrived via a safe route in the 12 months to June 2023 compared to the previous year.
Two years since Kabul fell to the Taliban, and the Government is still failing to honour its commitments to help Afghans reach safety. Through our legal work, we have observed first-hand that the current schemes are too slow and too restrictive. Many at-risk Afghans have no way to reach safety in the UK, and families who were separated in the evacuation still have no way to reunite with their children and loved ones. Without functioning safe routes, more and more eligible Afghans have been left with no choice but to risk dangerous journeys to reach safety in the UK. To the end of August this year 4,080 Afghans crossed the Channel, compared to just 69 Afghans crossing the Channel in the whole of 2019. Currently, around 1 in 5 of all people crossing the Channel are from Afghanistan. To urgently prevent further loss of life and to honour these commitments, the Government must act now to provide safe routes and offer welcome and compassion to Afghans in need of safety.
We’re the only organisation working with children at risk on the ground in both the country they find themselves in and the country they wish to reach. This, combined with our high quality casework, is unique and has proven particularly effective at cracking open legal routes.
Our field teams help identify and support child refugees who are eligible for transfer and ensure this happens quickly and safely. Where there are unexpected delays we reassure the child and make sure they remain out of the hands of smugglers.
Our team attend the arrivals of child refugees we’ve helped reunite with family, to make sure they have a welcoming face when they arrive in their new home and restart their life in the UK. We also have a volunteer Community Mentoring programme that helps refugees settle by helping them register with a GP, sign up for school or other specialist organisations that may assist them with specific problems.’
