Acting rep:
Olivia Woodward at Curtis Brown
Voiceover agent:
Sue Terry Voices
Literary agent:
Ivan Mulcahy
“Dickie Beau is a uniquely charismatic performer” – Ian McKellen
“one of our great living artists” – WhatsOnStage
“he’s an astonishment” – The Guardian
A versatile actor and artist, Dickie Beau will soon be appearing as Peter in the upcoming television drama What it Feels Like For a Girl (BBC3), and also as Danny in Season 2 of The Gold (BBC1). Other film and TV credits include playing Michael in the BAFTA-nominated AIDS: The Unheard Tapes (BBC), The Shredder in The Sandman (Netflix), James I in The Windsors (Ch4), Kenny Everett in the film Bohemian Rhapsody, and mime artist Georges Wague in Colette.
In Theatre, Dickie has worked as an actor in diverse contexts, from classical Shakespeare to pantomime to experimental physical theatre, and has played leading roles on major stages, including London’s National Theatre, Hampstead Theatre, New York’s Public Theatre, and Salzburg Festival. Most recently, he played Oscar Wilde opposite Sir Simon Russell Beale as A.E. Housman in Tom Stoppard’s The Invention of Love at Hampstead Theatre.
Solo work
Dickie is also known for breathing new life into lip syncing through his distinctive playback performances, which have been widely acclaimed.
Described as “Theatre’s master of lip sync” by The Guardian, his solo work is considered unlike that of any other practitioner on the landscape of performance, with The Times distinguishing him as “peerless”, and WhatsOnStage calling him “one of our great living artists”.
Dickie’s solo live art/theatre shows have been presented at a number of festivals internationally, including Melbourne Festival, Perth Festival, Brighton Festival, Cork Midsummer Festival, Crossing the Line (New York), Progress (Toronto), City of Women Festival (Ljubljana), Outburst (Belfast), Push (Vancouver), Queer Notions (Dublin), Adelaide Cabaret Festival, Under the Radar (New York), and Fusebox (Austin, Texas). His work has also been presented at major UK venues including the Almeida Theatre, Southbank Centre, Barbican Theatre, Hampstead Theatre, Soho Theatre, and The Theatre Royal Bath.
¡SHOWMANISM!
(a transubstantial pageant)
Photo by Hugo Glendinning, graphic design by Christof Hetzer
In late 2022, Dickie united reviewers in praise of a new solo theatre piece called ¡Showmanism!, which was commissioned by Deborah Warner for the Ustinov Studio at the Theatre Royal, Bath, where Dickie had played Ariel to critical acclaim in Warner’s production of The Tempest earlier that year:
“Once in a while as a critic, you see a piece of work that completely stops you in your tracks and makes you sit slack-jawed at the extraordinary level of artistry playing in front of you … [Showmanism] is a technical achievement beyond words … A work of genius.” ***** WhatsOnStage
“[A] startling, genre-smashing solo show … a strange, beautiful study of the agony and ecstasy of performance. I’ve never seen – or perhaps heard is the more appropriate verb here – anything like this” **** The Telegraph
“… a ventriloquial exploration of what the theatre can do … [it’s] a dazzle: full of newness, sometimes splurging, exciting…” **** The Observer
“The peerless Dickie Beau takes audiences on a hallucinogenic, lip-sync survey of what it means to be a performer…. This is a show with as much substance as style” **** The Times (Critics’ Choice)
“… he’s an astonishment … He eases between florid dance drama and sly acts of impersonation … lip syncing for all of our lives.” **** The Guardian
Showmanism trailer:
Audiences responses to Showmanism:
Showmanism was created and performed by Dickie Beau
Directed by and co-devised with Jan-willem van den Bosch
Inspired by conversations with Rupert Christiansen
Designed by Justin Nardella
Lighting Design by Marty Langthorne
Sound Design by Dan Steele
Showmanism features the voices of Patsy Rodenburg, Ian McKellen, Mimi Denissi, Steve Nallon, Fiona Shaw, Rupert Christiansen and Joe E. Jeffreys
Re-Member Me
Photo by Hugo Glendinning
In June 2023, Dickie brought his Hamlet-inspired solo show Re-Member Me to London’s Hampstead Theatre. Like ¡Showmanism! before it, Re-Member Me was well-received by audiences and critics, leading to its successful run being extended.
“This feels like another evolution in terms of theatre. It has to just be witnessed. It’s a marvel to behold.” – Benedict Cumberbatch
“The genius of this piece is the way its form so eloquently illuminates its theme … Dickie Beau is both conjuror and conjured, ventriloquist and puppet, in this wondrous and endlessly moving reanimation…. ” **** Time Out, Melbourne
“The kind of work that will still be coming up on ‘best of’ lists in a decade. It’s magical.” ***** The Reviews Hub
“Bracingly original … enthralling … a biting tribute to Shakespeare” **** The Times
“Dickie Beau’s subversive meditation on Shakespeare’s masterpiece … ranges from sharp satire to stabbing poignancy” **** The Telegraph
“A master ventriloquist… laden with queerness, character and oh so much talent, he is a mesmeric performer.” – **** The Stage
Excerpt from Re-Member Me:
Re-Member Me promo video
Audience responses to Re-Member Me:
Re-Member Me was created and performed by Dickie Beau
Directed by and co-devised with Jan-willem van den Bosch
Lighting Design by Marty Langthorne
Audio production: Helen Noir
Re-Member Me was developed with the support of Arts Council England Grants for the Arts, the National Theatre Studio, Almeida Theatre, and Birkbeck Centre for Contemporary Theatre.
Special thanks to Martin Sherman, Ivan Mulcahy, Matthew Poxon, Laura Collier, Lucy Pattinson, Robert Icke, Sean Mathias, Ian McKellen, Richard Eyre, Stephen Ashby, John Wood, Suzanne Bertish, Fintan Walsh, Greg Ripley Duggan and Hampstead Theatre
Education and workshops
Dickie is an Artist Research Fellow at Birkbeck Centre for Contemporary Theatre, University of London, and has previously undertaken a Harry Ransom Research Fellowship at the University of Texas in Austin, under the auspices of which he has been developing a future show, Stella!, inspired by the audio-visual archive of Marlon Brando’s legendary acting teacher, Stella Adler. Adler’s archive is housed at the Ransom Collection in Austin, alongside the archives of Tennessee Williams, Gloria Swanson, and Harry Houdini, which also inspire and inform the project.
Dickie has worked broadly across higher education as a visiting lecturer, workshop leader and mentor at a number of institutions in the UK and abroad, including the Royal Academy of Arts, Royal College of Arts, Central School of Speech and Drama, Manchester University, Chichester University, Rose Bruford College, LAMDA, Queen Mary University of London, Birkbeck Centre for Contemporary Theatre, the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, and Bard College. He has also devised several experiential workshops for artists under the auspices of the Live Art Development Agency’s DIY programme, both within the UK as well as in Toronto, New York, and online.
Awards
Dickie has received awards across the disciplines of theatre, dance and cabaret, including the Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award, Best Supporting Actor in the Off West End Theatre Awards, the London Cabaret Award for Best Alternative Performer, a Jardin d’Europe contemporary dance award, and in Australia he was nominated for a Helpmann Award for Re Member Me.
“The bottom line is, Dickie Beau is an extraordinary artist and a brilliant actor, and every time he steps onto a stage something amazing happens” – Nathan Lane