Jack Crew

Jack Crew arrives at the New Burbage Festival as a bankable young film star, parachuted into the season to sell tickets rather than earn them. He's glib, easily bored, and openly unimpressed by the discipline of stage work, treating the whole enterprise as a detour from his real career until the play starts asking more of him than he expected.

Luke Kirby plays the Hollywood-ego stereotype with just enough charm that you're never quite sure whether to write Jack off, which is exactly the trick the part needs. The show uses him to needle its own romantic ideas about theatre versus celebrity, and Kirby keeps finding the flicker of real hunger underneath the swagger.