Although Hislop was a keen student performer, and took a revue show to Edinburgh with Imogen Stubbs, he is not, says Wheen, "a great one for showbusiness".
Her Irish-born father, John, worked variously as a miner, psychiatric nurse, and Radio Sheffield DJ, and he and her mother were keen amateur performers.
A keen actor and performer with his mother in a local drama group, Cummings also hopes the experience will help him get into the Brit School for Performing Arts.
Ms. Winthrop has a keen eye for performers: Renée Archibald, Charlotte Gibbons, Jennifer Lafferty and Jessica Ray (later joined by the gamin Daniele Paloumpis) are studies in alert, intelligent presence.
But the performers were keen to press on.
Mr Bock is keen on choosing top performers from state universities.
We found that strong performers balance keen insight into their stakeholders' priorities with an unrelenting focus on delivering business results.
The best magicians are also accomplished performers with keen psychological insights about what blend of patter, joking and surprise their audiences will tolerate.
He has directed a previous adaptation of the play, and was keen to keep the performers in corseted period dress to maintain the humour of the elaborately choreographed hijinks.
My experience within the cultural field, whether as a writer, performer, broadcaster or keen consumer, is that this country is very ambivalent about "culture".
