Acting

 

 

“The superb Simon Scardifield… a hauntingly affecting Kate in Taming of the Shrew. [In Twelfth Night] his greatest achievement is playing the baleful underbelly of the humour. It’s telling that it’s not the slapstick you remember most, but Mr Scardifield’s portraits of two bruised victims.” – Ben Brantley, New York Times

“The most affecting feature of Ian Brown’s RSC production is the performance that young Scardifield gives as Peter” – Financial Times

“Scardifield’s Puck deserves to be singled out” – Sunday Telegraph

“Scardifield’s fascinating, beautifully spoken Puck” – Nicholas de Jongh, Evening Standard

 “Scardifield makes Hermione the play’s centre of charm and pathos” – Financial Times

“Hermione played with heart-stopping dignity” – The Independent

“Simon Scardifield is magnificent… The image of him drunkenly dancing with his life-size Double… is as moving and as densely communicative as poetry” – The Observer

 

After studying languages at Cambridge I trained with Philippe Gaulier (Le Jeu, Melodrama, Mask), then at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Then I went back for more Gaulier (Clown,  Shakespeare and Chekhov, Tragedy).

While still at Guildhall I played Romeo directed by Irina Brown, and Eric in An Inspector Calls in the Wes End, directed by Stephen Daldry.

At the RSC Adrian Noble directed me in Twelfth Night (Sebastian), and Ian Brown in the world premiere of Goodnight Children Everywhere by Richard Nelson.

I toured in 5 shows with Edward Hall’s Propeller: Rose Rage (Somerset and Lady Grey); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Puck, Starveling); The Winter’s Tale (Hermione, Dorcas);  Twelfth Night (Andrew Aguecheek); The Taming of the Shrew (Kate).

Rose Rage played to a dozen kind citizens in Huddersfield and to 800 at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. Between them these Propeller shows played in the West End, all over the UK and to Australia, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Madrid, Gerona, Bologna, Gdansk, China and BAM, New York

Since then I have worked with Lucy Bailey, Nancy Meckler (Shared Experience), Laurence Boswell, Mark Down, Stephen Unwin, Mehmet Ergan, David Farr, Maria Aberg, Philip Franks, Simon Stephens

Screen credits include Broken News, 2012, Endeavour, Casualty, and the film High Heels and Low Lifes

I am also the voice of Robert Muchamore’s Cherub books on Audible

 

https://www.spotlight.com/profile/

 

Highlights:

Creating the part of Mr Golyadkin in The Double with and for Laurence Boswell in Bath. I was nominated for Best Performance in the UK Theatre Awards. The other nominee was Cush Jumbo. I didn’t win.

Winston in a world of puppeted cardboard for Blind Summit’s 1984

Three different roles in The Cherry Orchard (ETT, Chichester, Arcola)

Dr Triletzky in Helena Kaut-Howson’s reworking of Platonov, Fathers Without Sons at the Arcola

For the RSC I was Francisco in The White Devil at the Swan Theatre

Silvius and Adam in As You Like It directed by Federay Holmes at Shakspeare’s Globe

Ben in Joe White’s beautiful new play Mayfly at the Orange Tree, directed by Guy Jones

Citizen Puppet, created with Mark Down and Blind Summit, won a Fringe First at the Edinburgh Festival. And at the start of 2024, The Sex Lives of Puppets was a sell-out success at the Southwark Playhouse.