Following the sell-out success of The Wipers Times in the West End and across the country, Ian Hislop and Nick Newman have once again taken inspiration from real life events for their new play Trial by Laughter, based on their critically acclaimed original BBC Radio 4 drama of the same name. The production is a Trademark Touring and Watermill Theatre co-production, playing at The Watermill for six weeks from Thursday 20th September – Saturday 27th October 2018. Following this, it will be heading on a UK tour visiting Guildford, Ipswich, Cheltenham and Brighton, with further venues to be announced.

In 1817 bookseller, publisher and satirist William Hone stood trial for parodying religion, the despotic government and the libidinous monarchy. The only crime he had committed was to be funny. In 2018, the satirists Ian Hislop and Nick Newman rediscover this forgotten hero of free speech and ask if just over two hundred years later our press has any greater freedom.

The cast includes Helena Antoniou (Lady Hertford), Philippe Edwards (Sidmouth), Jeremy Lloyd (Prince Regent), Peter Losasso (Cruickshank), Nicholas Murchie (Justice Abbott/Duke of York), Joseph Prowen (Hone), Eva Scott (Lady Conyngham/Sarah), Dan Tetsell (Lord Ellenborough).
Satirist, writer and journalist Ian Hislop has been the editor of Private Eye since 1986. He has frequently appeared on Question Time (BBC One), and since 1990 has been team captain on BBC’s Have I Got News For You. At Private Eye he works alongside life-long friend Nick Newman, an award-winning cartoonist and writer, who alongside his role at Private Eye, has been pocket cartoonist for The Sunday Times since 1989. As a scriptwriting duo, Ian and Nick’s work includes five years on Spitting Image (ITV), Harry Enfield and Chums (BBC Two), and My Dad’s The Prime Minister (BBC One), as well as the film A Bunch of Amateurs and The Wipers Times, which won the Broadcast Press Guild Award for single drama, and was nominated for a BAFTA. Trial by Laughter is Ian and Nick’s third play to be co-produced with The Watermill Theatre, with an adaptation of A Bunch of Amateurs and The Wipers Times playing there in the last few years.
Ian Hislop and Nick Newman said:

"In an age of ‘fake news' and increased censorship, free speech and press freedom are still under threat as they were 200 years ago when William Hone took on the might of Royalty and a bullying Tory government. Hone dared to ask 'Is laughter treason?' - raising issues which are as relevant now as they were then. It’s a tale of lawyers, lechers and libel – with added sedition and blasphemy. It is immensely exciting to bring this world to life on stage, with this funny, inspiring and true story of a satirical David versus Goliath."

Trial by Laughter is a Trademark Touring and Watermill Theatre production and is directed by Caroline Leslie. It is designed by Dora Schweitzer with lighting design by Matt Leventhall and sound by Steve Mayo.

The Wipers Times, also produced by Trademark Touring and The Watermill Theatre, tours again from 28 August, transferring for a second time to the Arts Theatre in the West End in October where it plays a limited season until 1 December 2018.

Thursday 20th September – Saturday 27th October Watermill Theatre, Newbury
Monday 29th October – Saturday 3rd November Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford
Monday 5th November – Saturday 10th November The New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich
Monday 12th November – Saturday 17th November Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham
Monday 19th November – Saturday 24th November Theatre Royal, Brighton

Cast Biographies

Helea Antoniou (Lady Hertford)
Theatre includes: Macbeth (Pleasance); Four O’Clock (Etcetera Theatre).
Theatre while training: Strange Orchestra, After Mrs Rochester, Exposure, Cabaret, Measure for Measure, The Children’s Hour, All’s Well That Ends Well, Beast, A New Brain, Summerfolk, The Man of Mode, Women of Troy, The Changeling, Hayfever (LAMDA).

Philippe Edwards (Sidmouth)
Theatre credits include: Skin Tight (The Hope Theatre). Philippe trained at LAMDA where his credits included: Braken Moor, Assassins, As You Like It, Flare Path, The Merchant of Venice, Strawberry and Chocolate, The Seagull and The Way of the World
Radio credits include: Mr Betjeman’s Class (BBC); War of the Worlds, (Audible); The Gnats and The Ballalloes (Sony Entertainment).
Jeremy Lloyd (Prince Regent)
Jeremy most recently originated the role of Officer Randal Shuck before taking over the role of ‘Everyone Else’ in Mischief Theatre’s Olivier and Whatsonstage Award Nominated
The Comedy About a Bank Robbery.
Theatre includes: The Comedy About a Bank Robbery (Criterion Theatre - West End); Princess Ida (Finborough Theatre); How Many Miles to Babylon? (Lyric Theatre, Belfast); Springs Eternal, The Breadwinner and The Man Who Pays the Piper (Orange Tree Theatre); The Busy Body (Southwark Playhouse); Angry Young Man Angry Young Woman (Arcola Theatre); A Christmas Carol Suite (NYJO at Ronnie Scott’s); Giant Leap (Pleasance, Edinburgh) and Unearthed (Folio Theatre/Arcola Theatre/West Country tour).
Film includes: The Hatching (Sabre Films) and Benjamin Britten: Peace and Conflict (Capriol Films).
Peter Losasso (Cruickshank)
Theatre includes: The Wipers Times (Watermill Theatre/Salisbury Playhouse/Sheffield Lyceum).
Theatre whilst training: The Ritual Slaughter of Gorge Mastromas; On The Shore of the Wide World; Kapital and Coriolanus (LAMDA).
TV includes: Parents of the Band and Tracey Beaker Returns (BBC).

Nicholas Murchie (Justice Abbott / Duke of York)
Theatre includes: The Deep Blue Sea (Frinton Summer Theatre); A Small Family Business; Love (West Yorkshire Playhouse); A Chaste Maid in Cheapside (Almeida & Tour); Othello; The Cherry Orchard (York Theatre Royal); One Fine Day; The Glass Menagerie; Brimstone & Treacle (Octagon Theatre); Strange Attractors (Contact Theatre); Romeo and Juliet (Oldham Coliseum); Comedy of Errors; Little Murders; Bedtime Story (Royal Exchange Theatre); Measure for Measure (Chester Gateway); Twelfth Night (Dukes Lancaster); School for Wives (Harrogate Theatre).
TV includes: Decline and Fall; The Great Train Robbery; The Spies of Warsaw; The Outcast; Goths; Daphne; The Bill; Touching Evil; Boyz Unlimited; Medics and In Suspicious Circumstances. Nick played DS Shap in all five seasons of Blue Murder.
Film includes: Their Finest Hour and a Half; Pride, Prejudice and Zombies; A Royal Night Out; Revelation; Princess of Thieves.
Radio includes: The Tzars, The Corrupted, Forward Presence, The Dark Tower and Come Unto These Yellow Sands. Nick plays The Rev. Ralph Winwood in BBC Radio 4's Home Front.

Joseph Prowen (Hone)
Theatre includes: A Christmas Carol, Twelfth Night (RSC); A View From Islington North (Arts Theatre/Out of Joint); Single Spies (Chichester Festival Theatre/Birmingham Rep/UK tour); Teddy (Southwark Playhouse); Jefferson’s Garden, Dick Whittington (Watford Palace Theatre); An Ideal Husband (Chichester Festival Theatre).
Television includes: Decline and Fall, Midsomer Murders, And Then There Were None, Casualty.

Eva Scott (Lady Conyngham/Sarah)
Theatre includes: Good Women (Edinburgh Fringe Festival); The Jungle Book: Cobwebs & Moontalk (Strung Up Theatre); Crab Bucket (Absence Of Apathy).
Theatre while training: Flare Path, Bracken Moor, As You Like It, True West, Assassins, Uncle Vanya, Top Girls, The Merchant Of Venice, The Way Of The World, The Duke Of Milan (LAMDA)
Dan Tetsell (Lord Ellenborough)
Dan played Mitford in Ian Hislop & Nick Newman’s The Wipers Times last year.
TV includes: Upstart Crow, Detectorists, Not Going Out, Damned, Utopia, Miranda, Peep Show, War & Peace, Humans, Skins, Peter & Wendy and Mongrels. Whilst on Hollyoaks he was nominated for a British Soap Award for Best Comedy Performance.
Radio includes: The Museum of Everything, Paperback Hell, Cabin Pressure, Ed Reardon’s Week, Dilemma and News at Bedtime. His one-man Edinburgh show Sins of the Grandfathers won the Writers’ Guild Best Comedy award and was adapted for Radio 4.

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