As rehearsals begin, casting is announced for the West End transfer of the National Theatre and Theatr Clwyd’s critically acclaimed co-production of Home, I’m Darling, a new play by Laura Wade, directed by Theatre Clwyd Artistic Director Tamara Harvey, featuring Katherine Parkinson, which begins performances at the Duke of York’s Theatre on 26 January.
Katherine Parkinson (The IT Crowd, Humans) reprises her acclaimed role as Judy, in Laura Wade’s fizzing comedy about one woman’s quest to be the perfect 1950’s housewife. She is joined by Sara Gregory as Alex and Richard Harrington as Johnny (for the West End run, with tour casting for the role of Johnny to be announced), reprising the roles they played at Theatr Clwyd and the National Theatre in 2018. Charlie Allen, Susan Brown (Sylvia), Ellie Burrow, Siubhan Harrison (Fran), Jane MacFarlane and Hywel Morgan (Marcus) complete the cast.
Home, I’m Darling will play at the Duke of York’s Theatre until 13 April 2019, with a press night on Tuesday 5 February. The production will then tour to the Theatre Royal Bath, and The Lowry, Salford, before returning to Theatr Clwyd following a sold out run in July 2018. Home, I’m Darling is co-produced in the West End and on tour with Fiery Angel.
How happily married are the happily married? Every couple needs a little fantasy to keep their marriage sparkling. But behind the gingham curtains, things start to unravel, and being a domestic goddess is not as easy as it seems.
The set designer is Anna Fleischle, whose recent work for theatre includes A Very, Very, Very Dark Matter at the Bridge Theatre, The Writer at the Almeida Theatre, Hangmen at the Royal Court, West End and on Broadway, and Everybody’s Talking About Jamie at the Apollo Theatre. Lighting design is by Lucy Carter, sound design by Tom Gibbons, choreography by Charlotte Broom with Sean Gleason as Associate Lighting Designer, and Hannah Noone as Resident Director.
Biographies:
Charlie Allen’s theatre credits include UK touring work with Periplum Theatre, The Albatross 3rd & Main at The Park Theatre and Torn Apart at The Hope Theatre. Film credits include Brothers of War and Brighton Rock.
Susan Brown’s credits for the National Theatre include Angels in America (also on Broadway, for which she was nominated for the Best Featured Actress in a Play Award at the 2018 Tony Awards®), Husbands and Sons, Harper Regan and The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other. Other theatre includes Good People at the Noel Coward Theatre; Julius Caesar for the Donmar Warehouse at St Ann’s Warehouse, New York; If You Don’t Let Us Dream, We Won’t Let You Sleep and Goodbye To All That at the Royal Court; Making Noise Quietly at the Donmar Warehouse and Saved at the Lyric, Hammersmith. Susan is known to television audiences for her role as Septa Mordane in Game of Thrones, as well as her roles in Good Omens, Partners in Crime, Atlantis, Father Brown, Call The Midwife, Broadchurch, Silent Witness, Stella and Torchwood. Film includes Belle, Now Is Good, The Iron Lady, Brideshead Revisited, and Hope & Glory.
Ellie Burrow’s theatre credits include The Mousetrap and Love In Idleness in the West End, The Rubenstein Kiss at the Nottingham Playhouse and Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Romeo and Juliet and The Wind In The Willows at the Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre, Speed The Plow in the West End, People at the National Theatre, followed by a regional UK tour; War Horse both at the NT in the West End, Adriana in The Comedy of Errors at The Globe and on tour, The Little Dog Laughed in the West End, Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing at Vienna's English Theatre, Edmond and Lobby Hero at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, Balloon at Southwark Playhouse, She Rode Horses Like the Stock Exchange for Old Vic New Voices and Love Cycles at the Arcola. Television credits include Emmerdale.
Sara Gregory was part of the original cast of Home, I’m Darling at Theatr Clwyd and at the NT. She has also worked with National Theatre Wales, Theatr Clwyd, The Other Room, Dirty Protest and Sherman Theatre. Sara's TV credits include a regular role in improvised comedy series Tourist Trap for BBC Wales, the title role in Welsh series Alys (Winner of the BAFTA Cymru Best Actress Award 2013), Byw Celwydd and Parch for S4C, Thorne: Sleepyhead for Sky 1, Hinterland, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Torchwood, and Being Human. Film credits include Under Milk Wood, Another Me, Get Up and Go, Little White Lies and A Way of Life.
Richard Harrington was part of the original cast of Home, I’m Darling at Theatr Clwyd and at the NT. Other theatre credits include Coriolanus for the National Theatre of Wales and RSC; The Persians for National Theatre of Wales; Look Back in Anger at Theatre Royal, Bath; Other Hands at Soho Theatre and Stone City Blue for Theatr Clwyd. Television includes three series as DCI Tom Mathias in Hinterland for S4C and the BBC, Requiem, Inspector George Gently; Father Brown, Poldark, Death in Paradise, Wolfblood, Larkrise to Candleford, Land Girls, Bleak House and Spooks. Film includes The Last Summer, Just Jim, Elfie Hopkins, Burton – The Secret, Daddy’s Girl, The All Together, Joyrider and Mathilde.
Siubhan Harrison’s theatre credits include The Country Wife and Working at Southwark Playhouse; Guys and Dolls in the West End and on a UK tour; I Call My Brothers at the Arcola Theatre; Pitcairn for Out of Joint at Shakespeare’s Globe and Chichester Festival Theatre; From Here to Eternity in the West End; The Soft of Her Palm at the Finborough Theatre; Earthquakes in London UK tour; and Grease in the West End. Television credits include Doctors, The Song of Lunch, and The Al Murray Show. Film includes Little Deaths.
Jane MacFarlane’s theatre credits include Exit the King for the National Theatre, Mary Stuart in the West End and the UK Tour, Divine Chaos of Starry Things for Stepping Out, The Lady from Dubuque at the Workhouse Theatre, Leaves of Glass at the Oxford Arms, Much Ado About Nothing, Merry Wives of Windsor, Camino Real, Troilus and Cressida, and A Month in the Country for the RSC, Good, MacBeth, and The Trick Is To Keep Breathing at the Tron, Tall Tales at Communicado, Great Expectations at the Traverse Theatre, The Railway Children at Nottingham Playhouse and Miss Julie at Theatre Royal Haymarket.
Hywel Morgan’s theatre credits include Imperium (also West End), The Alchemist, Queen Anne, and Love for Love for the RSC; This May Hurt a Bit for Out of Joint; The Importance of Being Ernest for Nottingham Playhouse; A Walk On Part: The Fall of New Labour at Soho Theatre; Blithe Spirit at the Watermill Theatre and War and Peace for Shared Experience. Television includes Bricks, Hollyoaks, Hinterland, Talking to the Dead, The Tunnel, Skins, Da Vinci’s Demons and Lee Nelson’s Well Funny People. Film includes The End of the F**king World (short for Film4), Pylon, Page Eight, W.E, Rain, Me, Me, Me and Making a Killing.
Katherine Parkinson’s stage roles include Season’s Greetings for the National Theatre; Dead Funny at the Vaudeville Theatre; Before The Party at the Almeida Theatre; Absent Friends at the Harold Pinter Theatre; School for Scandal at the Barbican; Cock and The Seagull at the Royal Court. Her television roles include Humans, The IT Crowd, Hang Ups, The Kennedys, The Honourable Woman, Inside Number 9, In The Club, Sherlock and Psychoville. In film she has appeared in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, The Boat That Rocked, St Trinians 2, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People and Easy Virtue.
Laura Wade’s work includes Posh at the Royal Court and in West End, which was later turned into the film The Riot Club for which she wrote the screenplay; an adaptation of Tipping the Velvet at Lyric Hammersmith; Kreutzer vs Kreutzer; and an adaptation of WH Davies’ Young Emma which opened at the Finborough Theatre (where she was a Pearson Writer-in-Residence) in 2003, directed by Tamara Harvey. In 2006 Laura won the Pearson Most Promising Playwright Award and was nominated for an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre for Colder Than Here and Breathing Corpses.
Tamara Harvey became Artistic Director of Theatr Clwyd in 2015. Her work for the company includes Much Ado About Nothing, the première of Elinor Cook’s award-winning play, Pilgrims, David Hare’s Skylight and Peter Gill’s new version of Uncle Vanya. Before joining Theatr Clwyd Tamara was a freelance director for fifteen years, working in the West End, throughout the UK and abroad on classic plays, new writing, musical theatre and in film. Beginning her career at Shakespeare’s Globe, she has also directed at, amongst others, Hampstead Theatre, Bush Theatre, St James Theatre, Finborough Theatre, Trafalgar Studios, Menier Chocolate Factory, Birmingham Rep, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Theatre Royal Northampton and Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey.
This production is supported by American Express, the National Theatre’s Preferred Card Partner.
26 January – 13 April 2019
Press night: Tuesday 5 February
Tickets from £18
Book tickets below.
Theatre Royal, Bath Tuesday 16 – Saturday 20 April 2019
theatreroyal.org.uk / 01225 448844
The Lowry, Salford Tuesday 23 – Saturday 27 April 2019
thelowry.com / 0843 208 6000
Theatr Clwyd, Mold Tuesday 30 April – Saturday 4 May 2019
theatrclwyd.com / 01352 701521
