St. James' BULLY BOY Hosts Post-Show Q&A with Sandi Toksvig on World Mental Health Day, Oct 10

The St. James Theatre, in collaboration with Combat Stress, will mark World Mental Health Day on Wednesday 10 October with a Q&A session which will take place after the 7.30pm performance of Bully Boy. The panel will comprise Sandi Toksvig, Bully Boy's writer; Anthony Andrews, who plays Major Oscar Hadley in the production and Commodore Andrew Cameron, the Chief Executive of Veterans' mental health charity Combat Stress. Patrick Sandford, Bully Boy's director, will chair the event. The Q&A session is open to all audience members who have attended that evening's performance of Bully Boy.

Bully Boy opened on 19 September and will run until 27 October 2012. Designs are by Simon Higlett with lighting by James Whiteside, sound by John Leonard and AV/ Film design by Scott Radnor. The Cast is Anthony Andrews (Major Oscar Hadley) and Joshua Miles (Eddie Clark). Bully Boy is a St. James Theatre co-production with Lee Dean, Charles Diamond, Daniel Schumann and Royal and Derngate Northampton.

Major Oscar Hadley is investigating allegations of gross misconduct within a self-styled 'Bully Boy' unit of the British army. When young squaddie Eddie Clark, from Burnley, is interrogated, Oscar begins to discover that 'truth' in a modern insurgency can be a point of view rather than a fact. Sandi Toksvig tackles the challenging moral issues of contemporary military occupation and its e?ect on the mental health of serving soldiers.

Combat Stress is the UK's leading charity specialising in the care of Veterans' mental health. They aim to ensure that Veterans receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time and have supported almost 100,000 Veterans since being founded in 1919. Combat Stress is currently helping more than 5,000 ex-Service men and women, including 637 who served in Iraq and 284 who served in Afghanistan. In a Combat Stress survey, one in three Veterans said the fear of stigma and discrimination has prevented them from telling their families that they are suffering from mental ill-health.

Sandi Toksvig is a well-known writer, comedienne and presenter. Her theatrical writing credits include the musical A Big Night Out at the Watford Palace Theatre and Pocket Dream at the Nottingham Playhouse and in The West End. She began her comedy career at Girton College, Cambridge University, where she wrote and performed in the first all-woman show at the Footlights. Sandi performed at the first night of The Comedy Store in London and was part of the improvisational comedy team, The Comedy Store Players. On television she has appeared on programmes including Mock the Week, QI and Have I Got News For You. On BBC Radio 4 Sandi has chaired The News Quiz and until this year was the main presenter of Excess Baggage.

Anthony Andrews received worldwide recognition for his portrayal of Sebastian Flyte in the 1981 Granada Television production of Brideshead Revisited for which he won the BAFTA and Golden Globe award for Best Actor. Further television credits include Birdsong, Love in a Cold Climate and David Copperfield. Andrews has recently been seen on film as Prime Minister Stanely Baldwin in 2012's The King's Speech.

Commodore Andrew Cameron is the Chief Executive of Combat Stress. During a 36 year career in the Royal Navy he served as Principal Warfare Officer in command of three ships. His last appointment was as the CEO and Commodore of the navy's largest surface flotilla of 42 ships and more than 4,000 personnel. The flotilla provided ships of all types from Aircraft Carriers to small patrol craft for operations. Andrew retired from the Royal Navy in 2008.

St. James Theatre, the first newly-built theatre complex in central London in 30 years, opened to the public in September 2012, rising from the site of the former Westminster Theatre at 12 Palace Street in the heart of Victoria. Tickets are now on sale for all productions in the first season: Bully Boy by Sandi Toksvig, John Caird's production of musical romance Daddy Long Legs, Cinderella directed by Sally Cookson, and Max Stafford Clark's production of Our Country's Good by Timberlake Wertenbaker.

For more information on the St James Theatre visit www.stjamestheatre.co.uk. For more information on Combat Stress visit www.combatstress.org.uk.

St James Theatre is located at 12 Palace Street, London SW1E 5JA.

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