Carole Dance Takes Over From Fiz Marcus In UK Tour Of MY MOTHER SAID I NEVER SHOULD

London Classic Theatre today announces that Carole Dance will now play the role of Doris Partington in the UK tour of Charlotte Keatley's My Mother Said I Never Should. Dance steps into the role as Fiz Marcus has had to withdraw due to unforeseen health issues. The full company is completed by Felicity Houlbrooke (Rosie Metcalfe), Kathryn Ritchie (Jackie Metcalfe) and Connie Walker (Margaret Bradley). Artistic Director of LCT, Michael Cabot, directs the production, which tours to 14 venues, opening at Theatre Royal Windsor on 25 September with performances at Queen's Hall Arts Centre, Hexham, Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds and Gala Theatre, Durham from 11 September.

Set in Manchester, Oldham and London, My Mother Said I Never Should is a poignant, bittersweet story about love, jealousy and the price of freedom. The play details the lives of four women through the immense social changes of the twentieth century. Using a kaleidoscopic time structure, Charlotte Keatley's story focuses on four generations of one family as they confront the most significant moments of their lives.

In 1940, Doris, a former teacher, encourages her nine-year-old daughter, Margaret, to mind her manners and practice the piano. In 1969, Margaret's relationship with her own daughter is strained, as art student Jackie experiments with her new found sexual freedom. When Jackie becomes pregnant 18 and has baby Rosie, a decision is made that will affect all their lives irrevocably.

Charlotte Keatley is an Manchester Evening News award-winning playwright and My Mother Said I Never Should is the most widely performed play ever written by a woman, having now been translated or produced in 31 countries from Japan to Peru. Other credits include The Iron Serpent, An Armenian Childhood, Waiting for Martin, Fears and Miseries in the Third Term, The Ringing Singing Tree, The Sleep of Reason, Our Father and I am Janet.

Carole Dance plays Doris Partington. For the company her credits include Humble Boy, The Beauty Queen of Leenane and Equus. Her other credits include Absolute Hell, People (National Theatre), The Importance of Being Earnest, The Ladykillers (Vaudeville Theatre), Head Over Heels, Beauty and the Beast, Amy's View (UK tour), The Old Masters (Comedy Theatre), A Spell of Cold Weather (Royal Exchange Theatre), and The Night Before Christmas and The Secret Garden (Polka Theatre).

Felicity Houlbrooke plays Rosie Metcalfe. For the company her credits include The Importance of Being Earnest. Further credits include Hard Times (Oldham Coliseum), The Railway Children (King's Cross Theatre), Echoes (Gilded Balloon, Arcola Theatre and 59E59, New York), The King's Speech (Chichester Festival Theatre and Birmingham Repertory Theatre), Black Coffee (UK tour), The Diary of Anne Frank (York Theatre Royal & UK Tour) and Gore (Charing Cross Theatre).

Kathryn Ritchie plays Jackie Metcalfe. Credits for the company include After Miss Julie and Absent Friends. Further credits include The 39 Steps, Arsenic and Old Lace, Dear Brutus and Little Shop of Horrors (Pitlochry Festival Theatre), Accidental Death of an Anarchist (Torch Theatre, Milford Haven), Tess of the D'Urbervilles (UK tour), Measure for Measure (Courtyard Theatre) and the original cast of The Railway Children at Waterloo Station (York Theatre Royal/The Touring Consortium).

Connie Walker plays Margaret Bradley and her credits for the company include The Beauty Queen of Leenane. Other theatre credits include Trestle (Southwark Playhouse), The March on Russia (Orange Tree Theatre), Death of a Salesman (Northampton Theatre Royal & UK tour), A Month of Sundays (Queens Theatre Hornchurch), FOLK (Birmingham Rep & UK tour), Seeing the Lights, Kes and Top Girls (New Vic Theatre), To Kill a Mockingbird (Regent's Park Open Air Theatre/UK tour/Barbican), As You Like It and Hay Fever (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Separate Tables (Chichester Festival Theatre), Happy Birthday Brecht (National Theatre), Mother Courage (New Wolsey Ipswich), Inside Out (Arcola Theatre/UK tour) and Much Ado About Nothing (Manchester Royal Exchange). Television credits include New Tricks, The Vice and Blackpool. Film credits include The Darkest Light and What Do You See?.

Michael Cabot is the founder and Artistic Director of London Classic Theatre. He has directed all thirty-eight LCT productions since their debut in 1993 including Private Lives, Hysteria, The Birthday Party, Waiting for Godot, Absent Friends, Entertaining Mr Sloane, Betrayal, The Importance of Being Earnest, Equus and After Miss Julie. He has overseen the company's transition from one of the success stories of the London Fringe in the late nineties to its current position as one of the UK's leading touring companies. His freelance work as director includes three recent collaborations with award-winning playwright Henry Naylor, The Collector (Arcola Theatre 2014 & UK tour 2016), Angel (Edinburgh Festival Fringe première 2016) and Borders (Edinburgh Festival Fringe première 2017). Angel has won several theatre awards, including a Scotsman Fringe First and the Holden Street Theatres Edinburgh Award in 2016. The production transferred to the Adelaide Fringe in February 2017, winning the Adelaide Critics Circle Award, before playing at the 59E59 Theater in New York as part of the Brits Off Broadway season. Angel was chosen by The Times as one of the UK's Top Ten productions in 2016. Borders won a Scotsman Fringe First and the Carol Tambor Best of Fringe Award. It also won the Adelaide Critics Circle Award and transfers to New York Theater Workshop in June 2018.

London Classic Theatre was launched in 2000 as a touring theatre company with David Mamet's Oleanna. This inaugural tour lost a small fortune but doors had opened and, crucially, the work was being seen. Eighteen years and thirty-eight tours later, London Classic Theatre is now a successful, established part of the commercial UK touring theatre scene. The company has never received any funding or sponsorship for its work. As Artistic Director, Michael Cabot has programmed a repertoire of classic and modern classic plays, a mixture of the challenging and the commercial, big titles and less well-known, including two UK premières - Hugh Leonard's Love in the Title and Joanna Murray-Smith's Nightfall. As venues and audiences have become more familiar with the work he has been able to push the boundaries of what LCT offers, both in ambition, scale and complexity.

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