Cast Set for THE VOICE OF THE TURTLE at Jermyn Street Theatre

Jermyn Street Theatre has announced the cast for this rare revival or John Van Druten's heartwarming comedy The Voice of the Turtle, which opens at the theatre on 27 June and runs to 20 July.

New York, 1943. Sally Middleton has sworn off love, vowing to focus on her stage career instead. However, her best friend and fellow actor Olive Lashbrooke has other plans. When Olive discovers that an old flame is in town, Sally finds herself stuck consoling Olive's current beau, Sergeant Bill Page. Trapped in Sally's apartment to escape the rain with only cocktails for company, what will happen when two people bruised by love are thrown together for a weekend?

 

Sally Middleton is played by Imogen Elliot in her professional debut after graduating from Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Skye Hallam (Orlando – Jermyn Street Theatre, Boeing Boeing Gone – Guildford Shakespeare Company) plays Olive Lashbrooke and Nathan Ives-Moiba (Cabaret - West End, A Dead Body in Taos – Fuel Theatre) takes the role of Bill Page.

 

John Van Druten is best-known for I Am A Camera, which formed the basis of the book for Cabaret.  The original production of The Voice of the Turtle opened in New York in 1943 and ran for 1,557 performances, making it one of the longest-running plays in Broadway history. A witty, wise and romantic play, it now returns to the West End for the first time since it played at the Piccadilly Theatre in 1947.

 

Directed by Philip Wilson, who returns to Jermyn Street Theatre after the success of The Oyster Problem last year, The Voice of The Turtle follows on from Jermyn Street Theatre's acclaimed revival of Van Druten's Flowers of the Forest in 2014.  The set designer is Ruari Murchison, costumes by Anett Black, with lighting by Chris McDonnell and sound by Simon Slater.

Director, Philip Wilson says, "I have longed for the opportunity to direct this play since I first read it, 15 or so years ago. Intrigued by the title and the play's reputation, I half-expected a light Broadway comedy – but found instead a wonderfully sensitive, heartfelt and nuanced study of two people who have been hurt, figuring out whether they are brave enough to make themselves vulnerable again, and to step back into the arena of love.

Jermyn Street Theatre is the perfect place in which to rediscover this story: the play was originally a huge hit on Broadway's epic stages, but in JST audiences find themselves eavesdropping on lives, witnessing life in close-up. That, for me, is the ideal arena in which to follow Sally, Bill and Olive in their search for intimacy, companionship, love."

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