DAPHNE, TOMMY, THE COLONEL AND PHIL comes to Union Theatre

Acting legend David Henry returns to the London stage in this surreal domestic farce about a military veteran who discovers that his wife of sixty-six years is in fact a man.

In a peaceful rural backwater, the irrepressible Daphne and decorated military man Tommy have been blissfully married for sixty-six idyllic years.

But recently something's been troubling Tommy: a terrible secret.

For decades he's been haunted by the memories of a black ops mission gone-wrong during the Korean War, and the fallout from one fatal night is finally catching up with him.

With marital bliss on a collision course with the fast-approaching shadows of the past-and with decades of untruths unravelling-perils loom and chaos reigns.

Meanwhile, Daphne's got a secret of her own. Quite a big one...

This is a story that - through comedy - dives into complex issues of gender and identity, and, at a time when the older generation is increasingly marginalised, explores the power and the nature of mature love and the true meaning of compromise.

Writer and director Edwin Ashcroft: "I wanted to show something that often gets overlooked: that older people, and older couples - lovers in particular - have experiences and emotions just as intense and profound, if not more so, than anyone else, and that older characters can be just as funny, and sympathetic, and dynamic, and dangerous, and sexy as their younger counterparts, and that the struggles they face are just as complex and problematic."

Starring David Henry (The Madness of George III dir. Nick Hytner, Mary Poppins dir. Richard Eyre) as Tommy, and Clifford Hume (Misalliance dir. Nick Reed, Aladdindir. David Kemp) as Daphne. Writer-director Edwin Ashcroft's previous directorial credits include the UK premiere of Jon Fosse's Over There, and the UK/London premiere of Nineteen Ninety-Two by Lisa McGee, creator of Derry Girls.

"Daphne, Tommy, the Colonel and Phil" is on at Union Theatre, Waterloo, 23 July-3 August 2019.

Tickets are available at www.uniontheatre.biz

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