Full Cast Set for Mercury Theatre Colchester's UK Premiere of CLYBOURNE PARK

Artistic Director of Mercury Theatre Colchester Daniel Buckroyd today announces the full company for the UK regional première production of Bruce Norris' acclaimed play Clybourne Park which opens at the company's home base ahead of a national tour - Ben Deery (Karl / Steve), Dan Gaisford(Kenneth), Rebecca Manley (Bev / Kathy), Rebecca Oldfield (Betsey / Lindsey), Gloria Onitiri (Francine / Lena), Wole Sawyerr (Albert / Kevin), William Troughton (Jim / Tom) and Mark Womack (Dan / Russ). The production opens on 15 April as part of the Made in Colchester Season, with previews from 8 April and runs until 23 April. It is the first time the production will be seen in the UK outside of London.

Following performances in Colchester the production tours to Richmond Theatre (25 - 30 April, Press night: 26 April at 7.30pm), Yvonne Arnaud Theatre (2 - 7 May), Cambridge Arts Theatre (9 - 14 May), Oxford Playhouse (17 - 21 May) and Theatr Clwyd (23 - 28 May). The tour of Clybourne Park marks a first for the Mercury - following a string of successful co-productions it is the first time under Daniel Buckroyd's leadership that the theatre has toured as sole producer.

This razor-sharp satire lifts the lid on race and real estate in a fictional Chicago neighbourhood.

The swinging sixties are just around the corner as a black family move into a suburban white enclave, triggering all too predictable mutterings from the neighbours. Fifty years on, we return to the same house in 2009 as gentrification sets in and the roles are reversed.

The ensemble of actors play two sets of characters in a play hailed as 'shockingly entertaining' and 'appallingly funny'.

Acclaimed by critics and audiences alike since its debut on Broadway in 2009, Clybourne Park took the West End by storm following a sold out run at the Royal Court Theatre in London. It has been

awarded Best Play at the Olivier Awards, the Evening Standard Best Play Award, the South Bank Sky Arts Theatre Award, Critics' Circle Best Play Award and the Tony Award for Best Play.

Ben Deery plays Karl / Steve. His theatre credits include Casa Valentina (Southwark Playhouse), A Mad World My Masters, (RSC/ETT), Private Lives(Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh), Titus Andronicus, King Lear (RSC), Anne Boleyn, All's Well That Ends Well, Henry VIII (The Globe), The Woman In Black (Fortune Theatre) and La Cage Aux Folles (West End). For television his credits include And Then There Were None, Call The Midwife, Father Brown and Our World War; and for film, A Street Cat Named Bob.

Dan Gaisford plays Kenneth. He received an MA from Guildford School of Acting in 2015 - he received the MA Acting Prize, awarded for best overall post-graduate performance in Acting. For theatre, his work includes Dorothy (River Road Theatre) and for film, Repression.

Rebecca Manley plays Bev / Kathy. For theatre, her work includes Raw (Theatre Absolute), Ghost Ward (Almeida Theatre), Billy Liar (King's Head Theatre) and Skinned (Nuffield Theatre). For television, her work includes The Five, This Is England, Emmerdale, No Offence and Scott and Bailey; and for film, Lady Macbeth, The Selfish Giant and The Jealous God.

Rebecca Oldfield plays Betsey / Lindsey. Her theatre work includes Worst Wedding Ever (Salisbury Playhouse), The Love Girl and The Innocent(Southwark Playhouse), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Regent's Park Open Air Theatre), That Almost Unnameable Lust, Taken (Cleanbreak) and Labour Pains (Bush Theatre). For television, her credits include Knifeman, Beautality, The Silence, Doctor Who and Afterlife; and for film, Powder Room andThe Edge of Tomorrow.

Gloria Onitiri plays Francine / Lena. For theatre her credits include Green Living (OVNV), Jack and the Beanstalk (Park Theatre), The Bodyguard(Adelphi Theatre), The Tempest (Bath Theatre Royal) and The Bachaae (NTS). For television, her work includes Splatalot, The Window, Bad Girls andGrass; and for film, Resurrecting the Street Walker.

Wole Sawyerr plays Albert / Kevin. For theatre, his work includes The Odyssey (Derby Theatre), Henry IV Parts 1&2 (Shakespeare's Globe), A Taste of Honey, Romeo and Juliet (Love and Madness), Faster (Filter Theatre Company) and The Big Chill (National Theatre and Box Clever). For television, his work includes Autopsy: The Last Hours and Testing Times.

William Troughton plays Jim / Tom. His theatre credits include Photograph 51 (Noel Coward Theatre), Private Peaceful (Tobacco Factory), The Dead Dogs (The Print Room), Going Bush (Bush Theatre), Happy New (Trafalgar Studios) and The Ladykillers (West End and tour). For television, his work includes George Gently, Silk and The Crimson Field; and for film, Armistice.

Mark Womack plays Dan / Russ. His theatre work includes Hope, Bouncers (Royal Court Liverpool), William Tell (Sheffield Crucible), The Anniversary(Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse) and Fast Food, The Lodger, Romeo and Juliet and A View from the Bridge (Manchester Royal Exchange). For television, his work includes Vera, Babylon, Good Cop, The Runaway, Moving On, Sorted, Clocking

Off, Rockface, Judas, Bombmaker and Liverpool One; and for film, The Boy with the Thorn in His Side, One Night in Istanbul, U Want Me 2 Kill Him?, Route Irish and Under the Skin.

Bruce Norris is an American playwright and actor. His plays for the stage include The Qualms, The Actor Retires, The Vanishing Twin, The Infidel, Purple Heart, We All Went Down to Amsterdam, The Pain and The Itch, The Unmentionables, Clybourne Park (Olivier and Tony Awards for Best Play, Pulitzer Prize for Drama), and A Parallelogram.

Daniel Buckroyd directs. He has been Artistic Director of the Mercury Theatre since July 2012. This will be his twelfth production for the theatre following End Of The Rainbow, Aladdin, Not Now, Bernard & Other Monster Stories, Noises Off, Cinderella, Macbeth, Betty Blue Eyes, The Opinion Makers, The Butterfly Lion, The History Boys and The Hired Man. He also adapted Michael Morpurgo's Friend Or Foe which played at the Mercury in August 2014. Previously he was Artistic Director of New Perspectives Theatre Company (2003-2012), Associate Director of the Nuffield Theatre, Southampton (1996-2003), Artistic Director of Oxfordshire Touring Theatre Company (1992-1996), and Community & Education Director of the Haymarket Theatre, Leicester (1988-1992).

For New Perspectives directing includes: The Butterfly Lion, Farm Boy, Lark Rise To Candleford, Dolly, Those Magnificent Men, The Falling Sky, Faith Healer, Sir Gawain And The Green Knight, The Farm, In Search Of Pontiflunk, The Hired Man (which transferred to New York), On Saturdays This Bed is Poland, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, The Iron Man, The Allotment, Not Now, Bernard & Other Monster Stories, The Evidence, The Ghost Downstairs and The Long Way Home.

Playwrights Horizons Inc produced the World Première of Clybourne Park Off-Broadway in 2010. Clybourne Park was produced on Broadway by Jujamcyn Theatres at the Walter Kerr Theatre, 2012. Presented by arrangement with Josef Weinberger Limited.

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