Full Casting Announced For Nigel Williams Revival Of MY BROTHER'S KEEPER At Playground Theatre

Full casting has been announced for the first major revival of Nigel Williams' My Brother's Keeper?, which opens at London's Playground Theatre at the end of February. Joining actor and former stand-up comedian Andy de la Tour as ailing patriarch Mr Stone, will be Katherine Pogson (Vera ITV, Brazil Terry Gilliam, Aunt Dan & Lemon New York Theatre Drama Desk nomination) as Mrs Stone, David Partridge (The Secret Theatre - Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Shakespeare's Globe, All My Sons - Rose Theatre, Kingston, Travels With My Aunt - Cc Theatre, UK tour) and Josh Taylor (Poldark - BBC, The Crown - Netflix, Each His Own Wilderness -Orange Tree Theatre) as their warring sons Sam and Tony.

When it premiered at Greenwich Theatre in 1985, My Brother's Keeper? received rave reviews, prompting The Guardian to describe it as a very good new play witty as well as touching, objective as well as subjective and The Sunday Times to label it as impeccable . Now some 34 years later and 10 years since his last play was staged in London, Nigel Williams revisits this incisive, funny and affecting work about broken sibling relationships is revived in a production directed by Craig Gilbert.

Following a stroke, seventy-four-year-old actor Mr Stone lies dying in a near-empty hospital ward. His two sons, Tony and Sam, together again after several years, try to reconcile their fractured family before it's too late. In doing so, they confront each other, their past, and the imminent loss of their father.

Nigel Williams' play explores the complexities of adult fraternal bonds, when shared childhoods and personal histories work as hard to repel as they do to bind, and poses the question of whether the shared love of a dying father can overcome the damage done.

Andy de la Tour has a wide and varied career. Past theatre work includes Harold Pinter's No Man's Land and Alan Bennett's People at The National Theatre and Pinter's Celebration and Rachel Cusk's Medea at The Almeida Theatre. His most recent stage roles also include The Cutting of the Cloth at Southwark Playhouse, Blue Heart at Orange Tree Theatre and The Last Yankee at Print Room. Recent screen roles in Good Omens( BBC/Amazon) Victoria (ITV), Star Wars: Rogue One, The Confession and 44 Chest'. His other films include Notting Hill, Plenty and the Roman Polanksi adaptation of Oliver Twist. His other television appearances include The Young Ones, Kavanagh QC and The Brief . A former stand-up comedian, Andy was at the vanguard of the alternative comedy movement and appeared alongside Rik Mayall, Ben Elton and French and Saunders.

Nigel Williams is a television, playwright, author and scriptwriter. He has written over sixteen novels including the bestselling Wimbledon Poisoner. He won the Somerset Maugham award for his first novel My Life Closed Twice. His stage plays include Class Enemy, Sugar and Spice, Harry and Me (Royal Court). MyFace and Line'em (National Theatre) and Lord of the Flies and Country Dancing (Royal Shakespeare Company) Television and Film includes: Sea Wolf, Moby Dick, Wodehouse in Exile, Madiba. He won a television BAFTA for his adaptation of William Horwood's novel Skallrigg and both an Emmy and Golden Globe in 2005 for his TV drama Elizabeth I. Williams' latest TV series is Catherine The Great due to be released later this staring Helen Mirren.

The Playground Theatre's mission is to work with both established and emerging artists in the UK and internationally. The ethos is one of cross-fertilization between different forms and cultures with the aim of creating work that is bold and imaginative, while fully engaging in the rich diversity of the local community. Since the theatre opened in November 2017 productions have included Picasso by Terri D'Alfonso, The Little Prince written and performed by Martin Oelbermann, Soldier On by Jonathan Guy Lewis, Shirleymander by Gregory Evans, The Paradise Circus by James Purdy and the sci-fi musical Fanatical by Matt Board and Reina Hardy .

Book online at http://www.theplaygroundtheatre.london