Full Casting Announced For Trevor Nunn's Production Of Harley Granville Barker's AGNES COLANDER

Full casting has been announced for Trevor Nunn's world premiere production of Harley Ganville-Barker's Agnes Colander, which will receive its first London staging at Jermyn Street Theatre this February. The acclaimed Naomi Frederick will revive her performance of Agnes Colander. Her previous credits include Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare's Globe), The Winslow Boy (Old Vic) and Brief Encounter (Birmingham Rep, West Yorkshire Playhouse and West End). She is joined by Sally Scott (King Charles III - West End and Broadway, King Lear West End), Matthew Flynn (Wild Honey Hampstead Theatre, I am a Walrus Young Vic), Harry Lister-Smith (A Woman of No Importance West End, Posh - West End) and recent LAMDA graduate Cindy-Jane Armbruster.

When it premiered at The Ustinov Studio, Theatre Royal Bath in the spring of 2018, in a production directed by Trevor Nunn, Harley Granville Barker's Agnes Colander: An Attempt At Life was hailed as a lost masterpiece. Now Nunn's production is to receive its London premiere in a five week run at Jermyn Street Theatre opening in February as part of their PORTRAIT season.

Three years after leaving her unfaithful husband and striking out as an artist, Agnes receives his letter ordering her home. But Agnes married young; her innocence has gone and her ambition is growing. Fleeing to France to find a new future, Agnes is pursued by the besotted Alec and worldly-wise Otho. Beset on all sides, can Agnes seize the chance to shape her own life?

Written in 1900 and unearthed a century later Agnes Colander: An Attempt At Life is a witty and compelling exploration of love and sexual attraction.

Trevor Nunn says, Through revivals of his plays like Waste, The Voysey Inheritance and The Madras House, we have come to recognise Harley Granville-Barker as one of the great dramatists of the previous century. So when a totally unknown, unpublished, full-length play by Barker was discovered recently, it was a momentous development. Having presented the play at the Ustinov Theatre in Bath, we are now able to bring this world premiere production of a new play by a great writer, to the London stage. We hope everybody who cares about the history of English drama will be as excited as we are.

Playwright, actor, director and critic, Harley Granville Barker is a giant of Edwardian theatre and with his revolutionary approach to stage design and ensemble acting, is widely regarded as the first modern British theatre director.

Richard Nelson is a multi award-winning playwright and librettist. He is an honorary associate artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company and recipient of the Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Trevor Nunn returns to Jermyn Street Theatre following Samuel Beckett's All That Fall, which transferred to the West End and off-Broadway. He is a former Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre.

Jermyn Street Theatre's PORTRAIT SEASON, which runs from January to July 2019, also includes the stage premiere of Rose Heiney's Original Death Rabbit (9 January to 9 February), the new play Mary's Babies by Maud Dromgoole (20 March to 13 April), Howard Brenton's return adaptation of August Strindberg's Miss Julie and new adaptation of Creditors (25 April to 1 June) and Pictures Of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde in an adaptation by Lucy Shaw (5 June to 6 July)

Jermyn Street Theatre is celebrating its 25th birthday as an independent theatre in the heart of the West End. It has won numerous awards, and transferred many productions to the West End and Broadway. Its co-Founders, Penny Horner and Howard Jameson, serve as Executive Director and Chair of the Board respectively. Two years ago, new Artistic Director Tom Littler relaunched the theatre as a producing house. Jermyn Street Theatre is a signatory to the Equity Fringe Agreement, and is committed to equal gender representation.