Full Casting Announced For Watford Palace Theatre's All-Female Production Of MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

Artistic Director of Watford Palace Theatre, Brigid Larmour, today announces full casting for Watford Palace Theatre's all-female production of Much Ado About Nothing. Larmour directs Joanna Brookes (Dogberry/ Antonio), Elly Condron (Don Pedro), Rebekah Hinds (Borachio/ Margaret), Emma Lane (Conrade/ Ursula/ Friar), Juliet Leighton-Jones (Musician), Nyla Levy (Hero/ Sexton), Pepter Lunkuse (Claudio), Anna O'Grady (Benedick), Emily Tucker (Beatrice), Tripti Tripuraneni (Don John/ Verges) and Julia Watson (Leonato).

Shakespeare's sparkling comedy of misunderstandings, given a 1940s twist! Beatrice and Benedick love to hate each other, but their friends suspect them of deeper feelings... War hero Claudio is madly in love with Beatrice's pretty young cousin, but how well does he really know her?

Set at the height of the Battle of Britain, our affectionate homage to the servicewomen of World War Two is a playful salute to the all-male productions of Shakespeare's own time. Join us and step back in time to a Palace transported to the 1940s, complete with sandbags, Gin and It, and a Home Guard recruitment stall...

Joanna Brookes plays Dogberry/ Antonio. She returns to Watford Palace Theatre having performed in The Daughter in Law. Other theatre credits include Monster Raving Loony (Theatre Royal Plymouth/ Soho Theatre), The Rise and Fall of Little Voice (West Yorkshire Playhouse/Birmingham Rep), The Importance of Being Earnest (Nottingham Playhouse), The Physicists (Donmar Warehouse), The Rivals, Spring and Port Wine and The Admirable Crichton (New Vic Stoke), The Biggleswades (Southwark Playhouse), The Waltz of The Toreadors (Chichester Festival Theatre) and Romeo and Juliet (Exeter Northcott). Television credits include The Windsors: Royal Wedding Special, Man Down, We The Jury, Uncle, The Tunnel, Mr Selfridge, Law and Order UK, Boomers, Siblings, Taking The Flak, Phoneshop, Dancing on the Edge, Mrs Biggs, Bad Girls, Fifteen Storeys High, Jonathan Creek, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Sir Gadabout, Titmuss Regained and Survival of The Fittest; and for film, Their Finest, Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool, Criminal, Pauline, Kid Gloves, In the Loop, Dreams of a Life, The Infidel, Little Dorrit, Under Suspicion and The Fool.

Elly Condron plays Don Pedro. Her theatre credits include Tempest (RSC, Barbican), Jane Eyre (National Theatre, Bristol Old Vic), Some Girls (Park Theatre), Spokesong (Finborough Theatre), Titus Andronicus (Greenwich Theatre), Macbeth (R-ft Theatre, site-specific). Television credits include The Six Wives with Lucy Worsley, and for film, Wasp, Helping Hand and IT.

Rebekah Hinds plays Borachio/ Margaret. Her theatre credits include Grotty (The Bunker), Humble Boy (Orange Tree), Anita and Me (UK tour), The Government Inspector (Birmingham Rep/Ramps on the Moon UK tour - Olivier Award Nominated), Billy Liar (Royal Exchange), Around the World (Sadler's Wells & Mint Theater, New York), The Little Prince - Concert (Savoy Theatre) and Sondheim Prom (Royal Albert Hall). For television her credits include Trollied, Inside no. 9, The Syndicate and Shameless; and for film, The Public Benefits and Woman of the Night.

Emma Lane plays Conrade/ Ursula/ Friar. His theatre credits include Priceless, I am the Centre, Faustus (Matchstick Theatre), Dark Sides (Rusi), Just Do Right, The Woyzeck Theory (Atramental Theatre). Television credits Uncle Dad; and for film Waiting and Gathering Storm.

Juliet Leighton-Jones (Musician). She returns to Watford Palace Theatre having performed in I Capture the Castle. Other theatre credits include Wind in the Willows (West Yorkshire Playhouse), eight seasons with The New Shakespeare Company (Regent's Park Open Air Theatre), Sweeney Todd (National Theatre), Kean (Old Vic), The Music Man (Chichester Festival Theatre), Flowers for Mrs Harris (Sheffield Crucible), Arabian Nights (Derby Playhouse) and six seasons with The International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival.

Nyla Levy plays Hero/ Sexton. Her theatre credits include Different is Dangerous (Two's Company/Theatre 503), Street/Life (Cardboard Citizens), Like Mother, Like Daughter (Battersea Arts Centre), 100 Stories (Hackney Empire), Punjabi Girl (Rich Mix), The Rebel & The Runaway (G.L.Y.P.T), That Isis Play Innit! (The Space), Keywords (Lyric Hammersmith), Does My Bomb Look Big In This? (Battersea Arts Centre), Prevent Tours (Pint Sized Theatre), The Diary of a Hounslow Girl (UK tour), Magna Carter (National Theatre Studio) and Child of the Divide (UK tour); and for television, Guiding Lights.

Pepter Lunkuse plays Claudio. Her theatre credits include Holes (Nottingham Playhouse), Nell Gwynn (Globe/ETT), King Lear (Royal Exchange Theatre/Birmingham Rep/Talawa and broadcast), The Crucible (Royal Exchange Theatre), The Vertical Hour (Park Theatre), Liberian Girl (Royal Court at London 2014 Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict), Antony and Cleopatra (Chichester Festival Theatre). For television credits include Father Brown and King Lear; and for film, Sink.

Anna O'Grady plays Benedick. She returns to Watford Palace Theatre after performing in Time of My Life, Family Business and Our Father. Other theatre credits include Sherlock Holmes: The Final Curtain (Theatre Royal Bath & UK tour), The Events (Mercury Theatre Colchester), Sket (PMJ/Park Theatre), My World Has Exploded a Little Bit (Underbelly), Children of the Sun (National Theatre). For television her credits include Flowers; and for film, My Mum Is My Hero, Black Pond, Mars 1001 and Complicit.

Tripti Tripuraneni (Don John/ Verges). Her theatre credits include My Homemade Kite (Tristan Bates theatre), The Jungle Book (UK tour), Romeo and Juliet (National Theatre), Macbeth (National Theatre) and Paradise of the Assassins (Tara Arts).

Emily Tucker (Beatrice). For theatre her credits include Fortune's Fool (Old Vic Theatre), A Warsaw Melody (Arcola Theatre), Suddenly Last Summer, Lady of the Lake, Fallen Angels (Theatre by the Lake), Shiver- The Tempest (National Theatre Studio), Twelfth Night, Henry V, King Lear, King Arthur (Guildford Shakespeare Company), The Man Who Pays the Piper, The Stepmother (Orange Tree Theatre), After the Ball (The Gatehouse), The Importance of Being Earnest (Courtyard Theatre). For television his credits include Not Safe For Work; and for film, Heretiks, The Seasoning House, Lady Macbeth, Missed Conceptions and Hush.

Julia Watson plays Leonato. She returns to Watford Palace Theatre having previously performed in The Deep Blue Sea. Other theatre credits include The Seagull and My Family and Other Animals (York Theatre Royal) Amy's View (Nottingham Playhouse), Handbagged (Theatre by the Lake, Keswick), She Stoops to Conquer, Major Barbara and Wild Honey (National Theatre), Tosca's Kiss, Love's Comedy, The Stepmother and The Man Who Pays the Piper (Orange Tree Theatre). Her Television credits include series regular in Casualty, Never the Twain, Welcome to Orty-fou, The Yellow Wallpaper and Across the Lake, Not Going Out and Touch of Frost; and for film, Baar Baar Dekho.

Brigid Lamour is Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Watford Palace Theatre. Productions directed for Watford Palace include I Capture the Castle, Arms and the Man, Coming Up, Jefferson's Garden (Writers' Guild of Great Britain Best New Play 2015), Love Me Do (co-directed with Shona Morris) and Von Ribbentrop's Watch, Fourteen, Perfect Match (part of WPT's 2013 'Ideal World' season), We That Are Left, Mrs Reynolds and the Ruffian, Equally Divided, Our Father and My Mother Said I Never Should; and five pantomimes Aladdin, Dick Whittington, Sleeping Beauty (co-directed with Shona Morris), Robin Hood, and Mother Goose. From 1998 to 2006 she was Artistic Director of West End company ACT Productions, and adviser to BBC4 Plays. From 1993 to 1998 she directed a series of interactive promenade Shakespeares, Shakespeare Unplugged, for RNT Education. Lamour directed the premiere production of My Mother Said I Never Should at Contact Theatre, Manchester in 1987. She was Artistic Director at Contact from 1989 to 1994, commissioning plays including Excess/XS and Strange Attractors.

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