Full Casting Revealed for World Premiere of AFTER ELECTRA

Artistic Director of Theatre Royal Plymouth Simon Stokes today announces the full cast for the world première of April de Angelis' After Electra. Samuel West directs Michael Begley (Roy), Rachel Bell (Sheila), Marty Cruickshank (Virgie), Kate Fahy (Sonia), Neil McCaul (Tom), Veronica Roberts (Haydn), James Wallace (Orin) and Eleanor Wyld (Miranda). The production opens on 16 March at The Drum, Theatre Royal Plymouth, with previews from 12 March, and runs until 28 March, before transferring to the Tricycle Theatre from 7 April to 2 May.

"I blame the books they learned to read with. Daddy at the office. Mummy looking out of the window while she's washing up. I should have burnt them. I was an artist."

It's Virgie's birthday and, as she approaches her 80s, she is bucking convention with a very surprising trick up her sleeve.

But always a more committed artist than mother, Virgie has not reckoned on her family and friends' determination to thwart her distinctly unusual birthday plans.

Will her loved ones consent to her last wish, or could the secrets of their past stand in the way?

April De Angelis' After Electra is a deeply moving and blisteringly witty black comedy challenging what it means to be a mother, and exploring how the choices we make can change our lives forever.

Simon Stokes said today, "I was thinking, as we prepare to preview Kneehigh's Rebecca, while rehearsals for After Electra have just begun, it is sometimes observed that our sticky fingerprints are over a very wide range of artistic experiment.

"And it is a strange thing, but it just so happens that, after playing Plymouth, After Electra will hit London at the same time as The Angry Brigade, our production with Paines Plough opens at the Bush and Fight Night, our collaboration with Ontroerend Goed, opens at the Unicorn Theatre. I'm unashamedly thrilled."

April De Angelis' work includes Jumpy (Royal Court and Duke of York's), Catch (a collaboration with four other female playwrights) and Wild East (Royal Court), A Gloriously Mucky Business (Lyric Hammersmith), Calais (Paines Plough/Oran Mor), Country (Terror Season, Southwark Playhouse), an adaptation of Wuthering Heights (Birmingham Rep Theatre), A Laughing Matter (Out of Joint Theatre Company, National Theatre), The Warwickshire Testimony (RSC, The Other Place), The Positive Hour (Out of Joint Theatre/National Tour) and Playhouse Creatures (Sphinx Theatre Company, later revived by The Old Vic Theatre).

Michael Begley plays Roy. His theatre work includes Mrs Lowry and Son (Trafalgar Studios), Sweet Bird of Youth (The Old Vic), If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet (Bush Theatre), Rhinoceros, The Arsonists (Royal Court), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Royal Exchange) and Pravda (Chichester Festival Theatre and Birmingham REP). For television, his work includes Foyle's War, Switch, Doctor Who, Being Human, The Children, William and Mary, City Central and Bob and Rose; and for film, Vacuuming Completely in the Nude.

Rachel Bell plays Sheila. She is a founding member of Hull Truck Theatre Company. Her theatre credits include Keeping Up Appearances (The Theatre of Comedy), Alphabetical Order, Pat & Margaret (Salisbury Playhouse), Romeo and Juliet (Stafford Gatehouse Theatre), Bridget's House (Hull Truck Tour / Bush Theatre), The Gladhand, Flying Blind (Royal Court), Samba (Tricycle Theatre), and Under Milkwood (National Theatre). For television, her credits include Mrs Biggs, Eros Unleashed, The Waiting War, Grange Hill, One Foot in the Grave, A Dark Adapted Eye, The Darling Buds of May; and for film From Time to Time, The Edge of Love, The Death of Klinghoffer, Dirty Bomb and Sweet William.

Marty Cruickshank plays Virgie. Her theatre credits include Exit The King (Bath Theatre Royal), Richard II, The Heresy Of Love, Hamlet, Love In A Wood (RSC), London Wall (Finborough & West End), Pygmalion (West End & Chichester Festival Theatre), Gates Of Gold (Manchester Library Theatre), In Parenthesis (Churchill Theatre), Charley's Aunt (national tour), Riders to the Sea, The Tinker's Wedding (Southwark Playhouse), and Major Barbara (Piccadilly Theatre). For television, Line of Duty, Spooks, Kavanagh QC, Faith in the Future, and Unnatural Pursuits; and for film London Wall; I, Anna and The Fool.

Kate Fahy plays Sonia. Her theatre credits include Definitely The Bahamas (Orange Tree Theatre), The Goat (Almeida/ Apollo Theatre), Grace, Gaucho, Old Flames (Hampstead Theatre), Bouncing (National Theatre), Funny Peculiar (Liverpool Everyman), Othello (Young Vic) and Seduced (Royal Court). Her television credits include The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, Holby City, Death in Paradise, The Best Man, The House of Elliot, The Jury, Trial and Retribution and Death in Paradise; and film credits include Archipelago, The Show, The Living Dead (Best Actress award at the Campobasso Film Festival and Best Supporting Actress at the Austin Film Festival in Texas) and The Fourth Angel.

Neil McCaul plays Tom. For theatre, his work includes Oedipus, Guys and Dolls (National Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (ETT), Sweeney Todd (Bristol Old Vic), Privates on Parade, Appearances, The Baker's Wife, Chicago, Calendar Girls (West End), The Boyfriend (Regent's Park Open Air Theatre) and Little Voice (Hull Truck). His television credits include Take Me Home, Into the Fire, Up the Garden Path, Time After Times, Class Act, Where the Heart Is, 55 Degrees North, People Like Us, Benidorm, Father Ted and Heil Honey I'm Home!.

Veronica Roberts returns to Theatre Royal Plymouth to play Haydn. She previously appeared in Horse Piss for Blood. Her other theatre work includes Housewife 49 (Old Laundry Theatre), for Chichester Festival Theatre - Nicholas Nickleby (also West End and Toronto), The Inconstant Couple, Look After Lulu, Hitting Town and VE Night; Comfort Me With Apples, Buried Alive, Dearly Beloved (Hampstead Theatre), The Glass Menagerie (Duke's Playhouse Lancaster), Shirley Valentine (Newbury), John Bull's Other Island (Cambridge), and Dancing at Lughnasa (Garrick). For television her work includes Emma, Party Animals, After Thomas, Secret Smile, All About George, Afterlife, New Tricks, Little Britain, Fields of Gold, Chambers, Love in a Cold Climate, Playing the Field, Maisie Raine and Tenko; and for film The Calling and Just Ines.

James Wallace plays Orin. His theatre work includes Backbeat (West End, Toronto, Los Angeles), 55 Days (Hampstead Theatre), Arcadia, Private Lives (Manchester Library), Much Ado About Nothing, Dangerous Corner, Wives as They Were (Bury St Edmunds), Rosencrantz And Guildenstern are Dead (ETT), The Tempest (Liverpool Playhouse), Henry IV (RSC), and Tartuffe and Hamlet (Almeida Theatre). For television, his work includes The Alan Clark Diaries, Passage and Pie in the Sky; and for film Genius, Piccadilly Jim and Die Another Day.

Eleanor Wyld returns to Theatre Royal Plymouth to play Miranda. She previously appeared in The Astronaut's Chair. Her other theatre work includes Bedroom Farce/Separate Tables (Salisbury Playhouse), Visitors (Arcola Theatre, national tour, Bush Theatre), Unscorched, Rigor Mortis (Finborough Theatre), Dances of Death (Gate Theatre) and Antigone (Southwark Playhouse). For television, her work includes Misfits, Black Mirror, Honest and You Can Choose Your Friends; and for film, Bonobo, Johnny English Reborn and Freestyle.

Samuel West directs. His recent directorial work includes Close The Coalhouse Door (Northern Stage), Waste (Almeida) and Dealer's Choice (Menier Chocolate Factory/Trafalgar Studios). As Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres he directed the first revival of The Romans In Britain by Howard Brenton and As You Like It for the RSC's Complete Works Festival. He also directed Money by Edward Bulwer-Lytton for BBC Radio. As an actor, work includes the title roles in Hamlet and Richard II for the RSC, Jeffrey Skilling in Lucy Prebble's Enron (Chichester/Royal Court/Noel Coward theatres), three series of Mr Selfridge, the film Howards End and the forthcoming Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and Suffragette.

Theatre Royal Plymouth has built a national reputation for its specialist contemporary work producing provocative, intriguing, ambitious theatre by commissioning and working with some of the very best regional, national and international writers, artists and directors. In addition, TRP has been a long term collaborator and supporter of some of the most exciting theatre companies of our times including Frantic Assembly, Ontroerend Goed, Paines Plough and Told By An Idiot.

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