Further Casting Announced for Trevor Nunn's Production of LETTICE AND LOVAGE at Menier Chocolate Factory

With Love in Idleness currently running at its home base and soon to follow its production of Travesties at the Apollo Theatre, and with David Baddiel: My Family Not the Sitcom running in the West End, and Funny Girl on a major national tour, the Menier Chocolate Factory announces a casting update for its production of Peter Shaffer's Lettice and Lovage. Joining the previously announced Felicity Kendal and Maureen Lipman, are Petra Markham and Sam Dastor in the production directed by Trevor Nunn. The show opens on 17 May, with previews from 4 May, and completing its run on 8 July; and follows Nunn's production of Rattigan's Love in Idleness.

Lettice, employed as a stately home tourist guide, has inherited theatricality and eccentricity from her mother. Caught using 'alternative facts' to embroider the history of the house by Lotte, her supervisor, she is dismissed. During the dismissal interview they uncover common ground with the result that she and Lotte develop an unlikely friendship. This is the first major revival of Lettice and Lovage since the 1987 West End production.

Peter Shaffer's (1926 - 2016) plays include Five Finger Exercise (Evening Standard Drama Award), The Private Ear/The Public Eye, The Royal Hunt of the Sun, Black Comedy, Equus (Tony Award for Best Play)and Amadeus (Evening Standard Drama Award and Tony Award for Best Play).

Sam Dastor plays Mr Bardolph. His recent theatre credits include A Midsummer Night's Dream (New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich - directed by Trevor Nunn), Yes Prime Minister (Chichester Festival Theatre and West End), Great Expectations, Richard III (Queen Mary II) and Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Qur'an (UK tour). For television, his recent work includes Killing Jesus, Yes Prime Minister, Banglatown Banquet and Chopratown; and for film, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, Jinnah and Such a Long Journey.

Felicity Kendal plays Lettice Douffet. For theatre, her many credits include for Theatre Royal Bath: A Room With a View (and UK tour), Hay Fever (also Duke of York's Theatre), Relatively Speaking (also Wyndham's Theatre); The Last Cigarette (Chichester Festival and Trafalgar Studios), Mrs Warren's Profession (Comedy Theatre), The Vortex, Fallen Angels (Apollo Theatre), An Absolute Turkey (Globe Theatre), Waste, The Seagull (The Old Vic), Amy's View (Garrick Theatre), Indian Ink, Hapgood, Made in Bangkok (Aldwych Theatre), Hidden Laughter (Vaudeville), Tartuffe (Playhouse), The Real Thing (Strand), Heartbreak House (Theatre Royal Haymarket), and for the National Theatre, Arcadia, The Second Mrs Tanqueray, On the Razzle, Othello and Peter Shaffer's Amadeus in which she created the role of Constanze. For television, her work includes Inside No 9, Rosemary and Thyme (as series regular Rosemary Boxer), The Camomile Lawn and The Good Life (as series regular Barbara Good).

Maureen Lipman returns to the Menier Chocolate Factory to play Lotte Schoen - she previously appeared in A Little Night Music (also Garrick Theatre). Her many theatre credits include My Mother Said I Never Should (St James Theatre), Harvey (Theatre Royal Haymarket), Daytona (Park Theatre and Theatre Royal Haymarket), When We Are Married (Garrick Theatre), Glorious (Duchess), Aladdin and The Sisters Rosensweig (Old Vic), Thoroughly Modern Millie (Shaftesbury Theatre), Peggy For You (Hampstead), Re-Joyce (West End, national tour and US transfer), Wonderful Town (Queen's), See How They Run (Shaftesbury; Olivier Award for Best Comedy Performance) and extensive work for the National Theatre, including Oklahoma! (also West End), Macbeth, Long Day's Journey Into Night and The Front Page. For television, her work includes Plebs, Bull, Ladies of Letters, Skins, He Kills Coppers, Sensitive Skin, About Face, All at No. 20, Agony, Cold Enough for Snow and Eskimo Day; and for film, The Agent, The Pianist, Educating Rita and Gumshoe.

Petra Markham play Miss Framer. Her theatre credits include Hedda Gabler, Separate Tables (Salisbury Playhouse), Heldenplatz (Arcola Theatre), A Doll's House (Birmingham Repertory Theatre and tour), The Recruiting Officer (Lichfield Theatre), Made in Bangkok (Newcastle Rep Theatre) and Man For Hire (Stephen Joseph Theatre). For television, her work includes Criminal Justice, Hotel Babylon, 20 Things to Do Before You're 30, Plotlands; and for film, Back to the Garden and Cemetery Junction.

From 1968 to 1986, Trevor Nunn was the youngest ever Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, directing over thirty productions, including most of the Shakespeare canon, as well as Nicholas Nickleby and Les Misérables. From 1997 to 2003, he was Artistic Director of the National Theatre, where his productions included Troilus and Cressida, Oklahoma!, The Merchant of Venice, Summerfolk, My Fair Lady, A Streetcar Named Desire, Anything Goes and Love's Labour's Lost. He has directed the world premières of Tom Stoppard's plays Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia and Rock n Roll; and of Cats, Sunset Boulevard, Starlight Express and Aspects of Love by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Other theatre includes Timon of Athens, Skellig (Young Vic); The Lady From The Sea (Almeida Theatre); Hamlet, Richard II, Inherit the Wind (The Old Vic), A Little Night Music (Menier Chocolate Factory, West End and Broadway), Cyrano de Bergerac, Kiss Me Kate (Chichester Festival Theatre); Heartbreak House, Flare Path, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, The Tempest (Theatre Royal, Haymarket); Scenes from a Marriage (Coventry & St James), All That Fall (Jermyn Street & New York); A Chorus of Disapproval and Relative Values (West End). Work for television includes Antony and Cleopatra, The Comedy of Errors, Macbeth, Three Sisters, Othello, The Merchant of Venice and King Lear, and on film, Hedda, Lady Jane and Twelfth Night.

For more information, visit www.menierchocolatefactory.com.

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