Theatre Royal Plymouth Sets Full Cast of MONSTER RAVING LOONEY

Theatre Royal Plymouth Artistic Director Simon Stokes today announces the full cast for his production of James Graham's Monster Raving Loony. Samuel James takes the role of Screaming Lord Sutch, with Joseph Alessi, Camilla Beeput, Joanna Brookes, Jack Brown playing a number of different characters. The production opens on Wednesday 10th February, with previews from Saturday 6th February, and runs until Sat 27th February.

Monster Raving Loony is a fast-paced and hilarious journey using the life and exploits of Screaming Lord Sutch to examine the state of the nation and Britain's post-war identity crisis. Featuring a full house of 'cameos' of iconic comedians, sitcom characters and stand-ups it asks if the British sense of humour can begin to uncover who we are, where we have been and where we might be going next.

Seen through the eyes of one extraordinary man, Monster Raving Loony is a theatrical feast for the heart and mind from acclaimed writer James Graham (whose play The Angry Brigade premiered at Theatre Royal Plymouth in 2014).

James Graham is a playwright and film and television writer who won the Pearson Playwriting Bursary in 2006 and went on to win the Catherine Johnson Award for the Best Play in 2007 for his play Eden's Empire. His play The Vote (Donmar Warehouse) aired in real time on television in the final 90 minutes of the 2015 polling day. His other plays include This House (National Theatre), The Angry Brigade (Theatre Royal Plymouth and Paines Plough), Tory Boyz for the National Youth Theatre, and The Whisky Taster (Bush Theatre). James has written the book for Finding Neverland the musical with music by Gary Barlow which is currently on Broadway. His television work includes Caught in a Trap. For films, his credits include X and Y. He is currently adapting the bestselling book Gypsy Boy as a feature film also for BBC Film and working with the Weinstein Co. on an adaptation of Mrs Queen Takes the Train.

Joseph Alessi's recent theatre credits include The One That Got Away (Bath Ustinov Studio), The Hook (Liverpool Everyman), Brief Encounter (Broadway/ Australian & US tour), Midsummer Night's Dream (Royal & Derngate), The Wind in the Willows, Privates on Parade, Jerusalem (all West Yorkshire Playhouse), Wonderful Town (kenny Wax Ltd), Antony & Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, The Tempest (all RSC). His television credits include I Live with Models, Mummy's Boys, Mr Selfridge, God on Trial, Revelations, In a Land of Plenty, Wing and Prayer, Kavanagh, Pie in the Sky, All in the Game, The Chief. His film credits include The Other Woman, Family Business, Bridget Jones' Diary, London Kills me and Chaplin (1992).

Camilla Beeput's recent theatre credits include In The Red and Brown Water (Young Vic), Bad Girls (Garrick Theatre), Daddy Cool (Shaftsbury Theatre), West Side Story (Leicester Haymarket) and Money To Burn (The Venue). Her television credits include Partners In Crime, New Tricks, Bull, Grantchester, Birds of a Feather, Legends, Scott and Bailey, Me and Mrs Jones, White Van Man, Peep Show, Death in Paradise and Top Boy. Her film credits include Writer's Retreat, Mortdecai, Superbob and Harry Hill The Movie.

Joanna Brookes's theatre credits include The Rise and Fall of Little Voice (Birmingham Rep), The Importance Of Being Earnest (Nottingham Playhouse), The Physicists (Donmar Warehouse) and The Waltz Of The Toreadors (Chichester Festival Theatre). Her television credits include Siblings, Watson And Oliver, Taking The Flak, Tiny And Mr. Duk's Huge Show, Alistair McGowan's Xmas Special, Grange Hill and Alistair McGowan's Big Impression. Her film credits include The Magnificent Eleven, In The Loop and Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone.

Jack Brown's theatre credits include A Midsummer Night's Dream (Michael Grandage Company/West End), Symphony (Soho Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe/NT Watch This Space, UK tour) Home (Theatre Royal Stratford East) and The History Boys (Theatre By The Lake). His television credits include Skins, World Without End, Meet Sam and Caerdydd; for film, Razors, Mighty Milk, Minuet, Nectar, Saturday Saturday, When We Were Wolfs; and for radio, And Then We Came To The End, Doctor Who.

Samuel James returns to Plymouth to play Sutch. He previously performed in the Theatre Royal Plymouth production Grand Guignol and Stockholm (Theatre Royal Plymouth and Frantic Assembly) in the Drum. His other theatre credits include Twelfth Night, Women Beware Women (National Theatre), Ragtime (Piccadilly Theatre), The Full Monty (Prince of Wales Theatre), Fault Lines (Hampstead Theatre), Abigail's Party (Theatre Royal Bath), Decade (Headlong Theatre). His television credits include Birds of a Feather, The Shadow Line, Battle of Britain, Rose and Maloney, Poirot and New Worlds. His film credits include Psychic Spies and Closer.

Simon Stokes was Artistic Director at the Bush Theatre in London from the mid 1970s to the late 1980s. Thereafter he was Artistic Associate and Director of Development for the Turnstyle Group in the West End. An international director, Simon's work includes Manuel Puig's Kiss of the Spider Woman at the Bush Theatre with Simon Callow and Mark Rylance; When I Was A Girl I Used To Scream and Shout by Sharman Macdonald, with Julie Walters, Geraldine James and Dawn French in the West End and subsequently in the USA and A Slip of the Tongue by Dusty Hughes, at the Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago and in the West End, with John Malkovich and Ingeborga Dapkunaite. In Plymouth, Simon has directed Carl Grose's Grand Guignol and Horse Piss for Blood, The Astronaut's Chair by Rona Munro, Nostalgia by Lucinda Coxon, Moonshine by Snoo Wilson and both The Green Man and Presence by Doug Lucie. Among an ongoing series of collaborations with Simon Callow have been Inside Wagner's Head at the Lynbury Studio Theatre, Royal Opera House and Emmanuel Darley's Tuesdays At Tesco's in Edinburgh and New York.

To post a comment, you must register and login.