Two Join Cast of the World Premiere of TEDDY at Southwark Playhouse

Snapdragon Productions and Theatre Bench announce a casting update, including the title role, for the world première of Teddy - by Tristan Bernays and music by Dougal Irvine. Snapdragon's Eleanor Rhode directs Joseph Prowen as Teddy and Jennifer Kirby as Josie in the production, which opens on 8 June, with previews from 4 June, running until 27 June.

They will join 1950s heartthrob Johnny Valentine and his rock 'n' roll band The Broken Hearts. The Broken Hearts' blistering live performance of Dougal Irvine's original songs will underscore Teddy and Josie's punchy lyrical ride through the dark and damaged world of 1950s London.

Elephant and Castle. 1956. Saturday night.

Teddy and Josie are about to hit the streets of London for a good time. It's pissing it down, they're totally skint, and someone wants them dead - but a little trouble never stopped a Ted from having a good time. Desperate times call for rock 'n' roll.

Expect sex, violence and damn good hair.

Tristan Bernays is a writer and performer. As a writer, his work includes Iron (Orange Tree Theatre) Iron Oxide (Southwark Playhouse as part of Theatre Renegade's Courting Drama), The Bread & The Beer (Soho Theatre and UK Tour), Old Fools (Bush Theatre as part of Theatre Renegade's Courting Drama), Coffin (Kings Head Theatre), Arden 2.0 as part of Old Vic New Voices' Arden Project (Warner Brothers Theatre) and Aftershocks (National Theatre Studio).

Dougal Irvine is an award winning composer, lyricist and writer. He trained in playwriting at Royal Court. Credits as a bookwriter/lyricist/composer include Departure Lounge, In Touch, The Other School, Angry Birds and The Busker's Opera. As a lyricist his credits include Britain's Got Bhangra (The Off West End Award for Best New Musical), Laila and The Lighthouse. As a composer, his work includes The Snow Queen (Nuffield Theatre/Royal and Derngate), The Bacchae, Blood Wedding (Royal and Derngate during the Cameron Mackintosh/Mercury Musicals Resident Composer Scheme), The Merchant of Venice, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Comedy of Errors (Changeling Theatre) and Captured by the Dark (StopGap Theatre).

Joseph Prowen plays Teddy. His theatre credits include Jefferson's Garden (Watford Palace Theatre), An Ideal Husband (Chichester Festival Theatre), Mojo and Dinner (Acorn Productions) and The History Boys (Oxford Triptych Theatre).

Jennifer Kirby plays Josie. Her theatre credits include Pride and Prejudice (Regents Park Open Air Theatre), The Recruiting Officer (Salisbury Playhouse) and Henry IV Part One and Henry IV Part Two (Royal Shakespeare Company).

Director Eleanor Rhode directs. Her recent theatre work includes Toast, The Dead Wait and Thark (Park Theatre), Generous, the London première of The Drawer Boy by Michael Healey and the first London revival in over 30 years of A Life by Hugh Leonard (all Finborough Theatre). Other directing includes The Gypsy Thread (National Theatre Studio), Can I Be Straight With You? (Bush Theatre), The Error of Their Ways (Cockpit Theatre), A Number (Camden People's Theatre), This Lime Tree Bower (Edinburgh Festival) and staged readings of The Session (Pushkin House), The Promised Land (Tristan Bates), The Geese of Beverly Road (Theatre 503), Photos of You Sleeping (Hampstead Theatre) and The December Man (L'homme de décembre), Sihanoukville and Barrow Hill (Finborough Theatre). She is currently working on a new musical for Centerstage Theatre Seattle.

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