Almedia Theater Announces Fall Casting

Samuel West will direct Harley Granville Barker's WASTE, which runs at the Almeida from 25 September – 15 November 2008, with press night on 2 October.  Designs are by Peter McKintosh with lighting by Guy Hoare and sound by John Leonard.

The cast includes Nancy Carroll (Amy O'Connell), Richard Cordery (Russell Blackborough), Patrick Drury (Justin O'Connell), Peter Eyre (Lord Charles Cantilupe), Will Keen (Henry Trebell), Helen Lindsay (Countess Mortimer/Bertha), Hugh Ross (Cyril Horsham) and Michael Thomas (George Farrant).  Final casting will be announced shortly.

Radical politician Henry Trebell sees his personal and political lives collide.  An affair with a married woman threatens Trebell's power and passionate ideals;  her insistence on a woman's right to choose brings private scandal into the public spotlight.  Controversially banned by the Lord Chamberlain on its release, Waste is a rich portrait of early 20th Century society with strong resonances and relevance for today.

Nancy Carroll's theatre credits include Coward, Cocktails and Cabert for Chichester Festival Theatre and The Enchantment, Man of Mode, The Voysey Inheritence, The False Servant and The Talking Cure all for The National Theatre.  For the Royal Shakespeare Company her credits include Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, As You Like It, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and The Winter's Tale.  Sam West has previously directed her in The Lady's Not for Burning for Chichester Festival Theatre.  Carroll was last at the Almeida in Jonathan Kent's production of King Lear.   Her film credits include Iris and An Ideal Husband and on television she has been seen in Cambridge Spies, Doctors and Midsommer Murders.

Richard Cordery's extensive credits for the Royal Shakespeare Company include Michael Boyd's productions of Henry VI Parts 1, 2 and 3, Richard II and Richard III as well as Nancy Meckler's production of The Comedy of Errors and Lindsey Posner's production of Volpone.  His other theatre credits include Othello for Michael Attenborough in Stratford Ontario, The Winter's Tale for the Young Vic and The Front Page for Chichester Festival Theatre.  His film credits include The Loss Adjuster and Lorenzo's Oil.  On television his credits include Midsommer Murders, Absolute Power, The Falklands Play and Trauma.

Peter Eyre's Almeida credits include Camera Obscura, Chère Maître in which he played opposite Irene Worth and Hamlet in which he played Polonius.  His other, more recent, theatre credits include Ring Round the Moon at The Playhouse, The Cherry Orchard for Sheffield Crucible,  Terre Haute for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, on tour nationally and in the West End, The Wild Duck for the Old Vic and Don Carlos for Sheffield Theatres and The Gielgud.  His film credits include The Affair of the Necklace, Surviving Picasso, Remains of the Day and Maurice.  His television credits include Question of God, Cambridge Spies, Don Quixote, Bertie and Elizabeth and Friends.

Will Keen was last at the Almeida as T S Eliot in Tom and Viv.  His other theatre credits include The Arsonists for the Royal Court, Kiss of the Spider Woman for the Donmar Warehouse, Five Gold Rings - also for the Almeida, Cheek by Jowl's The Changeling at the Barbican, The Rubenstein Kiss for The Hampstead Theatre, Peter Hall's productions of Don Juan and Man and Superman for the Theatre Royal Bath, Tom Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia at The National Theatre, and Neil Bartlett's production of Pericles at the Lyric Hammersmith.  His film work includes Love and Other Disasters and The Nine Lives of Thomas Katz.  On television he has been seen as Francis Bacon in C4's Elizabeth and Cezanne in The Impressionists for the BBC.

Samuel West's directing credits include The Romans In Britain, Insignificance and As You Like It for Sheffield Theatres where he was Artistic Director.  His production of Patrick Marber's Dealer's Choice recently completed a run at the Trafalgar Studios following its opening at the Menier Chocolate Factory.  He directed Cosi Fan Tutte for the English National Opera and Three Woman and a Piano Tuner for the Minerva Theatre and Hampstead Theatre.  As an actor his extensive work on stage includes Betrayal for the Donmar Warehouse, A Number and Much Ado About Nothing for Sheffield Theatres, Doctor Faustus and The Master and Margarita for Chichester Festival Theatre, the title roles in Hamlet and Richard II both directed by Stephen Pimlott for the Royal Shakespeare Company and The Sea and Arcadia for The National Theatre.  His many screen credits include Iris, Jane Eyre and Persuasion and on television his credits include Margaret Thatcher:  The Long Walk to Finchley, Foyles War and Cambridge Spies.

Michael Attenborough will direct Steven Mackintosh and David Morrissey in the European premiere of Neil LaBute's three hander,  IN A DARK DARK HOUSE, which runs at the Almeida from 20 November -17 January, with press night on 27 November.  In a Dark Dark House is designed by Lez Brotherston, with lighting by Howard Harrison and sound by Howard Wood.   Final casting will be announced shortly.

Brothers Terry and Drew are worlds apart.  The extraordinary circumstances of their reunion force them to relive the carefully forgotten memories of their childhood.  An encounter with a pretty girl putting holes on her father's miniature golf course sends out shockwaves that mean their lives will never be the same again.  This explosive new drama by the controversial Neil LaBute explores the depths of family loyalty with powerful and moving results.

Steven Mackintosh's (Drew) more recent theatre credits include My Zinc Bed for the Royal Court, The Woman in Black for the Fortune Theatre and Cops for Greenwich Theatre.    His film work includes The Jacket, Underworld:  Evolution, The Escapist, Tulse Luper Suitcases, The Mother, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, The Land Girls, Prick Up Your Ears and the forthcoming Underworld:  Rise of the Lycans, The Daisy Chain and Good.  His television credits include The Amazing Mrs Pritchard in which he played opposite Jane Horrocks, The Other Boleyn Girl, Our Mutual Friend, Care, The Buddha of Suburbia and Sweet Revenge.

David Morrissey's (Terry) extensive television credits include Peter Morgan's The Deal in which he played Gordon Brown in Stephen Frears' production as well as Sense and Sensibility, State of Play, Cape Wrath, Ripley's Gold, Blackpool, Out of Control, Linda Green and Our Mutual Friend. His theatre credits include Three Days of Rain for the Donmar Warehouse, Much Ado About Nothing at the Queen's Theatre as well as King John, Richard III and Edward IV all for the Royal Shakespeare Company and El Cid and Twelfth Night for Cheek by Jowl.  His film credits include The Waterhouse, The Other Boleyn Girl, Basic Instinct 2, Captain Correlli's Mandolin, Hilary and Jackie, The One That Got Away and Being Human.

As Artistic Director of The Almeida Theatre Company Michael Attenborough's productions have been Neil LaBute's The Mercy Seat as well as Five Gold Rings, Brighton Rock, The Late Henry Moss, Enemies, Frank McGuinness' There Came A Gypsy Riding, Theodore Ward's Big White Fog, Clifford Odets' Awake and Sing! and most recently his critically acclaimed production of Harold Pinter's The Homecoming.  On leaving the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he was Principal Associate Director, he was invited to become an Honorary Associate Artist.  In 2005 Michael Attenborough directed the world premiere of David Edgar's Playing with Fire in the Olivier at The National Theatre.

Matt Wilde will direct Peter McDonald in the European premiere of Adam Rapp's Nocturne.  Performances of Nocturne are 16, 17, 18 (press performance), 19, 23, 24, 25 and 26 July at 7.30pm and 19 and 26 July at 3pm.  Tickets are from £6-£22.   For Nocturne Wilde will collaborate with composer Phillip Neil Martin – most recently Music Creator in Residence at the Royal College of Fashion.  The Almeida Theatre production of Nocturne will be presented at the Traverse Theatre as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe following its run in Islington from 31 July – 10 August.   Set, costume and video are by Lorna Heavey with lighting by Tim Mitchell.

Rapp's keen eye for human relationships and his deft ear for language makes for a shocking exploration of the accidental killing of a little girl by her teenage brother.   Across the decade and a half that follows the teenager becomes a man, and tries attempts to cope with the ramifications of his guilt and the estrangement of his surviving family, while making a desperate search for redemption.

Peter McDonald was most recently on stage in James McDonald's production of Glengarry Glen Ross at the Apollo Theatre.  His other theatre credits include Exiles and Aristocrats for

The National Theatre, Resurrection Blues for the Old Vic, Days of Wine and Roses and A Lie of the Mind for the Donmar Warehouse, The Lieutenant of Inishmore at the Garrick Theatre and The Wexford Trilogy for the Tricycle Theatre.  His television credits include The Family Man, Sea of Souls, The Plot to Kill Hitler, Green Wing and Spooks.  His film credits include Nora, I Went Down, Saltwater (for which he won best actor at the Irish Film and Television Awards), The Henchman's Tales, Felicia's Journey and November Afternoon.

Award-winning Adam Rapp is an American novelist, playwright, screenwriter and filmmaker.  His plays which have been produced in the UK include Ghosts in the Cottonwoods and Gompers, both at the Arcola Theatre, Blackbird which was performed at the Bush Theatre and Finer Noble Gases which was produced at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.  His other work, produced in the US, includes Animals and Plants, Stone Cold Dead Serious, Faster, Trueblinker, Dreams of the Salthouse and Red Light Winter.

Matt Wilde is a former Associate Director of The National Theatre Studio and has worked extensively as a Staff and Associate Director for The National Theatre and Out of Joint.   For Almeida Projects he directed Roy Williams' Out of the Fog.  His other directing credits include Get Tested for the 24hr Plays at the Old Vic, The Sky's The Limit for Old Vic New Voices, Polar

Bear for Birmingham Rep, On Tour for the Royal Court and Liverpool Everyman and Roy Williams' Slow Time for NT Education.  He was Co-Director with Nicholas Hytner on the revival of His Dark Materials for The National Theatre and Associate Director on David Hare's Stuff Happens, also for the National.   Wilde's production of Simon Bent's Branded has recently been seen at the Old Vic.

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