Cast Announced For DISTINGUISHED VILLA at the Finborough Theatre

In a production commissioned by the Finborough Theatre, Kate O'Brien's ground-breaking 1926 drama Distinguished Villa opens at the Finborough Theatre for a four week limited season on Tuesday, 6 September 2022 (Press Nights: Thursday, 8 September 2022 and Friday, 9 September 2022 at 7.30pm).

Brixton, 1926. Mabel Hemworth rules her home and husband with a rod of iron. She expects others to follow her 'nice' example of domestic life. But this rule-bound world is turned upside down by the arrival of Frances, a new lodger who holds modern views about what life can offer. And Mabel's own sister, the mercenary Gwen, a typist obsessed with the cinema, has her own plans to escape.

Independence, romance and a life beyond stifling suburbia beckon. The consequences will be life-changing for everyone...

Both a humorous study of suburban manners and a serious look at the limits placed on young women in the roaring twenties, Distinguished Villa was the debut play of the distinguished Irish writer, Kate O'Brien, now rediscovered for a contemporary audience. When it premiered in the West End in 1926, the play was a hit despite being censored for its outspoken views.

The cast includes Matthew Ashforde (The Roar of the Greasepaint, The Smell of the Crowd, and Masks and Faces at the Finborough Theatre, National Theatre, The Young Vic, Hetty Feather); Mia Austen (Go Bang Your Tambourine at the Finborough Theatre, Pygmalion at The Old Vic, Edmond at Theatre Royal Haymarket); Simon Haines (The Mousetrap in the West End); Tessa Bonham Jones (Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Bridge Theatre); Brian Martin (Jane Clegg at the Finborough Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare's Globe); and Holly Sumpton (The Comedy About a Bank Robbery at the Criterion Theatre).

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