Cast Announced for Revival of COMING CLEAN at King's Head

King's Head Theatre, London has announced casting for the 35th anniversary production of Coming Clean, Kevin Elyot's first play, directed by Artistic Director of King's Head Theatre, Adam Spreadbury-Maher. The production, which will run at the King's Head Theatre from 25 July to 26 August 2017, with a press night on Friday 28 July, will star Lee Knight as Tony, Elliot Hadley as William/Jurgen, Tom Lambert as Robert and Jason Nwoga as Greg.

Lee Knight's theatre credits include Much Ado About Nothing (Wyndham's Theatre) and Savage(Arts Theatre), for which he was nominated for Best Actor at the Offies. Film and television credits include Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire and Sherlock.

Elliot Hadley was recently Associate Director of the award-winning verbatim drama 5 Guys Chillin'at King's Head Theatre and, as one of the original cast members, won the Michael McLiamoir award for Best Male Performance at the Dublin International Arts Festival. Elliot's film and television credits include Alfred Cummins in BBC's Preston Passion, Dark Matters for Discovery Channel USA and Far From the Madding Crowd with Michael Sheen and Carey Mulligan.

Tom Lambert is making his London debut in Coming Clean, having graduated from Oxford University last year. His first professional production, Life According to Saki, won the Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award and transferred to New York earlier this year, playing at the New York Theater Workshop.

Jason Nwoga is a British-Nigerian actor, whose many credits include seasons with the Royal Shakespeare Company and roles for BBC television and radio. He has just finished Disney's blockbuster remake of Desperate Housewives Africa, which was broadcast in 44 countries worldwide.

This will be the first major London revival of Coming Clean since it opened at the Bush Theatre on 3 November 1982, and aptly opens in the month that celebrates the 50th anniversary since the decriminalisation of homosexuality in the UK. Coming Clean looks at the breakdown of a gay couple's relationship and examines complex questions of fidelity and love. The production will headline the King's Head Queer season which is running from August through to September.

The play is set in a flat in Kentish Town, north London, in 1982. Struggling writer Tony and his partner of five years, Greg, seem to have the perfect relationship. Committed and in love, they are both open to one-night stands as long as they don't impinge on the relationship. But Tony is starting to yearn for something deeper, something more like monogamy. When he finds out that Greg has been having a full-blown affair with their cleaner, Robert, their differing attitudes towards love and commitment become clear.

Written 12 years before his most famous play, My Night With Reg, Coming Clean won Elyot the Samuel Beckett Award for writers showing particular promise in the field of the performing arts.

Theatre critic Michael Coveney described Coming Clean as "an elegiac play about sexual relationships at a time when Aids was still a barely credible rumour in Britain, but there was a sense of foreboding in the final scene."

Director Adam Spreadbury-Maher (recent King's Head Theatre productions include the European premiere of Tommy Murphy's Strangers in Between, La Bohème and Trainspotting) will be joined by set designer Amanda Mascarenhas (An Unknown Place, Ovalhouse Theatre, 2016) and lighting designer Nic Farman (Shock Treatment, La Bohème, Così fan tutte, Madam Butterfly, and F*cking Men for the King's Head Theatre).

Coming Clean will be produced by King's Head Theatre and Making Productions Limited.

For more information visit www.kingsheadtheatre.com.

Photo credit: Paul Nicholas Dyke

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