Chichester's NEVILLE'S ISLAND Begins Tonight in the West End

Jamie Hendry Productions presents the West End transfer of Chichester Festival Theatre's critically-acclaimed production of Neville's Island, which will run at the Duke of York's Theatre from today 10th October with opening night for press on 21st October 2014.

With a star-studded comedy cast featuring Adrian Edmondson (reprising his performance as Gordon from the original run at Chichester), Miles Jupp, Neil Morrissey and Robert Webb, Neville's Island is written by Tim Firth and directed by Angus Jackson.

Neville's Island follows the misadventures of four out-of-condition, out-of-their-depth businessmen on an out-of-control team-building exercise.

Shipwrecked in the Lake District, menaced by wildlife and with only a sausage between them, our unlikely explorers battle the elements and each other as corporate bonding descends into a hilarious carnival of squabbling, French cricket and cagoules.

This celebrated production of Neville's Island marks the play's triumphant return to the West End, 20 years after the play was first seen in London at the Apollo Theatre, where it opened in October 1994. Originally presented by the Stephen Joseph Theatre in 1992 and subsequently at Nottingham Playhouse in 1994, Neville's Island was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Comedy in 1995 before being adapted by Tim Firth for Yorkshire Television and presented on ITV as a TV movie in 1998 starring Timothy Spall, Martin Clunes, David Bamber and Jeff Rawle.

Adrian 'Ade' Edmondson (Gordon) is best known for his roles in television series The Young Ones and Bottom, both of which he co-wrote alongside long-time comedy collaborator Rik Mayall. Part of the alternative comedy boom of the 1980s originating from The Comedy Store, Edmondson, alongside Mayall and other British comedians including Nigel Planer, Alexei Sayle and French and Saunders, launched TV comedy series The Comic Strip Presents... Edmondson starred in the 1985 feature film The Supergrass and appeared in numerous TV series including Blackadder, Jonathan Creek and Holby City. Recently Edmondson presented Ade in Britain, The Dales and Ade at Sea on ITV following his 2013 win of Celebrity MasterChef and has toured with his band The Bad Shepherds since 2008.

Miles Jupp (Angus) is an actor, comedian and writer most recently seen in the hit BBC series Rev and Sky's Spy. His television credits include A Young Doctor's Notebook, starring Daniel Radcliffe and Jon Hamm, The Thick Of It, Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle and Balamory. Film credits include Grimsby, starring Sacha Baron Cohen, Chick Lit, The Monuments Men, The Riot Club, Made In Dagenham and Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes. Jupp's current stand-up show Miles Jupp Is The Chap You're Thinking Of has toured to sold-out venues around the country, and he regularly features on comedy shows including Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow, Mock the Week, Have I Got News For You, and Never Mind the Buzzcocks. In 2001, Jupp won the So You Think You're Funny and The Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year awards, followed by a nomination for the Perrier Best Newcomer Award in 2003 for his show Gentlemen Prefer Brogues.

Neil Morrissey (Neville) is best known for his role as 'Tony' in the BBC sitcom Men Behaving Badly, in which he starred for seven series. Morrissey has appeared in multiple television series including Boon, Roll Over Beethoven, Gentlemen and Players, My Summer with Des, Reeves & Mortimer, ITV's Monkey Trousers, Paradise Heights, Murder in Mind and Carrie and Barry. More recently, Morrissey has been seen in the BBC One drama series Waterloo Road. In 2005, Morrissey starred alongside Julie Walters, Celia Imrie and Duncan Preston in the West End production of Victoria Wood's Acorn Antiques, followed by starring roles in Guys and Dolls and a national tour of Rain Man. During the 2010 World Cup, he took his love of British beers to South Africa for an ITV series Men Brewing Badly.

Robert Webb (Roy) is best known for his role as Jeremy in Channel 4's multi-award winning Peep Show in which he stars alongside long-time collaborator David Mitchell. Alongside this, Mitchell and Webb wrote and starred in The Mitchell and Webb Situation and That Mitchell and Webb Look which won the BAFTA for Best Comedy in 2007. A regular on comedy panel shows, he has also appeared in Fresh Meat, BBC3's The Smoking Room and British films Confetti, Magicians and The Wedding Video. In 2008, Webb made his West End stage debut in the UK premiere of Fat Pig by Neil LaBute at Trafalgar Studios and recently starred alongside Mark Heap in Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense at the Duke of York's Theatre.

Tim Firth's theatre credits include The Safari Party, 2002 Olivier Award-winning Best New Musical Our House, The Flint Street Nativity, Sign of the Times and Calendar Girls which was adapted from the 2003 British Comedy Award-winning film and has been produced worldwide and has broken all British box office records for a play. Other film credits include Kinky Boots, Blackball and The Wedding Video. On television, Firth's credits include Money For Nothing, The Rottenrolls, Cruise of the Gods, The Flint Street Nativity, Trapped and multi award-winning Preston Front. Recently, Firth's new musical comedy This is My Family opened at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre (winner 2013 UK Theatre Awards Best Musical Production). It will return to Sheffield this October. Tim is currently working on a stage musical with Gary Barlow.

Angus Jackson is Associate Director at Chichester Festival Theatre where he has previously directed King Lear starring Frank Langella, The Browning Version (also in the West End), Best Entertainment and Family Olivier Award-winning Goodnight Mister Tom (and West End and national tour), Bingo (and Young Vic), Wallenstein, Funny Girl, The Waltz of the Toreadors, The Father and Carousel. For the National Theatre, Jackson has directed Rocket to the Moon, The Power of Yes, Fix Up and Elmina's Kitchen (and West End and national tour) with other theatre credits including Promises Promises, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, The Shawl, The Prayer Room, Dealer's Choice and My Night with Reg. Film credits include Epithet, Running for River, Old Street and Elmina's Kitchen for which he was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best New Director.

Neville's Island is designed by Robert Innes Hopkins with lighting by Howard Harrison, sound by Paul Groothuis and music by Isobel Waller-Bridge.

DETAILS:

Duke of York's Theatre, St Martin's Lane, London WC2
Box Office: 0844 871 3051
Website: www.nevillesisland.co.uk
Dates: 10th October 2014 - 3rd January 2015
Press Night: 21st October 2014
Performances: Monday - Saturday 7.30pm and Wednesday & Saturday matinees 2.30pm
Ticket Prices: £15 - £45 previews thereafter £15 - £55
Day Seats: To be announced
Groups: 6+ £45 Monday - Thursday
ON SALE: Friday 29th August

Jamie Hendry Productions are West End and regional theatre producers and general managers. Current and recent productions include: The Wind in the Willows by Julian Fellowes, George Stiles & Anthony Drewe; Let It Be celebrating the 50th Anniversary of The Beatles; The Little Prince by Nicholas Lloyd Webber & James D Reid; Soho Cinders by George Stiles & Anthony Drewe; Legally Blonde the Musical; Sebastian Faulks's Birdsong; Onassis by Martin Sherman; La Cage aux Folles by Jerry Herman & Harvey Fierstein; Spring Awakening by Duncan Sheik & Steven Sater; The Last Five Years by Jason Robert Brown; No Man's Land by Harold Pinter; tick, tick...BOOM! by Jonathan Larson; Under the Blue Sky by David Eldridge and That Face by Polly Stenham.

Chichester Festival Theatre is one of the UK's flagship theatres with an international reputation for producing work of the highest quality, ranging from large-scale musicals to distinguished dramas. Festival 2014 is a landmark season which marks the reopening of the newly refurbished Festival Theatre, following a major capital project, RENEW, to restore and upgrade its Grade 2* listed building. Chichester Festival Theatre can now proudly match its world-class artistic reputation with world-class spaces. Festival 2014 includes a trilogy of new plays, Pressure, Pitcairn and Taken At Midnight, which explore the hidden stories behind known historical events, a celebration of work by playwright Peter Shaffer including Black Comedy and Amadeus, and major productions of Guys and Dolls and Gypsy. During 2014, Chichester Festival Theatre productions will continue to be seen by the widest possible audience beyond West Sussex, in the West End, on tour in the UK and worldwide.

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