Chichester's THIS HOUSE to Transfer to the Garrick Theatre This Autumn

James Graham's critically acclaimed political drama THIS HOUSE will transfer to the Garrick Theatre, following its upcoming run at Chichester's Minerva Theatre. Having originally played two sell-out seasons at the National Theatre, and again directed by Headlong Artistic Director Jeremy Herrin, THIS HOUSE opens for previews on 19 November, with a press night on Wednesday 30 November 2016.

Writer, James Graham commented, 'THIS HOUSE was a very surprising and completely remarkable experience for me when produced at the National 3 years ago. The idea that it's going to find new audiences again is really brilliant and I'm so grateful. We're no longer in a hung parliament - like the 1970s equivalent depicted in the play - but in some ways I think it's become more relevant as more of us are deeply questioning the effectiveness and viability of our current political systems, here and around the world.'

Director, Jeremy Herrin said, 'A play that looks at our democracy is always going to be timely, and there's a joyful theatricality in the way THIS HOUSE represents our parliamentary process, with all its ludicrous quirks. The human drama in the middle of this system is represented movingly and with great generosity. There has always been such good will around this show, so it's brilliant we can share it with more people at The Garrick, an appropriate stone's throw from the House of Commons.'

1974. The UK faces economic crisis and a hung parliament. In a culture hostile to cooperation, it's a period when votes are won or lost by one, when there are fist fights in the bars and when sick MPs are carried through the lobby to register their vote. It's a time when a staggering number of politicians die, and the building creaks under idiosyncrasies and arcane traditions.

Set in the engine rooms of Westminster, James Graham's THIS HOUSE strips politics down to the practical realities of those behind the scenes: the whips who roll up their sleeves and on occasion bend the rules to shepherd and coerce a diverse chorus of MPs within the Mother of all Parliaments.

THIS HOUSE is written by James Graham whose recent work for the Donmar Warehouse includes The Vote, which was also broadcast live on election night, and Privacy, which will open this summer at the Public Theater in New York; and Coalition for Channel 4. Direction is by Headlong Artistic Director Jeremy Herrin whose previous work includes South Downs, Uncle Vanya and Another Country at Chichester as well as People, Places and Things (Headlong/National Theatre and Wyndham's) and Wolf Hall/Bring Up the Bodies (RSC Stratford, Aldwych and Broadway).

Featuring designs by Rae Smith, lighting design by Paule Constable, sound design by Ian Dickinson and choreography by Scott Ambler.

IF YOU GO:

THIS HOUSE

Garrick Theatre, 2 Charing Cross Road, London WC2H 0HH

Booking number: 0330 333 4811 | Website: www.nimaxtheatres.com

www.nationaltheatre.org.uk | 020 7452 3000

www.headlong.co.uk

Performance Times: Monday to Saturday at 7.30pm, Wednesday and Saturday at 2.30pm

Dates: 19 November 2016 - 25 February 2017

Ticket Prices: £20, £35, £45, £55. Premium seats available.

James Graham is an award-winning playwright, film and television writer. His play This House premiered at the Cottesloe Theatre in September 2012, directed by Jeremy Herrin, and transferred to the Olivier in 2013 where it enjoyed sell-out runs with critical acclaim and admiration from current and former MP's for his rendition of life in the Commons. It was broadcast internationally by NT Live and received nominations for the Evening Standard and Olivier Best Play awards.

James's more recent work includes Privacy created with Josie Rourke for the Donmar Warehouse and receiving its New York premiere at the Public Theater this July, starring Daniel Radcliffe. His play Monster Raving Loony opened at the Theatre Royal Plymouth this year and will transfer to Soho Theatre in May. The Vote at the Donmar Warehouse aired in real time on TV in the final 90 minutes of the 2015 polling day and has been nominated for a BAFTA. His Channel 4 drama Coalition also aired during the election and won the Royal Television Society award for Best Single Drama. James has written the book forFinding Neverland with music by Gary Barlow. It opened on Broadway in April 2015. He remains a Writer in Residence at the Finborough Theatre.

His feature film X + Y opened in Spring 2015 after being selected for the Toronto International and London Film Festivals, winning James the Writer's Guild Award for Best First Screenplay. It starred Rafe Spall, Sally Hawkins & Eddie Marsan. He is currently working on a cinematic adaptation of 1984 for director Paul Greengrass.

Jeremy Herrin is Artistic Director of Headlong. His credits include People, Places and Things (Headlong/National Theatre and Wyndham's), This House (Olivier nomination for Best Director), Another Country (Chichester and Trafalgar Studios), Uncle Vanya and South Downs, all of which transferred to London. His other theatre work includes Noises Off (Roundabout Theatre, Broadway), The Moderate Soprano (Hampstead), Statement of Regret (National Theatre), The Absence of War (Headlong and Sheffield Crucible), The Nether (Headlong/Royal Court and Duke of York's) and Wolf Hall / Bring Up the Bodies (RSC Stratford, Aldwych and Broadway), for which he was awarded the Evening Standard Best Director Award and was nominated for a Tony Award as well as an Olivier Award for Best Director.

Further credits include: No Quarter, Haunted Child, The Heretic, Kin, The Priory (Olivier Award for Best Comedy), The Vertical Hour, Off the Endz, Spur of the Moment (Royal Court), The Tempest and Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare's Globe), Hero, Tusk Tusk, That Face (Royal Court Upstairs), Absent Friends (Harold Pinter), Children's Children (Almeida), Death and the Maiden (Comedy), Marble (Abbey Theatre, Dublin), The Family Reunion (Donmar), Blackbird (Market Theatre, Johannesburg), Gathered Dust and Dead Skin, The Lovers, Dirty Nets, Our Kind of Fun, Sudden Collapses in Public Places, Toast, Smack Family Robinson, Attachments, From the Underworld, The Last Post, Personal Belongings, NE1 and Knives in Hens (Live Theatre Newcastle). Radio credits include South Downs, The Vertical Hour and Flare Path.

Jeremy became Artistic Director of Headlong Theatre in 2013, and is co-Chair of Stage Directors UK.

Nica Burns (producer) has over 30 years experience in the theatre. She read law at UCL, trained at Webber Douglas drama school and was a successful actress before becoming Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse, then unfunded, from 1983 - 1989. She was Production Director of Stoll Moss and Really Useful Theatres from 1993 - 2005 programming and running 10 West End theatres. Always entrepreneurial, she has been an independent producer throughout her career, winning many awards. In 2005 she founded Nimax Theatres and co-owns the Palace, Lyric, Apollo, Garrick, Vaudeville and Duchess theatres. She has had a long involvement in the comedy industry as Director of the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, formerly the Perrier Awards. Nica has sat on many boards from Sadler's Wells to the King's Head Theatre Club. In 2012 Nica, working with her developer partners Derwent London Limited and Crossrail, obtained planning permission to build a new theatre on Charing Cross road. She was appointed Fellow of UCL in 2007, President of the Society of London Theatre from 2008-2011 (she is currently Vice President) and was awarded an OBE for services to theatre in the 2013 New Year's honours list.

Since 2000, productions include Medea starring Fiona Shaw directed by Deborah Warner (Queens 2001 and Broadway, 2002), Feelgood by Alistair Beaton (Garrick, 2001), Kiss Me, Kate (Victoria Palace, 2001), My Brilliant Divorce starring Dawn French (Apollo, 2004). In 2005, Sitting Pretty by Amy Rosenthal (tour), Christian Slater in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Gielgud), David Suchet in Man and Boy (Duchess), Who's the Daddy? by Toby Young and Lloyd Evans (King's Head) and David Schwimmer in Some Girl(s) by Neil LaBute (Gielgud). In 2006, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Apollo), the reprise of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest starring Christian Slater and Alex Kingston (Garrick), Breakfast with Mugabe (Duchess), Fool for Love starring Juliette Lewis (Apollo), See How They Run (Duchess). In 2007, A Moon for the Misbegotten starring Kevin Spacey (Old Vic and Broadway) and Swimming with Sharks starring Christian Slater (Vaudeville). In 2008, Rain Man starring Josh Hartnett (Apollo). In 2009, Three Days of Rain starring James McAvoy (Apollo), Timing by Alistair McGowan (King's Head), The Rise and Fall of Little Voice starring Lesley Sharp and Marc Warren (Vaudeville) and Endgame starring Mark Rylance and Simon McBurney (Duchess). In 2010 she co-produced Noel Coward's Design for Living at The Old Vic and When We Are Married at the Garrick. In 2011, Matthew Fox and Olivia Williams in a new Neil Labute play, In a Forest, Dark and Deep at the Vaudeville, Ecstasy by Mike Leigh with Hampstead Theatre at the Duchess, Pygmalion starring Rupert Everett and Kara Tointon at the Garrick, cabaret artist Meow Meow at the Apollo. In 2012, Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night with David Suchet and Laurie Metcalfe (Apollo). In 2013, Tennessee William's Sweet Bird of Youth starring Kim Cattrall (co-production with The Old Vic at The Old Vic), winner of the Best Newcomer Award for Seth Numrich at the Evening Standard Awards 2013. Also in 2013, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (co-production with Chichester Festival Theatre at the Duchess) and The Duck House (Vaudeville) a new comedy by Dan Patterson and Colin Swash starring Ben Miller and Nancy Carroll. In 2014, a trilogy of Beckett plays Not I/Footfalls/Rockaby starring Lisa Dwan (Duchess) and Bakersfield Mist (Duchess), a new play by Stephen Sachs starring Kathleen Turner and Ian McDiarmid. In 2015, Just Jim Dale (Vaudeville) starring Jim Dale. In 2016, Olivier Award winner for Best New Comedy Nell Gwynn (co-production with Eleanor Lloyd and Paula Marie Black at the Apollo) staring Gemma Arterton, Hand To God starring Janie Dee, Neil Pearson, Harry Melling, Jemima Rooper and Kevin Mains (Vaudeville).

Neal Street Productions was formed in 2003 by Sam Mendes, Pippa Harris and Caro Newling to produce film, television and theatre, with Nicolas Brown joining as fourth director in the company's tenth year. In 2015 Neal Street moved under the umbrella of parent company, All3Media. Previously Sam Mendes and Caro Newling established and ran the Donmar Warehouse 1992-2002.

Recent theatre includes: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman, David Greig, produced with Warner Brothers Theatre Ventures, world premiere Theatre Royal Drury Lane May 2013, opening Broadway 2017. Also Shrek The Musical by Jeanine Tesori and David Lindsay-Abaire produced with DreamWorks Animation (Broadway 2008, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane 2011), touring nationwide from July 2014 - 2016. The Painkiller by Sean Foley, co-production with Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company, Fiery Angel and Jean Doumanian at The Garrick. The Bridge Project, a three-year transatlantic venture with the Old Vic/Brooklyn Academy of Music presenting five classic plays for worldwide stages across fifteen international cities, directed by Sam Mendes: The Winter's Tale/The Cherry Orchard with Simon Russell Beale and Rebecca Hall, The Tempest/As You Like It with Stephen Dillane and Juliet Rylance, Richard III with Kevin Spacey. Previously: Three Days of Rain with James McAvoy, The Vertical Hour with Julianne Moore and Bill Nighy, The Painkiller with Kenneth Branagh and Rob Brydon, and world/ UK premieres of The House of Special Purpose by Heidi Thomas, All About My Mother by Sam Adamson, The Hound of the Baskervilles by Steve Canny and Peepolykus, Days of Wine and Roses new version by Owen McCafferty, Anna in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz and Fuddy Meers by David Lindsay-Abaire.

West End/Broadway transfers include: Merrily We Roll Along (Menier Chocolate Factory), South Downs/The Browning Version, Enron (Chichester Festival Theatre), Hamlet, Mary Stuart and Red (Donmar Warehouse), Sunday in the Park with George.

Film and television includes: Heidi Thomas' series Call the Midwife, John Logan's series Penny Dreadful, Stuart A Life Backwards, Starter for Ten, Things We Lost in the Fire, Jarhead, Revolutionary Road, Away We Go, Blood and The Hollow Crown for BBC Two featuring Richard II (dir Rupert Goold), Henry IV Part 1 & Part 2 (dir Richard Eyre), Henry V (dir Thea Sharrock), and forthcoming Henry VI parts 1 & 2 and Richard III (dir Dominic Cooke).

Headlong makes exhilarating theatre for audiences across the U.K. A touring company with a big imagination, we interrogate the contemporary world through a programme of fearless new writing, reimagined classics and potent 20th Century plays. Via a combination of bold artistic leadership and championing of visionary artists, we are able to create spectacular work with the highest possible production values. By positioning the next generation of theatre makers alongside artists of international standing, Headlong ensures it consistently creates work that is bold and original. In recognising the potential for technological innovation - through creative partnerships and the development of innovative digital content - Headlong continues to establish itself as a company for the digital age. Since 2008, we have won ten Olivier Awards for our work.

Previous work includes: People, Places and Things (National Theatre and West End); 1984 (International Tour/UK Tour); The Glass Menagerie (West Yorkshire Playhouse/Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse/UK Tour); The Absence of War (Sheffield Theatres/Rose Theatre, Kingston/UK Tour); The Nether (Royal Court/West End/UK Tour); Spring Awakening (West Yorkshire Playhouse/Nuffield Theatre/UK Tour); American Psycho (Almeida); The Seagull (Nuffield Theatre/Derby Theatre/UK Tour); The Effect (National Theatre); Medea (UK Tour); Boys (HighTide Festival/Nuffield Theatre /Soho Theatre); Romeo and Juliet (Nuffield Theatre/Nottingham Playhouse/Hull Truck/UK Tour); Decade (St Katherine Docks); Earthquakes in London (National Theatre/UK Tour ); ENRON (Chichester Festival Theatre/Royal Court/West End/UK Tour /Broadway); Elektra (Young Vic); Faustus and Salome (UK Tour/Hampstead); Six Characters in Search of an Author (Chichester Festival Theatre/West End/ UK Tour/Sydney/Perth); Edward Gant's Amazing Feats of Loneliness (UK Tour/Soho Theatre); King Lear (Liverpool Everyman/Young Vic); Sisters, Lulu and Medea (Gate); The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Almeida); Rough Crossings, Angels in America (UK Tour/Lyric Hammersmith); A Midsummer Night's Dream, The English Game, The Winter's Tale, Restoration and Paradise Lost.

Forthcoming productions: 1984 (West End), Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme (Abbey Theatre/Glasgow Citizens Theatre/Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse/UK Tour) and Boys will be Boys (Bush Theatre).

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. With its bold thrust stage design, the Festival Theatre is one of the UK's most striking playhouses; the smaller Minerva Theatre sits nearby.

Many of its productions have further lives beyond Chichester. Two highlights of Festival 2015 will be seen in London this year: Jonathan Kent's staging of Young Chekhov transfers to the National Theatre from July, and Michael Morpurgo's Running Wild receives its London premiere at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre in

May. Guys and Dolls, originally produced in Festival 2014, is playing at the West End's Phoenix Theatre and simultaneously touring the UK. Following their run in Chichester this autumn, Love's Labour's Lost and Much Ado About Nothing will transfer to the West End from December, jointly presented by the Royal Shakespeare Company, CFT and the Theatre Royal Haymarket.

Alongside its productions, the Theatre has a much-valued programme of learning and participation work. It has built and strengthened connections within the community through Youth Theatre groups, classes in writing, dance, and drama for a variety of ages, and Heritage activities to document its rich history.

For more information, visit cft.org.uk.

The National Theatre is dedicated to making the very best theatre and sharing it with as many people as possible. We produce productions on the South Bank in London each year, ranging from re-imagined classics to modern masterpieces and new work by contemporary writers and theatre-makers. The National's work is seen on tour throughout the UK, in London's West End, internationally (including on Broadway) and in collaborations and co-productions with regional theatres.

In 2014-15 the NT:

· Staged 25 productions and gave 3,380 performances in the UK and internationally

· Had a larger audience on tour in the UK than on the South Bank - 46% of the UK audience of 2.9 million were outside of London

· Broadcast, via the NT Live programme, to over 2,000 cinemas in 50 countries around the world

· Reached audiences of 4.1 million worldwide

Opening the Clore Learning Centre in 2014 saw the NT expand programmes for schools, young people, families, community groups and adult learners. The nationwide youth theatre festival Connections and playwriting competition New Views engage thousands of young people around the country. Further, over 2000 secondary schools have signed up to the free streaming service,On Demand in Schools since its launch in September 2015. For more visit www.nationaltheatre.org.uk.

To post a comment, you must register and login.