Felicity Kendal to Lead ARGUMENT At Theatre Royal Bath

Theatre Royal Bath today announces The Argument by William Boyd, its third Summer Season production, with Felicity Kendal starring in the role of Chloe. The production, directed by Christopher Luscombe, will run in the Main House from 7 to 24 August with opening night for press on 12 August.

The Argument delves into what it is to dispute with those we love and offers a biting take on human dynamics. This is an often hilarious, darkly comic and compelling exploration of how it is the tone in which words are said which has such potency.

Pip and Meredith are having a disagreement about a film they've just seen when Pip's phone rings and a full-scale row about their marriage breaks out. In the course of ten arguments, we follow the repercussions, as Meredith's parents, Chloe and Frank, her best-friend Jane, and Pip's best-friend Tony, take sides and end up embroiled in arguments of their own. Vitriolic, razor-sharp and veracious, the arguments rake over past prejudices, expose unjust judgements and reveal difficult truths.

The Argument will run in addition to the previously announced Blithe Spirit by Noël Coward, directed by Richard Eyre and starring Jennifer Saunders as well as Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya in which Rupert Everett makes his directorial stage debut and will also play the title role in a new version by David Hare. Further casting and the full summer programme will be announced in due course.

Felicity Kendal CBE is one of the UK's best-loved actresses, best known for her role in the BBC sitcom The Good Life. She has appeared in previous Theatre Royal Bath productions, including A Room with a View, Hay Fever and Relatively Speaking. Her roles in Much Ado About Nothing and Ivanov at the Strand Theatre won her the 1989 Evening Standard Award for Best Actress. Other stage credits also include Waste and the Seagull (Old Vic), Indian Ink (Aldwych), Heartbreak House (Theatre Royal Haymarket), Tartuffe (Playhouse) and Arcadia, The Second Mrs Tanqueray, Othello and Amadeus for the National Theatre.

Christopher Luscombe's (Director) recent credits include The Nightingales and Nell Gwynn, winner of the 2016 Olivier Award for Best New Comedy. Other productions include Love's Labour's Lost, Much Ado About Nothing and Twelfth Night for The RSC, The Merry Wives of Windsor and Nell Gwynn for Shakespeare's Globe and in the West End, Enjoy, When We Are Married and The Madness of George III. He is an associate artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

William Boyd OBE (writer) is a novelist, short story writer and screenwriter. His many novels include An Ice Cream War, Restless and Sweet Caress. His works have received several awards including the Whitbread Book award and Somerset Maugham Award for his novel A Good Man in Africa. His work Any Human Heart also won the Prix Jean Monnet de Littérature Européenne and was longlisted for the Booker Prize. His stage work also includes Longing, an adaptation of two Chekhov short stories.

The Argument is presented by arrangement with Lee Dean.