Finty Williams And Jasper Britton to Lead Menier Chocolate Factory's Revival Of PACK OF LIES

The Menier Chocolate Factory announced initial casting for their major revival of Hugh Whitemore's Pack of Lies today.

Hannah Chissick directs Finty Williams, daughter of famed actor Judi Dench, as Barbara Jackson, a role originated by Dench in the original production, with Jasper Britton portraying Stewart.

The production opens on 1 October, with previews from 20 September, and runs until 17 November. The full company will be announced shortly.

Finty Williams theatre work includes The Divide (The Old Vic), Blithe Spirit (The Mill at Sonning), Dinner with Friends (Park Theatre), The Vote (Donmar Warehouse - also More4), The Armour (Defibrillator Theatre), The Lightning Child, Macbeth, Bedlam (Shakespeare's Globe), Luise Miller (Donmar Warehouse) and Twelfth Night (National Theatre). Her television work includes Doc Martin, The Cranford Chronicles, Born and Bred and Tales From the Crypt; and for film, Six Minutes to Midnight, We Can Be Heroes, Delicious, The Good Night, Ladies in Lavender, Gosford Park, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Secret Rapture and Mrs Brown.

Jasper Britton returns to the Menier Chocolate Factory to play Stewart - he previously appeared in Little Shop of Horrors. His theatre work includes Scrooge, What the Butler Saw (Curve, Leicester), The Blinding Light (Jermyn Street Theatre), The Libertine (Theatre Royal Bath and Theatre Royal Haymarket), Richard II, Henry IV, The Jew of Malta, Marat/Sade (RSC), Race, Private Lives (Hampstead Theatre), The Last Cigarette (Chichester Festival Theatre and West End), Oedipus (National Theatre), Plague Over England (Finborough Theatre) and Rhinoceros (Royal Court Theatre). His television work includes Garrow's Law, The Royal, Semi Detached, My Dad's the Prime Minister and Murder in Mind; and for film, Rise of the Foot Soldiers 2, Blood, Anonymous, Morris: A Life with Bells On, Black Beard, Nostradamus and The New World.

The Jacksons are a nice middle aged English couple. Their best friends are the Krogers, their Canadian neighbours. All is blissful in their world until a detective from Scotland Yard asks to use their house as an observation station to foil a Soviet spy ring operating in the area. They are really put to the test when the detective asks them to help set a trap. Should they betray their friends... Or their country?

Hugh Whitemore adapted Pack of Lies from his Act of Betrayal which was part of the Play for Today television series. Inspired by a real-life events, the story is based on Bill and Ruth Search and their teenage daughter Gay Search (who later became a television presenter and journalist), who find themselves at the centre of the investigations into the Portland Soviet spy ring. This new production is the first London revival since it premièred at the Lyric Theatre in 1983 with real life husband and wife Judi Dench and Michael Williams - Dench received an Olivier Award for her performance.

For more information visit: www.menierchocolatefactory.com.

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