Full Cast Announced for LUCE at Southwark Playhouse, Starring Mel Giedroyc

Southwark Playhouse today announces the full cast for the UK premiere of JC Lee's LUCE, which runs March 9 to April 2. Joining Mel Geidroyc are Natasha Gordon, Martins Imhangbe, Elizabeth Tan and Nigel Whitmey. Natasha Gordon replaces Josette Simon who has had to withdraw from the production for personal reasons. Simon Dormandy, whose recent productions include his own stage adaptation of iconic film The Hudsucker Proxy, will direct, and his Hudsucker collaborator Dick Bird designs.

Luce, which premiered at the Lincoln Center Theatre in 2013, is a gripping, funny, fast-paged and profoundly disturbing piece about the fear of homegrown terrorism. Set in an ordinary American town, but addressing anxieties that are growing throughout the Western world, it raises troubling questions about parenting, education and racism. Do we ever really know our children? Why must they be perfect? And where do the springs of violence lie?

Mel Giedroyc plays Amy. Mel is an actress, comedian and presenter, best known for her comedy work with Sue Perkins. She has co-hosted television series such as Mel & Sue, Light Lunch, and The Great British Bake Off, and was seen on ITV's Christmas Day broadcast The Sound of Music Live!, a new television dramatisation of the world's most popular musical. Mel's other stage credits include New Boy (Trafalgar Studios) and Eurobeat (Novello).

Natasha Gordon plays Harriet. Theatre credits includes Red Velvet (Tricycle/New York), The Low Road and Clubland (Royal Court), Speechless (Shared Experience), The Exception and the Rule (Young Vic), As You Like It, The Tamer Tamed, and Cymbeline (RSC), Skin Deep (Warehouse, Croydon), Aladdin (Lyric Hammersmith), Top Girls (BAC), and Arabian Nights (Young Vic/West End). Television credits include Line of Duty 3, Danny and the Human Zoo, EastEnders, Doctors, Holby City, Secrets and Words, Little Miss Jocelyn, 10 Days to War, Law & Order UK, and The Bill, and film credits include Dough.

Martins Imhangbe plays Luce. Recent theatre credits include Complicite's Lionboy (Tricycle Theatre and World Tour), The Skriker (Manchester Royal Exchange), Octagon (Arcola Theatre), Das Ding (New Diorama Theatre), Romeo & Juliet (Orange Tree Theatre) and A Human Being Died That Night (Hampstead Theatre). Film credits include The Last British Execution.

Elizabeth Tan plays Stephanie. Theatre credits include Harajuku Girls (Finborough Theatre), A Dream of Red Pavilions (Bush Theatre), This Isn't Romance (Soho Theatre and Winner of the Verity Bargate Award), and Road to Kowloon Park (The Warehouse Theatre, Croydon). Television credits include regular roles in Coronation Street and Waterloo Road, and other television work includes Doctor Who, Casualty, The Syndicate, Spooks, Hustle, New Tricks, Spirit Warriors, Hallo Panda, Way to Go and Hotel Babylon. Film credits include Blink, Luck, Swinging with the Finkels, Masterwork, Love Aaj Kal, Dirty Sanchez: The Movie and Witch House.

Nigel Whitmey plays Peter. Theatre credits include Disgraced (Bush Theatre), The Lakeboat/Prairie du Chien (Arcola Theatre), All Mouth (Menier Chocolate Factory), Other People and Disneyland It Ain't (Royal Court), The Cherry Orchard and Black Dahlia (Young Vic), Far Above Rubies (Tricycle Theatre) and Salvation (Gate Theatre). Television credits include Occupied, 24: Live Another Day, Strike Back, Death of a Pilgrim, Le Grand, Midsomer Murders, The Wild West, The Deep, Spooks, The Philanthropist, Waking the Dead, Doctor Who, Casualty and Carrie's War. Film credits include Never Let Go, The Fifth Estate, Knife Edge, Shackleton, 51st Estate, Hotel, Shining Through, Jefferson in Paris, Surviving Picasso and Saving Private Ryan.

Simon Dormandy directs. He recently adapted and co-directed The Hudsucker Proxy, a Complicite, Liverpool Everyman and Nuffield Theatre production based on the Coen Brothers' film. Simon's other recent credits include The Encounter (Complicite), Shangri-La (Finborough), Waiting for Godot and Eldorado (both Arcola Theatre). Simon has also taught and directed at leading London drama schools and at Eton College, where his pupils included Eddie Redmayne and Tom Hiddleston.

Dick Bird is an award-winning designer, whose last collaboration with Simon Dormandy, The Hudsucker Proxy, won Best Design at the 2015 UK Theatre Awards. Dick's other recent work includes Before the Dawn for Kate Bush at Hammersmith Apollo, Hamlet at the Comedie Francaise, La Donna del Lago at the Royal Opera House & the upcoming The Pearl Fishers at The Met.

JC Lee writes for theatre, film and television. Luce received its world première in 2013 at LCT3 at Lincoln Center Theatre. He's received commissions and fellowships from the Old Globe, South Coast Repertory, Playwright's Realm, New Conservatory Theatre Center and the National New Play Network. JC is a graduate of The Juilliard School & Bloomsburg University. He was recently a writer & co-producer for Looking on HBO, where he previously wrote for Girls and is in development on his dark comedy Bad Kids with Peter Berg. He's currently writing the screen adaptation for the musical Pippin for the Weinstein Company and ABC's How To Get Away With Murder.

Tickets are now on sale at 020 7407 0234 or online at www.southwarkplayhouse.co.uk

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