Russell Tovey, Mark Bonnar & More Announced For QUEERS At Old Vic

The Old Vic today announces casting for Queers, a series of eight monologues curated by Mark Gatiss. Staged on 28 and 31 July at The Old Vic, they mark 50 years since the Sexual Offences Act of 1967 began the decriminalisation process for homosexuality between men. Queers celebrates some of the most poignant, funny, tragic and riotous moments of British gay male history over the last century.

Mark Bonnar, Sara Crowe, Jack Derges, Ian Gelder, Kadiff Kirwan, Russell Tovey, Gemma Whelan and Fionn Whitehead will perform monologues written by Matthew Baldwin, Jon Bradfield, Jackie Clune, Michael Dennis, Brian Fillis, Mark Gatiss, Keith Jarrett and Gareth McLean. The monologues will be directed by Mark Gatiss and by Old Vic Associate Director Max Webster and Baylis Director Joe Murphy.

Queers is produced in partnership with BBC Studios, Pacific Quay Productions. The monologues were filmed earlier in the year, directed by Mark Gatiss and featuring many of the cast who will be appearing on stage at The Old Vic. These films will be screened on BBC Four this summer.

Queers is part of The Old Vic's One Voice series, funded by the TS Eliot Estate, which celebrates the rawest of theatre forms - a single voice on a stage without scenery and with nothing to rely on but words.

The full line up is as follows:

Fri 28 Jul

The Man on the Platform by Mark Gatiss, performed by Jack Derges

The Perfect Gentleman by Jackie Clune, performed by Gemma Whelan

I Miss the War by Matthew Baldwin, performed by Ian Gelder

Something Borrowed by Gareth McLean, performed by Mark Bonnar

Mon 31 Jul

Missing Alice by Jon Bradfield, performed by Sara Crowe

Safest Spot in Town by Keith Jarrett, performed by Kadiff Kirwan

A Grand Day Out by Michael Dennis, performed by Fionn Whitehead

More Anger by Brian Fillis, performed by Russell Tovey

Matthew Baldwin is a writer and actor. In 2013 Matthew and his colleague Thomas Hescott developed The Act, for which they received OffWestEnd Award nominations for Best Actor and Best New Playwright before transferring to Trafalgar Studios. Matthew and Tom went on to write Outings which played at the Edinburgh Festival and went on a national tour and was performed at the Lyric Theatre for a celebrity gala performance. He is currently working on a new play, Casa Marco. Matthew's other theatre work as an actor includes 46 Beacon (Hope Theatre), The Clouds (Cambridge Arts Theatre), Westward Ho (White Bear) and the 24 Hour Plays (The Old Vic) as well as performing in the award-winning Above The Stag pantomimes. Film and TV work includes Love Bite, Material Girl, and The Dark Room.

Mark Bonnar's theatre credits include The Duchess of Malfi (The Old Vic), Sixty-Six Books (Bush Theatre), The Cherry Orchard, Dido Queen of Carthage, Philistines (National Theatre), Novecento, Twelfth Night, Parade (Donmar Warehouse), Three Sisters (Royal Exchange) and Lost Highway (Young Vic) amongst many others. On television, he is a regular in the series Catastrophe and Shetland. Other television credits include Apple Tree Yard, Unforgotten, New Blood, Undercover, Jekyll and Hyde, Home Fires, Vera, Silent Witness, Grantchester, Line of Duty, Psychoville, Twenty Twelve and Doctor Who. Film work includes Take Down, Sunset Song, X-Moor and Camera Trap.

Jon Bradfield is the co-writer and songwriter of London's longest-running and most popular alternative pantomime series, having created eight adult Christmas shows for Above The Stag Theatre including most recently Beauty on the Piste and Tinderella - Cinders Slips It In, each of which played 50 sold-out performances. With the same co-writer, Martin Hooper, he wrote the play A Hard Rain which has been performed in London and New York. He also wrote the music and lyrics and co-wrote the book for the musical Get Em Off. Jon has contributed to the long-running topical sketch show News Revue at the Canal Cafe Theatre. He has written articles for the Guardian, Attitude and Exeunt. Jon is also a theatre marketer and graphic designer.

Jackie Clune is a writer, actress and singer who lives in East London. She has published numerous features for The Guardian (Weekend magazine), The Daily Mail (Femail), The Mail on Sunday (YOU magazine), The Observer, The Independent, Red magazine, and The Scotsman. In 2012 she had her own column in Top Sante magazine. In 2004 she published her first novel Man of the Month Club (Quercus UK, Penguin USA) and in 2006 Extreme Motherhood - The Triplet Diaries (Macmillan, serialised in Femail). She has recently written a monologue for BBC2, and is currently writing a one woman play. Jackie is a regular contributor to the Jeremy Vine show on BBC Radio 2, and has also contributed to various BBC Radio 4 arts programmes (Front Row, Woman's Hour, Loose Ends). She is currently writing her second novel for the young adult market.

Sara Crowe's theatre credits include Cinderella (Lyric Hammersmith), Noises Off (Mercury Theatre), The City Madam (RSC), Bedroom Farce (Duke of York's), Less Than Kind (Jermyn St Theatre), Calendar Girls (Noel Coward), Life X 3 (Watermill Theatre), The Corstophine Rd Nativity (Festival Theatre Edinburgh), Dames at Sea (Ambassadors Theatre), Hay Fever (Albery Theatre), My Best Friend (Hampstead Theatre), Relative Values, Plunder (Savoy Theatre), Henceforward (Vaudeville Theatre), Twelfth Night (Playhouse Theatre), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Regents Park), Who's the Daddy?, A Right Royal Farce (King's Head) and Private Lives (Aldwych Theatre) for which she received the Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress, the Variety Club Best Actress Award, and the Critics Circle Most Promising Newcomer Award. She has also performed in UK tours of Don't Dress For Dinner, Miss Crush the Musical, Fallen Angels, Radio Times, Absurd Person Singular and Donkey's Years. This Autumn, Sara will tour the UK in Alan Ayckbourn's How The Other Half Loves, directed by Alan Strachan. Television credits include Midsomer Murders, Doctors, Eastenders, Skins, Gil Mayo and The Green Green Grass. Her film credits include Carry on Columbus, Four Weddings and a Funeral and The Steal.

Michael Dennis is an experienced Company Stage Manager whose work includes Occupational Hazards and The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures (Hampstead Theatre), Future Conditional (The Old Vic), Oppenheimer (RSC), The Recruiting Officer (Donmar Warehouse) and The James Plays (National Theatre of Scotland, NT, Edinburgh International Festival). His first play, Dark Sublime, is currently under consideration.

Jack Derges's theatre credits include The Boys in the Band (West End & Park Theatre), The Sweethearts (Finborough Theatre) and Territory (Pleasance London). On television he regularly appears in EastEnders playing Andy Flynn. Other television credits include regular roles in Humans and WPC56, and guest roles in Episodes, Crims, The Royals, Cucumber, Holby City, Switch, Casualty and Skins. Film work includes Freak of Nurture and Dungeons and Dragons:The Book of Vile Darkness and Captain Grant in AUX (Revolutionary Films).

Brian Fillis wrote the screenplay for Against the Law which opened this year's BFI Flare Festival. Brian's past TV work includes The Curse of Steptoe and his TV debut was his adaptation of his cult comic play Fear of Fanny which was nominated for a string of awards including a Broadcast Award for Best Single Drama and an RTS Award for Julia Davis. Brian was himself nominated for the Breakthrough Talent Award by BAFTA in 2007. In February 2009, An Englishman in New York had its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival followed by a broadcast on ITV1. In 2010, Excluded, a single drama for BBC Two, was seen by 1.4 million viewers as part of the channel's School Season and in 2011 he created and wrote three episodes of Sirens. Brian has several projects in development, including Endangered, a returning series at Channel 4, and a feature biopic I (Who Have Nothing). He recently worked on episodes for Simon Beaufoy's upcoming series Trust, and Tatau, a BBC Three drama which aired in 2015.

Mark Gatiss is an actor, writer and producer. He first found success with The League of Gentlemen, with whom he won the Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1997, and went on to enjoy a radio series and three TV series on the BBC and big screen outing in 2005. He has written nine episodes of Doctor Who since its return to television in 2005 and has appeared in the show twice. He is perhaps best known as the co-creator and co-writer of the award-winning global phenomenon Sherlock in which he also plays Mycroft Holmes. Other notable television credits include London Spy, Wolf Hall, Coalition, Mapp and Lucia, The Crimson Petal and the White, Nighty, Night, The Wind and the Willows and Sense and Sensibility. Film credits include The Knot, Denial, Absolutely Fabulous, Dad's Army, Our Kind of Traitor, Bright Young Things and Starter for Ten. Theatre credits include Coriolanus, The Recruiting Officer, The Vote (Donmar Warehouse), All About My Mother (The Old Vic), Season's Greetings (National Theatre), 55 Days (Hampstead), and Three Days in the Country (National Theatre), for which he won an Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Ian Gelder's theatre credits includes Racing Demon (Theatre Royal, Bath), The Treatment, King Lear (Almeida Theatre), Human Animals, The Low Road, Fireface (Royal Court Theatre), Titus Andronicus (Shakespeare's Globe), Gods & Monsters (Southwark Playhouse), Roots, Good, Front Page (Donmar Warehouse), Definitely the Bahamas (The Orange Tree), Company, Racing Demon (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield), Precious Little Talent (Trafalgar Studios), Lingua Franca (Finborough Theatre/59E59 Theatre, New York), The Power of Yes, Henry IV, His Dark Materials, Stuff Happens (National Theatre), Serious Money (Birmingham Repertory Theatre), The Sound of Music (Palladium), The Crucible, Richard III, Titus Andronicus, The Merchant of Venice (RSC/world tour), The Taming of the Shrew (RSC/US tour), A Passage to India, Anna Karenina (Shared Experience), Mouth to Mouth (Albery Theatre), Three Sisters (Chichester Festival), Beyond a Joke (UK tour), Marvin's Room (Comedy Theatre), Poor Superman (Traverse Theatre/Hampstead Theatre), Martin Yesterday (Royal Exchange, Manchester) and Entertaining Mr.Sloane (Greenwich Theatre). Film includes Pope Joan, King Ralph, Jinnah, Little Dorrit and The Fool. Television work includes Snatch, Riviera, Game of Thrones, Mr. Selfridge, Endeavour, Fallen Angel, Robin Hood, The Commander, Poirot, Kavanagh QC McCallum, Ripper Street, EastEnders, Torchwood, Psychoville, The Fades, Silent Witness, Absolutely Fabulous, The Day Today, Holby City, Casualty and Blackeyes.

Keith Jarrett is a former UK poetry slam champion and Rio International Poetry Slam Winner 2014. He was a Fiction Fellow at Lambda Writers' Retreat in Los Angeles, 2015. His short stories have appeared in anthologies and magazines, including Attitude and Tell Tales IV. Keith is a PhD scholar at Birkbeck University, where he is completing his first novel. His poetry collection, Selah, was published this May.

Kadiff Kirwan's theatre credits include Teddy Ferrara, The Vote, City of Angels (Donmar Warehouse), Home and the Dorfman Theatre Opening Gala (National Theatre). On screen he has appeared in Chewing Gum, Drunk History, Black Mirror: Nosedive, Drifters, The Vote, Crims, Call the Midwife and has roles in forthcoming series Timewasters and The Strike Series - Cuckoo's Calling.

Gareth McLean trained as a journalist and has written for The Scotsman, the Guardian, Radio Times, Attitude and Buzzfeed. He began working in television in 2013, as a storyliner on Coronation Street, where he worked for two-and-a-half years. During that time, he helped kill Hayley Cropper. After a stint on Emmerdale he started writing his own scripts and working in drama development for companies such as Playground Entertainment. Something Borrowed is his first script commission.

Joe Murphy is a freelance director with experience working in London, on the West End, Broadway and internationally. He was Artistic Director of nabokov theatre company from 2010 to 2015, during which time the company presented the work of 88 playwrights and 496 artists across three continents. He took up his role as The Old Vic's Season Two Baylis Director in September 2016. Theatre credits as a director include Woyzeck, No's Knife and Associate Director on Girl from the North Country (The Old Vic), What I Learned from Johnny Bevan (Soho Theatre/UK tour), Incognito (Bush Theatre), Blink, Bunny (Soho Theatre/UK tour/off-Broadway), The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (Chichester Festival Theatre/UK tour), The Taming of the Shrew and Midsummer Night's Dream (Shakespeare's Globe/international tour). His Associate Director credits include Wolf Hall (RSC/West End/Broadway), This House (National Theatre), Henry V (Shakespeare's Globe/UK tour) and Ghost Stories (West End/Moscow).

Russell Tovey can currently be seen playing Joe in the landmark production of Tony Kushner's Angels in America at the National Theatre. His other theatre credits include A View from a Bridge (Broadway), The Pass, A Miracle, Plasticine (Royal Court), Sex with a Stranger (Trafalgar Studios), The History Boys, His Dark Materials, Henry V (National Theatre), The Sea (Theatre Royal), A Respectable Wedding (Young Vic), Tintin (Barbican) and The Recruiting Officer (Chichester Festival Theatre). His extensive television credits include lead roles in

series of The Job Lot, Him & Her, Being Human and Sherlock as well as Quantico, Rebekah, The Night Manager, Banished, Looking, Talking to the Dead, What Remains, Walking the Dogs, New Cross-Coming Up, Ashes to Ashes, Doctor Who, Little Dorrit, Mutual Friends and Gavin and Stacey. His film work includes Mindhorn, The Lady in the Van, The Pass, Pride, The Muppets, Blackwood, Effie Gray and The History Boys.

Max Webster is fast emerging as one of the most exciting young directors working in the UK and internationally. He was The Old Vic's first Baylis Director and is now an Associate Director at the theatre. Recent work includes Cover My Tracks, Dr. Seuss' The Lorax (The Old Vic), The Winter's Tale (Lyceum, Edinburgh), King Lear (Royal and Derngate, Northampton/UK Tour), Mary Stuart (PARCO Productions, Tokyo), Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare's Globe/international tour), Orlando, To Kill a Mockingbird, My Young and Foolish Heart (Manchester Royal Exchange), Opera Highlights (Scottish Opera/tour), James and the Giant Peach, My Generation (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Twelfth Night (Regent's Park Open Air Theatre), Skewered Snails (Iron Oxide/Southbank Centre), Anna Karenina (Arcola), The Chalk Circle (Aarohan Theatre, Nepal), Carnival Under the Rainbow and Feast Kakulu (Hilton Arts Festival, South Africa). Upcoming work includes the commission Fanny and Alexander for The Old Vic.

Gemma Whelan's theatre credits include Radiant Vermin, Dark Vanilla Jungle (Soho Theatre), One Man Two Guvnors (Theatre Royal Haymarket/National Theatre), Stephen and the Sexy Partridge (Trafalgar Studios) and Shakespeare for Breakfast. Her recent television credits include the BBC drama The Moorside, Decline and Fall, later this year she reprises her role in Series 2 of Upstart Crow, can be seen again playing Yara Greyjoy in the hotly anticipated Series 7 of Game of Thrones and in The End of the f-ing World on Channel 4 and Netflix. Other on-screen credits include Uncle, Morgana Robinson's The Agency, Asylum, Mapp and Lucia, Hetty Feather, Horrible Histories, The Persuasionists, Murder in Successville, Not Safe for Work, Siblings, Badults, The Harry & Paul Show and Threesome. Film work includes Prevenge, Gulliver's Travels and The Wolfman. As a comedian Gemma created and often performs as the character Chastity Butterworth brining the character to series 3 of Live at the Electric as well as recording a chat show for BBC Radio 4 The Chastity Butterworth Show. In 2010 Gemma won a Funny Women Variety Award for her stand-up comedy.

Fionn Whitehead makes his feature film debut as the lead role of Tommy in Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk this summer. He will next be seen on the big screen in the drama The Children Act directed by Richard Eyre and starring Emma Thompson and Stanley Tucci. On television he starred in the ITV miniseries Him. Earlier this year, he earned critical acclaim for his performance in Glenn Waldron's play Natives (Southwark Playhouse).

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The Old Vic, The Cut, London SE1 8NB

QUEERS

Auditorium Tickets: £10 & £15

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