Zoe Tapper, Todd Boyce & More to Star in LAST OF THE BOYS at Southwark Playhouse

Sarah Stribley Productions and Anna Haigh Productions in association with Alchemist Theatricals present the European premiere of LAST OF THE BOYS by Steven Dietz. Directed by John Haidar, the production will run 11 May - Saturday 4 June 2016 with a press night on Friday, 13 May 2016 at 8pm.

The cast will feature Todd Boyce, Cavan Clarke, Demetri Goritsas, Wendy Nottingham, and Zoë Tapper.

Designed by Max Dorey. Lighting design by Christopher Nairne. Sound design by Max Perryment.

Todd Boyce plays Jeeter. He is well known for playing Stephen Reid in Coronation Street. Theatre credits include Fixer (Hightide), You Can't Take it With You (Southwark Playhouse), Exonerated (Riverside Studios), The Women of Lockerbie (Orange Tree Theatre), Hamlet (Young Vic and tour). He has numerous credits with Sydney Theatre Company and Sydney Dance Company. Film includes Everest, The Game, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Great Expectations and The Delinquents. Television includes Valentine's Kiss, Mr Selfridge, Sherlock, Hollyoaks and Spooks.

Cavan Clarke plays Young Soldier. He trained at Rose Bruford. Theatre includes Wendy & Peter (RSC), Two Noble Kinsmen (White Bear), The Cherry Orchard (Young Vic), East of the Sun, West of the Moon (Quarter Too Ensemble) and Sleeping Beauty (The Braids Art Centre/C21). Film includes Who Will Separate Us.

Demetri Goritsas plays Ben. Theatre includes Mr Burns (Almeida), The Sweetest Thing in Baseball, Boy Gets Girl (Royal Court), His Girl Friday, A Prayer for Owen Meany, Finding the Sun (National Theatre), Assassins (Manchester Library Theatre), Street Scene (ENO). Film includes Snowden, Everest, Manifesto, Rush, Good Vibrations, Austenland, X-Men: First Class, Acts of Godfrey, The Whistleblower, Genova, A Mighty Heart, Thunderbirds, Sky Captain & The World of Tomorrow, Spy Game, The Bourne Identity, Saving Private Ryan, Excess Baggage and Little Women. Television includes Black Mirror, Angel of Decay, A Poet in New York, Nixon's The One, Episodes, Twenty Twelve, The Special Relationship, Torchwood, Spooks, The Path to 9-11, Numb3rs, Cracker, Baddiel's Syndrome, The New Addams Family, Millennium and Highlander.

Wendy Nottingham plays Lorraine. Theatre includes Now This is Not the End (Arcola), Forgotten Places (Pleasance Edinburgh), Donkey Heart (Old Red Lion), The Winslow Boy (The Old Vic), Step 9 (of 12) (Trafalgar Studios), The York Realist (ETT/Royal Court), In Basildon (Royal Court Theatre), Grief (National Theatre), Blithe Spirit (Manchester Royal Exchange), Fen (Finborough), Stoopud Fucken Animals (Traverse Theatre), It's a Great Big Shame! (Theatre Royal Stratford East), Total Eclipse (Menier Chocolate Factory), Cloud Nine (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield) and Abigail's Party (Hampstead). Television includes Peaky Blinder, Holby City, Mr Selfridge, The Borgias, Spooks, Silent Witness, Victoria Wood's Christmas Special and Extras. Film includes Madame Bovary, Housewife 49, Bigga than Ben, Atonement, Notes on a Scandal, Babel, Vera Drake, Topsy-Turvy, Secrets and Lies and The Short and Curlies.

Zoë Tapper plays Salyer. She trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Theatre includes Othello (Shakespeare's Globe) and Epitaph for George Dillon (Harold Pinter Theatre). Film includes Blood, Cheerful Weather for the Wedding, Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, These Foolish Things and Stage Beauty. Television includes Mr Selfridge, The Musketeers, Survivors and Demons.

It's the final summer of the twentieth century: The Rolling Stones are on tour and, somewhere in the Great Central Valley of California, Ben's trailer is the last one standing.

Ben and Jeeter fought together in Vietnam. For thirty years they have been united by a war that divided the world.

Just as their reunion is getting underway, they are interrupted by Jeeter's new girlfriend and her mother in hot pursuit. As the night deepens, their shared past is thrown into focus, bringing its ghosts vividly to life. A fierce, funny, haunting play about a friendship forged by war and tested by time.

This European Premiere is from award-winning playwright, Steven Dietz, who recently placed eighth on the list of the Top Ten Most Produced Playwrights in America, tied with Edward Albee and Tennessee Williams. It is produced by Sarah Stribley, who produced Superior Donuts at Southwark Playhouse in 2014, and Anna Haigh, who produced This Will End Badly at the beginning of 2016.

Reviews for Steppenwolf Theatre Company's 2005 production:

"So blisteringly good that it should immediately be airlifted onto a Broadway stage."
The Chicago Sun-Times

"Heartbreakingly resonant. In its movement between present reality, memory and fantasy, it is to the Vietnam War what Angels in America was to the AIDS crisis."
Talkin' Broadway

For press enquiries and further information please contact Susie Safavi on 07875277913 or e-mail susie.safavi@southwarkplayhouse.co.uk

Notes to Editors

Playwright Steven Dietz's thirty-plus plays have been seen at over one hundred regional theatres in the United States, as well as Off-Broadway and internationally. He is a two-time recipient of the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award (Fiction, Still Life with Iris), as well as a two-time finalist for the Steinberg New Play Award (Last of the Boys, Becky's New Car). Other awards include the 2007 Edgar Award for Best Mystery Play for Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure; the PEN USA West Award in Drama for Lonely Planet; and the 1995 Yomuiri Shimbun Award for his adaptation of Shusaku Endo's novel Silence. His latest play, This Random World will receive its world premiere at the Humana Festival of New American Play at Actors Theatre of Louisville. His other play On Clover Road will receive a National New Play Network "rolling world premiere" at three U.S. theatres this year. Other widely-produced plays include Rancho Mirage, Yankee Tavern, Shooting Star, Jackie and Me (from Dan Gutman), Inventing van Gogh, God's Country, Private Eyes, Dracula (from Bram Stoker), and The Nina Variations. Steven and his family divide their time between Seattle and Austin, where he teaches playwriting and directing at the University of Texas.

Director John Haidar is a graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. As Director, his credits include The Little Match Girl (Birmingham REP/Tour), The New Electric Ballroom (RADA), The Beauty Queen of Leenane, A Skull in Connemara, The Lonesome West (CAM FM), Macbeth (Cambridge American Stage Tour), The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Glass Menagerie (Corpus Playroom), Romeo and Juliet, The Alchemist (ADC Theatre). As Assistant/Associate Director, his credits include I See You (Royal Court), Photograph 51 (Noël Coward Theatre), The Changeling, 'Tis Pity She's A Whore, Antony and Cleopatra (Shakespeare's Globe), 366 Days of Kindness (Birmingham REP/Tour), Tartuffe (Birmingham REP) and All's Well That Ends Well (RADA).

Designer Max Dorey graduated from the Professional Theatre Design MA at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in 2012. He was a finalist for the Linbury Prize in 2013 and was a trainee/assistant designer at the RSC in 2013/14. Set and Costume Design credits include Teddy (Southwark Playhouse), Lardo, Marching on Together (Old Red Lion), Coolatully (Finborough Theatre), Sleight and Hand (Edinburgh Fringe), I Can Hear You and This is Not an Exit (The Other Place at the Courtyard, RSC/Royal Court Upstairs), Count Ory (Blackheath Halls) and Black Jesus (Finborough Theatre).

Lighting Designer Christopher Nairne's recent theatre work includes This Will End Badly (Edinburgh Festival and Southwark Playhouse), Teddy (Southwark Playhouse), Psychodermabrasion (Jackson's Lane Theatre), Little Light (Orange Tree Theatre), Coolatully (Finborough Theatre), Johnny Got His Gun (Southwark Playhouse), Our Ajax (Southwark Playhouse, Lionboy (Complicite - Tricycle Theatre & International Tour), Around the World in 80 Days (Cambridge Junction), Sense and Sensibility (Watermill Theatre, Newbury), Cans (Theatre503), The School for Scandal (Park Theatre & Theatre Royal, Bury), Dracula (Theatre Royal Bath), The Ghost Hunter (UK tour), Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises (Trafalgar Studios), Shallow Slumber (Soho Theatre), A Dish of Tea with Dr Johnson (Out of Joint - Arts Theatre & UK Tour).

Sound Designer Max Perryment's work includes Creditors, The Remarkable Case of K and The Surplus (Young Vic Theatre), Black Dog Gold Fish (Vaults Festival). His sound design credits include Sense of Ending and And Then Come the Nightjars (Theatre 503), Three Lions (St James' Theatre and UK Tour).

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