With Nicholas Wright’s Vincent in Brixton currently running at the venue, we are excited to announce the full cast and creative team for Peter Shaffer’s Black Comedy today. Directed by Caroline Steinbeis, the production opens on 27 May, with previews from 16 May, and runs until 11 July.
Returning to the OT are Patricia Allison (as Clea), following her appearance as Viola in Twelfth Night, Joe Bannister (as Brindsley Miller), following his performance as George Tesman in Hedda and the Olivier Award-nomianted Julia Hills (as Miss Furnival). Completing the cast alongside the previously announced Javier Marzan (Georg Bamberger) are Jason Barnett (Colonel Melkett), Chris Chilton (Schuppanzigh), Leah Haile (Carol Melkett), and Simon Manyonda (Harold Gorringe).
The creative team is completed by John Nicholson (Physical Comedy Consultant), Simon Daw (Set and Costume Design), Elliot Griggs (Lighting Design), Simon Slater (Sound Design) and Helena Palmer CDG (Casting Director).
Director, Caroline Steinbeis said today, “We have assembled a company that thrills me in every direction: an exhilarating blend of bold new voices, familiar Orange Tree favourites, and truly legendary comedy performers. Black Comedy is a dazzling farce, and I can’t wait to get started and shed light on these superb characters and uncover all their delicious contradictions. This cast brings precision, mischief, and heart in equal measure, and I know audiences are in for something truly special, surprising, and gloriously entertaining from start to finish.”
Tom Littler, Artistic Director at the Orange Tree Theatre added, “Black Comedy is a peerless masterpiece of comic invention, and I’m delighted that Caroline Steinbeis has assembled such a superb company. It’s a particular pleasure to welcome Patricia Allison and Joe Bannister back to the OT after their recent triumphs in Twelfth Night and Hedda. For audiences looking for summer fun – look no further.”
Introducing the cast for Black Comedy
Patricia Allison returns to the Orange Tree to play Clea – she previously appeared in Twelfth Night. Her other theatre credits include Ghosts (Lyric Hammersmith), Jules and Jim (Jermyn Street Theatre), A Doll’s House Part 2 (Donmar Warehouse), Unprecedented: House Party (Chichester Festival Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Sheffield Theatres), The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Our Town (Royal Exchange Theatre) and Henry V (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre). Her television credits include Death in Paradise, His Dark Materials, Extraordinary, Superworm, Sex Education, Behind the Filter, Fame Game, Alan Partridge Comic Relief, Les Misérables, Moving On and Thanks for The Memories; and for film, Recursive Dreams, By the Throat, Paradise and Tiny Cow.
Joe Bannister returns to the Orange Tree to play Brindsley Miller – he previously appeared in Hedda. His other theatre credits include The Da Vinci Code (Salisbury Playhouse), The Confessions, Trouble in Mind, As You Like It (National Theatre), The Contingency Plan (Sheffield Theatres), The Watsons (Menier Chocolate Factory, Chichester Festival Theatre), Ramona Tells Jim(Bush Theatre), Wild Honey (Hampstead Theatre) and Hobson’s Choice (Vaudeville Theatre). His television credits includeLockerbie: A Search for Truth, This Sceptred Isle, Screw, Finding Alice, The Singapore Grip, Curfew, Howards End and Endeavour; and for film, The Isle.
Jason Barnett plays Colonel Melkett. His theatre credits include The Hot Wing King, The Visit, Saint George and the Dragon, Emily and the Detectives, War Horse (National Theatre), Hamlet (Bristol Old Vic), The Seagull (Harold Pinter Theatre), The Key Workers Cycle (Almeida Theatre), Living Newspaper, Instructions for Correct Assembly, Prime Time, Friday Night Sex, The Victorian in the Wall (Royal Court Theatre), Life of Galileo (Young Vic), About a Boy (Young Vic, Bush Theatre, Unicorn Theatre), Mogadishu(Lyric Hammersmith, Royal Exchange Theatre), and The Winter’s Tale, Pericles and Days of Significance (RSC). His television credits include The Count of Monte Cristo, 3 Body Problem, The Completely Made Up Adventures of Dick Turpin, The Power of Parker, Black Ops, Murder they Hope, Agatha Raisin, Bridgerton, Waffle the Wonder Dog, Lee and Dean, Hailmakers, Porridge, Bliss, Jonathan Creek, Josh, Death in Paradise, Bad Education, Phone Shop and The Bill as series regular CSE Eddie Olusunje; and for film, Seize Them!, Straight Shooter, London Road, Cinderella, Superbob, One Man and his Dog and The Sight.
Chris Chilton plays Schuppanzigh. His theatre credits include Travelling Playhouse, Talking Heads – A Chip in the Sugar (Leeds Playhouse), Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Blenheim Palace), North by Northwest (Theatre Royal Bath), The Crucible(Royal Exchange Manchester), A Mad World My Masters, The City Madam, Cardenio, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (RSC), Horrible Christmas (Cambridge Corn Exchange), Enjoy (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Charlotte’s Web (Derby Theatre) and We Love You City(Belgrade Theatre). His television credits include Talamasca: The Secret Order, Shakespeare Unlocked: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Everything but the Ball, The Queen’s Nose, The Waiting Time, Peak Practice and Open Faces; and for film, The Damned United and The Honey Trap.
Leah Haile plays Carol Melkett. Her theatre credits include Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Oxford Playhouse), The Winter’s Tale, Pericles (RSC), The Lovely Bones (Birmingham Rep, UK tour), Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Palace Theatre) and The Crucible (Manchester Royal Exchange). Her television credits include The White House, Flatmates, The Musketeers, and The Five; and for film, Snow White.
Julia Hills returns to the Orange Tree to play Miss Furnival – she previously appeared in Springs Eternal, We the Undesigned and Dealing with Clair. Her other theatre credits include Bedroom Farce, How the Other Half Loves, Special Occasions (The Mill at Sonning), Calendar Girls the Musical, The Mirror Crack’d (UK tours), Worst Wedding Ever (Salisbury Playhouse, UK tour), All’s Well That Ends Well, The School for Scandal, Hamnet, The Cherry Orchard, King Lear, Richard II (Tabacco Factory Theatres), Paif, Entertaining Mr Sloane (Curve Leicester), The Cherry Orchard (Rose Theatre Kingston), The Glass Menagerie (Everyman Theatre) and Beside Herself (Royal Court Theatre). Her television credits include Small Town Politics, Boomers, Broadchurch, Outnumbered, The Roman Mysteries, All in the Game, Murder in Suburbia, Wipeout, Star, Trevor’s World of Sport, Murphy’s Law and Peak Practice.
Simon Manyonda plays Harold Gorringe. His theatre credits include Our Country’s Good, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Lyric Hammersmith), The Crucible, Romeo and Juliet (Sheffield Theatres), Word-Play (Royal Court Theatre), The Clinic (Almedia Theatre), Far Away, The Way of the World (Donmar Warehouse), Actually (Trafalgar Studios), Barber Shop Chronicles, Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, King Lear, Greenland, Welcome to Thebes (National Theatre), King Lear (The Old Vic), Giving, Wildfire (Hampstead Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Julius Caesar (RSC). His television credits include The Buccaneers, Eric, Pennyworth, Van Der Valk, His Dark Materials, King Lear, Shakespeare and Hathaway, Neil Gaiman’s Likely Stories, Doctor Who, Suspect and Whitechapel; and for film, The Roots Manoeuvre, Northern Comfort, Rye Lane, The Witches, Undergods, In Fabric, The Current War, Jawbone and World War Z.
Javier Marzan plays Georg Bamberger. His theatre credits include One Man Two Guvnors (Octagon Theatre), Romeo and Juliet(Rose Theatre), The Ghost Train (Royal Exchange Theatre), Sex and the Three Day Week, No Wise Men (Liverpool Playhouse Theatre), The Arthur Conan Doyle Appreciation Society (Traverse Theatre), And The Horse You Rode On (The Barbican), The Critic(Minerva Theatre), Jack and the Beanstalk, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, A Christmas Carol (Lyric Hammersmith), Spyski(Lyric Hammersmith, West Yorkshire Playhouse), A Streetcar Named Desire (Nuffield Theatre Southampton), The Hound of Baskervilles (Duchess Theatre), All in the Timing, Goose Nights (International tours) Mindbender and Rhinoceros (UK tours). He also co-wrote and performed in The Massive Tragedy of Madame Bovary (UK tour). Marzan was the Physical Comedy Consultant on Paddington the Musical, as well as Physical Comedy Creator on the film, Paddington.
Peter Shaffer’s (1926 – 2016) other plays include Five Finger Exercise (Evening Standard Drama Award), The Private Ear/The Public Eye, The Royal Hunt of the Sun, The White Liars, Amadeus (Evening Standard Drama Award, Tony Award for Best Play),Yonadab, Lettice and Lovage, and The Gift of the Gorgon. For television, he wrote The Salt Land and Balance of Terror; and for radio, Who Do I Have the Honor of Addressing. Shaffer also co-wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation of Amadeus which won multiple Golden Globe and Academy Awards.
Caroline Steinbeis’ directing credits include Three Sisters (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse), The Contingency Plan/Resilience, Rutherford and Son, Love and Information (Sheffield Theatres), Edward 11 (Cambridge Arts Theatre), The Tempest (Royal & Derngate), The Crucible, Brilliant Adventures (Manchester Royal Exchange), We Want You To Watch (National Theatre), The Broken Heart (Shakespeare’s Globe), Take, Love, Run (Molodiy Theatre, Kiev), Show 6 (Lyric Hammersmith, UK tour), Talkshow, Mint, A Time To Reap (Royal Court Theatre), Earthquakes in London (UK tour), Fatherland (Gate Theatre), Charged (Soho Theatre), Mad Forest, Photo Story (Battersea Arts Centre) and Mile End (Southwark Playhouse, UK tour).
John Nicholson is a director, comedy consultant and founding member of Peepolykus theatre company. His comedy consultant credits include Accidental Death of an Anarchist (Hope Street Theatre, Sheffield Theatres), One Man Two Guvnors (Bolton Octagon), The Secret Adversary (Watermill Theatre), and A Little Hotel on the Side (Bath Theatre Royal). His writing credits include King Arthur: The Comedy, The Time Machine (Park Theatre, UK tour), The Massive Tragedy of Madame Bovary, The Hound of the Baskervilles (Jermyn Street Theatre), The Three Musketeers (Exeter Northcott), A Christmas Carol (Plymouth Barbican), Dolly Mixtures (Customs House), No Wise Men (Liverpool Playhouse), Foot and Mouth, Sick Room (Soho Theatre), Spyski (Leeds Playhouse). His television credits include Off Their Rockers, The Mulligans, PS Comedy, Comedy Cuts, Rumbled, Comedy Nation, Under Surveillance, Stop the World and A Salted Nut.
