Hampstead Theatre announces the full cast and creative teams for The Snail House and Ravenscourt which open this September.
The world premiere of The Snail House will feature Amanda Bright (In From the Cold, Netflix; Macbeth, Shakespeare Globe), Raphel Famotibe (Rocks, Fable Pictures; Wonder Boy, Bristol Old Vic), Vincent Franklin (Bodyguard, BBC; Mary Stuart, Almeida Theatre), Grace Hogg-Robinson (Flesh and Blood, ITV; The Ocean at the End of the Lane; National Theatre/Duke of York’s), Megan McDonnell (Normal People, BBC; The Playboy Of The Western World, Lyric Theatre), Eva Pope (Waterloo Road, BBC; Still Alice, UK Tour) and Patrick Walshe McBride (Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators, BBC; Peer Gynt, Barbican).
The Snail House, written and directed by Richard Eyre, will run from 7 September until 15 October. Former Artistic Director of the National Theatre and, writer and regular adaptor of other people’s work for the stage, The Snail House is Eyre’s first completely original play. He previously premiered Jennifer Dawson’s novel The Ha Ha at Hampstead Theatre Club in 1968.
Eyre is joined by designer, Tim Hatley; associate designer, Ross Edwards; lighting designer, Hugh Vanstone; lighting associate and programmer, Sam Waddington; sound designer, John Leonard; associate sound designer, Ali Taie; casting director, Ginny Schiller CDG and assistant director, Jessica Mensah.
Sir Neil Marriot, familiar from TV as a government medical advisor, is hosting his own lavish birthday party. But, amidst the oak panelling and the champagne his family are at one another’s throats – and there’s something deeply unsettling about one of the caterers …
Richard Eyre, Director of The Snail House, said:
“Apart from versions of existing plays in foreign languages, I haven’t written and directed a play of mine since 1968 when my adaptation of Jennifer Dawson’s novel, The Ha Ha, was on at what was then the Hampstead Theatre Club. I am very nervous and very excited to be directing my first original play at almost the same location.”
In the theatre’s Downstairs space, Ravenscourt by Georgina Burns, directed by Hampstead Theatre’s Associate Director, Tessa Walker, will run from 23 September until 29 October. Burns is an alumnus of Hampstead Theatre’s INSPIRE course for emerging playwrights and Ravenscourt is her first produced full-length play.
The world premiere of Ravenscourt will feature Josef Davies (1917, Dreamworks; Hangmen, Royal Court/Wyndham’s), Jon Foster (The Salisbury Poisonings, BBC; Every Day I Make Greatness Happen; Hampstead Theatre), Andrea Hall (Honour, ITV; Shook, Southwark Playhouse) and Lizzy Watts (The Durrells, ITV; Either, Hampstead Theatre).
Walker is joined by designer, Debbie Duru; lighting designer, Matt Haskins; sound designer Anna Short; fight director Philip d’Orléans; movement director, Rebecca Wield and assistant director, Sam Edmunds.
Lydia is a mental-health professional determined to make a difference. But as she settles into her new job at Ravenscourt she starts to realise how high the odds are stacked against real change. Maybe the cynics are right: the system is broken and nobody cares…
Tessa Walker, Director of Ravenscourt, said:
‘It is a great pleasure and privilege to be directing Georgina’s first produced full-length play, and the first piece that we have produced from our INSPIRE programme. Ravenscourt really captured my imagination when I read the script and I can’t wait to get started in rehearsals with this wonderful team.”
