Jay Benedict & Abi Titmuss
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Abi Titmuss Does Miller in Stage Debut at Courtyard

Glamour model and TV personality Abi Titmuss will make her London stage acting debut this spring in a new production of the late Arthur Miller’s rarely performed 1989 play Two-Way Mirror. The production, in which Titmuss co-stars with American Jay Benedict (pictured together), will have a limited season from 2 March to 20 April 2006 (previews from 28 February) at the Courtyard Theatre, now based at the Theatre Museum in Covent Garden.

Two-Way Mirror is a sexually charged, semi-autobiographical play about Miller’s relationship with his one-time wife and Hollywood icon, Marilyn Monroe. In both parts of the drama (Elegy for a Lady and Some Kind of Love Story), the objective world grows dim and distant as reality seems to consist wholly or partly of what the characters' needs require it to be.

Titmuss became famous for the media scandal surrounding her relationship with disgraced TV presenter John Leslie. She subsequently appeared on TV’s Celebrity Love Island and has appeared on the front cover of 38 magazines in the last 12 months. She trained as an actress alongside her early nursing profession.

Commenting on her new role, Titmus said: “It’s been a lifelong ambition of mine to star in a play in the West End so this is a dream come true for me. I feel humbled to have been given this opportunity to perform in an Arthur Miller play. Two Way Mirror is the most beautiful play I’ve ever read and I can’t wait to get on stage and bring it to life - I feel a mixture of sheer joy and absolute terror!”

Benedict’s credits include the films Aliens, The Russia House and Saving Grace, and on stage in the US, Chicago One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Sweet Bird of Youth, directed by Harold Pinter.

Two-Way Mirror will be directed by Mike Miller, who has previously directed Elegy for a Lady. He remarked: “Given the events of her extraordinary life, and as a modern-day icon, Abi was born to play the part of Angie. Once again Abi will surprise the public with a different facet to her luminous talents.”

The new production is presented by Sue Scott Davison in association with the Courtyard Theatre. The Courtyard, which was based at King’s Cross, has set up in residence to present a continuing season of plays at the Covent Garden-based Theatre Museum, which is not ordinarily used as a regular public performance space (See News, 21 Sep 2005).

- by Caroline Ansdell

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