Aden Gillett & Janie Dee in The Little Hut
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Tours: Janie Dee Enters Little Hut, Fresh Quartet

Janie Dee and Aden Gillett, last seen on stage together as adulterous lovers in Peter Hall’s revival of Pinter’s Betrayal at the West End’s Duchess Theatre in 2003, will reunite to play a shipwrecked couple in a new revival of Nancy Mitford’s 1950s comedy The Little Hut. Tim Luscombe directs the new production, which launches a regional tour on 20 April 2010 from Greenwich Theatre ahead of a possible West End transfer.

On a desert island, Philip, a stalwart Englishman, is shipwrecked with his elegant wife Susan and her secret lover Henry. In such close quarters, Henry persuades Susan to confess her infidelity to Philip and adopt a plan, whereby each man will dwell with her every other week while the other retires to... the little hut. Dee and Gillett are joined in the cast by Robert Portal.

Translated by Nancy Mitford from the French original by Andre Roussin, The Little Hut ran for over 1500 performances in Paris and three years in the West End, before being made into a 1957 film starring Ava Gardner, David Niven and Stewart Granger.

Following Greenwich, The Little Hut visits Guildford, Windsor and the Rose, Kingston, where the current schedule concludes on 15 May 2010. No West End venue or dates have yet been confirmed.

Also soon launching a tour ahead of a planned London season is a revival of Ronald Harwood’s 1999 play Quartet, starring Timothy West, Gwen Taylor, Edward Hardwicke and Susannah York. On a summer's day in a home for retired musicians, three old friends, once the brightest stars of the opera world, are joking and reminiscing. But their tranquillity is about to be shattered by a surprise new arrival.

Harwood’s play was previously seen at the West End’s Albery Theatre (now the Noel Coward) in the premiere production with Donald Sinden, Alec McCowen, Stephanie Cole and Angela Thorne. The revival launches from the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre Guildford from 16 June 2010, before hitting Cambridge, Brighton, Richmond, Nottingham, Milton Keynes, Norwich, Oxford and Malvern.

- by Terri Paddock

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