1st Night Photos: Family Farce Runs into West End

Philip King’s classic wartime farce See How They Run returned to the West End last night (29 June 2006, previews from 20 June) in a production at the Duchess Theatre directed by actor-director Douglas Hodge, juggling his time with his current onstage duties in the Globe’s Titus Andronicus (See News, 28 Apr 2006).

A real family affair, the new West End revival features Nancy Carroll and her off-stage husband Jo Stone-Fewings, along with the couple’s own dog Digby, who puts in two cameo onstage appearances during the comedies chase sequences. The ensemble cast also includes Tim Pigott-Smith, Julie Legrand, Nicholas Blane, Adrian Fear, Natalie Grady, Chris MacDonnell and Nicholas Rowe.

TO SCROLL THROUGH ALL OF THE SEE HOW THEY RUN 1st NIGHT PHOTOS,
JUST CLICK ON THE "NEXT >" LINKS BELOW THE FOLLOWING FRAME.

For 1st Night Photos, our Whatsonstage.com photographer was on hand for the curtain call and post-show party at the Duchess Theatre, where other guests included Sheila Hancock, Terry Johnson, theatre director Laurence Boswell, Lucy Briers, Kirsty Bushell, Susannah Wise, Anthony Howell (And Then There Were None, TV’s Foyle’s War), playwrights Laura Wade and Richard Bean, and broadcaster Michael Buerk as well as members of the company.

Written in 1942, See How They Run premiered in Peterborough in 1944 before touring the country three times and, still in the midst of the Second World War, transferring to the Comedy Theatre in 1945 – three doodle bugs fell on London on the play’s opening night. It’s credited as the original “English vicar” play and inspired the long-running TV comedy series Dad’s Army.

See How They Run is designed by Tim Shortall, with lighting by Ben Ormerod and sound by Fergus O’Hare. It’s produced in the West End by Matthew Byam Shaw, Nica Burns, Max Weitzenhoffer and Ian Lenagan.

- by Terri Paddock

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