Theatre News

Plays cast: Almeida’s Before the Party & Court’s Time to Reap

Casting has been announced for Matthew Dunster‘s rare revival of Rodney Ackland’s Before The Party at the Almeida Theatre, which runs from 28 March to 11 May (previews from 21 March).

Based on a short story by Somerset Maugham, the play centres on the high
society Skinner family in the wake of the Second World War.

The cast will comprise: Stella Gonet (Blanche), Katherine Parkinson (Laura Skinner), Alex Price (David), Michelle Terry (Kathleen Skinner), Michael Thomas (Aubrey) and June Watson (Nanny). They are joined by Polly Dartford, Anna Devlin and Emily Lane who will alternate the role of Susan Skinner. 

Director Dunster’s credits include Doctor Faustus at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, Mogadishu for the Royal Exchange and Lyric Hammersmith and Love The Sinner for the National Theatre. His play Children’s Children received its world premiere at the Almeida last year.


In other casting news, Max Bennett, Sinead Matthews and Owen Teale will star in Anna Wakulik’s play A Time To Reap, which runs in the Royal Court’s Jerwood Theatre Upstairs from 22 February to 23 March.

Bennett has recently been seen in In Basildon at the Royal Court, while Matthews’ recent credits include The Changeling (Young Vic) and The Master and Margarita (Complicite).

Teale was last on stage in Mary Stuart at Clywd Theatr Cymru in 2009, while other credits include Creditors at the Donmar Warehouse and his Tony Award-winning portrayal of Torvald in A Doll’s House.

From a forested Polish village to the blinding lights of London, the
play looks at one
woman’s story against the mountain landscape of an evolving nation and
one of Poland’s hottest political topics – abortion and the Catholic
Church.

A Time To Reap is translated by Catherine Grosvenor and directed by Caroline Steinbeis.