Theatre News

Cast: Royal Court Gets Posh, Hi-De-Hi! on Tour

A 14-strong cast has been announced for the Royal Court’s forthcoming premiere of Laura Wade‘s political satire Posh, which runs from 15 April to 22 May 2010 (previews from 9 April).

Exploring themes of class, power, privilege and the influence of ‘old money’, the play focuses on the fictional ‘Riot Club’, an elite student dining society at Oxford.

In an oak-panelled room, ten young bloods with cut-glass vowels and deep pockets are meeting, intent on restoring their right to rule. The boys bunker down for a wild night of debauchery, decadence and bloody good wine. But this isn’t the last huzzah: they’re planning a takeover.

The cast (pictured below) includes: Leo Bill, Fiona Button, Jolyon Coy, David Dawson, Richard Goulding, Harry Hadden-Paton, Kit Harington, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Charlotte Lucas, Joshua Mcguire, Tom Mison, James Norton, Daniel Ryan and Simon Shepherd.

Author Laura Wade won the Critics’ Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright for Breathing Corpses, which ran Upstairs in 2005. Her other credits include Other Hands, Colder Than Here and the forthcoming Alice, a response to Lewis Carroll, which premieres at Sheffield Crucible next summer (See News, 23 Sep 2009).

Lyndsey Turner directs Posh, which is the first main stage production to have been wholly generated through the Court’s Rough Cuts Programme for developing new work.


Thirty years after it first appeared, Classic 80s sitcom Hi-De-Hi! is taking to the stage later this month in a new touring production that will star original TV cast members Barry Howard and Nikki Kelly.

Howard and Kelly (who played blonde bombshell Sylvia in the original TV series) will play ballroom dancing couple Barry (the role originally played by Howard) and Yvonne Stuart-Hargreaves, alongside: Peter Amory (Jeffrey Fairbrother), Rebecca Bainbridge (Gladys Pugh), Damian Williams (Ted Bovis), Ben Roddy (Spike Dixon), Andrew Fettes (Fred Quilly), Richard Colson (William Partridge), Abigail Finley (Peggy Ollerenshaw) and Kate Burrell (Sylvia Garnsey).

Set in the fictional seaside town of Crimpton-on-Sea in a 50’s holiday camp called Maplins, Hi-De-Hi! was originally written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, based largely on Perry’s experiences as a Butlins red coat. The new stage version is adapted by Paul Carpenter and Ian Gower, and directed by Bruce James.

The tour kicks off at the Gordon Craig Theatre in Stevenage on 19 March, before visiting Darlington, Coventry, Basingstoke, Hayes, Lowestoft, Worthing, Blackpool, Buxton, Dunstable, Swansea, Stockport, Peterborough, Hastings, Sheffield, Southend, Southsea, Shrewsbury, Swindon, Malvern, Croydon, Weston-Super-Mare, Windsor and Yeovil.