Theatre News

1st Night Photos: Skins Stars Face Off & Oxford St

The stars of Channel 4 teen drama Skins – including Nicholas Hoult, April Pearson, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Dev Patel and Larissa Wilson
– were out in force on Friday night (9 May 2008, previews from 1 May) to cheer on their former colleague Hannah Murray, who is making her professional stage debut in the West End transfer of 21-year-old Polly Stenham’s multi award-winning debut play That Face, which has a ten-week season at the Duke of York’s Theatre, following its premiere last April at the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Upstairs.

In the portrayal of an affluent family in freefall – billed as a “comic exploration of children who become parents to their parents” – the drugged and boozed-up Martha is fixated on her teenage son Henry and oblivious to the boarding school terror tactics exerted by her teenage daughter Mia. In the West End, Murray joins original cast members Lindsay Duncan (as Martha), Matt Smith (Henry), Julian Wadham and Catherine Steadman in the production directed by Jeremy Herrin and designed by Mike Britton.

For 1st Night Photos, our Whatsonstage.com photographer Dan Wooller was on hand for That Face arrivals at the Duke of York’s and for the post-show party at Studio Valbonne along with the company, author, director and other first nights guests including
David Tennant, Vivienne Westwood, Mackenzie Crook, Neil Pearson, Leigh Lawson, Twiggy, Alexandra Silber, Roger Allam, Talulah Riley, Tamsin Egerton, Roger Lloyd Pack, Malcolm Sinclair, Samuel Barnett and Simon Woods. The play is presented in the West End by Sonia Friedman Productions, Tulchin/Bartner and Jamie Hendry.


TO SCROLL THROUGH ALL OF THAT FACE’s 1st NIGHT PHOTOS,
JUST CLICK ON THE “NEXT >” LINKS BELOW THE FOLLOWING FRAME.

** DON’T MISS our Whatsonstage.com Outing to THAT FACE on 27 May 2008 – including an EXCLUSIVE post-show Q&A with Polly Stenham & cast – click here to book now! **

Earlier in the week back at the Royal Court (Wednesday 7 May 2008, previews from 2 May), Wooller was in Sloane Square for the world premiere of Oxford Street, the new comedy written by Levi David Addai (like Polly Stenham, a graduate of the theatre’s Young Writers Programme), which runs in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs until 31 May (See News, 14 Mar 2008).

Is Oxford Street pave with gold? At Total Sports, security guard Kofi and his workmates are making sure everything runs smoothly, easing the daily grind with plenty of jokes and chat about the future. Young or old, they all want more from life. The only difference is how they’ll go about getting it.


Oxford Street stars Ashley Walters, aka former rapper Asher D from So Solid Crew who made his stage debut four years ago in Roy Williams’ Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads, along with Nathaniel Martello-White (as Kofi). Also in the cast are Preeya Kalidas (last seen in the West End opposite Lee Mead as the Narrator in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, for which she was Whatsonstage.com Award nominated), Cyril Nyri, Kristian Kiehling, Amelia Lowdell, Reece Beaumont, Daniel Kaluuya and Shane Zaza. Dawn Walton directs.


TO SCROLL THROUGH ALL OF OXFORD STREET’s 1st NIGHT PHOTOS,
JUST CLICK ON THE “NEXT >” LINKS BELOW THE FOLLOWING FRAME.