Marks & Gran Watch comes to Salisbury

From Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, creators of the much loved television series Birds of a Feather and Goodnight Sweetheart, comes the world stage premiere of Von Ribbentrop’s Watch, a new play with a huge dilemma that is guaranteed to leave you asking one question– what would you do? Produced by Oxford Playhouse Productions in association with Watford Palace Theatre, the show premieres at Oxford Playhouse on the 9th September before going on a tour, which end with a run at the Salisbury Playhouse from 12 October.

The credit crunch hasn’t done Gerald Roth any favours. He’s the proprietor of Grapes of Roth, an upmarket wine merchant in a downmarket neighbourhood, and his business is dying faster than he can say Maxim in Grunhauser Abtsberg Kabinett 2008.

Then fate throws Gerald a lifeline. He discovers that his old watch, left to him by his father, is surprisingly valuable. If he sold it at auction his money troubles could be over. Unfortunately, the reason his watch is so collectable is that it was once owned by Hitler’s Foreign Minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, whose initials are engraved inside the case, alongside the sweetest little swastika. Gerald’s secret dilemma emerges over his family’s Passover dinner, but it turns out that he isn’t the only Roth with something to hide.

Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran‘s other previous works include The New Statesman, Get Back and Relative Strangers, as well as long-running TV drama series Love Hurts and Shine on Harvey Moon. The writers were recently Olivier Award nominees for the West End musical Dreamboats and Petticoats.

The cast includes Paul Brightwell, Jessica Dickens, Jack Ellis (Bad Girls, Coronation Street), Andrew Paul (The Bill, Where the Heart Is), Gwyneth Strong (Only Fools and Horses) and Barbara Young (Coronation Street, Last of The Summer Wine). It is directed by Watford Palace Theatre’s Artistic Director Brigid Larmour.

Von Ribbentrop’s Watch opens at Oxford Playhouse and will then tour to Watford Palace Theatre, Richmond Theatre and Salisbury Playhouse.