Casting announced for Chichester’s The Cat and the Canary

Casting has been announced for Chichester Festival Theatre’s new production of The Cat and the Canary, which runs in the Minerva Theatre from 27 September to 26 October 2024.

Carl Grose adapts John Willard’s classic thriller for a new co-production with Told by an Idiot. The show, which is inspired by Rian Johnson’s recent film Knives Out, is directed by Paul Hunter.

The cast will feature Tarinn Callender (Come From Away, Hamilton) as Harry Blythe, Hayley Carmichael (Home, Witness for the Prosecution) as Mrs Pleasant, Calum Finlay (Mary Stuart) as Paul Jones, Nick Haverson (Much Ado About Nothing, Love’s Labour’s Lost) as Crosby/Hendricks/Patterson, Lena Kaur (I Jack Wright) as Susan Sillsby, Heather Lai (My Neighbour Totoro) as Dora, Nikhita Lesler (Noises Off) as Cicily Young, Lucy McCormick (Cowbois) as Annabelle West and Will Merrick (Skins, Dead Pixels) as Charlie Wilder.

Willard’s play inspired three films of the same name across the 20th century and is set in a remote mansion where a group of guests assembles to find out who is the heir to a fortune, until it takes a macabre turn.

The Chichester production will be designed by Angela Davies with lighting by Aideen Malone, music by Ian Ross, puppetry design by Lyndie Wright, puppetry direction by Rachel Leonard, and casting by Matilda James.

Chichester Festival Theatre has also revealed complete casting for the upcoming world premiere production of John le Carré’s The Spy Who Came In from the Cold, which you can read about here.

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