Joseph Marcell leads Salisbury Playhouse’s Gaslight

Casting has been announced for Salisbury Playhouse’s first in-house production of 2014, Patrick Hamilton‘s psychological thriller Gaslight.

Leading the cast will be Joseph Marcell, probably best known for playing butler Geoffrey in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, but who has extensive credits elsewhere, including playing King Lear in the recent Shakespeare's Globe tour. Mr and Mrs Manningham will be played by Daniel Pirrie, (Downton Abbey, The Vortex) and Laura Pyper ( Punk Rock, Troilus and Cressida).

Completing the cast are Gemma Lawrence as Nancy (Lee Harvey Oswald, Children of the Sun) and Maggie McCarthy as Elizabeth (Children of the Sun, The Doctor’s Dilemma, The Winslow Boy).

Directed by Edward Dick, whose work includes productions at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and the Royal Opera House, this is a bold new production of the classic psychological thriller, with design by Helen Goddard and sound by Mark Noble. Lighting will be designed by Tim Mitchell, whose recent work includes the West End productions of Singin’ in the Rain and Yes, Prime Minister, and who received a TMA Award nomination for A Month in the Country at Salisbury Playhouse.

In the home Bella Manningham shares with her husband in fog-stricken south London, the floorboards creak, the gaslights dim and she becomes increasingly concerned that she is losing her mind. But does the terror exist in her imagination or does the house contain darker secrets? The arrival of retired Detective Rough reveals some startling truths that will shake her respectable marriage to its core.

Gaslight runs in the Main House at Salisbury Playhouse from Thursday 6 February to Saturday 1 March.

– Kris Hallett