Natalie Cassidy & Anna Calder-Marshall lead free readings at Trafalgar Studios

Natalie Cassidy and Anna Calder-Marshall will star in Passion in Studio 2, a series of free readings of works in progress running alongside the run of Happy New in June.

On 25 June, award-winning actress Anna Calder-Marshall (Pastoral, In the Republic of Happiness, King Lear) will star in a reading of Let Me Go! by Anne Claire Poirier, a play about the Montreal underworld where Poirier’s daughter was murdered.

Poirier and her daughter also feature in James Kennaway’s novel Some Gorgeous Accident, which has been adapted by Robert Shaw and has its London premiere in a reading on 26 June 2013.

The final reading will be Juan Radrigán’s Children of Fate on 28 June, starring Natalie Cassidy. Translated by Robert Shaw, the play explores the lives of the marginalised and dispossessed in Chile under General Pinochet’s brutal regime.

Cassidy is best known for her role as Sonia Fowler in EastEnders. She has appeared in Strictly Come Dancing and Celebrity Big Brother. Stage credits include The Cherry Orchard (Chichester Festival Theatre) and Bedroom Farce (Tour).

Brendan Cowell’s Happy New stars Lisa Dillon, Joel Samuels and William Troughton. Directed by Robert Shaw, it follows Danny and Lyle, who are abandoned by their mother and taken into care and become media celebrities.

Happy New runs at Trafalgar Studio 2 from 6 to 29 June 2013 (previews from 4 June).