Plays Cast: Almeida’s Ghosts, Park Theatre’s Lives, WYP Sherlock

Adapted and directed by Richard Eyre, Ghosts takes place in Mrs Alving’s country house, where she is preparing for the opening of an orphanage, a memorial to her late husband. Mrs Alving’s son Oswald, an artist, returns home for the celebrations. A story of love, betrayal and hypocrisy gradually unfolds as ghosts from the past come back to haunt the family.

Will Keen‘s theatre credits include Waste, Tom and Viv and Five Gold Rings (Almeida), Quartermaine’s Terms (Wyndhams Theatre), Hysteria (Theatre Royal Bath) and Huis Clos (Trafalgar Studios). TV credits include Silk, Garrow’s Law, Titanic and Foyles War.

Jack Lowden was most recently on stage playing Eric Liddell in Chariots of Fire (Hampstead/West End). His previous roles include Black Watch (National Theatre of Scotland), and TV credits include Mrs Biggs, Blue Haven and Being Victor.

Award-winning actor Lesley Manville‘s stage credits include Grief, Her Naked Skin, Pillars of the Community and The Alchemist (National Theatre), Six Degrees of Separation and All About My Mother (Old Vic), Top Girls and Serious Money (Royal Court). Manville’s film work with regular collaborator Mike Leigh includes Another Year, All or Nothing, Topsy-Turvy, Secrets and Lies and High Hopes.

Further casting details will be announced soon.

Charity Wakefield, Honeysuckle Weeks and Alec Newman will star in the upcoming production of These Shining Lives at the newly built Park Theatre, running from 15 May-9 June 2013 (previews from 8 May).

The inaugural production at the venue, Melanie Marnich‘s play is set in 1920’s Chicago and follows the story of Catherine, a young woman who finds herself an unlikely pioneer of employees’ rights in the workplace.

Charity Wakefield (Catherine)’s theatre credits include The Cherry Orchard (National Theatre), Othello (Shakespeare’s Globe), Sugared Grapefruit (Old Vic) and No Naughty Bits (Hampstead Theatre). TV credites include Leaving, Sense and Sensibility, Jane Eyre, State of Play, and Any Human Heart.

Honeysuckle Weeks (Charlotte)’s theatre credits include Pygmalion, Twelfth Night and Love’s Labours’ Lost (Chichester Festival Theatre), A Daughter’s A Daughter (Trafalgar Studios) and Absurd Person Singular (national tour). She is perhaps best known for her role as series regular Samantha Stewart in ITV’s long running series Foyle’s War.

Alex Newman (Tom)’s stage credits include King Lear (Donmar Warehouse, national tour and New York), Danton’s Death (National Theatre), The Fastest Clock in the Universe (Hampstead Theatre) and The Soldier’s Fortune, Andorra (Young Vic). TV credits include Waterloo Road, Dracula, Silent Witness and Hope Springs.

Artistic director Jez Bond said: “I couldn’t be more thrilled to open our first season with Melanie Marnich’s extraordinary play These Shining Lives. Loveday Ingram has assembled an amazingly talented cast with Charity Wakefield, Honeysuckle Weeks and Alec Newman leading the company – the perfect cast to christen our new venue.”

Finally, casting has been announced for Sherlock Holmes – The Best Kept Secret, which opens at West Yorkshire Playhouse from 18 May-8 June before visiting Woking New
Victoria Theatre, Cardiff New Theatre and Manchester Opera House before
“transferring into the West End”.

Taking on the role of the role of the renowned detective is Jason Durr, with Andrew Hall beside him as the ever trusted Watson. Adrian Lukis plays Sherlock’s methodical brother Mycroft while Tanya Franks takes on the role of the alluring Irene Adler, and Victor McGuire appears as Inspector LeStrade.

The legendary occupant of 221b Baker Street faces his greatest challenge ever in a mystery spiked with such an emotional charge that Sherlock’s faith in logic seems lost to an impenetrable world of magic.

Sherlock Holmes – The Best Kept Secret is written by Mark Catley, directed by Nikolai Foster, designed by Michael Taylor and features “spectacular magic and illusions” by Scott Penrose.