Plays Cast: Gambon NT Habit, Baxendale Friends

The play, which is directed by NT
artistic director Nicholas Hytner, centres on an imagined meeting
between former friends Auden and Britten during their twilight years,
when the poet was living in Oxford during the early 1960s. The two
had collaborated earlier in their lives on works including the
acclaimed poetic documentary Night Mail and the
operetta Paul Bunyan, but drifted apart after a
falling out in the mid 1940s.

Bennett’s last play for the NT, the
award-winning The History Boys, proved a huge
success both critically and commercially when it opened in 2004,
subsequently transferring to the West End, Broadway, and the big
screen (See News, 27 Jul 2005). His other works
include the Talking Heads series, Habeas
Corpus, The Madness of George III and
Enjoy, currently being revived in
the West End.

Michael Gambon has a long association
with the National – he was a member of the 1963 inaugural season
under the directorship of Laurence Oliver at the Old Vic. His
latest appearance with the company was in 2005 when he played
Falstaff in Nicholas Hytner‘s productions of Henry IV
Parts One and Two in the Olivier. Last
year he was in the West End starring as Hirst in Harold Pinter’s
No Man’s Land (See News, 8 Sep
2008).

Alex Jennings‘ myriad NT credits
include Present Laughter, The Alchemist, Stuff Happens, His
Girl Friday, The Relapse and Albert Speer,
while Olivier award-winner Frances de la Tour was a member of the
original History Boys cast. She also appeared in
the film, alongside Adrian Scarborough who is also attached to
The Habit of Art.

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In other play casting news, at the
Hampstead Theatre Helen Baxendale will join
Emma Cunniffe, James Dreyfus, Aden Gillett and Vicki
Pepperdine in April De Angelis‘ new comedy Amongst
Friends, which runs from 26 May to 13 June 2009 (previews
from 21 May), directed by Anthony Clark.

Amongst
Friends focuses on journalist Lara (Baxendale) and her
ex-MP and crime writer husband Richard (Gillett) who are happily
living in a fashionable ‘gated community’. They invite their old
neighbours Caitlin (Cunniffe) and Joe (Dreyfus) to dinner, but when
the security system fails an uninvited guest (Pepperdine) descends
and the dinner party takes a different turn.

Baxendale, who is
best known for TV roles including Cold Feet, Cardiac
Arrest and Friends, was last on stage in
Swimming with Sharks with Christian Slater at
the Vaudeville Theatre. Amongst Friends marks her
third role at Hampstead, following Morning and Evening
and Bearing Fruit.

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Finally, at the Bush Theatre, David
Bark-Jones, Susan Brown, Robin Soans, Geoffrey Streatfeild and
Stephanie Street star in a double bill of plays “from the frontline
of climate change” titled The Contingency Plan,
which runs from 22 April to 6 June and comprises On the
Beach and Resilience, both by Steve
Waters.

Also at the Bush, casting has been
announced for the premiere production of Alexi Kaye Campbell‘s new
play Apologia. Tom Beard, Paola Dionisetti, Sarah
Goldberg, John Light, Nina Sosanya and Philip Voss will star, with
Bush artistic director Josie Rourke directing. It opens on 22 June
(previews from 17 June), playing until 18 July.

– by Theo Bosanquet