Simon Bird stars in Tom Basden's Crocodile at MIF

Casting has been announced for Tom Basden's new play The Crocodile, which premieres as part of this year's Manchester International Festival.

Inbetweeners star Simon Bird will appear alongside Ciarán Owens and Marek Larwood in the production, which centres on a self-important actor (Owens) who gets swallowed by a crocodile during a trip to the zoo with his best friend (Bird).

The play is based on the short story of the same name by Dostoevsky, which was published 150 years ago this year.

Basden's previous writing credits include Party, which transferred to the Arts Theatre, and Joseph K, an adaptation of Kafka's The Trial.

The Crocodile runs at the Pavilion Theatre in Festival Square from 14 until 18 July 2015 as part of The Invisible Dot's programme of original work.

Meet the cast

Simon Bird is a BAFTA-nominated actor whose previous theatre credits include The House of Windsor and Niceties (both Edinburgh Festival). He has starred in television comedies such as Chickens, Friday Night Dinner and The Inbetweeners, and his film credits include The Inbetweeners Movie, The Look of Love, The Harry Hill Movie, The Darkest Universe and The Inbetweeners 2.

Marek Larwood's is a member of comedy group We Are Klang. His previous stage credits include Typecast (Edinburgh Festival) while television credits include Man Down, Babylon, The Klang Show, Impractical Jokers, Laura, Ben and Tim, Roman's Empire and Extras. He has appeared on film in The Inbetweeners 2 and Magicians.

Ciarán Owens' theatre credits include Mercury Fur (Trafalgar Studios), Our Country's Good (Out of Joint), A Mad World My Masters (Royal Shakespeare Company), Oh What A Lovely War (Theatre Royal Stratford East) and King John (Shakespeare's Globe). He's appeared on screen in Wallander, The Inbetweeners, Spotless and Arthur and George.