Warren Carlyle to direct workshop of new gothic thriller For the Love of Miss Lucy

Famed director Warren Carlyle will direct Victoria Smurfit and Jeremy Swift in the world premiere rehearsed presentation of For the Love of Miss Lucy at Underbelly Boulevard Soho on 1 October.

Written by Mary Lynn Dobson, the gothic thriller will be presented to an invited audience at 11am and 2pm, with two readings for invited investors, agents and creatives.

The cast will also include Sally Rogers as Nurse, Harry Peacock as Jonathan Harker, Luke Rollason as Renfield, Bailey Patrick as Beetleston and Stephen Boxer as Graves.

Set in a 1920s English sanitarium, For the Love of Miss Lucy follows Lucy Seward, who suddenly falls gravely ill after the arrival of a mysterious Count. Her brother, Dr Seward, summons Professor Abraham Van Helsing, an authority on inexplicable afflictions, to investigate. As strange behaviour emerges among the sanitarium’s residents, Van Helsing becomes convinced that something other than illness is at work.

The play combines gothic suspense with comedy and draws on the mythology of Dracula, presenting the story in the style of a Noël Coward comedy.

Smurfit is known for playing Maud O’Hara in the Disney+ series Rivals, while Swift played Leslie Higgins in Ted Lassoand Septimus Spratt in Downton Abbey. Rogers played DC/Sgt Jo Masters in The Bill, Rollason appeared as Jizzlord in Extraordinary, Patrick starred in Allegra in the West End, and Boxer played Joe Fenton in Doctors.

Carlyle has directed and choreographed productions including The Music Man, starring Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster, and Hello, Dolly!, starring Bette Midler. He has received four Tony Award nominations, winning for choreography, and has also won three Outer Critics Circle Awards, two Drama Desk Awards and the Astaire Award.

The creative team includes playwright Dobson, director and choreographer Carlyle, casting director Rob Kelly, producer James FitzSimmons for Black Irish Productions, and executive producer and general manager Thomas Hopkins for Thomas Hopkins Productions.

Rehearsals begin on 24 September, ahead of the presentation on 1 October.