Francesca Mills News

Rehearsal images were today released for A Pacifist's Guide to the War on Cancer, a co-production with Complicite Associates. The production is an all-singing, all-dancing examination of life with a cancer diagnosis. This brand new musical confronts the highs and lows of the scariest word we know. With book by Bryony Kimmings and Brian Lobel, music by Tom Parkinson and lyrics by Bryony Kimmings, and directed by Bryony Kimmings, the production receives its London premiere at the Dorfman Theatre on 14 October (press night on 19 October), following its world premiere at HOME Manchester (20-24 September) and a tour to Exeter Northcott Theatre (28 September-2 October).

Full cast is today announced for the world premiere of new musical A Pacifist's Guide to the War on Cancer with book by Bryony Kimmings and Brian Lobel, music by Tom Parkinson and lyrics by Bryony Kimmings.  Francesca Mills, Max Runham and Lottie Vallis complete the company and join the previously announced Naana Agyei-Ampadu, Amy Booth-Steel, Hal Fowler, Amanda Hadingue, Akiya Henry, Golda Rosheuvel, Rose Shalloo, Gareth Snook and Gary Wood.

Birmingham Repertory Theatre, in association with Ramps On The Moon, presents THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR, written by Nikolai Gogol, adapted by David Harrower and directed by Roxana Silbert. The play will tour the UK from 19th March to 25th June 2016.

With an original publication date back in 1836, Nikolai Gogol's satirical play The Government Inspector is certainly not new writing. Some 180 years on, the text centring on greed and political anarchy in Russia is still being performed. The storyline has had a wealth of incarnations over the years in film, theatre and TV; including a particularly memorable episode of Fawlty Towers. Ultimately a comedy, the play tells of a town expecting a visit from a Government Inspector and before this happens, the Mayor has to try and tidy up/hide all of his wrong doings towards the discontented local people. When a well-dressed and seemingly charming gentleman Khlestakov arrives, the townsfolk all jump to the conclusion that he is the Inspector. But is he?

A vibrant new staging of the great Russian comedy, The Government Inspector, opens at Birmingham Repertory Theatre in March before touring to Ipswich, Leeds, Nottingham, Stratford East, Liverpool and Sheffield.  Directed by Roxana Silbert and adapted by Olivier Award-winning playwright, David Harrower, this fresh, modern version of The Government Inspector, with innovative projection and set design reinvigorates Gogol's satirical masterpiece for 2016.