Full Casting Announced For Nicholas De Jongh's New Play PRICKED OUT

Full cast is announced today for the upcoming première of Nicholas De Jongh's new play Pricked Out. Matthew Gould directs Sebastian Carrington-Howell (Seb), Chris Clynes (Will), Sean Delaney (Barnfield), Daniel Donskoy (Harry), Felicity Jolly (Viola), Peter Land (Mal), Paul Lavers (Sir Vane) and Rebecca Tanwen (Olive) in the production without décor which runs at the Kings Head Theatre from 25-29 March.

Why are Shakespeare's 129 love-crazy sonnets to a young man nine years younger than him still regarded as fake sexual love-letters? What has caused the majority of British Shakespearean scholars to go on insisting that the two men had fallen in nothing more dangerous than a form of Platonic Love, which we are far too ignorant to understand or appreciate today? Why is not possible that Shakespeare and Southampton slipped into the lower depths of actual sex? Why are some of these mildly homophobic Professors still so determined to maintain against the glare and nudge of evidence that William Shakespeare succumbed to one great same-sex love affair with a man -his "rose, his dear heart his fair flower, his sweet love."? And why are they taken so seriously when their argument and evidence sound so gravely ridiculous?

Nicholas de Jongh's magic realistic comedy challenges the Professors and homophobes and dares to come up with some rather different answers.

This is Nicholas de Jongh's third play - the first, Plague Over England premièred at the Finborough in 2008, before being transferring to the West End by Bill Kenwright in 2009. The second, The Unquiet Grave of Garcia Lorca, debuted in an early version as part of the Finborough's Vibrant 2013 - their season dedicated to rehearsed readings, where, in two earlier of these seasons his Keep the Ghost Awake and There Goes my Future had been presented - and then later at the Drayton Arms. He has also contributed a one act play Aids Memoire in 1990 to Max Stafford Clark's season of Platonic Dialogues at the Royal Court. De Jongh went almost straight from University to the Guardian as a reporter. He subsequently became the paper's arts correspondent and deputy theatre critic, covered three major Obscenity trials Oz School Kids, the Gay News Blasphemous Libel and the Romans in Britain. He wrote about gay issues and wrote features on a succession of gay artists from Derek Jarman to Thom Gunn at a time when gayness was more of a taboo subject than out in the open. From 1991 to 2009, he was the Evening Standard's chief theatre critic.

Sebastian Carrington-Howell plays Sebastian. For theatre his credits include Ivanov (Vakhtangov Theatre Moscow), The Tempest (Boris Shchukin Theatre Moscow), Dirty Special Thing (Arcola Theatre), Generation Arts (Roundhouse), A Midsummer Night's Dream (RSC), Mercury Fur (Roxy Theatre), Angels in America (Edinburgh Fringe Festival), Meat (the Vaults) and As You Like It (The Byre Theatre); and for television The Crown.

Chris Clynes plays Will. For theatre his credits include Hamlet (The Rose Playhouse), Wrecked (Theatre Royal Bath), Summer Shorts (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Warehouse of Dreams (The Lion & Unicorn Theatre), and Hedda Gabler (Etcetera Theatre).. For television his credits include Henry VIII and His Six Wives; and for film, Crossroads, Killer Bird and Peter: A Portrait of a Serial Killer.

Sean Delaney plays Barnfield. For theatre his credits include Rabbit Hole and Labyrinth (Hampstead Theatre).

Daniel Donskoy plays Harry. For theatre his credits include The Glass Menagerie (Nottingham Playhouse), Now This Is Not The End (Arcola Theatre) and Bad Jews (Arts Theatre). For television his credits include Victoria, Detectorists, SSGB and Sankt Maik; and for film, Angst.

Felicity Jolly plays Viola. For theatre her credits include Romeo and Rosaline (Bread and Roses Theatre), A New Word/Gods Outcasts (BlueHouse Festival), Off Roading (The Crown Inn), All in the Timing (Edinburgh Fringe Festival), The Other Side of the Ball (Allen Hall) and The Alchemical Door (Babel Studios).

Peter Land plays Mal. Land previously worked at the King's Head Theatre in Six For Gold, One Touch of Venus, Madam Butterfly and Peter Pan. Other theatre credits include Dear World (Charing Cross Theatre and York Theatre Broadway), Oh! Calcutta (Duchess Theatre), My Fair Lady (Adelphi Theatre), Life of Galileo, Sung and Unsung and To Those Born Later (National Theatre), The Winter's Tale, All's Well That Ends Well and Two Gentlemen of Verona (RSC), Streets of Dublin and South Pacific (Cable Theatre), Noël and Gertie (Noël Coward Theatre) and Imaginary Invalid (Lansburgh Theater Washington).

Paul Lavers plays Sir Vane. For theatre his credits include Other Desert Cities (Vienna's English Theatre) and Les Blancs (National Theatre). For television his credits include The Onedin Line, Dickens of London, Doctor Who, Moll Flanders, Wings, When the Boat Come In, The Wilde Alliance, The Treasure of Abbot Thomas and 9/11 State of Emergency; and for film, Photoshoot, The Adventurer: The Curse of the Midas Box and SuperBob.

Rebecca Tanwen plays Olive. For theatre her credits include Othello (National Theatre), Beauty and the Beast and The Schoolmistress (Stephen Joseph Theatre), As You Like It (Oxford Shakespeare Company), Ben Hur (Reading Rep), The Chamber Of Curiosities (Latitude Festival) and Fur Coat And No Knickers and Murdered To Death (Theatre Royal, Nottingham). For television her credits include Mr Selfridge, The Fear and The Intern.

Matthew Gould directs. His previous work includes The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Arts Theatre), Hello, Norma Jean and The Glass Protégé (Park Theatre), Thirteen Days, San Domino and The Millers Wife (Arcola Theatre), I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking it on the Road (The Jermyn Street Theatre), The Telescope and Citizens of Hell (Aloff Theatre), All In The Timing, The Gambit, A Body to Diet For and Austen (Edinburgh Fringe Festival).

www.kingsheadtheatre.com

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