Full Cast Announced For THE WHIP HAND At Traverse And Birmingham Rep

The full cast begin rehearsals today for the world premiere of The Whip Hand, a new play from celebraTEd Scottish playwright Douglas Maxwell - a Traverse Theatre Company and Birmingham Repertory Theatre co-production in association with National Theatre of Scotland, directed by Birmingham Repertory Associate Director Tessa Walker. Maxwell returns to the Traverse for the first time since his Festival 2013 production, A Respectable Widow Takes to Vulgarity, which went on to enjoy a successful run in New York.

A blistering and timely family drama set in Glasgow, the cast of five includes Scottish actor Jonathan Watson as Dougie, whose birthday party sets the scene. Best known for long-running television sketch show Only an Excuse?, and following recent appearances in the BBC's Two Doors Down, Watson returns to the Traverse Festival after last performing as Quizmaster in Rob Drummond's award-winning Quiz Show. Louise Ludgate plays Dougie's ex-wife, Arlene, and has previously starred in a trio of productions at the Traverse - Sex and Drugs, Greta and Iron - as well as various parts in Traverse projects Class Act and First Bite.

Completing the cast is JoAnne Thomson as Dougie and Arlene's daughter, Molly; alongside Richard Conlon as Arlene's boyfriend, Lorenzo; and Michael Abubakar as Dougie's nephew, Aaron - all making their main stage Traverse debut.

The talented cast of five will deliver an explosive script exploring important themes of power, privilege, blood ties and our inescapable past. As Dougie's party gets underway, it emerges that it is he who has a surprise for them - a bombshell proposal which could compromise his daughter's future. With rising tension and a sense of the thriller - or, in Maxwell's own words, like "...a rolling stone down a hill - unstoppable - and going to cause mayhem" - The Whip Hand is a domestic drama in which no one escapes the fallout.

The Whip Hand will run from Thursday 3-Sunday 27 August during Traverse Festival 2017, before transferring to Birmingham Repertory Theatre from Tuesday 5-Saturday 16 September.

Douglas Maxwell, Writer, says:

"The Traverse during the Fringe is a place of magical quality - I've seen the bulk of the programme every year for twenty years. I even met my wife in that bar. And I've been lucky enough to have had many shows at Traverse since my first in 2001. Twenty of my unsolicited plays went through their system in the 90s and for five years it was my only open door. I've been their Associate Playwright; I've taught there, lectured there, read there and written there; they've taken me to Russia and to Montreal; sometimes I just hang around... It feels like my home turf. But a Trav 1 show during the Fringe is a first for me. The cast is wonderful. And the production brings together three companies that have played a big part in my life: The Traverse, Birmingham Rep and The National Theatre of Scotland. So it's more than a thrill to have The Whip Hand on this year - it's a rite of passage."

Tessa Walker, Associate Director, Birmingham Repertory Theatre, says:

"I have long been a fan of Douglas's writing, right from Decky Does a Bronco, so I'm beyond delighted to be working with him now on The Whip Hand. This is a brilliant play. I love that it starts in a place so far from where it ends up, that its manages simultaneously to be about the fractures in a family and about the state of a country, and that it's as funny and as heartfelt as it is moving and unsettling. To be working with three such wonderful theatre companies - all theatres that have such a rooted and unswerving commitment to new voices and new stories - to bring this play to life is a privilege, and that it sits within such an powerful and dynamic festival season at the Traverse is incredibly exciting."

Traverse Theatre

3-27 August (not 4, 7, 14 or 21 August), various times. Previews 3 & 5 August. Press day 6 August.

On sale: Traverse Box Office 0131 228 1404 / traverse.co.uk

Birmingham Repertory Theatre

5-16 September, various times

On sale: Birmingham Repertory Box Office 0121 236 4455 / birmingham-rep.co.uk

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