Lyric Hammersmith Announces Casting for SHOPPING AND F***ING

The Lyric Hammersmith today announces full casting for Shopping and f-ing. Alex Arnold will be playing Robbie, Ashley McGuire will be playing Brian, David Moorst will be playing Gary, Sam Spruell will be playing Mark, Sophie Wu will be playing Lulu.

Twenty years since its explosive premiere, Olivier Award-winning director Sean Holmes brings Mark Ravenhill's provocative first play, Shopping and f-ing back to the stage. With a raw mixture of black humour and bleak philosophy, the play follows three disconnected young adults whose lives have been reduced to a series of transactions in an emotionally shrink wrapped world. A place where Shopping is sexy and f-ing is a job.

'An omen of the new century' (Evening Standard), Ravenhill's play is a prophetic vision of our twentyfirst century world. Widely regarded as one of the most influential pieces of contemporary British theatre this rarely staged play is a must see.

The Lyric's main house will be transformed for this production with part of the audience seated on the stage, creating a bold intimate experience within their Victorian auditorium. Tickets from £15 with all stalls and onstage seating only £25 for all performances.

Alex Arnold plays Robbie
Theatre credits include: Crushed Shells & Mud (Southwark Playhouse); Luna Gale and Four Minutes Twelve Seconds (Hampstead Theatre). Film and television credits include: My Cousin Rachel, David Brent - Life on the Road, The Salvation, Death in Paradise, Capital, Poldark, Foyle's War, Silk, What Remains, In the Flesh, Vera, A Mother's Son and Skins.

Ashley McGuire plays Brian
Theatre credits include: Our Country's Good, The Suicide, Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, Home, An Oak Tree (National Theatre); Henry IV (Donmar Warehouse); Re-charged - Fatal Light (Soho Theatre) and I'll Always Think of You That Way (Pleasance). Film and television credits include: David Brent - Life on the Road, Bridget Jones' Baby, Hector, Gold, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Coronation Street, Law and Order UK, Decline and Fall, Man Down, In the Club, The IT Crowd, The Job Lot, Derek and Trollied.

David Moorst plays Gary
Theatre credits include: First Light (Chichester Festival Theatre); Into The Woods (Royal Exchange Manchester); Violence & Son - winner Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2015, Emerging Talent Award; Critics' Circle Awards 2016, Most Promising Newcomer (Royal Court) and Wonderland (Hampstead). Television credits includes: Grantchester, Partners in Crime and Holby.

Sam Spruell plays Mark
Theatre credits include: Clybourne Park (Royal Court); The Caretaker (The Old Vic), Pornography (Traverse/Tricycle), Othello (Royal Exchange Manchester), The Alchemist and Life of Galileo (National Theatre). Film and television credits include: Snow White and the Huntsman, Starred Up, London to Brighton, Taken 3, Good People, The Counselor, Legend, The Voices, Child 44, Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll, The Hurt Locker, Defiance, K19 The Widowmaker, Venus, The Lady in the Van, The Bastard Executioner, Luther, The Last Ship, Mayday, The Runaway, City of Vice, Cardinal Burns and Catastrophe.

Sophie Wu plays Lulu
For the Lyric: Punk Rock. Other theatre credits include: Table (National Theatre) and The Wood Orchid (Bush Theatre). Film and television credits include: Fresh Meat, Babylon, Horrible Histories, The Fades, Kick Ass, Kick Ass 2, Wild Child and Tormented. As writer: Minging Lizzie (Commission for E4) Sophie Wu is Minging, She Looks Like's She's Dead (Soho Theatre,) Cuckoo and Ramona tells Jim (Bush Theatre) and Loaded.

Mark Ravenhill, Writer
From 2012 to 2014, Mark was playwright in residence for the Royal Shakespeare Company, producing a new version of Brecht's Galileo (Swan Theatre) and a new play Candide (Swan Theatre) inspired by Voltaire. Theatre credits include: Shopping and f-ing (Out of Joint/Royal Court); Faust Is Dead, Handbag (UK Tour); Some Explicit Polaroids(Out of Joint/Ambassadors Theatre); Mother Clap's Molly House, Citizenship (National Theatre); Pool No Water (Frantic Assembly/Lyric Hammersmith); The Cut (Donmar Warehouse); Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat (Paines Plough) and Over There (Royal Court). Mark's work in music theatre includes a new English version of Monteverdi's The Coronation of Poppea (King's Head) with additional material by Michael Nyman, Ten Plagues (Traverse), a song cycle for Marc Almond with composer Connor Mitchell and Elysium with composer Rolf Wallin for the Norwegian Opera. Mark is the co-creator of the ITV sitcom Vicious.

Sean Holmes Director
Sean Holmes is Artistic Director of the Lyric Hammersmith. He has most recently directed the Lyric's critically acclaimed productions of Simon Stephens's Herons and Olivier Award nominated Bugsy Malone and co-directed Filter's A Midsummer Night's Dream. In 2010 he revived Sarah Kane's Blasted at the Lyric and the production was awarded the Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre. His other theatre credits at the Lyric include A Series of Increasingly Impossible Acts, Chamber Piece, A Streetcar Named Desire, Woyzeck, Cinderella, Desire Under the Elms, Morning, Have I None, Saved, Ghost Stories, Three Sisters and Comedians. He recently directed The Plough & the Stars as part of the Abbey Theatre, Dublin's centenary celebrations, which is currently touring the US.

Booking Information
Tickets 020 8741 6850 | www.lyric.co.uk Lyric Square, King Street, London, W6 0QL Friday 07 October 2016 - Saturday 05 November 2016
Free First Night: Friday 07 October.
Previews: Saturday 08 - Tuesday 11 October
Press Performances Wednesday 12 October at 7pm Mon-Sat 7.30pm; Sat 2.30pm. (Also Wednesday matinees on 26 October & 02 November Tickets: £15 - £30 | £35 premium seats. No booking fee.
Captioned Performance: Sat 29 Oct 2.30pm Audio Described Performance: Sat 29 Oct 7.30pm Post-show talks with members of the cast & creative team: Tuesday 18 October & Tuesday 25 October |Free

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