Miles Richardson to Lead DEAR BRUTUS at Southwark Playhouse; Cast Announced!

Miles Richardson leads an 11-strong cast of J. M. Barrie's rarely performed play DEAR BRUTUS in its centenary year at Southwark Playhouse, presented by Troupe Theatre and directed by Jonathan O'Boyle.

The production will run Wednesday 29 November - Saturday 30 December 2017 with press night set for Monday 4 December at 8pm.

With designs by Anna Reid, lighting design by Peter Harrison, and sound design by Max Perryment, DEAR BRUTUS will star Helen Bradbury, Charlotte Brimble, Emma Davies, Robin Hooper, Josie Kidd, Bathsheba Piepe, Simon Rhodes, Miles Richardson, Edward Sayer, Venice van Someren and James Woolley.

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves." 1917. In a remote English village there are rumours of an enchanted wood. One of the inhabitants - a mysterious old man - invites eight strangers to stay. They all have something in common. When, one evening, the wood miraculously appears the guests feel compelled to enter. What happens there has the power to change their lives forever...

From J. M. Barrie, the celebrated writer of Peter Pan, The Admirable Crichton and Quality Street, comes this haunting drama of self-revelation. Darkly comic, and presented in a sumptuous production for the play's centenary year, Dear Brutus is Barrie at his most magical.

Directed by Jonathan O'Boyle (Sense of an Ending - Time Out Critics' Choice) and produced by Troupe, who return to Southwark Playhouse after their critically acclaimed production of The Cardinal (The Telegraph Critics' Choice).

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IF YOU GO:

DEAR BRUTUS

Wednesday 29 November - Saturday 30 December 2017
Monday to Saturdays at 8pm
Tuesday and Saturday matinees at 3.30pm

At Southwark Playhouse, 77-85 Newington Causeway, London SE1 6BD
Nearest Tube: Borough / Elephant and Castle

Box Office:
Online at www.southwarkplayhouse.co.uk (24 HOURS/NO BOOKING FEES)
By Telephone at 020 7407 0234 (NO BOOKING FEES)

Prices:
Preview 29, 30 November, 1, 2 December - all tickets £12
- From 4 December: £20, £16 (conc.)
- Concessions: Students, Under 16's, Unwaged, Registered disabled, Over 65's; Registered disabled patrons can bring one companion free of charge.

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ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Helen Bradbury plays Lady Caroline Laney. She trained at LAMDA. Theatre includes Genesis (Soho Theatre), The Philanderer (Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond), The Cocktail Party (The Print Room), Death and the Maiden (English Theatre, Frankfurt), Versailles (Donmar Warehouse), My Generation and Crash (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Our Country's Good and Top Girls (Out of Joint), The Last of the Duchess (Hampstead Theatre), The Miser (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester), The Fairy Queen (Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Royal Albert Hall), Unmaking the Bed (Southwark Playhouse), Airswimming (Courtyard Theatre), A Month in the Country and Northanger Abbey (Salisbury Playhouse), Lethe (Georgian Theatre Royal, Richmond) and Where Soldiers Sleep (Heritage Arts Company). Film includes Denial, At First Sight, The Dresser, The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, Deadly Virtues: Love, Honour, Obey, Ham and Lennon Naked. Television includes Bloody Queens: Elizabeth and Mary, The Outcast, Knifeman, Sherlock, Lucan, The Paradise, The Borgias, Upstairs Downstairs and PhoneShop. Radio includes Adventures of the Soul and The Octopus Nest.

Charlotte Brimble plays Joanna Trout. She trained at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Theatre includes Windows (Finborough Theatre), The Tempest (The Print Room), Pygmalion (Oldham Coliseum Theatre), She Stoops to Conquer (Theatre Royal Bath), Posh (Nottingham Playhouse and Salisbury Playhouse),Terms and Conditions (White Bear Theatre) and Mary Broome (Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond). Film includes Arthur and Merlin and Burger which won a Special Jury Award for Direction and Ensemble Acting at the Sundance Film Festival. Television includes Victoria, Spotless and Crime Stories.

Emma Davies plays Alice Dearth. She trained at Corona Stage School. Theatre includes Absurd Person Singular, Plaintiff in a Pretty Hat and A Touch of Spring (The Mill at Sonning), The Living Room (Jermyn Street Theatre), Present Laughter, Little Women and While the Sun Shines (National Tours), The Turn of the Screw (Stag Theatre Sevenoaks), The Accused (Theatre Royal Haymarket), You Say Tomatoes (Haymarket Theatre, Basingstoke), The Go-Between (Theatre Royal Northampton), The Heidi Chronicles (Greenwich Theatre), The Vortex (King's Head Theatre), Outside Edge (International Tour) and When We Are Married (Theatre Royal Windsor). Film includes Rooftop Refugee, The Holly Kane Experiment, Die schöne Spionin, Four Tails and Enigma. Television includes Grantchester, Guilt, Marcella, Royal Wives at War, EastEnders, Humans, You, Me and Them, Law and Order: UK, Steffi, Vexed, Doctors, Midsomer Murders, Garrow's Law, Holby City, Super Eruption, Emmerdale, Cape Wrath, Dream Team, Cambridge Spies, Bernard's Watch, Heartbeat, The Mrs Bradley Mysteries, Mosley, Crown Prosecutor, Harry Enfield and Chums, Just William, Queen of the East, Law and Disorder, Families, Family Pride, Freddie and Max, Bergerac, Spatz, Home James!, Shadow of the Noose, The Tempest and Boon. Radio includes Hope, The Company of Wolves, The Winged Lions and Pygmalion.

Robin Hooper plays Lob. He trained at University of Manchester. Theatre includes The Cherry Orchard (Arcola Theatre), A Month of Sundays (Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch), Told to Look Younger (Jermyn Street Theatre), As You Like It (West Yorkshire Playhouse), The Dresser and Blithe Spirit (Palace Theatre, Watford), My Night with Reg (New Vic Theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme), Dead Funny (York Theatre Royal and Octagon Theatre, Bolton), What the Butler Saw (Theatre Royal Northampton), Tartuffe (Theatre Royal Plymouth), The Importance of Being Earnest (Nottingham Playhouse), Saturday, Sunday... and Monday (Chichester Festival Theatre), The Art of Success (Paines Plough), The Public (Theatre Royal Stratford East), A Bright Room Called Day (Bush Theatre), Bloody Poetry and Star-Gazy Pie and Sauerkraut (Royal Court Theatre), Artists and Admirers (Riverside Studios) and John, Paul, George, Ringo... and Bert (Lyric Theatre). Film includes The Children Act, Legend, A Little Chaos, Riot at the Rite, Mr Harvey Lights a Candle, Being Human, Collider, Lecture 21, Fellow Traveller, Wild Things, Prick Up Your Ears, The Terence Davies Trilogy, Walter, Philby, Burgess and Maclean and Children. Television includes Quacks, Love, Nina, Jekyll and Hyde, Doctors, Lucan, Mrs Biggs, Twenty Twelve, Diamond Geezer, Casualty, The Courtroom, Monarch of the Glen, The Office, Kavanagh QC, The Famous Five, Brookside, Martin Chuzzlewit, Screen Two, The Bill, Brideshead Revisited and Crown Court. He was previously Literary Manager for Paines Plough and Royal Court Theatre.

Josie Kidd plays Mrs Coade. She trained at Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Theatre includes After October (Finborough Theatre), Fondly Remembered (Tabard Theatre), The White Carnation (Finborough Theatre and Jermyn Street Theatre), Dirty Dancing (Aldwych Theatre), Gates of Gold (Finborough Theatre and Trafalgar Studios), Glorious (Duchess Theatre and National Tour), Present Laughter (Aldwych Theatre and Wyndham's Theatre), Stepping Out (Novello Theatre and National Tour), Emma (Theatre Royal Northampton), Cemetery Club (Oldham Coliseum Theatre), Ring Round the Moon (King's Head Theatre), See How They Run and Relative Values (Vienna's English Theatre), Woman In Mind (Palace Theatre, Watford, and Wilmington, USA), Run For Your Wife and Funny Money (Oriana Theatre Company) and Birds on the Wing (Piccadilly Theatre). Film includes The First Man, The Library, Wrong Turn 6: Last Resort, Shoot on Sight, Ghosthunter and No Longer Alone. Television includes Bounty Hunters, The Crown, Call the Midwife, Doctors, Starlings, Midsomer Murders, The Invisibles, Catwalk Dogs, Life Begins, Down to Earth, Life Beyond the Box: Norman Stanley Fletcher, Hot Money, Murder in Mind, There's a Viking in My Bed, Absolutely True, EastEnders, Silent Witness, Goodnight Sweetheart, Soldier Soldier, Castles, The Ruth Rendell Mysteries, Galloping Galaxies, Moon and Son, Kinsey, The Agatha Christie Hour, Who, Sir? Me, Sir?, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Just William, Harriet's Back in Town, Peak Practice, Wycliffe, Last of the Summer Wine, Juliet Jekyll and Harriet Hyde, Uncle Jack, London's Burning, The Pallisers, War and Peace and Nana. Radio includes The Haunted Hotel and numerous radio dramas for the BBC Radio Drama Company. Pop Promos include Dream with Dizzee Rascal.

Bathsheba Piepe plays Mabel Purdie. She trained at LAMDA. Theatre includes Before the Party (Salisbury Playhouse), Doctor Faustus, Don Quixote and Shakespeare Live! (Royal Shakespeare Company), The Deep Blue Sea (Watermill Theatre, Newbury), Hello/Goodbye (Hampstead Theatre) and Belleville Rendez-Vous (FellSwoop Theatre).

Simon Rhodes plays Matey. He trained at Drama Centre, London. Theatre includes Just to Get Married and Laburnum Grove (Finborough Theatre), No Man's Land (Wyndham's Theatre and National Tour), A Pit of Clay and Styx (RIFT), The Hackney Volpone (The Rose Lipman Building), Venice Preserv'd (The Spectators' Guild), Cornelius (Finborough Theatre and 59E59 Theaters, New York), Accomplice (Menier Chocolate Factory), The Hotel (The Assembly Rooms Edinburgh), Billy Chickens is a Psychopath Superstar (Theatre503 at Latitude Festival), Trolls and Blue on Blue (Theatre503), Julius Caesar (The Barbican Theatre), Peace, The Bacchae and The Persians (Cyprus Amphitheatres Tour for Thiasos), A Number (Edinburgh Festival) and The Plebians Rehearse the Uprising (Arcola Theatre). Film includes The World We Knew, The Sky in Bloom and Screwed.

Miles Richardson plays Will Dearth. He trained at Arts Educational Schools London. Theatre includes Sleuth (Nottingham Playhouse and West Yorkshire Playhouse), King John (Rose Theatre, Kingston), King Charles III (Wyndham's Theatre and Music Box Theater, New York), Volpone, Henry V, Henry IV Part I, Henry IV Part II, Richard III, Henry VI Part I, Henry VI Part II, Henry VI Part III, A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, All's Well That Ends Well and Love's Labour's Lost (Royal Shakespeare Company), 12 Angry Men (Birmingham Rep and Garrick Theatre), The Moment of Truth (Southwark Playhouse), Anjin: The Shogun and The English Samurai (HoriPro Inc., Japan and Sadler's Wells), A Doll's House and A Midsummer Night's Dream (The Bridge House Theatre, Warwick), Playing Sinatra, The Lovers and Candida (New End Theatre, Hampstead), The Rivals (Wimbledon Studio Theatre), Lulu (Almeida Theatre and Kennedy Center, Washington DC), Journey's End (King's Head Theatre), Charley's Aunt and The Three Musketeers (Cannizaro Park, Wimbledon), The Picture of Dorian Gray (Westminster Theatre), The Seagull (Churchill Theatre, Bromley), The Three Musketeers (Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch and National Tour), First Class Passengers, Wuthering Heights and Cause Célèbre (Pitlochry Festival Theatre), An Evening with Gary Lineker (Riverside Studios), The Invisible Man (Theatre Royal Stratford East, Vaudeville Theatre and Comedy Theatre), Private Lives (York Theatre Royal), Romeo and Juliet (Hull Truck), Othello (Clwyd Theatr Cymru), Richard II and Richard III (National Tours), Wilfred, A Midsummer Night's Dream, An Inspector Calls and The Contractor (Birmingham Rep), Romeo and Juliet (Ludlow Festival), Another Country (Queen's Theatre) and Macbeth, Death of a Salesman and The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Tyne and Wear Theatre Company). Film includes Peterloo, Queen of Spain, Their Finest, A Quiet Passion, The Best Offer, Beat Girl, A Princess for Christmas, Flushed Away, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Sabotage!, Mindgame Trilogy, The Remains of the Day and Maurice. Television includes Sick Note, The Crown, Genius, Lucan, Doctors, Dancing on the Edge, Jo, Titanic, Upstairs Downstairs, Doctor Who, Midsomer Murders, Dirk Gently, The Colour of Magic, Agatha Christie's Marple, The King Must Die, The Brief, Byron, Cambridge Spies, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Big Pants, Elizabeth, Highlander, 'Allo 'Allo, Porterhouse Blue and The Return of Sherlock Holmes. Audio and voiceover work includes Venus, Life with Jesus, Final Fantasy, Hour of Victory, Gallifrey and Bernice Summerfield.

Edward Sayer plays John Purdie. He trained at Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Theatre includes The Winter's Tale (Cheek by Jowl) and First Light (Minerva Theatre, Chichester).

Venice van Someren plays Margaret. She trained at Drama Centre, London. Theatre includes The Real Thing (Rose Theatre, Kingston, Theatre Royal Bath, Arts Theatre, Cambridge and National Tour), Gabriel (National Tour for Theatre6), Thérèse Raquin (Southwark Playhouse), Can't Stand Up for Falling Down (Theatre N16) and Punk Rock (Theatro Technis). Film includes Silver.

James Woolley plays Mr Coade. Theatre includes The Romance of the Century (Brighton Fringe), Stop! The Play (Trafalgar Studios), So Great a Crime (Finborough Theatre), The Making of Moo and Mary Goes First (Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond), A Doll's House (Northern Stage, Newcastle), Called to Account, Bloody Sunday, Justifying War, Nuremberg and Srebrenica (Tricycle Theatre), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Belgrade Theatre, Coventry), Shadowlands (Salisbury Playhouse), The Cherry Orchard (Southwark Playhouse), The Holly and the Ivy (National Tour for Middle Ground Theatre Company), Summer Lightning (Theatre Royal Northampton), Fallen Angels (Apollo Theatre), Present Laughter (Gielgud Theatre), The Colour of Justice (Tricycle Theatre, National Theatre and National Tour), The Deep Blue Sea and Angels Rave On (Nottingham Playhouse), Twelfth Night (Northcott Theatre, Exeter) and The Tempest (Clwyd Theatr Cymru and Nottingham Playhouse). Film includes Down Dog, Framed, Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story, Justifying War: Scenes from the Hutton Enquiry, The Brides in the Bath, The Football Factory, I'll Be There, What a Girl Wants, Greenfingers, The Colour of Justice, Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story, Being Normal, Quincy's Quest and Telling Tales. Television includes Delicious, The Crown, Whitechapel, The Borgias, My Family, Hotel Babylon, Last of the Summer Wine, Footballers' Wives, Canterbury Tales, Coupling, Hippies, The Bill, Trial and Retribution, The Politician's Wife, Shrinks, Screen Two, Pulaski, Intimate Contact, Lytton's Diary, Only Fools and Horses, The Last Place on Earth, Dick Turpin, Danger UXB, Play for Today, A Soft Touch, The Duchess of Duke Street, When the Boat Comes In, The Sound of Laughter, Life and Death of Penelope, The Glittering Prizes, Upstairs Downstairs, S*P*Y*S and A Family at War.

Playwright J. M. Barrie was born in Kirriemuir, Scotland in 1860. He is best remembered today as the creator of Peter Pan, the boy who refused to grow up. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh and moved to London in 1885 where he began to write novels and plays. Barrie's marriage in 1894 to the actress Mary Ansell was childless and later ended in divorce, apparently unconsummated. In 1897 he met Sylvia Llewellyn Davies and her sons, who he often entertained with fairy stories in Kensington Gardens while they strolled with their nanny. It was to them that he told his first Peter Pan stories, some of which were published in The Little White Bird (1902). When Sylvia died in 1907 Barrie assumed guardianship of the Llewellyn Davies boys. He supported them to adulthood but, tragically, George died in combat in 1915 during World War I and Michael drowned in 1921 while swimming. The play Peter Pan; or, The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up was first produced in December 1904 at the Duke of York's Theatre. It triumphed, transferred to Broadway the following year, and has received frequent revivals and adaptations in a variety of media ever since. Many of Barrie's other great plays have been eclipsed by its huge success - Quality Street (1901), The Admirable Crichton (1902), What Every Woman Knows (1908), and Dear Brutus (1917) - are of indisputably high quality and remain ripe for revival. Barrie was created a baronet in 1913 and was awarded the Order of Merit in 1922. He became president of the Society of Authors in 1928 and chancellor of the University of Edinburgh in 1930. He died in London in 1937.

Director Jonathan O'Boyle's work includes Pippin (Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester), Hair (Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester and The Vaults Theatre), Four Play for which he was nominated for an Off West End Award for Best Director, Sense of an Ending and Water Under the Board (Theatre503), The Surplus and All the Ways to Say Goodbye (The Young Vic), The Verb, To Love and Made in Britain (Old Red Lion Theatre), Bash: Latterday Plays (Old Red Lion Theatre and Trafalgar Studios) and King Lear and Broken Glass (Royal Central School of Speech and Drama). Work as Associate Director includes This House (Chichester Festival Theatre and Garrick Theatre), The Judas Kiss (Brooklyn Academy Of Music, New York and Ed Mirvish Theatre, Toronto), Mack and Mabel and Amadeus (Chichester Festival Theatre), Bull (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, The Young Vic and 59E59 Theaters, New York), This is My Family (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield and National Tour), The Scottsboro Boys (The Young Vic), M. Fair Lady and The Village Bike (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield) and Manon (Royal Opera House, Covent Garden). He is currently Resident Director for An American in Paris at the Dominion Theatre. He was previously Trainee Associate Director at Chichester Festival Theatre and Associate Director at Theatre503.

Designer Anna Reid trained at Wimbledon College of Art. Work includes Dust (Underbelly Edinburgh), The Cardinal and School Play (Southwark Playhouse), I'm Gonna Pray For You So Hard (Finborough Theatre), Jumpers for Goalposts (Oldham Coliseum Theatre), Epic Love and Pop Songs (Pleasance Edinburgh and Pleasance London), Empty Beds (Underbelly Edinburgh and Arcola Theatre), Fury and Brute (Soho Theatre), For Those Who Cry When They Hear The Foxes Scream (Tristan Bates Theatre),Tape (Drayton Arms Theatre), Dottir (Courtyard Theatre), Dry Land (Jermyn Street Theatre), Bruises (Tabard Theatre), Arthur's World (Bush Theatre), Hippolytos (Victoria and Albert Museum), Fierce (Camden People's Theatre) and Hamlet (Riverside Studios).

Lighting Designer Peter Harrison trained at Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Work includes The Cardinal (Southwark Playhouse), Julius Caesar (Guildford Shakespeare Company), Child of the Divide (National Tour), Pink Mist (Bristol Old Vic and Bush Theatre), Britten in Brooklyn (Wilton's Music Hall), Flowering Cherry (Finborough Theatre), The White Carnation (Finborough Theatre and Jermyn Street Theatre), Alfie White: Space Explorer and Wilde Creatures (Tall Stories), Bucket List, The Ballad of the Burning Star and Translunar Paradise (Theatre Ad Infinitum), The Paper Cinema's Macbeth (Pleasance Edinburgh), Run (VAULT Festival), Marsha: A Girl Who Does Bad Things (Arcola Theatre), Much Ado About Nothing (Ludlow Festival), Jerry's Girls (St. James Theatre), Orestes (Shared Experience), The Doubtful Guest (Hoipolloi at Theatre Royal Plymouth and Palace Theatre, Watford), Once We Were Mothers (Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond) and numerous pantomimes for First Family and Evolution Productions. Opera includes Paul Bunyan (Welsh National Youth Opera) and Orpheus in the Underworld (Royal College of Music). Dance includes In-Nocentes and Home Turf (Sadler's Wells), Lazarussuchus (Gärtnerplatztheater, Munich) and productions for Central School of Ballet, Urdang Academy and London Studio Centre. Associate Lighting Design includes As You Like It and Collaborators (National Theatre), Made in Dagenham (Adelphi Theatre), I Can't Sing! (London Palladium) and The Commitments (Palace Theatre).

Sound Designer Max Perryment trained at City, University of London. Work includes Start Swimming (The Young Vic and Summerhall Edinburgh), Replay and Goodbear (Pleasance Edinburgh), Dust (Underbelly Edinburgh), Hair (Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester and The Vaults Theatre), Landmines (The BRIT School, Ovalhouse and Otherplace, Brighton), Nest (Brighton Fringe and National Tour), Muted (The Bunker), Blood and Water (Kestrel Theatre Company at HMP Springhill and Royal Court Theatre), The Frontline (Arts Educational Schools London), R and D (Hampstead Theatre), Last of the Boys (Southwark Playhouse), Reimagining Uncle Vanya (Almeida Theatre), Four Play, Clickbait and Sense of an Ending (Theatre503), Romeo and Juliet (Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond), And Then Come the Nightjars (Theatre503, Bristol Old Vic and National Tour), Creditors, The Remarkable Case of K, The Surplus and Basecamp (The Young Vic), The Three Lions (St. James Theatre and National Tour), Black Dog Gold Fish (The Vaults Theatre), Attempts on Her Life (LAMDA),Twist of Gold (Polka Theatre) and Champagne Breakfast (Arts Depot).

Max writes music for commercials and is the composer for theatre company Parrot in the Tank and contemporary dance company Made By Katie Green.

Producer Troupe returns to Southwark Playhouse after its critically acclaimed production of James Shirley's The Cardinal, which was supported by the inaugural MGCfutures Bursary Award. Troupe's previous rediscoveries at the Finborough Theatre - Rodney Ackland's After October, Robert Bolt's Flowering Cherry and R. C. Sherriff's The White Carnation, which later transferred to Jermyn Street Theatre - have been nominated for a total of five Off West End Awards.