Bush Theatre Announces Casting for WHILE WE'RE HERE

Bush Theatre has announced today for While We're Here, a new play by acclaimed writer Barney Norris (Visitors, Bush Theatre; Eventide, Arcola Theatre). Alice Hamilton will direct Tessa Peake-Jones (Only Fools and Horses, BBC; Beacons, Park Theatre) and Andrew French (The Iphigenia Quartet, Gate Theatre; Boi, Boi is Dead, West Yorkshire Playhouse) in this world premiere which opens the Bush Theatre's brand new 60 seat Studio.

Co-Directors of the multi award-winning touring company Up In Arms, Barney Norris and Alice Hamilton return to the Bush following their critically acclaimed production of Visitors, for which Norris won the Critics' Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright. He has two other productions opening this spring; Echo's End at Salisbury Playhouse and a revival of Every You Every Me at Oxford Playhouse/ Reading Rep. His debut novel, Five Rivers Met on a Wooded Plain, was released last year and is now a bestseller.

"Sometimes I think my whole life has been a frightening time. Well. I remember the crunch of the gravel under my feet walking back up the drive, and thinking my life might be over. I might have had all of my fun. But I was wrong, it turned out. I've had a lot of good things since."

Eddie and Carol were lovers once, but their lives went in different directions. Now they meet again in a town full of memories, and find something still burns between them. On the country's southern margin where the towns give way to the English Channel, both search for the centre of their lives.

The Bush has also announced that tickets are released today for Ramona Tells Jim (20 September - 21 October) in the Studio and Of Kith and Kin (18 October - 25 November) in the Theatre as well as more tickets for the upcoming Guards at the Taj (7 April - 20 May) and Hir (15 June - 22 July).

Andrew French returns to the Bush Theatre having previously appeared in I Like Mine With a Kiss directed by Mike Bradwell. Further theatre credits include This Flesh Is Mine/ When Nobody Returns (Border Crossings), The Iphigenia Quartet (Gate Theatre), Bully Boy (Mercury Theatre, Colchester), Boi Boi is Dead and Refugee Boy (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Roundabout Season (Paines Plough), Julius Caesar (Royal Shakespeare Company), Six Characters in Search of an Author (Aquila Theatre, USA), Measure for Measure (Almeida Theatre), Monster (Royal Exchange, Manchester), As You Like It (West End), References to Salvador Dalí Make Me Hot (Arcola Theatre/ Young Vic), The Taming of the Shrew (Nottingham Playhouse), The Merchant of Venice and Troilus and Cressida (National Theatre), The Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare's Globe), Things Fall Apart (West Yorkshire Playhouse/ Royal Court), The Tempest (Nottingham Playhouse) and The Tempest (Shared Experience). Television credits include Capital, Soundproof and In Deep, Perfect Parents, Burnside, and Tough Love. Film credits include Breaking the Bank, Exorcist: The Beginning, Exorcist: Dominion, The Merchant of Venice, Close Your Eyes and The Tailor of Panama.

Tessa Peake-Jones is most well-known for playing Raquel in the television series Only Fools and Horses. She returns to the Bush Theatre where she previously appeared in Crossing the Equator. More recently her theatre credits include Beacons (Park Theatre), Home and Brimstone and Treacle (Arcola Theatre), Park Avenue Cats (Arts Theatre), The Five Wives of Maurice Pinder (National Theatre), Shirley Valentine (Haymarket Theatre, Basingstoke) and The Park (Barbican Theatre/ Royal Shakespeare Company). Further credits with the Royal Shakespeare Company include Hamlet and A Comedy of Errors. Elsewhere her theatre work includes Pride and Prejudice (Leicester Haymarket/ Old Vic), Romeo and Juliet (Birmingham Rep) and Quartermaine's Terms (Bristol Old Vic/ Stephen Joseph Theatre). Further television credits include a regular leading role in ITV's Grantchester, recurring roles in the series Unforgotten, Marchlands, Doctors and Holby City, and movies Legacy and Poppy Shakespeare. Feature film credits include Bonobo, First Night and the upcoming The Devil Went Down to Islington.

Barney Norris (playwright) is a critically acclaimed writer and the co-artistic director of Up in Arms. Previous work at the Bush Theatre includes The Rest of Your Life and Visitors, for which he won the Critics' Circle and Off West End Most Promising Playwright Awards. Further plays include Fear of Music (National Tour/ Out of Joint), At First Sight (National Tour/ Latitude Festival) and the critically acclaimed Eventide (Arcola Theatre). Further published works include To Bodies Gone: The Theatre of Peter Gill and the bestselling novel Five Rivers Met on a Wooded Plain. He has two other productions opening this spring; Echo's End (Salisbury Playhouse) and a revival of Every You Every Me (Oxford Playhouse/ Reading Rep).

Alice Hamilton (director) is the co-artistic director of Up in Arms. She was nominated for the Best Director Offie Award for Visitors (Arcola Theatre/ Bush Theatre/ National Tour) and Eventide (Arcola/ National Tour). For Up in Arms she also directed German Skerries (Orange Tree Theatre/ National Tour), Fear of Music (National Tour/ Out of Joint) and At First Sight (National Tour/ Latitude Festival). Other theatre includes 30 Christmases (Old Fire Station, Oxford), Orca and Orson's Shadow (both at Southwark Playhouse). She will be directing the upcoming production of Echo's End (Salisbury Playhouse).

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