Cast Set For Rosie Day's (THIS IS NOT A) HAPPY ROOM at Theatre Royal Windsor

Katy Galloway Productions has announced the cast for Rosie Day’s (This is not a) Happy Room at Theatre Royal Windsor. Declan Baxter joins the previously announced Amanda Abbington, Rosie Day, Andrea Valls, Jazz Jenkins, Tom Kanji, and Alison Liney.

Directed by Hannah Price, (This is not a) Happy Room runs at Theatre Royal Windsor on 13 May, running until 17 May, following its run at King’s Head Theatre from 26 March to 27 April.

Katy Galloway said, “I’m really looking forward to bringing (This is not a) Happy Room to Windsor with such a talented company. It’s great to have Declan joining the cast for this next stage of the production.”

Rosie Day said, “It’s been amazing to see how audiences have connected with the show during its run at King’s Head. I’m so proud of what we’ve created, and I’m really excited to bring it to Windsor with this brilliant cast. Having the chance to share the story with new audiences in a new space is a real privilege.”

Meet the Hendersons, a happily dysfunctional family, reuniting for their dad’s third (or fourth?) wedding. Nobody expects the death of his bachelorhood to become an actual funeral… but it would be a waste of the buffet not to repurpose it, right?

Following the West-End run of her critically acclaimed Instructions for a Teenage Armageddon, and hailed as Saltburn meets Schitt’s Creek, Rosie Day’s new searingly sharp dark comedy premieres at the King's Head in March 2025.

Biographies

Amanda Abbington plays Esther. Her theatre credits include When it Happens to You (Park Theatre), The Unfriend (Criterion Theatre), The Son (Kiln Theatre, Duke of York’s Theatre), The Little Princess (Royal Festival Hall), The God of Carnage, Abigail’s Party (Theatre Royal Bath), God Bless the Child (Royal Court Theatre) and Love Me Tonight (Hampstead Theatre). Her television credits include Desperate Measures, Wolfe, The Net, Sherlock, I Hate Suzie, Mr. Selfridge (as series regular Miss Mardle), Cuffs, The Queen and I, Unsaid Stories, Safe, Married Single Other and After You’ve Gone. Her film credits include The Lost King, Three Pints and a Rabbi, Decrypted, The Six Days of Sistine, Crooked House, Another Mother’s Son and Ghost.

Playwright Rosie Day also plays Elle. As a writer, her debut play Instructions for a Teenage Armageddon opened in the West End in Spring 2024 and is now being produced for television by BBC3 and Emma Thompson. Her theatre credits include When It Happens to You (Park Theatre), The Fellowship (Hampstead Theatre), Instructions for a Teenage Armageddon (Southwark Playhouse), Again, The Girl who Fell (Trafalgar Studios), Spur of the Moment (Royal Court Theatre), Velocity (Finborough Theatre), A Winter’s Tale, Playboy of the Western World and Summerfolk (National Theatre). Her television credits include Outlander, Living the Dream, Good Omens, Urban Myths, The Sandman and Prime Suspect 1973; and for film, All Roads Lead to Rome, Down a Dark Hall, The Seasoning House, Good Night and Butterfly Kisses.

Declan Baxter plays Simon. His theatre credits include Blink (Liverpool Everyman). His television credits include Andor, We Are Not Alone, Martin Fishback, Jerk, Grantchester, Life, There She Goes, and Flatmates. His film credits include Fight or Flight.  

Andrea Valls makes her professional stage debut as Laura. Her television credits include Bridgerton, Grantchester, Cheaters, The Death of Bunny Monroe, Toads, The Mallorca Flies, Spent, Flaps, East Mode with Nigel Ng Waffle the Wonderdog, Valentine Nights and The Midnight Beast Present Valentine’s Day; and for film, Red White and Royal Blue.

Jazz Jenkins plays Hayley. Her theatre credits include Fabulous Creatures (Arcola Theatre). Jenkins graduated from LAMDA in 2023.

Tom Kanji plays Charles. His theatre credits include Twelfth Night (Orange Tree Theatre), The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, The Country Wife (Chichester Festival Theatre), Richard, My Richard (Shakespeare North and Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds), Julius Caesar, The Box of Delights (RSC), Pinocchio (Unicorn Theatre), Private Peaceful (Nottingham Playhouse), Home, I’m Darling (UK tour), The Taming of the Shrew (US tour), Shoe Lady (Royal Court Theatre), Love’s Labour’s Lost, The Winter’s Tale, Pericles, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Doctor Scroggy’s War, Eternal Love (Shakespeare’s Globe), Yes, Prime Minister (Theatre Clwyd),  Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra, Much Ado About Nothing (Barbican Theatre), Fiddler on the Roof, Romeo and Juliet, The Story Giant, The Sum (Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse); and for television, Tyrant, Supacell, Silent Witness, Hustle and Midnight Man.

Making her professional debut at the age of 84, Alison Liney plays Agatha. She has performed with amateur groups in North London since the mid-sixties.