Full Cast Set For Jerome Kilty’s DEAR LIAR at Jermyn Street Theatre

With their revival of Orphans starting performances this week, Jermyn Street Theatre has announced full casting for Jerome Kilty's Dear Liar - adapted from the correspondence of George Bernard Shaw and Mrs Patrick Campbell. Artistic Director Stella Powell-Jones directs Rachel Pickup and Alan Turkington.

The production opens on Tuesday 10 February, with previews from 5 February, and runs until 7 March 2026 at Jermyn Street Theatre.

Director Stella Powell-Jones said, “Dear Liar is both an epic forty-year journey - from the fin-de-siècle mood of the late nineteenth century to the German invasion of Paris - and an intensely close-up portrait of two great artists. In their own words, we see how this relationship shaped their art and their lives, revealed through letters filled with love, wit, longing, and bitter recrimination. Jermyn Street Theatre is the perfect home for this intimate epic, and it's a rare joy to welcome Alan Turkington and Rachel Pickup back to the building—two extraordinary actors who understand the particular pleasures and demands of telling big stories on our bijoux stage. I can't wait to get started.”

1940. The Germans advance on Paris. A case stuffed with letters is smuggled to London. Inside, a remarkable story about - and by - two remarkable people: the brilliant actress ‘Mrs Pat' and George Bernard Shaw. They met in 1899. They made Pygmalion. World Wars started and stopped, and started again. They fell in love. They fell apart. And through it all… they wrote.

Jerome Kilty's play reveals the extraordinary bond between these two theatrical titans. In their witty, unfiltered words, attraction collides with ambition as the world transforms around them. A play about how we change — and what we hold on to.

Jerome Kilty (1922 – 2012) was an actor and playwright whose work spans stage and screen across the US and internationally. As a playwright, his other notable works include Dear Love, The Ideas of March, The Little Black Book, and Look Away. As an actor, he appeared with companies including the American Repertory Theater and the Opera Company of Boston.

Rachel Pickup plays Mrs Patrick Campbell - she returns to Jermyn Street Theatre following her performances in The Tempest, The Odyssey, For Services Rendered, and Barefoot in the Park. Her other theatre credits include The Daughter of Time (Charing Cross Theatre), Twelfth Night, Still Life (The Mill at Sonning), Present Laughter (St James Theatre, NYC), The Merchant of Venice (Lincoln Center Festival, New York City/Shakespeare's Globe/international tour), London Assurance, The Home Place, Breath, Play, Act Without Words, Dancing at Lughnasa, Airswimming (Irish Repertory Theatre, NYC), Intelligence (New York Theatre Workshop), and Private Lives (Hartford Stage). Her television credits include The Gilded Age, Madam Secretary, Grantchester, Dietland, Elementary; and for film, Wonder Woman, Chronic, and The Merchant of Venice.   Alan Turkington plays George Bernard Shaw - he returns to Jermyn Street Theatre following his performances in The First Man and Beowulf. His other theatre credits include Hamlet (Donmar West End), The Tempest, The Winter's Tale, Pericles (RSC), Spook (London Performance Studios), The Lieutenant of Inishmore (Liverpool Everyman), From Here to Eternity, In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel (Charing Cross Theatre), Very Special Guest Star (Omnibus Theatre), My Night with Reg (Turbine Theatre), Antony and Cleopatra (National Theatre), John Ferguson, Gates of Hold (Finborough Theatre), Angelic Tales – Three (Theatre Royal Stratford East), Stars in the Morning Sky (Belgrade Theatre), A Cry from Heaven (Abbey Theatre), and John Bull's Other Island (Tricycle Theatre). His television credits include Heartstopper, Dead Hot, Gangs of London, Hollyoaks, and X Company.

Stella Powell-Jones directs. She is the Artistic Director of Jermyn Street Theatre, a role she has held since 2022 - with her tenure being marked by major milestones, including record-breaking audience numbers, a West End transfer, the theatre's 30th anniversary, and the launch of the inaugural Women in Theatre Lab. Her directing credits for Jermyn Street Theatre include Eurydice, Little Brother, Owners, Orlando, Parents Evening, The Play About My Dad, and Tomorrow at Noon. Further directing credits include This Is Our Youth (Playground Theatre), The Healing (Theater Breaking Through Barriers, New York), The Mystery of Love and Sex (Signature Theatre, Washington DC), and Trevor (Circle X Theatre, Los Angeles); and as Associate Director, Escaped Alone (Royal Court and International tour), and The Father (Duke of York's Theatre and UK tour).

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