Full Cast Set For Terence Rattigan's IN PRAISE OF LOVE at Orange Tree Theatre

Orange Tree Theatre has announced full casting for Terence Rattigan's In Praise of Love. Amelia Sears directs Daniel Abelson (Mark Walters), Joe Edgar (Joey Cruttwell), Claire Price (Lydia Cruttwell) and Dominic Rowan (Sebastian Cruttwell).

In Praise of Love opens on 3 June, with previews from 24 May and runs until 5 July.

Honesty between people who love each other is the thing that matters least in this life.

England, 1973. Estonian refugee Lydia and her Marxist literary critic husband Sebastian both worked in wartime intelligence. They excel at keeping secrets – from friends, from each other, and even from themselves. But their world is crumbling. The arrival of Lydia's admirer, a best-selling American author, sparks their complex deceptions into an explosion of family truths.

A perceptive and deeply moving drama, In Praise of Love is Rattigan's penultimate play, and loosely based on the relationship between the actor Rex Harrison and his wife Kay Kendall. Orange Tree audiences loved Terence Rattigan's French Without Tears and While the Sun Shines. This is a rare chance to see a haunting and provocative play by one of the twentieth century's most popular playwrights.

Terence Rattigan was one of Britain's greatest playwrights. His plays include French Without Tears, After the Dance, Flare Path, Love In Idleness, While the Sun Shines, The Winslow Boy, The Browning Version, Harlequinade, Adventure Story, Who is Sylvia?, The Deep Blue Sea, The Sleeping Prince, Separate Tables, Variation on a Theme, Ross, Man and Boy, A Bequest to the Nation and Cause Célèbre. His screenplays include French Without Tears, The Way to the Stars, Journey Together, While the Sun Shines, The Winslow Boy, The Browning Version, The Prince and the Showgirl, Separate Tables, The Sound Barrier, The Man Who Loved Redheads, The Deep Blue Sea, Goodbye Mr Chips, Conduct Unbecoming and A Bequest to the Nation. His television plays include Heart to Heart, All On Her Own and High Summer.

Daniel Abelson returns to the Orange Tree to play Mark Walters having previously appeared in Amsterdam (also Theatre Royal Plymouth). Other theatre credits include A Midsummer Night's Dream (Opera North), Machinal (The Old Vic, Theatre Royal Bath Ustinov Studio), Circa (Old Red Lion Theatre), The Rivals (Watermill Theatre), William Wordsworth (ETT, Theatre by the Lake), Once in a Lifetime (Young Vic), The Mighty Waltzer (Royal Exchange Theatre); Me, As a Penguin (Arcola Theatre, The Lowry, West Yorkshire Playhouse), Country Magic (Southwark Playhouse), Macbeth (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Shadow of a Gunman (Glasgow Citizens Theatre), 5/11, King Lear, The Government Inspector, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Seven Doors, Thermidor, The Seagull and Holes in the Skin (Chichester Festival Theatre). His television credits include Humans, I Shouldn't Be Alive, Jonathan Pie's American Pie, Robin Hood and The Royal Today; and for film, The Rack Pack.

Joe Edgar plays Joey Cruttwell. His theatre credits include The Cabinet Minister (Menier Chocolate Factory), Just For One Day (Old Vic Theatre) and Hitchhiker (Teastain Theatre). His television credits include The Crown.

Claire Price returns to the Orange Tree to play Lydia Cruttwell having previously appeared in Poison. Other theatre credits include Something in the Air (Jermyn Street Theatre), Raya (Hampstead Theatre), The Taming of the Shrew/Measure for Measure, When Did You Last See My Mother (Battersea Arts Centre); for the RSC credits include Volpone, Don Carlos, Brand (the later also Theatre Royal Haymarket); King Lear (Duke of York's Theatre), Things We Do For Love (Theatre Royal Bath, UK tour); for Sheffield Theatres, credits include The Winter's Tale, The Daughter-in-Law, Company, The Pride, Richard III, Much Ado About Nothing and The Tempest (also The Old Vic); Fifty Words (Theatre Royal Bath Ustinov Studio, Arcola Theatre), The Way of the World (Chichester Festival Theatre), Little Platoons (Bush Theatre), Mary Stuart (Theatr Clwyd), The White Devil (Menier Chocolate Factory), The Lady from the Sea (Birmingham Rep), Coriolanus, Blood Wedding (Bloomsbury Theatre), A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Dark Room, Love in a Wood (New End Theatre Hampstead), Dead White Males (Nuffield Theatre), As You Like It, Twelfth Night (Liverpool Playhouse), The Relapse, Cyrano (National Theatre) and Dr Faustus (Bristol Old Vic). Her television credits include The Capture, Call the Midwife, Home Fires, Capital, The Coroner, The Outcast, Apparitions, London's Burning, The White Lady, Murder in Mind: Sleeper, Out of this World, The Knock, Whistleblower, Twelfth Night, Poirot: The Hollow, Dalziel & Pascoe and Rebus; and for film, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Jump, Hereafter, Cuckoo and Solo Shuttle.

Dominic Rowan returns to the Orange Tree to play Sebastian Cruttwell having previously appeared in Winter Solstice. Other theatre credits include The Invention of Love, The Divine Mrs S, Giving (Hampstead Theatre), The Good Life (Theatre Royal Bath), The Jungle (Playhouse Theatre, St Anne's Warehouse, Curran Theatre), A Woman of No Importance, Stepping Out (Vaudeville Theatre), The Tempest, Measure for Measure, Henry VIII, A New World, As You Like It (Shakespeare's Globe), The Cherry Orchard, After Dido (Young Vic), Medea, Happy Now?, Dream Play, Iphigenia at Aulis, Mourning Becomes Electra, Three Sisters, The Talking Cure, Private Lives (National Theatre), A Doll's House (Young Vic, Duke of York's Theatre, BAM New York), The Village Bike, Way to Heaven, Forty Winks (Royal Court Theatre), The Misanthrope (Comedy Theatre), The Spanish Tragedy (Arcola Theatre), Under the Blue Sky (Duke of York's Theatre), A Voyage Round My Father, Lobby Hero (Donmar Warehouse), The Importance of Being Earnest (Oxford Playhouse), Sexual Perversity in Chicago (Sheffield Theatres), The Merchant of Venice, Two Gentlemen of Verona and Talk of the City (RSC). His television credits include Dalgliesh, Agatha Raisin, The Crown, Trying, Catastrophe, Press, Henry IV, Restless, Law & Order: UK (as series regular Jacob Thorne), Catwalk Dogs, Baby Boom, Trial and Retribution, The Lavender List, The Family Man, Rescue Me, Lost World, Swallow, North Square, Hearts and Bones, A Rather English Marriage, Between the Lines, Devil's Advocate, No Bananas, Emma and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall; and for film, Tulse Luper Suitcases.