London Classic Theatre Announces Extension And New Cast Of UK Tour Of MY MOTHER SAID I NEVER SHOULD

Following the recent news that a fire had destroyed the entire set of their touring production on New Year's Eve, London Classic Theatre are pleased to announce that the extension of the UK tour of Charlotte Keatley's My Mother Said I Never Should will go ahead as planned. Kathryn Ritchie returns to play Jackie Metcalfe and will be joined by Rebecca Birch (Rosie Metcalfe), Lisa Burrows (Margaret Bradley) and Judith Paris (Doris Partington). Artistic Director of LCT, Michael Cabot, directs the production, which tours to a further 14 venues in 2019. The tour starts at New Theatre Royal Portsmouth on 6 February, with performances in Newtown, Ipswich, Doncaster, Middlesbrough, Richmond, Derby, Poole, Winchester, Worthing, Epsom, Swansea and Oldham before concluding at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford in April. Press night will take place on Wednesday 27 February at Richmond Theatre.

Artistic Director, Michael Cabot said today 'It's been a very busy fortnight since we found out about the fire. After the initial shock, we sat down and immediately started working out what we needed to do. We received countless offers of help from friends in the industry and elsewhere. We're also very lucky to be surrounded by some totally dedicated people, who have responded to the fire with purpose and determination. Rehearsals are now under way as well and so far, so good.'

Set in Manchester, Oldham and London, My Mother Said I Never Should is a poignant, bittersweet story about love, jealousy and the price of freedom. The play details the lives of four women through the immense social changes of the twentieth century. Using a kaleidoscopic time structure, Charlotte Keatley's story focuses on four generations of one family as they confront the most significant moments of their lives.

In 1940, Doris, a former teacher, encourages her nine-year-old daughter, Margaret, to mind her manners and practise the piano. In 1969, Margaret's relationship with her own daughter is strained, as art student Jackie experiments with her new found sexual freedom. When Jackie becomes pregnant at 18 and has baby Rosie, a decision is made that will affect all their lives irrevocably.

Charlotte Keatley is an award-winning playwright and My Mother Said I Never Should is the most widely performed play ever written by a woman, having now been translated or produced in 31 countries from Japan to Peru. Other credits include The Iron Serpent, An Armenian Childhood, Waiting for Martin, Fears and Miseries in the Third Term, The Ringing Singing Tree, The Sleep of Reason, Our Father and I am Janet.

Rebecca Birch plays Rosie Metcalfe. Her theatre credits include A Midsummer Night's Dream (Lyric Hammersmith/UK tour), Relative Values (Harold Pinter Theatre/Theatre Royal Bath), The Secret Seven, The Beggar's Opera (Storyhouse, Chester), Alice in Wonderland (Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre), Pygmalion (Garrick Theatre/Chichester Festival Theatre) and The Master Builder (Chichester Festival Theatre). For television her credits include The Commuter-Electric Dreams: The World of Phillip K Dick and Victoria.

Lisa Burrows plays Margaret Bradley. For the company her credits include Love in the Title and Absent Friends. Her other theatre credits include Drowning on Dry Land, Humble Boy (National Theatre tour), Night Maze (Nottingham Playhouse), The Lottie Project, Puss in Boots, The Secret Garden (Polka Theatre) and Cloud Nine (Palace Theatre). For television her credits include Thackery's Women and Dream World. For film her credits include Baby's Angels, Playing by the Rules, David's Dream and Love Connection.

Judith Paris plays Doris Partington. For the company her credits include The Importance of Being Earnest. Her other theatre credits include As You Like It (Royal Shakespeare Theatre), Little Hotel on the Side, Bow Down, Jumpers, Spring Awakening, The Tempest, Coriolanus (National Theatre), Annie (Victoria Palace Theatre), Oliver! (Noël Coward Theatre), The Secret Garden (Aldwych Theatre), and Madame Tussaud: Waxing Lyrical, The Universal Machine (New Diorama Theatre). For television her credits include Doctor Who, All Passion Spent, A Touch of Frost, Mind Games and The Various Ends of Mrs F's Friends. For film her credits include The Phantom of the Opera, Dance of the Seven Veils, Prisoner of Honour, The Devils, Isadora Duncan and Dante's Inferno.

Kathryn Ritchie plays Jackie Metcalfe. For the company her credits include After Miss Julie and Absent Friends. Her other theatre credits include The 39 Steps, Arsenic and Old Lace, Dear Brutus and Little Shop of Horrors (Pitlochry Festival Theatre), Accidental Death of an Anarchist (Torch Theatre, Milford Haven), Tess of the D'Urbervilles (UK tour), Measure for Measure (Courtyard Theatre) and the original cast of The Railway Children at Waterloo Station (York Theatre Royal/The Touring Consortium).

Michael Cabot is the founder and Artistic Director of London Classic Theatre. He has directed all thirty-nine LCT productions since their debut in 1993 including Private Lives, Hysteria, The Birthday Party, Waiting for Godot, Absent Friends, Entertaining Mr Sloane, Betrayal, The Importance of Being Earnest, Equus and After Miss Julie. He has overseen the company's transition from one of the success stories of the London Fringe in the late nineties to its current position as one of the UK's leading touring companies. His freelance work as director includes three recent collaborations with award-winning playwright Henry Naylor, The Collector (Arcola Theatre 2014 & UK tour 2016), Angel (Edinburgh Festival Fringe première 2016) and Borders (Edinburgh Festival Fringe première 2017). Angel has won several theatre awards, including a Scotsman Fringe First and the Holden Street Theatres Edinburgh Award in 2016. The production transferred to the Adelaide Fringe in February 2017, winning the Adelaide Critics Circle Award, before playing at the 59E59 Theater in New York as part of the Brits Off Broadway season. Angel was chosen by The Times as one of the UK's Top Ten productions in 2016. Borders won a Scotsman Fringe First and the Carol Tambor Best of Fringe Award. It also won the Adelaide Critics Circle Award and transferred to New York Theater Workshop in June 2018.

London Classic Theatre was launched in 2000 as a touring theatre company with David Mamet's Oleanna. This inaugural tour lost a small fortune but doors had opened and, crucially, the work was being seen. Eighteen years and thirty-nine tours later, London Classic Theatre is now a successful, established part of the commercial UK touring theatre scene. The company has never received any funding or sponsorship for its work. As Artistic Director, Michael Cabot has programmed a repertoire of classic and modern classic plays, a mixture of the challenging and the commercial, big titles and less well-known, including two UK premières - Hugh Leonard's Love in the Title and Joanna Murray-Smith's Nightfall. As venues and audiences have become more familiar with the work he has been able to push the boundaries of what LCT offers, both in ambition, scale and complexity.

London Classic Theatre - in numbers...

• 39 tours since 2000
• 31 productions
• 250 venues visited
• 485 weeks of touring
• 360,000 miles covered
• Over 2,500 performances
• Over 500,000 tickets sold
• 159 actors
• 19 designers
• 2 UK premières
• 4 Harold Pinter plays
• 2 Patrick Marber plays
• 2 Marivaux plays in new translation
• Longest tour Equus - 35 weeks and 198 performances
• Shortest tour The Game of Love and Chance - 5 weeks and 22 performances
• £0 public subsidy

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