New Tour Dates Announced For PRIVATE LIVES

Theatre Royal Bath Productions and Moss Empires will present The Nigel Havers Theatre Company in Noel Coward's gloriously entertaining PRIVATE LIVES. This will be the inaugural show for The Nigel Havers Theatre Company, which will be touring the country with a wonderful line-up of theatrical gems. The UK Tour of PRIVATE LIVES will begin at Theatre Royal Bath on 28 October 2021.

The production stars Olivier Award-winning Patricia Hodge, one of the country's most loved actresses, as Amanda and Nigel Havers, ever suave and thoroughly charming, as Elyot, the role taken by Noël Coward himself in the original production in 1930. Astonishingly, it is the first time Nigel Havers has appeared in a Coward play on stage. Dugald Bruce-Lockhart plays Victor, Natalie Walter Sibyl and Aïcha Kossoko Louise.

Coward's dazzling comic masterpiece is both a scintillatingly witty and scathingly vitriolic study of the rich and reckless in love. Elyot and Amanda, who were once married, find themselves in adjoining rooms in the same hotel on the French coast, both on honeymoon with their new partners. Their initial horror quickly evaporates and soon they're sharing cocktails and a romantic serenade.

Patricia Hodge's many theatre credits include A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (Trafalgar Studios), Copenhagen (Chichester Festival Theatre), Travels With My Aunt (Minerva, Chichester), Relative Values (Harold Pinter), Calendar Girls (Noel Coward Theatre), The Country Wife (Theatre Royal Haymarket), His Dark Materials (National), Noises Off (National), Money (National, for which she won the Olivier for Best Supporting Actress) and A Little Night Music (National). Her recent television credits include Ursula Thorpe in A Very English Scandal (BBC), Mrs Pelham in Downton Abbey (ITV) and Penny in Miranda (BBC).

Nigel Havers's television credits include Roger in Finding Alice (ITV) and General Ransom in All Creatures Great & Small (Channel 5). Other recent television credits include Lewis Archer in Coronation Street (Granada), Stanley Keen in Benidorm (ITV) and Lord Hepworth in Downton Abbey (ITV). Theatre includes Serge in the UK Tour and West End productions of Art, Algernon Moncrieff in the UK Tour of The Importance of Being Earnest and Maxim de Wynter in the UK Tour of Rebecca. His film credits include playing David Niven in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, Hofstadter in Paradise Lost, Dr Rawlins in Empire of the Sun and Lord Andrew Lindsay in Chariots of Fire.

Dugald Bruce-Lockhart most recently appeared as Michael Gove in The Last Temptation of Boris Johnson at Park Theatre. He has also played David Cameron in The Three Lions (St James Theatre and Edinburgh Festival), for which he was nominated for Best Actor in The Stage Awards. Other theatre credits include Bill Austin in Mamma Mia! (Novello), David Hart in Wonderland (Hampstead), Richard Hannay in The 39 Steps (UK Tour) and, for Ed Hall's Propeller Theatre Company, he has played the title role in Henry V, Antipholus of Syracuse in Comedy of Errors and Ratcliffe in Richard III.

Natalie Walter's most recent theatre credits include Pack of Lies (Menier Chocolate Factory), Jerusalem (Watermill Theatre), Smash (Menier Chocolate Factory), 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover (Bush), 39 Steps (Criterion), Hay Fever (Chichester Festival Theatre) and, for the RSC, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Love's Labour's Lost. Natalie was a regular performer in the CBBC series Horrible Histories.

Aïcha Kossoko's most recent theatre credits include playing Alia Aminu in Josie Rourke's production of The Vote at The Donmar Warehouse, Antony & Cleopatra at Chichester Festival Theatre and Liverpool Playhouse, The Taming of the Shrew for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Welcome To Thebes and The Observer at The National Theatre and La Dispute at The Abbey Theatre Dublin. Recent films include The Fever and Claude Chabrol's La comédie du pouvoir. Television credits include Skins, In Deep, Coronation Street, Casualty, EastEnders and Kingmakers. She played Lady Detective and BBC Radio 4's dramatization of The Number One Ladies Detective Agency.

PRIVATE LIVES will be directed by Christopher Luscombe, with set and costume designs by Simon Higlett, lighting design by Mark Jonathan, music by Nigel Hess, sound design by Jeremy Dunn, fight direction by Malcolm Ranson and casting by Sarah Bird.