Full Cast Set For THE HUMAN BODY at the Donmar Warehouse

 Donmar Warehouse Artistic Director Michael Longhurst and Executive Director Henny Finch have announced the full cast for the world première of Lucy Kirkwood’s The Human Body.

Joining the previously announced Keeley Hawes (Iris) and Jack Davenport (George) are Tom Goodman-Hill (Julian Elcock), Flora Jacoby Richardson (Laura Elcock), Audrey Kattan (Laura Elcock), Pearl Mackie (Sylvia Samuels) and Siobhán Redmond (Helen Mackeson MP) with additional characters played by members of the company. Michael Longhurst reunites with Ann Yee to co-direct his final production as Artistic Director, following their collaboration on the critically acclaimed Next to Normal which transfers to the Wyndham’s Theatre later this year. The Human Body opens on 27 February and runs until 13 April, with previews from 16 February.  

The creative team is completed by Fly Davis (Designer), Joshua Pharo (Lighting Designer), Ben and Max Ringham (Sound Designers and Composers), Nathan Amzi and Joe Ransom (Video Designers), Kate Waters (Fight Director),  Anna Cooper CDG (Casting Director),  Rimu Kwok (Assistant Set & Costume Designer), Cheng Keng (Assistant Lighting Designer), José Guillermo Puello (Assistant Sound Designer).

Two worlds meet in a romantic drama which sees stars of film and TV, Keeley Hawes and Jack Davenport, make their long-awaited returns to the London stage.

1948, Shropshire: the winter is freezing, austerity is biting and Iris Elcock, GP, Socialist and Labour party councillor, is working tirelessly to implement Nye Bevan’s National Health Service Act and its revolutionary promise of free health care for all. At home she is a mother, and wife to an ex-Navy man scarred by the war. But a chance meeting with George Blythe, a local boy who has made it to Hollywood, turns her quiet, certain world upside down.

The Human Body is a story of political and private passions from multi-award-winning writer Lucy Kirkwood (The Witches, Mosquitoes, Chimerica). In his final production as Artistic Director of The Donmar Warehouse, Michael Longhurst directs together with Ann Yee, with whom he previously collaborated on Next to Normal and Caroline, or Change.

Biographies

Lucy Kirkwood’s theatre credits include The Witches (book and lyrics), The Welkin, Mosquitoes, Hansel and Gretel and Beauty and the Beast (National Theatre), That Is Not Who I Am, Maryland, The Children and NSFW (Royal Court Theatre), Like Rabbits (Brighton Festival), Chimerica (Headlong, Almeida Theatre and Harold Pinter Theatre), Housekeeping (Southwark Playhouse and Latitude Festival), The Small Hours (Hampstead Theatre), Bloody Wimmin (Kiln Theatre), It Felt Empty When the Heart Went at First but it is Alright Now (Arcola Theatre), Psychogeography (Union Theatre), Tinderbox (Bush Theatre), Guns or Butter (Union Theatre), Hedda (Gate Theatre), Grady Hot Potato (Bedlam Theatre). Television credits include Adult Material, Chimerica, Foreign Skies, The Smoke, Skins and for film, Maryland and The Briny.

Jack Davenport plays George. His theatre work includes Enemies (Almeida Theatre), How to Lose Friends and Alienate People (Soho Theatre), Lady Windermere’s Fan (Theatre Royal Haymarket), The Servant (Lyric Hammersmith – Olivier Award nomination for Most Promising Newcomer), and Hamlet (Theatr Clwyd). For television, his work includes Dr Death, Accused, Call My Agent, The Morning Show, Why Women Kill, Next of Kin, Prototype, Life in Squares, Breathless, The Good Wife, Sea of Fire, Smash, Flash Forward, Swingtown, This Life +10, Mary Bryant, Miss Marple, Eroica, Coupling, The Real Jane Austen, Dickens, The Asylum, The Wyvern Mystery, Ultra-Violet, This Life, The Moth and Macbeth; and for film, Bonus Track, Wilde Wedding, Gernika, A United Kingdom, Americana, The Tank, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Mother’s Milk, The Key Man, The Boat That Rocked, Pirates of the Caribbean - At World’s End, Dead Man’s Chest and The Curse of the Black Pearl, The Libertine, The Wedding Date, 3 Men in a Restaurant, Gypsy Woman, Offending Angels, The Bunker, Not Afraid Not Afraid, The Talented Mr Ripley, Tales of the Mummy, Fierce Creatures and Career Girls.

Tom Goodman-Hill plays Julian Elcock. He returns to Donmar Warehouse having previously appeared in Limehouse, The Cosmonaut’s Last Message to the Woman He Once Loved in the Former Soviet Union, and The Seagull. His other theatre credits include Rabbit Hole, Darker Shores (Hampstead Theatre), The Odyssey (Almeida Theatre), The Effect, Earthquakes in London, Tartuffe (National Theatre), Death and the Maiden (Harold Pinter Theatre), Enron (Headlong, Noël Coward Theatre, Royal Court Theatre, Chichester Festival Theatre), Spamalot (Palace Theatre – Olivier Award Nomination for Best Supporting Performer in a Musical), A Doll’s House (UK tour), The Danny Crow Show (Bush Theatre), The Dispute and The Critic (Manchester Royal Exchange), Bartholomew Fair, Talk of the City, Two Gentlemen of Verona (RSC) and The Wolves (Paines Plough). His television credits include Baby Reindeer, Soulmates, Cheat, Inside No.9, We Are Family, Humans, The Secret Agent, Mr Selfridge, Residue, Cardinal Burns, The Thirteenth Tale, Dead Boss, Call the Midwife, Black Mirror, Case Histories, Case Sensitive, Waking The Dead, Candy Cabs, George Gently, Free Agents, Hustle, Moses Jones, The Devil’s Whore, Grandma’s House, Clay, Lewis, Miss Austen Regrets, After You’ve Gone, Doctor Who, Never Better, Perfect Day, Fear of Fanny, Ideal and My Family and Other Animals; and for film, Homebound, The War Below, Rebecca, Where Hands Touch, The Rizen, The Truth Commissioner, Everest, The Imitation Game, Down Dog, The Hollow Crown: Richard II, The Essence of Vision, 7 Lives, The Chalet Girl, Glorious 39, Hippie Hippie Shake, Look At Me, I’m Beautiful!, Festival, Fat Slags, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The One and Only, Charlotte Gray and In Love and War.

Keeley Hawes plays Iris. Her theatre work includes Barking in Essex (Wyndham’s Theatre) and Rocket to the Moon (National Theatre). For television, her work includes Orphan Black: Echoes, Stonehouse, Crossfire, The Midwich Cuckoos, It’s a Sin (RTS Award nomination), Finding Alice, Honour, Year of the Rabbit, Summer of Rockets, The Durrells, Traitors, Mrs Wilson (BAFTA nomination), Bodyguard (BAFTA nomination), Inside No. 9, The Missing, the Hollow Crown, Line of Duty (BAFTA nomination), Fungus the Bogeyman, The Casual Vacancy, Doctor Who, The Tunnel, Ambassadors, The Lady Vanishes, Upstairs Downstairs, That Mitchell and Webb Look, Identity, Ashes to Ashes, and Mutual Friends; and for film, Scoop, To Olivia, Rebecca, Misbehaviour, Never Land, High-Rise, The Adventurer, Flashbacks of  Fool and The Avengers.

Flora Jacoby Richardson plays Laura Elcock. This marks her professional stage debut. Her television credits include Anne in The Famous Five.

Audrey Kattan plays Laura Elcock. Her theatre credits include Leopoldstadt (Wyndham’s Theatre), and The Sound of Music (Chichester Festival Theatre). Her television credits include Grantchester and A Small Light.

Pearl Mackie plays Sylvia Samuels. Her theatre credits include Grenfell: In The Words Of Survivors, The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time (National Theatre), The Birthday Party (Harold Pinter Theatre), A Mad World My Masters (RSC), Obama-Ology (Finborough Theatre), Disnatured Rift (Shakespeare In Shoreditch), Crystal Springs (Park Theatre), The Helen Project (LOST Theatre), Home (The Last Refuge Peckham), Only Human (Theatre503), Neighbors (HighTide Festival) and Blue Blood (Riverside Studios). Her television credits include The Diplomat, Tom Jones, The Long Call, Andy and the Donald, Friday Night Dinner, and as Bill Potts in Doctor Who; and for film, Your Move, Tyger, Greed, The Deal, Horizon Line, Origami and Svengali.

Siobhán Redmond plays Helen Mackeson MP. Her theatre credits include The Straw Chair (Finborough), Grandpa’s Great Escape (UK tour), Vassa (Almeida), Top Girls, Dido, Queen of Carthage (National Theatre), Imperium, Richard III, King John, Dunsinane, Twelfth Night, The Comedy of Errors, Much Ado About Nothing, The Spanish Tragedy (RSC), Dunsinane, Mary Stuart, The House of Bernarda Alba (National Theatre of Scotland), Talking Heads, Exit The King (Theatre Royal, Bath), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s Globe), U.S. and Them (Hampstead Theatre), Thon Man Molière, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, As You Like It (Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh), Perfect Days (Traverse, Hampstead and Vaudeville Theatres), Les Liaisons Dangereuses (PW Productions), Macbeth (Tron Theatre Glasgow), The Trick Is To Keep Breathing (Tron Theatre, Royal Court), An Experienced Woman Gives Advice (Royal Exchange Theatre), King Lear, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Look Back In Anger (Renaissance Theatre Company) and A Month Of Sundays (Duchess Theatre). Her television credits include The Sister Boniface Mysteries, Two Doors Down, The Scotts, Rain Dogs, Queens of Mystery, Beep, Creation Stories, Unforgotten, Lovesick, Clique, The Replacement, Code of a Killer, Case Histories II, The Town, Mindaway, Boy Meets Girl, Lift, The Smoking Room, Sea of Souls, Ed Stone is Dead, Every Woman Knows a Secret, In the Red, Wokenwell, Throwaways, Deacon Brodie, Nervous Energy, and Between the Lines; and for film, One Night In Bath, First And Only, Tupperware Party, Beautiful People, Karmic Mothers, Captives, Duet for One, and 2 Hours.

Michael Longhurst is the Artistic Director of The Donmar Warehouse. For the company, direction includes Next to Normal (transferring to the West End in 2024), Private Lives, The Band’s Visit (6 Olivier nominations), Force Majeure, Midnight Your Time (lockdown film), Teenage Dick, Europe, Belleville and the post-pandemic multicast revival of Nick Payne’s Constellations, which helped reopen the West End, broke box office records at the Vaudeville and won the 2022 Olivier Award for Best Revival. His production of Constellations previously ran on Broadway starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Ruth Wilson (Samuel J Friedman Theater, for MTC), in the West End starring Sally Hawkins and Rafe Spall (Duke of York’s, Evening Standard Award Best Play) originating at the Royal Court. His Chichester Festival Theatre production of Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori’s Caroline, or Change transferred to Studio 54 for Roundabout Theater on Broadway, via Hampstead Theatre and the West End, with Sharon D Clarke reprising her Olivier Award-winning performance. The Broadway production received three Tony nominations including Best Musical Revival.  Other theatre includes Amadeus featuring the Southbank Sinfonia (National Theatre/NTatHome), The Son (Kiln Theatre/Duke of York’s Theatre), Gloria (Hampstead Theatre), Bad Jews (Theatre Royal Haymarket/Theatre Royal Bath/UK tour & revival at the Arts), They Drink It In The Congo and Carmen Disruption (Almeida Theatre), ‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore, The Winter’s Tale (Shakespeare’s Globe), If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet (Off-Broadway for Roundabout), Linda, The Art of Dying, Remembrance Day (Royal Court Theatre), A Number (Nuffield Southampton Theatres/Young Vic), Cannibals (Royal Exchange Theatre), The History Boys (Sheffield Theatres), Dealer’s Choice (Royal & Derngate), The World of Extreme Happiness (NT Shed), Stovepipe (site-specific promenade with The National Theatre, HighTide and Bush Theatre), Midnight Your Time (HighTide), On The Beach (Bush Theatre), On The Record, Gaudeamus (Arcola Theatre), dirty butterfly (Young Vic - winner of the Jerwood Directors Award) and Guardians (Pleasance/Theatre503 - Fringe First Award).

Ann Yee returns to the Donmar and renews her working collaboration with Longhurst following Next to Normal. Her other work for the Donmar includes Shakespeare Trilogy – Henry IV; Julius Caesar and The Tempest. As a director, her work includes Rusalka (Royal Opera House), As You Like It (Dallas Theater Center), HoT (Goodspeed New Works), and Perpetual Sunshine and the Ghost Girls (NAMT). As choreographer/movement director her work includes Rusalka (Royal Opera House), The Seven Deadly Sins, Bluebeard’s Castle (Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires), South Pacific (Sadler’s Wells), Caroline, Or Change (Chichester Festival Theatre, Hampstead Theatre, Playhouse Theatre and Broadway), Life After (Goodman Theater, Chicago), Blindness (Theatre Carre, Amsterdam), La Boheme (The Goteborg Opera), As You Like It (Dallas Theater Center), Oklahoma! (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), The American Clock, The Duchess of Malfi (The Old Vic), War Requiem (English National Opera), Sunday in the Park With George (Hudson Theatre, Broadway), The Taming of the Shrew (Public Theatre in the Park, NY), Queen Anne, Titus Andronicus, A Soldier in Every Son (RSC), Mackie Messer (Salzburg Festival), Ah, Wilderness!, After Miss Julie (Young Vic), Mr Burns (Almeida Theatre), Birdland, Oxford Street (Royal Court Theatre), Urinetown (St. James/Apollo Theatre), Blurred Lines, She Stoops to Conquer, The Comedy of Errors (National Theatre), The Commitments (Palace Theatre), Wozzeck (English National Opera),The Color Purple, Torch Song Trilogy (Menier Chocolate Factory), (RSC), God of Soho (Globe), King Lear (RSC/Roundhouse/NY), The Secret Garden, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (Birmingham Rep/West Yorkshire Playhouse), Ingerland (Operashots/Royal Opera House), Dance Radio, Mates (Latitude Festival /Drywrite), and Woyzeck (NY/Gate). Festival/Drywrite); Woyzeck (NY/Gate). For film, her work includes A Bigger Splash, and PPE: Off the Page (Royal Court short).

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