Full Cast Set For The Menier Chocolate Factory’s Revival of Peter Shaffer’s EQUUS

The Menier Chocolate Factory has announced full casting for Lindsay Posner's major revival of Peter Shaffer's Equus, in its co-production with Theatre Royal Bath Productions. Joining the previously announced Toby Stephens (Dr. Martin Dysart) are Amanda Abbington (Hesther Salomon), Bella Aubin (Jill Mason), Emma Cunniffe (Dora Strang), Paula James (Nurse), Colin Mace (Frank Strang), Ed Mitchell (Nugget/Young Horseman), David Rubin (Dalton) and Noah Valentine (Alan Strang), with Luke Hodkinson, Aristide Lyons, Zach Parkin, Tommi Sutton and Moses Ward.

The production opens at the Menier on 18 May, with previews from 8 May, and runs until 4 July, ahead of a run at theatre Royal Bath from 14 to 25 July.

Cast: Amanda Abbington (Hesther Salomon), Bella Aubin (Jill Mason), Emma Cunniffe (Dora Strang), Paula James (Nurse), Colin Mace (Frank Strang), Ed Mitchell (Nugget/Young Horseman), David Rubin (Dalton). Toby Stephens (Dr. Martin Dysart) and Noah Valentine (Alan Strang), with Luke Hodkinson, Aristide Lyons, Zach Parkin, Tommi Sutton and Moses Ward

Directed by: Lindsay Posner; Set and Costume Design: Paul Farnsworth; Lighting Design: Paul Pyant; Composer and Sound Design: Adam Cork; Movement Director: James Cousins

Presented in a co-production with Theatre Royal Bath

What prompts a 17-year-old boy to blind six horses?  This is the challenge presented to psychiatrist Martin Dysart as he delves into the psyche of his young patient Alan Strang to search for the answers and at the same time questioning whether the cure is more dangerous than the crime.  Peter Shaffer's brilliantly intriguing award-winning play is now considered a modern masterpiece.

Biographies

Amanda Abbington plays Hesther Salomon. Her theatre credits include (This is not a) Happy Room (King's Head Theatre), When it Happens to You (Park Theatre), The Unfriend (Criterion Theatre), The Son (Kiln Theatre/Duke of York's Theatre), The Little Princess (Royal Festival Hall), The God of Carnage, Abigail's Party (Theatre Royal Bath), God Bless the Child (Royal Court Theatre) and Love Me Tonight (Hampstead Theatre). Her television credits include The Family Pile, Desperate Measures, Wolfe, The Net, Sherlock, I Hate Suzie, Mr. Selfridge (as series regular Miss Mardle), Cuffs, The Queen and I, Unsaid Stories, Safe, Married Single Other and After You've Gone; and for film, The Lost King, Three Pints and a Rabbi, Decrypted, The Six Days of Sistine, Crooked House, Another Mother's Son and Ghost.

Bella Aubin plays Jill Mason. A recent RADA graduate, her theatre credits include A Midsummer Night's Dream (Bridge Theatre) and Macbeth (Lyric Hammersmith).

Emma Cunniffe returns to Menier to play Dora Strang – she previously appeared in Proof. Her other theatre credits include The Importance of Being Earnest, Edward II, Three Sisters, Major Barbara, Twelfth Night (Royal Exchange Theatre), The Trials (Marlowe Theatre), Scandaltown (Lyric Hammersmith), Romeo and Juliet, The Crucible (Regent's Park Open Air Theatre), Hogarth's Progress (Rose Theatre Kingston), Queen Anne (RSC/Theatre Royal Haymarket), Wendy and Peter Pan (RSC), Conquest of the South Pole (Arcola Theatre/Rose Theatre Kingston), A Doll's House (Manchester Library Theatre), Dumb Show (Rose Theatre Kingston), Educating Rita (Glasgow Citizen's Theatre), A Buyer's Market, Caravan (Bush Theatre), As You Like It (Royal Lyceum Edinburgh), Hamlet (Oxford Stage Company), Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Bristol Old Vic), Losing Louis (Hampstead Theatre/ Trafalgar Studios), Tales from Hollywood (Donmar Warehouse), The Entertainer (The Old Vic), The Glasshouse (Hampstead Theatre) and Women Beware Women (RSC). For television, her work includes Marble Hall Murders, Call the Midwife, A Very Royal Scandal, Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, The Chelsea Detective, The Long Shadow, Grantchester, Agatha Raisin, Endeavour, Roadkill, The Irregulars, Unforgotten, George Gently, Father Brown, Waterloo Road, Moving On, Jo, Southcliff, Good Cop, Doctor Who, A Place of Execution, Northern Lights, Trouble in Paradise, 10%ers, All the King's Men, Blue Murder, Cracker, Cuts, Dangerfield, Flesh and Blood, Great Expectations, Life After Birth, Love or Money, Plain Jane, Rough Diamond, The Cry, The Genius of Mozart, The Innocents, The Lakes (as series regular Emma Quinlan) and The Whistleblower; and for film, H is for Hawk, Miss Marx, The Rabbit on the Moon, Tube Tales, Dreaming of Joseph Lees and Among Giants.

Paula James plays Nurse. Her theatre credits include The Three Little Pigs (Unicorn Theatre/ Chichester Festival Theatre), The Snow Queen (Polka Theatre), The Lost Spells (Theatre by the Lake/ Watford Palace Theatre/Polka Theatre), The Wind in the Wiltons (Wilton's Music Hall), Our Man in Havana (Watermill Theatre), Beauty and the Beast (Rose Theatre), Gin Craze! (Royal and Derngate, China Plate and ETT), The Eternal Summer, Love's Labour's Lost, Robin Hood, Julius Caesar (Guildford Shakespeare Theatre), Hamlet (Iris Theatre), The Comedy of Errors (RSC), The Gingerbread Man (Hiccup Theatre tour), Dead Reckoning (Young Vic), Alice in Wonderland (Derby Theatre), Snow

Child (international tour), Half a Horse, Unearthed, The Gift (New Vic Staffordshire) and The Revenger's Tragedy and The Tragedy of Marian (Lazarus Theatre). Her television work includes The Agency and Jerk.

Colin Mace plays Frank Strang. His theatre work includes Arcadia, Time and the Conways (The Old Vic), War Horse, The Magistrate, Saint Joan (West End), Hamlet (Broadway/Almeida Theatre), Alterations; One Man, Two Guvnors; War Horse (National Theatre), We Anchor in Hope (Royal Court Theatre) and Othello, The Lieutenant of Inishmore (RSC). His television work includes, FBI: International, The Gold, Sexy Beast, Maigret, The Diplomat, Before We Die, A Spy Among Friends, Marriage, Slow Horses, Young Wallander, Trying, Washington, War of the Worlds, A Confession, This Country, Dark Heart, Strangers, Silent Witness, Endeavour, Broken, Prime Suspect 1973, Father Brown, I Want My Wife Back and Thirteen; and for film, Savage Hunt, Back to Black, Cyrano de Bergerac and Last Night in Soho.

Ed Mitchell plays Nugget/Young Horseman. His stage credits include Hamlet (RSC), The Party (Breakin Convention), Sunny Side (Northern Rascals and UK tour), How About Now (Lowry and le Bridgettine), Call for Creation, Illegal Side (Dutch tour), Tom, A Good Man (Bullyache), Illegal Dance (UK tour), SCRUM (Avant Garde tour), Duet 6 (Institute of Contemporary Arts) and White Lies (Botis Seva).

David Rubin plays Dalton. His theatre credits include The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (Chichester Festival Theatre), Tamburlaine, Titus Andronicus, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, The Winter's Tale, The Grain Store, American Trade, Julius Caesar, Le Morte d'Arthur, Antony and Cleopatra, The Tempest (RSC), Oxy and the Morons (New Wolsey Ipswich), Woyzeck (The Old Vic), People, Places and Things (National Theatre/Headlong/West End), Richard III (West Yorkshire Playhouse), A Mad World My Masters (RSC/ETT), Pitcairn (Out of Joint/Shakespeare's Globe/Chichester), Twelfth Night (Liverpool Everyman), These Trees Are Made of Blood (BAC), The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (Kensington Palace Gardens), Sunday Morning at the Centre of the World (BAC/Tara Arts), The Overcoat (Gecko Theatre), Taylor's Dummies (Gecko Theatre), Fightface (Lyric Hammersmith), The Threepenny Opera, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, The Tempest (National Theatre), Stomp (Yes/No Productions), Five Guys Named Moe (West End), Company (New Wolsey Ipswich), Sleeping Beauty (Theatre Royal Stratford East) and Peter Pan (Southampton Nuffield). His television work includes Grantchester, Vera, Doctor Who, Birds of a Feather, The Block, Too Close for Comfort, Three Sheets to the Wind, The Passion, Sitting Pretty and Mysteries of July; and for film, Judy and The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight.

Toby Stephens plays Dr. Martin Dysart. His theatre credits include Wendy and Peter Pan, Hamlet, Measure for Measure, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Coriolanus, Unfinished Business, Wallenstein, All's Well That Ends Well, Antony and Cleopatra, Tamburlaine (RSC), Corruption (Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, Lincoln Center, NY), The Forest (Hampstead Theatre), A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (Trafalgar Studios), Oslo (National Theatre/Harold Pinter Theatre), Private Lives (Chichester Festival Theatre/Gielgud Theatre), Danton's Death (National Theatre), The Real Thing (The Old Vic), A Doll's House, Betrayal (Donmar Warehouse), The Country Wife, The Royal Family, Japes, A Streetcar Named Desire (Theatre Royal Haymarket), Ring Round the Moon (Lincoln Center), Phedre and Britannicus (Almeida at the Albery Theatre/BAM) and Tartuffe (Playhouse Theatre). His television work includes Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Season, A Cruel Love, The Split, Dodger, One Day, How to Date a Pleasure Seeker, Prisoner, Alex Rider, Summer of Rockets, Lost in Space, Black Sails, And Then There Were None, Vexed, Strike Back, Robin Hood, Wired, The Wild West, Jane Eyre, Sharpe's Challenge, The Best Man, The Queen's Sister, London, Cambridge Spies, Napoleon, Perfect Strangers, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and The Camomile Lawn; and for film, Giant, Marama, The Kashmir Princess The Morrigan, Journey, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, All Things To All Men, The Machine, Theatre of Dreams, Dark Corners, Severance, The Rising: Ballad of Mangal Pandey, Die Another Day, Space Cowboys, Possession, The Announcement, Onegin, Photographing Fairies, Sunset Heights, Cousin Bette, The Great Gatsby, Twelfth Night and Orlando.

Noah Valentine plays Alan Strang.  His theatre credits include Noughts and Crosses (Regent's Park Open Air Theatre). For television, his work includes Waterloo Road (as series regular Preston Walters), Casualty, Indie No.9, The Boy and Mother's Day; and for film, Good Boy.

Peter Shaffer's (1926 – 2016) plays include Five Finger Exercise (Evening Standard Drama Award), The Private Ear/The Public Eye, The Royal Hunt of the Sun, Black Comedy, The White Liars, Amadeus (Evening Standard Drama Award and Tony Award for Best Play), Yonadab, Lettice and Lovage and The Gift of the Gorgon. He also wrote the screenplays for the film versions of Equus and Amadeus.