Further Casting Confirmed for Noël Coward's THE VORTEX at Chichester Festival Theatre

Further casting has been confirmed for Noël Coward's The Vortex, the opening production of Festival 2023 at Chichester Festival Theatre, playing from 28 April - 20 May.

Daniel Raggett, nominee for the 2022 Evening Standard Emerging Talent Award, directs this new production in which Florence and Nicky Lancaster are played by mother and son, Lia Williams and Joshua James. Joining them areJessica Alade as Clara, Priyanga Burford as Helen, Richard Cant as Pawnie, Sean Delaney as Tom, Hugh Rossas David, Evan Milton as Bruce, and Esme Scarborough as Preston.

Fifty years after his death, Noël Coward's brilliantly witty and stinging portrait of the darkness beneath the glittering surface of the Jazz Age is as vivid today as when it premiered, causing a sensation and catapulting its young writer to his first great success.

The roaring twenties. A world in flux. The magnetic Florence Lancaster draws people to her like moths to a flame. But when her son Nicky arrives home from Paris with an unexpected fiancée and a secret, it sets off a chain of events which threatens to pull them all into a maelstrom.

Lia Williams's multi award-winning roles include Wallis Simpson in The Crown, Dr Cooper in His Dark Materials, and on stage Mary Stuart (Almeida & West End) and John Gabriel Borkman (The Bridge). Her critically-acclaimed production of Doubt was seen at Chichester last year.

Joshua James returns to the Festival Theatre where he appeared in the Young Chekhov trilogy as Nikolai in Platonovand Konstantin in The Seagull (for which he was nominated for an Ian Charleson Award), both also at The National Theatre.

Priyanga Burford's work includes Consent (National Theatre), The Winter's Tale (Shakespeare's Globe), and TV's Industry, Innocent and Press.

The Vortex will have set design by Joanna Scotcher, costume design by Evie Gurney, lighting design by Zoe Spurr, music and sound design by Giles Thomas, movement by Michela Meazza and casting by Lotte Hines CDG.

The production is sponsored by Close Brothers Asset Management.

The Vortex is at Chichester Festival Theatre, from 28 April - 20 May

Photo Credit: Seamus Ryan