ETT and Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse to Present THE MISANTHROPE World Premiere, Feb 2013

Following the huge successes of their collaboration on Tartuffe and The Hypochondriac, English Touring Theatre and Liverpool Playhouse complete a trilogy of Roger McGough adaptations of classic Molière comedies with The Misanthrope, which premieres on Tuesday 19th February before a national tour. The 'McGoughière' team will reunite McGough with Everyman and Playhouse Artistic Director Gemma Bodinetz, who will direct this co-production with ETT.

Master wordsmith Roger McGough dips his quill into what many consider to be Molière's best work in this mockery of manners and morals set amid 17th century French aristocracy. Poet Alceste is disgusted with French society. Powdered fops gossip in code and be-jewelled coquettes whisper behind fans wherever he looks. In pursuit of honesty, he embarks on a one-man crusade against forked-tongues, frippery and fakery. But could the woman he has fallen in love with be the worst culprit of all? As Alceste dreams of a pas de deux, are the only deux of Célimène her faces? And in this rarefied world will his revolution prove just revolting?

Alceste is played by Colin Tierney (Hamlet, Sheffield Crucible; Hedda Gabler, Theatre Royal Bath, Nowhere Boy). The cast includes Neil Caple (Macbeth, Liverpool Everyman), Simon Coates (The Hypochondriac and Tartuffe, Liverpool Playhouse),Leander Deeny (C4's Skins),Daniel Goode (The Second Mrs Tanqueray, Rose Theatre Kingston), Alison Pargeter (That Day We Sang, MIF, Victoria Wood),George Potts (Angus, Thongs and Even More Snogging, WYP), Zara Tempest-Walters (Holiday, Bush Theatre) and Harvey Virdi ( Tiger Country, Hampstead Theatre, Tales from the Narrow Road, Soho Theatre).

Roger McGough began writing poetry at University. After four years of teaching he joined up with John Gorman and Michael McCartney to form The Scaffold. The author of more than fifty books, he is an Honorary Fellow of Liverpool John Moores University and an Honorary Professor at Thames Valley University, and has D.Litts from the universities of Liverpool, Hull and Roehampton. In 2001 he was honoured with the Freedom of the City of Liverpool, along with Brian Patten and Adrian Henri, and in 2004 he was awarded a CBE for services to literature. His latest poetry volume, published in 2012, is As Far As I Know, and, for children, All The Best, The Bees' Knees and now Slapstick.

Director Gemma Bodinetz took up her post as Artistic Director for the Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse in September 2003. Since then, she has directed Macbeth, The Kindness of Strangers, The Mayor of Zalamea and Intemperance at the Everyman; A Streetcar Named Desire, No Wise Men, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Lady of Leisure, All My Sons, Tartuffe and The Hypochondriac at The Playhouse and Yellowman on tour. Gemma previously worked at The Royal Court Theatre and Hampstead Theatre, London.

English Touring Theatre is a powerhouse of touring theatre, working with many of the country's leading and emerging artists to stage thrilling and ambitious theatre that is vigorous and entertaining. Recent productions include a major revival of The Sacred Flame directed by Matthew Dunster, The Real Thing, in a co-production with West Yorkshire Playhouse, and a national tour of Shakespeare's Globe's production of Anne Boleyn, which won Best Touring Production at the Theatre UK Awards 2012. In March 2013 English Touring Theatre will be premiering Thursday, a new play by Bryony Lavery, at Adelaide Festival in a co-production with Adelaide-based Brink Productions.

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