Photo Flash: Jez Butterworth's PARLOUR SONG At Almedia

Ian Rickson will direct the European premiere of Jez Butterworth’s Parlour Song which runs at the Almeida from 19 March - 9 May 2009 with press night on 26 March. Designs are by Jeremy Herbert, with lighting by Peter Mumford, sound by Paul Groothuis and music by Stephen Warbeck. Casting for Parlour Song will be announced shortly. Parlour Song is sponsored by Aspen Re.

Ned (Toby Jones) and Joy (Amanda Drew) are a married couple. He is a demolition expert, she is a housewife. They live in a house that adjoins neighbour Dale (Andrew Lincoln) and seventy eight other houses just like theirs. Occasionally they enjoy a game of scrabble. But Ned has a recurring dream and a recurring problem; things keep disappearing. Parlour Song is a comedy that explores what happens when two ordinary people discover they hate who they have become, in a world where all is not what is seems.

Ticket prices range from £29.50 -£6.00 (concessions available). For more information visit: www.almeida.co.uk.

Amanda Drew was last at the Almeida in Michael Attenborough’s production of Gorky’s Enemies as well as the Almeida’s 2008 A Chain Play. Her other theatre work includes Faces in the Crowd for The Royal Court Theatre , Otherwise Engaged at the Criterion Theatre, Blithe Spirit at the Savoy Theatre, Madame Bovary: Breakfast with Emma for Shared Experience as well as many productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company both in Stratford and in the West End. On television she is best known for playing Dr May Wright in EastEnders. Her other television credits include Men Behaving Badly, Tough Love, Between the Lines and The Maitlands. Her film credits include Mrs Dalloway and This Years Love.

Toby Jones was previously at the Almeida in Jonathan Miller’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. His other theatre credits include The Dumb Waiter for the Oxford Playhouse, Measure for Measure for The National Theatre and his Olivier award winning performance as Arthur in The Play What I Wrote, both in the West End and on Broadway. His more recent film roles include Karl Rove in W, Trueman Capote in Infamous and Swifty Lazar in Frost Nixon. His other film credits include City of Embers, St Trinian’s, Amazing Grace, Mrs Henderson Presents, Ladies in Lavender, Finding Neverland, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Hotel Splendide. In January 2009 Toby Jones can be seen at The National Theatre in Every Good Boy Deserves Favour.

Andrew Lincoln made his Almeida debut playing Ray Moss in Sam Shepard’s The Late Henry Moss directed by Michael Attenborough. His theatre work includes Free and Blue/Orange for The National Theatre, Hushabye Mountain for Hampstead Theatre and Sugar, Sugar for the Bush. His many television credits include Afterlife, Wuthering Heights, Whose Baby, Saving Grace and Bramwell, as well renowned roles of Egg in This Life and Simon in Teachers. His film work includes Scenes of a Sexual Nature, Enduring Love, Love Actually, Gangster No 1 and Human Traffic.

Jez Butterworth’s first play Mojo opened at the Royal Court in 1995 and subsequently won five drama awards including the Evening Standard and Critics’ Circle Awards for Most Promising Playwright and the Olivier Award for Best Comedy. He returned to the Royal Court in 2002 with The Night Heron and The Winterling in 2006. His films Mojo, starring Harold Pinter, and Birthday Girl, starring Nicole Kidman, were both shown at the Venice Film Festival. In 2007 he received the E.M. Forster Award from The American Academy of Arts and Letters. Parlour Song received its world premiere at the Atlantic Theater in New York earlier this year.

Ian Rickson has previously directed Jez Butterworth’s The Winterling, The Night Heron and Mojo. Rickson was Artistic Director of the Royal Court from 1998-2007 where his many productions included The Seagull, Krapp’s Last Tape which he also directed for BBC4, Fallout which he directed as a film for Channel 4, The Weir that transferred to the West End and Broadway, Mojo which also transferred to the West End and then New York, and Dublin Carol. For The National Theatre he has directed The Hothouse and The Day I Stood Still. Ian Rickson’s production of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, starring Mary Louise Parker, opens on Broadway in January.

Photos by Simon Annand.