Eleanor Lloyd Productions and Rebecca Stafford Productions present
Leonard Vole is accused of murdering a widow to inherit her wealth. The stakes are high. Will Leonard survive the shocking witness testimony? Will he be able to convince the jury of his innocence and escape the hangman’s noose?
Eleanor Lloyd Productions and Rebecca Stafford Productions have announced a major new production of Agatha Christie’s Witness for the Prosecution to open on London’s South Bank this October in a unique court room setting inside County Hall.
The Chamber at London County Hall – Photo by Helen Maybanks
Lucy Bailey (Comus, The Graduate, Titus Andronicus) will direct this gripping tale of justice, passion and betrayal, with the audience thrillingly placed in the thick of the action in a spectacular location. This will be the first major London production of a play written by Agatha Christie to open since the 1960s.
Witness for the Prosecution will run from 6 October – 11 March.
The production will be designed by William Dudley, with lighting by Chris Davey and sound design by Mic Pool.
All tickets during the preview period (6 October – 23 October) will have £10 off. For the main run, there will be 100 tickets available for every performance at £25 or under.
Witness for the Prosecution was one of Agatha Christie’s favourites of all her works. In her autobiography, she said: ‘One night at the theatre stands out in my memory especially; the first night of Witness for the Prosecution. I can safely say that that was the only first night I have enjoyed…. It was one of my plays that I like best myself.’
James and Mathew Prichard (Agatha Christie Ltd.) and director Lucy Bailey. Photo by Helen Maybanks
The new production has been developed with the support and involvement of the Christie family. Christie’s Great Grandson and Executive Chair of Agatha Christie Ltd, James Prichard said:
“It is really exciting to see this innovative approach to one of my great grandmother’s best plays The amazing setting of County Hall will help raise the production to great heights, and with Lucy Bailey directing it will be a must see theatre event. This show will help demonstrate that Christie’s works are as relevant today as they have ever been, and 21st century London is in for a treat.”
Rising British stars Calvin Demba (Evening Standard Emerging Talent Award nominee, The Red Lion, National Theatre), Sam Frenchum (Private Peaceful, Grantchester) and award-winning Sinéad Matthews (Mrs Elvsted in Ivo van Hove’s Hedda Gabler, National Theatre), are to star in the 50th anniversary production of Joe Orton’s darkly comic masterpiece, LOOT.
Calvin Demba and Sam Frenchum. Photo by Darren Bell
Uproarious slapstick meets dubious morals as two young friends, Hal (Frenchum) and Dennis (Demba), stash the proceeds of a bank robbery in an occupied coffin, attempting to hide their spoils from the attentions of a psychopathic policeman, a gold-digging nurse and a grieving widower.
When it premiered five decades ago, LOOT shocked and delighted audiences in equal measure and it scooped the Best Play of the Year Award in the 1967 Evening Standard Awards.
LOOT – from the same producers as the recent sell-out hit The Boys in the Band – is directed by Michael Fentiman, whose credits include two acclaimed shows for the Royal Shakespeare Company as well as the critically-acclaimed hit, Raising Martha. It will run at London’s Park Theatre from 17 August – 24 September.
It will then transfer to the Watermill Theatre, Newbury, Berkshire, from 28 September – 21 October.
The production celebrates three 50-year anniversaries: Joe Orton’s death on 9 August 1967; LOOT’s first award-winning West End season at the Criterion Theatre; and the momentous, transformative passing in July 1967 of The Sexual Offences Act, which partially decriminalised homosexual acts in private between two men over the age of 21.
Calvin Demba
Calvin had an early break in C4’s Hollyoaks then secured the lead in the hit youth drama Youngers. His other roles include a show-stopping turn in the award-winning play Routes at the Royal Court and the film London Road. He wrote and starred in his first short film RueBoy and will soon be seen in the action film sequel Kingsman 2: The Golden Circle
Sam Frenchum
Sam trained at RADA. He was in Holby City and Doctors then he had a guest starring role in six episodes of Grantchester as Gary Bell, a mentally-challenged teenager sentenced to hang for murder that was really an accident.
Sinéad Matthews
Sinéad trained at RADA. Her stage roles include Mrs. Elvsted in Ivo van Hove’s recent Hedda Gabler (National Theatre), Laura in Giving (Hampstead), Jane in Evening at The Talk House (NT), Heather in Wasp (Hampstead). As Hedvig in The Wild Duck, directed by Michael Grandage at the Donmar Warehouse, she won the Ian Charleson Award for Outstanding Newcomer. On film she was Queen Victoria in Mike Leigh’s Mr Turner, Miss Topsey in Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang, Alice in Mike Leigh’s Happy Go Lucky.
More casting to be announced soon
Director – Michael Fentiman Designer – Gabriella Slade Lighting Design – Elliot Griggs Sound Design – Max Pappenheim Casting Director – Stephen Moore CDG
Produced by Tom O’Connell, James Seabright and The Watermill Theatre in association with King’s Head Theatre and Park Theatre.
LOOT
by Joe Orton
Thursday 17 August – Saturday 24 September
Box office: 020 7870 6876
Previews: 17 – 19 August Plays: 17 August – 24 September
For prices and full performance details, please visit:
