Cahoots Theatre Company Ltd
in association with Jamie Clark Theatre
presents the premiere of
Wodehouse in Wonderland
Starring Robert Daws
Written by William Humble
Directed by Robin Herford
Tour opening at Malvern Theatres on 26 January 2023
Cahoots Theatre Company Ltd in association with Jamie Clark Theatre presents the UK premiere of William Humble’s play Wodehouse in Wonderland, starring Robert Daws and directed by Robin Herford, on a UK Tour which opens at Malvern Theatres on 26 January 2023.
Based on the life and writings of P.G. Wodehouse, Wodehouse in Wonderland takes place in P.G. Wodehouse’s New York State home in the 1950’s. Plum, as he is known to family and friends, is working away at the latest adventures of Bertie Wooster but is interrupted by a young would-be biographer, his adored wife, daughter Snorkles, and his two Pekingese. He shares stories about how Jeeves entered his life, how he became addicted to American soap operas and why he wrote books that were ‘like musical comedies without music’. He sings songs composed by Broadway legends with lyrics written by himself, and entertains the audience with characters such as Bertie Wooster, Jeeves, Lord Emsworth, Gussie Fink-Nottle and the squashily romantic Madeline Bassett…but there’s also a darker story beneath the fun.
Wodehouse in Wonderland features songs byJerome Kern, George Gershwin, Cole Porter and Ivor Novello.
The production is performed by arrangement with the Wodehouse Estate.
The 2023 Tour will visit Malvern Theatres (26-28 Jan), Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford (2-4 Feb), Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury (6-8 Feb), Theatre Royal Windsor (9-11 Feb), Derby Theatre (13-15 Feb), Key Theatre, Peterborough (16-18 Feb), Exeter Northcott Theatre (24-25 Feb), The Haymarket, Basingstoke (2-4 Mar), Churchill Theatre, Bromley (9-11 Mar), Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham (13-14 Mar), New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich (16-18 Mar), Tivoli Theatre, Aberdeen (22-24 Mar), Queen’s Theatre, Barnstable (6-8 Apr), Alnwick Playhouse (13-15 Apr), Chelmsford Civic (17-19 Apr), York Theatre Royal (20-22 Apr), Octagon Theatre, Yeovil (25-27 Apr) and The Albany Theatre, Coventry (28-29 April).
Robert Daws is well known for his work in television including leading roles in Jeeves and Wooster; John Sullivan’s Roger Roger and Rock and Chips; the British Comedy Award winning Outside Edge; Casualty, Midsomer Murders, Death in Paradise, Poldark, Sick Note, Father Brown, Agatha Raisin and eight series of The Royal as well as the BBC’s murder mystery series, Sister Boniface. With countless stage credits to his name, Robert has most recently been playing Pischik in The Cherry Orchard with Ian McKellen and directed by Sean Mathias. His many BBC Radio portrayals include Chief Inspector Trueman in Trueman and Riley, the long-running police detective series he co-created with writer Brian B Thompson (available on Kobo and Audible). Robert is the author of the best-selling Rock detective novels set in Gibraltar and Spain. He co-presents the popular crime fiction podcast Partners in Crime.
William Humble has written a number of highly-acclaimed films for BBC TV, including the Emmy-Award winning On Giant’s Shoulders, with Judi Dench, the BAFTA-nominated Hancock, with Alfred Molina as Tony Hancock, and Frances Barber, and Virtuoso, about the concert pianist John Ogdon, also with Alfred Molina, and Alison Steadman. Other BBC films include Ex, starring Griff Rhys Jones and Geraldine James and Royal Celebration, with Minnie Driver, Leslie Phillips and Rupert Graves. For ITV, William wrote Too Good To Be True, a two-part psychological thriller with Niamh Cusack and Peter Davison and the film Whatever Love Means with Laurence Fox, Olivia Poulet and Richard Johnson. He dramatised Rosie Thomas’s novel Every Woman Knows A Secret, P.D. James’s An Unsuitable Job For A Woman as a six-part series with Helen Baxendale and Annette Crosbie, P.D. James’s The Black Tower as a series with Roy Marsden and Pauline Collins, and Mary Wesley’s The Vacillations of Poppy Carew with Tara Fitzgerald and Joseph Fiennes. William’s stage plays include What A Performance, with David Suchet as comedian Sid Field, on tour and at the Queen’s Theatre Shaftesbury Avenue, Facades, with Frances de la Tour as Edith Sitwell and directed by Simon Callow at the Lyric Hammersmith, Fly Away Home with Hywel Bennett, Diana Quick and Roger Lloyd-Pack at the Lyric Hammersmith, Talk To Me with Alan Dobie and Robert Daws at the New End Theatre Hampstead, and Virtuoso with Oliver Ford Davies at the Wolsey Theatre Ipswich. In 2021, William’s one-person stage play The Performer, starring Stephen Fry, was successfully broadcast on Radio 4. He has written several radio plays and two comic novels.
Much of Robin Herford’s early career was involved with Sir Alan Ayckbourn and the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, first solely as an actor, then also as Associate Director, and finally as Artistic Director from 1986-88. By that time, he had appeared in the original production of more Ayckbourn plays than any other actor. Robin’s most successful production The Woman in Black, which he commissioned and directed in 1987, has now been running in the West End for over 30 years, and has completed 12 UK tours. Directing, and occasionally performing in this play, has taken him around the world. Most recently, Robin directed Barefoot in the Park at The Mill at Sonning. He and Robert Daws have known each other for many years. Robin first directed Robert as Dr Watson in The Secret of Sherlock Holmes at the Duchess Theatre, and most recently playing the lead in a national tour of Ayckbourn’s Ten Times Table. A shared passion for P.G. Wodehouse makes this an irresistible project for them both.
2023 TOUR LISTINGS
26-28 January Malvern Theatres (on sale now)
2-4 February Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford (on sale now)
6-8 February Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury (on sale now)
9-11 February Theatre Royal Windsor (on sale soon)
13-15 February Derby Theatre (on sale soon)
16-18 February Key Theatre, Peterborough (on sale now)
23-25 February Exeter Northcott Theatre (on sale soon)
2-4 March The Haymarket, Basingstoke (on sale now)
9-11 March Churchill Theatre, Bromley (on sale soon)
13-14 March Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham (on sale now)
16-18 March New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich (on sale soon)
22-24 March Tivoli Theatre, Aberdeen (on sale now)
6-8 April Queen’s Theatre, Barnstable (on sale now)
13-15 April Alnwick Playhouse (on sale now)
17-19 April Chelmsford Civic (on sale now)
20-22 April York Theatre Royal (on sale soon)
25-27 April Octagon Theatre, Yeovil (on sale now)
28-29 April The Albany Theatre, Coventry (on sale soon)