FULL CAST ANNOUNCED FOR THE WORLD PREMIÈRE OF
(THIS IS NOT A) HAPPY ROOM
AT KING’S HEAD THEATRE
Andrea Valls and Jonny Weldon join the previously announced
Amanda Abbington and Rosie Day
Katy Galloway Productions today announces the full cast for the world première of (This is not a) Happy Room at King’s Head Theatre, written by Rosie Day. Joining the previously announced Amanda Abbington and Rosie Day are Andrea Valls and Jonny Weldon, with the company completed by Jazz Jenkins, Tom Kanji and Alison Liney.
Directed by Hannah Price, (This is not a) Happy Roomopens at King’s Head Theatre on 31 March, with previews from 26 March and runs until 27 April.
Katy Galloway said today, “I’m thrilled to be announcing the incredible cast that we have for ‘(This is not a) Happy Room’. As a producer I love to bring incredible new writing to the stage, and I am very excited for audiences to get to enjoy this deviously dark comedy.”
Katy Galloway Productionspresents
The world première of
(THIS IS NOT A) HAPPY ROOM
By Rosie Day
Cast: Amanda Abbington (Esther), Rosie Day (Elle), Alison Liney (Agatha), Jazz Jenkins (Hayley),
Tom Kanji (Charles), Andrea Valls (Laura) and Jonny Weldon (Simon)
Director Hannah Price; Sound Design: Adrienne Quartly; Lighting Design: Rory Beaton;
Set and Costume Design: Georgia de Grey
26 March – 27 April 2025
Meet the Hendersons, a happily dysfunctional family, reuniting for their dad’s third (or fourth?) wedding. Nobody expects the death of his bachelorhood to become an actual funeral… but it would be a waste of the buffet not to repurpose it, right?
Following the West-End run of her critically acclaimed Instructions for a Teenage Armageddon, and hailed as Saltburn meets Schitt’s Creek, Rosie Day’s new searingly sharp dark comedy premieres at the King’s Head in March 2025.
Amanda Abbington plays Esther. Her theatre credits include When it Happens to You (Park Theatre),
The Unfriend (Criterion Theatre), The Son (Kiln Theatre, Duke of York’s Theatre), The Little Princess (Royal Festival Hall), The God of Carnage, Abigail’s Party (Theatre Royal Bath), God Bless the Child (Royal Court Theatre) and Love Me Tonight (Hampstead Theatre). Her television credits include Desperate Measures, Wolfe, The Net, Sherlock, I Hate Suzie, Mr. Selfridge (as series regular Miss Mardle), Cuffs, The Queen and I, Unsaid Stories, Safe, Married Single Other and After You’ve Gone; and for film, The Lost King, Three Pints and a Rabbi, Decrypted, The Six Days of Sistine, Crooked House, Another Mother’s Son and Ghost.
Playwright Rosie Day also plays Elle. As a writer, her debut play Instructions for a Teenage Armageddon opened in the West End in Spring 2024 and is now being produced for television by BBC3 and Emma Thompson. Her theatre credits include When It Happens to You (Park Theatre), The Fellowship (Hampstead Theatre), Instructions for a Teenage Armageddon (Southwark Playhouse), Again, The Girl who Fell (Trafalgar Studios), Spur of the Moment (Royal Court Theatre), Velocity (Finborough Theatre), A Winter’s Tale, Playboy of the Western World and Summerfolk (National Theatre). Her television credits include Outlander, Living the Dream, Good Omens, Urban Myths, The Sandman and Prime Suspect 1973; and for film, All Roads Lead to Rome, Down a Dark Hall, The Seasoning House, Good Night and Butterfly Kisses.
Andrea Valls makes her professional stage debut as Laura. Her television credits include Bridgerton, Grantchester, Cheaters, The Death of Bunny Monroe, Toads, The Mallorca Flies, Spent, Flaps, East Mode with Nigel NgWaffle the Wonderdog, Valentine Nights and The Midnight Beast Present Valentine’s Day; and for film, Red White and Royal Blue.
Jonny Weldon plays Simon. His theatre credits include 101 Dalmatians (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), The Witches (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Happy to Help (Park Theatre), A Mad World My Masters (RSC, Barbican Theatre and UK tour), Titus Andronicus, and The Snow Queen (Royal & Derngate). His television credits include One Day, Brassic, Breeders, House of the Dragon, Sneakerhead, Sister Boniface, Stath Lets Flats and Shakespeare and Hathaway; and for film, The People We Hate at the Wedding, Christmas on Mistletoe Farm, American Road Trip, Kiss on the Danube and High Hopes.
Jazz Jenkins plays Hayley. Her theatre credits include Fabulous Creatures (ArcolaTheatre).Jenkins graduated from LAMDA in 2023.
Tom Kanji plays Charles. His theatre credits include Twelfth Night (Orange Tree Theatre), The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, The Country Wife (Chichester Festival Theatre), Richard, My Richard (Shakespeare North and Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds), Julius Caesar, The Box of Delights (RSC), Pinocchio (Unicorn Theatre), Private Peaceful (Nottingham Playhouse), Home, I’m Darling (UK tour), The Taming of the Shrew (US tour), Shoe Lady (Royal Court Theatre), Love’s Labour’s Lost, The Winter’s Tale, Pericles, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Doctor Scroggy’s War, Eternal Love (Shakespeare’s Globe), Yes, Prime Minister (Theatre Clwyd), Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra, Much Ado About Nothing (Barbican Theatre), Fiddler on the Roof, Romeo and Juliet, The Story Giant, The Sum (Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse); and for television, Tyrant, Supacell, Silent Witness, Hustle and Midnight Man.
Making her professional debut at the age of 84, Alison Liney plays Agatha. She has performed with amateur groups in North London since the mid-sixties.
Hannah Price directs. Her directing credits include The Girl Who Fell, Boa, Again (Trafalgar Studios), End of the Pier, The Dead Monkey (Park Theatre), Down and Out Live (Stone Nest, London/La Generale, Paris), Permanence (Tarragon Theatre, Toronto), Escape the Scaffold (Theatre503/ The Other Room), Run the Beast Down (Marlowe Theatre/Finborough Theatre), 1984 Live (Senate House), Rainbow Class (Bush Theatre/Assembly Rooms), TEST (Scala Theatre, Basel), Cello/Fragile (Yard Theatre), Bud Take the Wheel, I Feel a Song Coming On (Shaw Theatre/Underbelly), That Moment (King‘s Head Theatre & UK tour).
For Theatre Uncut her credits include Refugee (Teater Grob, Copenhagen), In Opposition (Paines Plough Roundabout), Knowledge is Power: Knowledge is Change (Traverse & tour), Referendum Plays (Traverse), TU Istanbul: Power and Protest (Dot Tiyatro/Istanbul International Theatre Festival/Traverse), TU 2013: The Rise of the Right (Young Vic), The Cuts Plays (Southwark Playhouse/ Soho/Latitude/Traverse).
Instagram, Facebook: @thisisnotahappyroom
TikTok: @notahappyroom
(This is not a) Happy Room
LISTINGS
King’s Head Theatre
116p Upper St, London N1 1QP
Box Office: 0207 226 8561
www.kingsheadtheatre.com/whats-on/this-is-not-a-happy-room
26 March – 27 April 2025
Ticket from £10