DONMAR WAREHOUSE ANNOUNCES FULL CASTING FOR LILLIAN HELLMAN’S WATCH ON THE RHINE
9 December 2022 – 4 February 2023
Artistic Director Michael Longhurst and Executive Director Henny Finch today announce the full casting for Lillian Hellman’s masterpiece political thriller Watch on the Rhine. Joining the previously announced Kate Duchêne (Anise), Caitlin FitzGerald (Sara Muller) and Patricia Hodge (Fanny Farrelly)are John Light (Teck de Brancovis), Carlyss Peer (Marthe de Brancovis), Geoffrey Streatfeild (David Farrelly), Mark Waschke (Kurt Muller) and David Webber (Joseph).
They are joined by Finley Glasgow (Joshua Muller), Tamar Laniado and Chloe Raphael (Babette Muller), Bertie Caplan and Henry Hunt (Bodo Muller).
Part of the Donmar’s 30th anniversary season, the first major London revival of Watch on the Rhine in over 40 years, directed by Ellen McDougall, opens on 15 December, with previews from 9 December, and runs until 4 February 2023. It is the first production to provide £10 tickets for audiences aged under 30 to mark the special milestone of the Donmar’s 30th birthday with support from Associate Sponsor Barclays.
The production is designed by Basia Bińkowska, with lighting design by Azusa Ono, sound design by Tingying Dong, fight direction by Cristian Cardenas, musical direction by Josh Middleton, video design by Sarah Readman, casting director Anna Cooper CDG, dramaturgy by Emma Jude Harris and Zoe Svendsen, voice and dialect coaching by Nia Lynn. Anti-racism consultancy for the production is provided by mezze eade.
WATCH ON THE RHINE
by Lillian Hellman
Director – Ellen McDougall; Designer – Basia Bińkowska; Lighting Designer – Azusa Ono;
Sound Designer – Tingying Dong; Fight Director – Cristian Cardenas;
Musical Director – Josh Middleton; Video Design – Sarah Readman;
Casting Director – Anna Cooper CDG; Dramaturg – Emma Jude Harris and Zoe Svendsen
Anti-racism Consultant – mezze eade; Voice and Dialect Coach – Nia Lynn
9 December 2022 – 4 February 2023
“It’s an indulgence to sit in a room and discuss your beliefs as if they were a juicy piece of gossip.”
Summer 1941. On a peaceful morning in a Washington D.C. living room, widow Fanny Farrelly anxiously awaits the return of her daughter and her German husband, fleeing Europe with their children.
As night falls, dark secrets emerge, and this American sanctuary becomes even more dangerous than what they left behind.
Known for her success on Broadway (The Little Foxes, The Children’s Hour) Lillian Hellman was also a brilliant activist, ahead of her time. Watch on The Rhine is her masterpiece political thriller, given a timely revival by director Ellen McDougall.
Bertie Caplan makes hisprofessional stage debut as Bodo Muller. His television includes Doc Martin; Carnival Row; Tulipop. Film includes: The Magic Flute; Wonka.
Kate Duchêne returns to the Donmar toplay Anise, having recently appeared in Henry V. Her other theatre credits include: Suzy Storck (Gate Theatre); Hedda Gabler, Everyman, Hansel and Gretel, A Woman Killed with Kindness, Beauty and the Beast, Attempts on Her Life, Women of Troy, Iphigenia at Aulis (National Theatre/Dublin Abbey Theatre); Waves (National Theatre/UK tour); The Forbidden Zone (Barbican/Amsterdam); Ten Billion (Royal Court Theatre/Avignon Festival); The Trial of Ubu (Hampstead Theatre); Henry VIII (Shakespeare’s Globe); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (City of London Sinfonia); The Sugar Syndrome (Royal Court); and The Herbal Bed, The Cherry Orchard, The Country Wife and Richard III (RSC). Her television credits include Cursed; Doctor Who; Foyle’s War; Afterlife; Family Life; and Kiss Me Kate; and for film, Roxane, All Good Children and An Education.
Caitlin FitzGerald plays Sara Muller. She can currently be seen in Patrick Somerville’s HBO Max limited series Station Eleven for director Hiro Murai, and Shonda Rhimes’s hit Netflix limited series Inventing Anna. Previously she starred in Aaron Sorkin’s feature film The Trial of the Chicago 7, the HBO series Succession, the Starz series Sweetbitter, Sophia Takal’s independent feature Always Shine, and the third season of Emmy-nominated series Unreal. Caitlin is also known for her work in the Showtime series Masters of Sex, and had a season-long arc on the finale season of SundanceTV’s Rectify. Additional credits include Adult Beginners; Nancy Meyers’ It’s Complicated; Whit Stillman’s Damsels in Distressed; and Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock.
Finley Glasgow returns to the Donmar to play Joshua Muller following his appearance in Love and Other Acts of Violence. His televisionwork includes Andor. Concerts include The Secret Garden.
Patricia Hodge’s theatre credits include Private Lives (Theatre Royal Bath/UK tour); A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (Trafalgar Studios); Copenhagen; Travels With My Aunt; As You Like It (Chichester Festival Theatre); Relative Values (Harold Pinter Theatre/Theatre Royal Bath); Dandy Dick (Theatre Royal Brighton/UK tour); Calendar Girls (Chichester Festival Theatre/UK tour/Noel Coward Theatre); The Clean House (Sheffield Crucible/Royal and Derngate, Northampton/UK tour); The Country Wife (Theatre Royal Haymarket); Boeing Boeing (Comedy Theatre); His Dark Materials; Noises Off; Summerfolk; Money (Olivier Award Best Supporting Actress); A Little Night Music (National Theatre); Heartbreak House (Almeida); The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (Strand Theatre/UK tour); Separate Tables (Albery Theatre/UK tour); Shades (Albery Theatre); Nymph Errant (Adlephi Theatre/Theatre Royal Drury Lane); Noel and Gertie (Warehouse Theatre/Comedy Theatre, Olivier Award Best Actress in a Musical nomination); Benefactors (Michael Codron); The Mitford Girls (Chichester Festival Theatre/Globe Theatre, Olivier Award Best Actress in a Musical nomination); Then and Now (Hampstead Theatre); Happy Yellow (Bush Theatre); Pal Joey Look Back in Anger; The Beggar’s Opera (Nottingham Playhouse); Hair (Queen’s Theatre); Maudie (Thorndike Theatre); Pippin (Her Majesty’s Theatre); The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Phoenix Theatre); Popkiss (Globe Theatre); All My Sons; Say Who You Are; The Birthday Party; The Anniversary (Traverse Theatre). Television includes: Murder in Provence; All Creatures Great and Small; Roadkill; A Very English Scandal; Downton Abbey Christmas Special; Miranda; Poirot; Maxwell; Hustle; Miss Marple; Sweet Medicine; Waking the Dead; The Falklands Play; The People’s Passion; The Moonstone; The Legacy of Reggie Perrin; The Cloning of Joanna May; Rich Tea and Sympathy; The Secret Life of Ian Fleming; The Shell Seekers; The Heat of the Day; Inspector Morse; Let’s Face the Music of…; Exclusive Yarns; The Life and Loves of a She-Devil; Time for Murder, The Return of Sherlock Holmes; Oss; Robin of Sherwood; Hotel Du Lac (BAFTA Best Actress nomination); Behind Enemy Lines; The Death of the Heart; Dust to Dust; Hay Fever; Jemima Shore Investigates; Holding the Fort; Nanny; The Professionals; The Other ‘Arf; Edward and Mrs Simpson; Target; Rumpole of the Bailey; The One and Only Mrs Phyllis Dixey; Disraeli: Portrait of a Romantic; Softy Softly; The Naked Civil Servant; Quiller; The Girls of Slender Means; Menace. Films include: The Laureate; Before You Go; Prague Duet; Jilting Joe; The Leading Man; Sunset; Just Ask for Diamond; Thieves in the Night; Vilde, The Wild One; Betrayal; Riding High; Charlotte; The Elephant Man; Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang; Heavy Metal; Rosie Dixon – Night Nurse; The Disappearance.
Henry Hunt returns to the Donmar to play Bodo Muller after appearing in Force Majeure. Other theatre includes Handle With Care (Dante or Die Theatre). For television his work includes Ridley Road; and forfilm, Letters from the Blue and Bump!.
Tamar Laniado plays Babette Muller. Her theatre credits include: Leopoldstadt (Wyndham’s Theatre); That Night Follows Day (Forced Entertainment); Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World (Theatre Royal Stratford East); and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dream Coat (London Palladium).
John Light returns to the Donmar to play Teck after appearing in Luise Miller. His other theatre credits include La Belle Sauvage (Bridge Theatre); The Son (Kiln/West End); Mary Stuart (Almeida/West End); Taken at Midnight (Olivier nomination, Chichester Festival Theatre/West End); The Winter’s Tale, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A New World: The Life of Thomas Paine at Shakespeare’s Globe; Three Days in the Country and The Night Season (National Theatre); The Giant, The Blackest Black and My Boy Jack (Hampstead Theatre); Julius Caesar at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre; Thom Pain (Based on Nothing) (Print Room); Carmen Destruction, The Master Builder, Certain Young Men and The Tower (Almeida); Apologia and Clocks and Whistles (Bush Theatre); Hedda Gabler at the Gate, Dublin; and Julius Caesar, The Tempest, The Seagull, In the Company of Men and A Patriot for Me (RSC). Television includes Murder in Provence, Around the World in Eighty Days, Mars, Maigret, Father Brown, Silk, Endeavour, Dresden, North and South, Cambridge Spies, Band of Brothers, Love in a Cold Climate, Aristocrats, The Unknown Soldier and Holding On. Film includes There’s Always Hope, Albert Nobbs, Scoop, Partition, Heights, The Lion in Winter, Benedict Arnold, The Ascension, 5 Seconds to Spare, DK2, Trance, Purpose, Investigating Sex and A Rather English Marriage.
Carlyss Peer plays Marthe de Brancovis. Her theatreincludes Ocean at the End of the Lane (National Theatre); Juglife (Rada Festival); Rules for Living (ETT/Royal & Derngate; UK Tour); Border Control (Hack Theatre Company); Groundhog Day (The Old Vic); Jefferson’s Garden (Watford Palace); Hamlet; A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s Globe); But I Made You a Mixtape (Etcetera Theatre); The Rivals (Theatre Royal Haymarket, West End, Theatre Royal Bath Productions, UK Tour); Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Salisbury Playhouse). Television includes: Beyond Paradise; Dalgliesh; The Crown; Viewpoint; Home; Intergalactic; The Feed; Silent Witness; The Tempest; Midsomer Murders; Pixies; Grantchester; Brief Encounters; Doctors; Holby City; Eternal Law; Missing. Film includes: The Great Escaper; County Lines; Peter and Wendy. Radio includes: Passenger List 2; Arkham County; Road to Lisbon; The Further Adventures of Lucie Miller; Gallifrey Time War; Now, Where Were We?; The Shame Of It; and The Boneless Wonder.
Chloe Raphael plays Babette Muller. Her theatre credits include Leopoldstadt (Wyndham’s Theatre); Matilda Jr, Annie Jr (British Theatre Academy); Little Miss Sunshine (Arcola/Selladoor); My Son Pinocchio (Southwark Theatre). Her television work includes Thomas & Friends; The Letter for the King; and for film, Thomas & Friends Race for the Sodor Cup.
Geoffrey Streatfeild returns to the Donmar to play David Farrelly following his performances in The Way of the World and My Night with Reg, which transferred to the West End. His other theatre credits include: Blithe Spirit (Bath Theatre Royal and West End); Cell Mates; Wild Honey (Hampstead Theatre); Ivanov; The Seagull; The Beaux Stratagem; Children of the Sun; Earthquakes in London; The Pains of Youth; The History Boys; Bacchai (National Theatre); Macbeth; Copenhagen (Sheffield Crucible Theatre); Eigengrau; The Contingency Plan (Bush Theatre); Henry V; Henry IV Part I and Part II; Richard III; Henry VI Part I, Part II and Part III (Royal Shakespeare Company); Journey’s End (West End); Mountain Language (Royal Court Theatre); and Nathan the Wise; Merchant of Venice (Chichester). Television includes: Consent; Anatomy of a Scandal; Life; Traitors; The Miniaturist; Prime Suspect 1973; The Hollow Crown; New Worlds; Endeavour; The Thick of it; Spooks; Point of Rescue; Above Suspicion; Ashes to Ashes; Hunter; Elizabeth I; 20,000 Streets Under the Sky; Midsomer Murders; The Other Boleyn Girl; Love in a Cold Climate; and Sword of Honour. Film includes: Making Noise Quietly; The Lady in the Van; A Royal Night Out; Spooks – The Greater Good; Rush; Private Peaceful; City Slacker; Angel; Matchpoint; Kinky Boots; and Kursk.
David Webber plays Joseph. His theatre credits include: Small Island; Death and The King’s Horseman; Leave Taking (National Theatre); A Place for We (Park Theatre and Talawa Theatre Company); The High Table (The Bush/Birmingham Rep); Barber Shop Chronicles National Theatre, West Yorkshire Playhouse, UK tour, Australia, New Zealand, USA & Canada tour (National Theatre/ Fuel Productions/ Leeds Playhouse); Arms and the Man (Watford Palace Theatre); The Hudsucker Proxy (Nuffield Southampton & Liverpool Playhouse); When Blair had Bush & Bunga (Lee Menzies Productions); Catch – 22 (Northern Stage); Sweet and Bird of Youth (The Old Vic); The Government Inspector (The Young Vic); Twelfth Night (Nottingham Playhouse); The Wizard of Oz; Night and Day (Theatre Royal, Northampton); The Big Life (Bill Kenwright/Apollo, Shaftesbury Avenue); The Beatification of Area Boy (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Master Harold & the Boys; Hiawatha (Bristol Old Vic); One Love (Bristol Old Vic & Talawa); Flyin’ West; The Looking Glass; King Lear; The Lion; Smile Orange; and The Road (Talawa); Television includes: Get Millie Black; The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself; Father Brown; Flatshare; Death in Paradise; Year of the Rabbit; Chewing Gum; Youngers; and Nan. Film includes: The Children Act; Captain Phillips; Broken; Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont; London Voodoo; and The Avengers. Radio includes: Forty-Three Fifty-Nine – Wake.
Ellen McDougall was Artistic Director of the Gate Theatre from 2017 to 2022. Theatre includes: Dear Elizabeth, Effigies of Wickedness (Songs banned by the Nazis), The Unknown Island, Idomeneus (Gate); Our Town (Open Air Theatre Regent’s Park); The Wolves (Stratford East); Othello (Shakespeare’s Globe); Aladdin, Cinderella (Lyric Hammersmith); The Rolling Stone (Orange Tree/Royal Exchange, Manchester); The Remains of Maisie Duggan (Abbey Theatre, Dublin); The Glass Menagerie (Headlong); Anna Karenina (Royal Exchange, Manchester); Henry the Fifth (Unicorn); Glitterland (Secret Theatre/Lyric Hammersmith); and Ivan and the Dogs (Olivier Award nomination, Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre; Actors Touring Company/Soho). Ellen was formerly part of the Secret Theatre Company at the Lyric Hammersmith. She trained as an assistant to Katie Mitchell and Marianne Elliott. She was awarded an International Artists’ Development Award (ACE/British Council) in 2012.
Lillian Hellman, born in New Orleans in 1905, was an American playwright and screenwriter. She studied at New York University and Columbia University. Her plays include The Children’s Hour (1934), The Little Foxes (1939, revived by the Donmar in 2001), Watch on the Rhine (1941), The Searching Wind (1944), Another Part of the Forest (1946), The Autumn Garden (1951), and Toys in the Attic (1960). Translations and adaptations include Jean Anouilh’s The Lark (1955), Voltaire’s Candide (1957), and My Mother, My Father, and Me (1963 – from Burt Blechman’s novel How Much?). She also edited Anton Chekhov’s Selected Letters (1955) and a collection of stories and short novels, The Big Knockover (1966) by Hammett. She also published her memoirs An Unfinished Woman (1969), Pentimento (1973), and Maybe (1980). Her collected plays were first published in 1972. She died in 1984 aged 79.
LISTINGS
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41 Earlham Street, Seven Dials, London WC2H 9LX
Box Office: www.donmarwarehouse.com / 020 3282 3808
PERFORMANCE TIMES
Evenings Mon – Sat: 7.30pm
Matinees Thu & Sat: 2.30pm
TICKET PRICES
£55 (£50) / £41 (£38) / £21 (£19)
£10 standing tickets
Preview discounts apply to the first four performances only
YOUNG+FREE
YOUNG+FREE tickets for 16-25 year olds released by ballot. Sign up at www.donmarwarehouse.com.
Generously supported by IHS Markit.
DONMAR DAILY
New tickets on sale every day at the Donmar. Allocations of tickets will be made available every day for performances 7 days later. Tickets will be available across the auditorium at every price band.
ACCESS
The Donmar Warehouse is fully wheelchair accessible. Guide dogs and hearing dogs are welcome in the auditorium. There is a Loop system and a Radio Frequency system fitted in the main auditorium and there are also hearing loops at all the front of house counters.
ASSISTED PERFORMANCES
If you require a companion to attend the Donmar, their ticket will be free. To book call 020 3282 3808 or email [email protected].
For all other access enquiries or bookings call 020 3282 3808.
CAPTIONED PERFORMANCES – 7.30pm (captioned by Stagetext)
Watch on the Rhine: Monday 23rd January
AUDIO DESCRIBED PERFORMANCE – 2.30pm (audio-described by VocalEyes)
Watch on the Rhine: Saturday 28th January
BRITISH SIGN LANGUAGE INTERPRETED PERFORMANCES
Watch on the Rhine: Saturday 21st January, 2.30pm