FULL CAST ANNOUNCED FOR THE UK TOUR OF MALORY TOWERS
ADAPTED AND DIRECTED BY EMMA RICE
The Emma Rice Company today announces the full cast for their upcoming tour of Malory Towers from the novels by Enid Blyton and adapted by Emma Rice. Rice directs Eden Barrie (Mary Lou Atkinson), Molly Cheesley (Alicia Johns), Rebecca Collingwood (Gwendolyn Lacey), Stephanie Hockley (Irene DuPont), Emily Panes (Musician), Robyn Sinclair (Darrell Rivers), Bethany Wooding (Sally Hope) and Zoe West (Bill Robinson) in this co-production with Alexandra Palace Theatre, Belgrade Theatre, HOME Manchester and Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse.
The production opens at Theatre Royal Bath on 7 May, with previews from 1 May, before embarking on a UK tour to Coventry, Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool and Guildford, before completing its run at the Alexandra Palace Theatre in London.
Emma Rice said today, “Malory Towers is an enduring passion for me! Inspired by my Gran, Mum and all the magnificent women of the wartime generations, I have loved bringing these intoxicating characters and tales up to date with love, song and laughter. However, like the school itself, this sparkling production needs to be filled with new personalities. This new tour is no different! The class of 2026 is filled with fresh, fierce and joyful talent – and I cannot wait to see what they bring to Miss Grayling, Malory Towers and me. Here’s to ‘Good strong women that the world can lean on’. My, in these terrifying and divided times we need that more than ever, don’t we?”
www.emmaricecompany.co.uk
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MALORY TOWERS
From the novels by Enid Blyton
Adapted and directed by Emma Rice
Co-produced by Emma Rice Company, Alexandra Palace Theatre, Belgrade Theatre, HOME Manchester and Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse
Set & Costume Designer Lez Brotherston; Composer Ian Ross;
Lighting Designer Malcolm Rippeth; Sound and Video Designer Simon Baker;
Choreographer Alistair David
Theatre Royal Bath
1 – 9 May Press Night
Then on UK tour
It’s back by popular demand! Emma Rice Company’s ‘magic’ Malory Towers (Guardian) is touring the UK again. Get ready for high jinks, high drama and high spirits, all set to sensational live music.
Darrell Rivers is starting school with an eager mind and fierce heart. Unfortunately she also has a quick temper! Can she learn to tolerate the infuriating Gwendoline Lacey, or value the kind-hearted Sally Hope? Can she save the school play and rescue terrified Mary Lou from the grip of a raging storm? If she can do these things anywhere, she will do them at Malory Towers!
Nostalgic, naughty, and perfect for now, Malory Towers is the original ‘Girl Power’ story. This is a show for girls, boys and all grown-up children who still dream of midnight feasts and Cornish clifftops.
Eden Barrie plays Mary Lou Atkinson. She was in the ensemble for the Pitlochry Festival Theatre Rep season in 2025 performing in Grease, Nessie and Toast Fae the Lassies.
Molly Cheesley plays Alicia Johns. Her theatre credits incldue NOW That’s What I Call A Musical (UK Tour), You’re Not The Boss of Me (The Other Palace), Jane Austen’s Emma (UK Tour), Forever Young, Jack and the Beanstalk, Dick Whittington, and Robin Hood (Exeter Northcott).
Rebecca Collingwood reprises her role as Gwendolyn Lacey having played her in the 2019 tour. For the company, she also appeared in Wuthering Heights. Her other theatre credits include The Motive and the Cue (National Theatre), Much Ado About Nothing (RSC) Arms and the Man, Precious Little Talent, Widowers’ Houses – Ian Charleson Award nomination (Orange Tree Theatre), The Hartlepool Monkey (Gyre and Gimble), Caste (Finborough Theatre), Much Ado About Nothing and Love’s Labour’s Lost (RSC at Chichester Festival Theatre and Theatre Royal Haymarket). Her television work includes Miss Scarlett and The Duke and The Holden Girls: Mandy and Mrytle.
Stephanie Hockley plays Irene DuPont. For the company she previously appeared in Wuthering Heights, Blue Beard and Malory Towers. Her other theatre credits include Miracle on 34th Street (HOME Manchester), Vernon Girls (Liverpool Royal Court), A Christmas Carol Julius Caesar, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Storyhouse), Robin Hood (Watermill Theatre); Return to the Forbidden Planet (Upstairs at the Gatehouse, The Little Mermaid (Liverpool Everyman), Beauty and the Beast, Rapunzel (Liverpool Everyman), and The Witch of Edmonton (Sam Wanamaker Festival).
Emily Panes is the Musician. Her theatre credits include The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Ambassadors Theatre), Twelfth Night (Mill at Sonning and Cunard Cruises), The Threepenny Opera (Minack Theatre, OVO), Hay Fever, Twelfth Night, Still Life (The Mill at Sonning), Cinderella and Robin Hood (The Barn Cirencester), Pinocchio, Rapunzel (The Garage Norwich), and Kinky Boots in Concert (LMTO, Theatre Royal Drury Lane).
Robyn Sinclair plays Darrell Rivers – her previous work for the company includes Blue Beard. Her other theatre work includes Four Felons and a Funeral (UK tour), The Grapes of Wrath (National Theatre), 4000 Miles, Mood Music (The Old Vic), The Enormous Crocodile (Leeds Playhouse and Regent’s Park Open Air Productions), The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth (The Watermill Theatre), Wildfire Road (Sheffield Theatres), The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (UK tour and Gillian Lynne Theatre), Amélie (Criterion Theatre), Mog (The Wardrobe Ensemble, Royal and Derngate, The Old Vic), Electrolyte (Wildcard Theatre), The Wind in the Willows (New Vic Theatre), The Snow Queen (Theatre Clwyd/Paperfinch Theatre), and Much Ado About Nothing (Oxford Shakespeare Company). For film, Not Knowing Needing and Fledgeling.
Bethany Wooding plays Sally Hope. Her theatre work includes The Crucible (Shakespeare’s Globe), Peerless, Rodney and The Shrieking Sisterhood (Sherman Theatre), and The Return (ReLive Theatre Company). Her film work includes The Last Disturbance of Madeline Hynde, and Six Minutes to Midnight.
Zoe West plays Bill Robinson. Their theatre work includes Jack and the Beanstalk, Romeo and Juliet, Rapunzel, Cinderella (Liverpool Everyman), Baby in the Mirror (Second Adolescence), Dead Girls Rising (Silent Uproar), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Chichester Festival Theatre), Wildfire Road (Sheffield Theatres), A Christmas Carol (Shakespeare North Playhouse), The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Rose Theatre Kingston), Jane Eyre (Stephen Joseph Theatre and New Vic), Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare’s Globe), Peter Pan (Storyhouse), Much Ado About Nothing (New English Shakespeare Company), Out of Water (Orange Tree Theatre and RSC), White Teeth (Kiln Theatre), Sleeping Beauty (Theatr Clwyd), and Island Song (Stratford Circus). For television, The Primrose Railway Children.
Emma Rice is the Artistic Director of Wise Children and is an internationally respected theatre-maker and director. For Wise Children she has adapted and directed A Child’s Christmas in Wales, The Buddha of Suburbia, Blue Beard, The Little Matchgirl and Happier Tales, Wuthering Heights, Bagdad Café, Angela Carter’s Wise Children, Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers and Romantics Anonymous. As Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe: Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Little Matchgirl (and Other Happier Tales). Rice worked for Kneehigh as an actor, director and Artistic Director, creating critically acclaimed productions including: The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk, 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips, The Wild Bride, The Red Shoes, Cymbeline (in association with RSC), A Matter of Life and Death (in association with National Theatre), Brief Encounter (in association with David Pugh and Dafydd Rogers Productions), Don John (in association with the RSC and Bristol Old Vic), Wah! Wah! Girls (in association with Sadler’s Wells and Theatre Royal Stratford East for World Stages), and Steptoe and Son. She received the Outstanding Contribution to British Theatre award at the 2019 UK Theatre Awards.
LISTINGS
EMMA RICE COMPANY
MALORY TOWERS – UK TOUR
Theatre Royal Bath
1 – 9 May
https://www.theatreroyal.org.uk
Belgrade Theatre, Coventry
12 – 16 May
Leeds Playhouse
27 – 30 May
HOME Manchester
2 – 13 June
Liverpool Playhouse
16 – 20 June
Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford
14 – 18 July
https://www.yvonne-arnaud.co.uk
Alexandra Palace Theatre
22 July – 2 August
NORTH BY NORTHWEST – US TOUR
The Old Globe, San Diego
3 July – 2 August 2026
TRISTAN & YSEULT
Theatre Royal Bath and UK tour