FULL CAST ANNOUNCED FOR WORLD PREMIÈRE OF
DAISY GOODWIN’S BY ROYAL APPOINTMENT
James Dreyfus and James Wilby join Anne Reid and Caroline Quentin
Daniel Schumann and Lee Dean today announce full casting for the world première of Daisy Goodwin’s By Royal Appointment directed by Dominic Dromgoole. Joining the previously announced Anne Reid (Queen Elizabeth II) and Caroline Quentin (The Dresser) are James Dreyfus (The Milliner) and James Wilby (The Designer).
By Royal Appointment opens at Theatre Royal Bath on 5 June and runs until 14 June before touring to Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham, Leeds Grand Theatre and Opera House, Malvern Festival Theatre, Mayflower Theatre, Southampton, Richmond Theatre, London, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford and Lowry, Salford.
Daniel Schumann and Lee Dean present
BY ROYAL APPOINTMENT
By Daisy Goodwin
Cast: Anne Reid (Queen Elizabeth II), Caroline Quentin (The Dresser), James Dreyfus (The Milliner), James Wilby (The Designer)
Directed by: Dominic Dromgoole;Designer: Jonathan Fensom; Lighting Designer: Oliver Fenwick;
Sound design: Ella Wahlström
The late Queen Elizabeth II was famous for her discretion. She never said anything in public that could ruffle the lightest of feathers. But she had one way of expressing what she really thought – through her wardrobe.
By Royal Appointment is a funny, poignant and celebratory new play about the kind of power that only a Queen can wield – she charms the world through coats and admonishes her family through a carefully chosen hat.
But the Queen herself is uninterested in fashion, her look is managed by her Designer, her Milliner and most powerful of all, her Dresser who was a working-class girl who goes from advising the Queen on the colour of her lipsticks to the real power behind the throne. But the Dresser, like all royal favourites is living on borrowed time.
By Royal Appointment is a behind the scenes peek into the world of our most popular monarch and the image she presented to the world. Starring national treasure Anne Reid as The Queen, doyen of stage and screen Caroline Quentin as The Dresser, with Olivier award-winning James Dreyfus as The Milliner and Merchant Ivory and Poldark legend James Wilby as The Designer. The new play is written by Daisy Goodwin who created the hit ITV series Victoria and directed by former Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe, Dominic Dromgoole.
By Royal Appointment is Daisy Goodwin’s debut play. For television, her writing credits include ITV historical drama series Victoria. Her novels include The Last Duchess, The Fortune Hunter, The American Heiress, Victoria and Diva, she has curated eight poetry anthologies. Also, as a producer, her many credits include Grand Designs and Escape to the Country.
Veteran of the stage and screen, Anne Reid plays The Queen. For theatre, her credits include Marjorie Prime (Menier Chocolate Factory), A Woman of No Importance (Vaudeville Theatre), Fracked!, Out of this World (Chichester Festival Theatre), Hedda Gabler (The Old Vic), Dimetos (Donmar Warehouse), Happy Now?, Wild Oats (National Theatre), Into the Woods (Royal Opera House), The Epitaph of George Dillon (Comedy Theatre), The York Realist (Royal Court) and A Family Affair (Theatre Royal Bath). For television her extensive credits include The Sixth Commandment, Sanditon, Years & Years, Hold the Sunset, Last Tango in Halifax, Our Zoo, The Last Witch, Upstairs Downstairs, Marchlands, Moving On, Five Days, Ladies of Letters, In Love with Barbara, Shameless, Affinity, The Bad Mother’s Handbook, Doctor Who, Jane Eyre, Bleak House, Life Begins, Dinnerladies, Sweet Charity and Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV; and for film, SAS Red Notice, Aeronauts, The Nest, The Snowman, Romans, Kaleidoscope, Believe, Foster, Cemetery Junction, Faintheart, Savage Grace, Hot Fuzz, Little Trip to Heaven, and The Mother (Critics’ Circle Award for British Actress of the Year).
Caroline Quentin plays The Dresser. Her stage credits include Jack Absolute Flies Again, The London Cuckolds (National Theatre), Mrs Warren’s Profession (UK tour), The Provoked Wife (RSC), Me and My Girl (Chichester Festival Theatre), The Hypocrite (Hull Truck, RSC), The Life and Times of Fanny Hill (Bristol Old Vic), Relative Values (Theatre Royal Bath), Oh! What A Lovely War (Theatre Royal Stratford East), Terrible Advice (Menier Chocolate Factory) and Life After Scandal (Hampstead Theatre). Her television credits include Extinction, Bridgerton, The Other One, Doc Martin, Dickensian, Cockroaches, Big And World, Sooty, Dancing On The Edge, Extreme, Little Crackers, Switch, Dead Boss, In Love with Wilde, Life of Riley, Just William, Blue Murder, Humf, Life Begins, Little Briain, Footprints in the Snow, Von Trapped, Blood Strangers, Hot Money, Goodbye Mr. Steadman, Kiss Me Kate, The Innocent, Jonathan Creek, The Nearly Complete and Utter History of Everything, Men Behaving Badly, Entertainment Cops, All Or Nothing At All, Paul Merton: The Series, Don’t Tell Father, Mr Bean, Harry Enfield’s Television Programme, Hale and Pace, One on Two, Shadow of the Noose, This Is David Lander, The Nihilists Double Vision, Up Line, Dream Stuffing, Video Stars, The Squad and The Other ‘Arf. Her film credits include Love me Tender. As a presenter, her world’s Ugliest Pets, Caroline Quentin’s National Parks, Cornwall with Caroline Quentin, A Passage Through India.
James Dreyfus plays The Milliner. His theatre credits include The Master Builder (The Old Vic), Harvey, Breakfast at Tiffany’s (Theatre Royal Haymarket) Candide, The Common Pursuit (Menier Chocolate Factory), The Vortex (Rose Theatre, Kingston), Amongst Friends (Hampstead Theatre), Cabaret (Lyric Theatre), Donkey’s Years (Comedy Theatre), The Producers (Theatre Royal Drury Lane), One For the Pot (Windsor Theatre), Elizabeth Rex, Julius Caesar, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Grapes of Wrath, Playing by the Rules (Birmingham Rep), Lady in the Dark (National Theatre), The Seagull (UK tour), EuroVision (Vaudeville Theatre), Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens (Criterion Theatre), The Hypochondriac (Cambridge Theatre), Romeo and Juliet, She Stoops to Conquer, How the Other Half Loves, Hamlet (Harrogate Theatre), Augustine (The Big Hysteria) (Lyric Hammersmith Theatre) and Purgatory in Ingolstadt (Gate Theatre). His television credits include House of The Dragon, Agatha Raisin, Harry & Meghan: Becoming Royal, Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators, Mount Pleasant, Shameless, Whitechapel, The Sarah Jane Adventures, He Kills Coppers, My Hero, Double Time, The Lenny Henry Show, Waking The Dead, The Bette Show, Gormenghast, Gimme Gimme Gimme (as series regular Tom Farell), Absolutely Fabulous, The Thin Blue Line (as series regular Constable Kevin Goody), Frontiers, Paris and Thin Ice; and for film, Semolina Pilchard, Family Secrets, Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow, The Kindred, Supernova, Scottish Mussel, Colour Me Kubrick, Churchill The Hollywood Years, Agent Cody Banks, Being Considered, Notting Hill, Boyfriends and Richard III.
James Wilby plays The Designer. His theatre credits include Gaslight (Theatre Royal Windsor), Dead Sheep (Park Theatre), The Second Mrs Tanqueray (Rose Theatre, Kingston), Less Than Kind (UK tour), The Consultant of Commotion (Theatre503), On Emotion (Soho Theatre), Don Juan (Lyric Hammersmith Theatre), Helping Harry (Jermyn Street Theatre), A Patriot for Me (RSC), The Common Pursuit (Phoenix Theatre), The Tempest, Salonika, Jane Eyre (Chichester Festival Theatre), As You Like It (Royal Exchange Theatre), Chips with Everything (Leeds Playhouse) and Another Country (Queen’s Theatre). His television credits include The Famous Five; I, Jack Wright; The Marlow Murder Club, Poldark, Victoria, Churchill’s Secret, The Nightmare World of HG Wells, Legends, Strike Back, Our Zoo, Endeavour, Ripper Street, New Tricks, Titanic, Secret Diary of a Call Girl, A Risk Worth Taking, Clapham Junction, The Last Days of the Raj, Lewis, Little Devil, Marple, Jericho, Sparkling Cyanide, Murder in Mind, Bertie and Elizabeth, Nothing But The Truth, Trial and Retribution, The Woman in White, The Dark Room, Treasure Seekers, Witness Against Hitler, Crocodile Shoes, You, Me and It, Lady Chatterley, Adam Bede, Tell Me That You Love Me, Mother Love, A Tale of Two Cities, Storyteller, Dutch Girls, Impact Earth and Ancient Rome; and for film, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, The Duke, Breathe, The Swing of It, Sense of an Ending, ChickLit, Shadows in the Sun, Lady Godiva, Gradiva, Just One of Those Things, De-Lovely, Gosford Park, Life: A User’s Manual, Cotton Mary, Tom’s Midnight Garden, Regeneration, Une Partie D’echec, Howard’s End, Immaculate Conception, A Handful of Dust, Maurice and An Ideal Husband.
Dominic Dromgoole directs. He launched a new theatre company, Classic Spring, which produced a year-long celebration of Oscar Wilde in 2017/18 directing the first play in the season, A Woman of No Importance, at the Vaudeville Theatre.Dromgoole was Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe from 2006 to 2016. In that time the Globe grew into an international theatre of progressive ambition and radical scope. Amongst other projects, he created a UK-wide touring operation and grew this touring internationally, culminating in a two-year tour of Hamlet which travelled to every country in the world. In 2012, he directed the Globe to Globe Festival, which hosted companies from 37 different countries. He was previously Artistic Director of the Bush Theatre – during his tenure between 1990-1996 he nurtured upcoming talents by premiering 65 new plays from a host of now influential writers such as Billy Roche, Irvine Welsh and Naomi Wallace. He then moved onto the Oxford Stage Company which he ran from 1999 to 2005. He launched a new film company, Open Palm Films, and made his first feature, Making Noise Quietly, in the summer of 2016. The film, released by an adaptation of Robert Holman’s play of the same name, starred Deborah Findlay, Barbara Marten, Trystan Gravelle and Matthew Tennyson, and was released by Verve in 2019. He is the author of the recently published Astonish Me! First Nights That Changed the World as well as Hamlet: Globe to Globe, The Full Room: An A-Z of Contemporary Playwriting and Will and Me: How Shakespeare Took Over My Life, which won the inaugural Sheridan Morley award.
BY ROYAL APPOINTMENT
LISTINGS
Theatre Royal Bath, Bath
5 – 14 June
Box Office: 01225 448844 / www.theatreroyal.org.uk
Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham
17 – 21 June
Box Office: 01242 572573 / www.everymantheatre.org.uk
Leeds Grand Theatre and Opera House
24 – 28 June
Box Office 0113 243 0808 / www.leedsheritagetheatres.com
Malvern Festival Theatre
1 – 5 July
Box Office: 01684 892277 / www.malvern-theatres.co.uk
Mayflower Theatre, Southampton
9 – 12 July
Box Office: 023 8071 1811 / www.mayflower.org.uk
Richmond Theatre, London
22 – 26 July
Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford
29 July – 2 August
Box Office: 01483 440 000 / www.yvonne-arnaud.co.uk
Lowry, Salford
6 – 9 August
Box Office: 0161 876 2000 / https://thelowry.com/