Full company announced for the world premiere of
The Promise
By Paul Unwin
Directed by Jonathan Kent
19 July – 17 August, Minerva Theatre
The full company has been announced for Paul Unwin’s new play about the pioneering post-war Labour government, The Promise, premiering at Chichester’s Minerva Theatre from 19 July – 17 August (press night: 29 July), directed by Jonathan Kent.
The cast is: Suzanne Burden (Strike, Shakespeare in Love) as Violet Attlee; Clare Burt (Flowers for Mrs Harris & This Is My Family CFT) as Ellen Wilkinson; Reece Dinsdale (Emmerdale, This House) as Herbert Morrison; Martyn Ellis (Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads CFT, Renegade Nell) as Winston Churchill; Felixe Forde (Romeo and Juliet, Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of) as Joan Vincent; Peter Hamilton Dyer (Wolf Hall, The Confessions of Frannie Langton) as Richard Stafford-Cripps; Richard Harrington (Hinterland, Poldark) as Nye Bevan; Allison McKenzie (The Butterfly Lion CFT, Crime) as Jennie Lee; Majid Mehdizaheh-Valoujerdy (Testament, Hollyoaks) as Thomas Merriman; Miles Richardson (Witness for the Prosecution, King Charles III) as Hugh Dalton; David Robb (Downton Abbey, The Audience) as Lord Moran; Clive Wood(Casualty, Antony and Cleopatra) as Ernest Bevin;and Andrew Woodall (The Other Boleyn Girl, South Downs/The Browning Version CFT) as Clement Attlee.
Paul Unwin’s new drama is a fascinating, deeply pertinent portrayal of the people who moulded modern Britain and what it cost them.
1945. In a country exhausted and crippled by debt after six years of war, time is up for Winston Churchill’s Tories. With a rallying cry for change, Labour wins an astonishing, landslide election victory.
Clement Attlee may be an unlikely prime minister and his cabinet of competing heavyweights – from the loyal Ernest Bevin to scheming Herbert Morrison – argue furiously about how to realise their manifesto: to make a welfare state, build millions of homes, reorganise dilapidated schools, and most dramatically, create a National Health Service that is free at the point of need.
Driven by the passionate and courageous radical Ellen Wilkinson, and the visionary firebrand Nye Bevan, a very British revolution is in the air. But in the face of bitter opposition, is this an audacious pledge of hope or a promise too far?
Paul Unwin is co-creator of TV’s longest-running medical drama Casualty.
Jonathan Kent, whose previous Chichester productions include Gypsy, Sweeney Todd and Young Chekhov Trilogy, directs.
The Promise has set design by Joanna Parker, costume design by Deborah Andrews, lighting and video design by Peter Mumford, music composed by Gary Yershon, sound design by Christopher Shutt, and casting by Annelie Powell CDG.
The Promise is sponsored by Bishops Printers.
Minerva Season Principal: Charles Holloway.