INITIAL CASTING ANNOUNCED FOR
THE WEST END TRANSFER OF
LAURA WADE’S CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED THE WATSONS
A miracle of wit, invention and intelligence.” ★★★★★ Guardian
★★★★★ Metro ★★★★★ The Stage ★★★★★ Observer ★★★★ Times ★★★★ Financial Times ★★★★ Telegraph ★★★★ Evening Standard ★★★★ Time Out ★★★★ Daily Express
Chocolate Factory Productions, Sonia Friedman Productions, Playing Field
Evan Sacks, David Mirvish
present
The Chichester Festival Theatre and Menier Chocolate Factory production of
THE WATSONS
A new play by Laura Wade
Adapted from the unfinished novel by Jane Austen
Director: Samuel West; Designer: Ben Stones; Lighting Designer: Richard Howell
Sound Designer: Gregory Clarke; Movement: Mike Ashcroft; Music: Isobel Waller-Bridge
Casting Director: Charlotte Sutton
Initial casting is announced today for the West End transfer of Laura Wade’s The Watsons, following sold-out runs at both Chichester Festival Theatre and the Menier Chocolate Factory. Samuel West directs Sam Alexander (Robert Watson), Sally Bankes (Nanny), Jane Booker (Lady Osborne), Elaine Claxton (Mrs Edwards), Ralph Davis (Lord Osborne), Tim Delap (Mr Howard), Sophie Duval (Mrs Robert), Louise Ford (Laura), John Wilson Goddard (Mr Watson), Rhianna McGreevy (Margaret Watson), Grace Molony (Emma Watson – she was Evening Standard Award nominated for her performance), Elander Moore (Bertie), Paksie Vernon (Elizabeth Watson) and Cat White (Miss Osborne), who reprise their roles. Full casting will be announced shortly.
The production opens at the Harold Pinter Theatre on 18 May, with previews from 8 May, and runs until 26 September. Public booking now open.
“Laura Wade triumphs spinning Jane Austen into major theatrical gold” Variety
Directed by Samuel West, The Watsons played to critical acclaim at Chichester Festival Theatre in 2018, and completed its run at the Menier in November 2019.
“Excellent. Jane Austen has never been quite so much fun.” The Times
Nineteen and new in town, Emma Watson’s been cut off by her wealthy aunt. She needs to marry, and fast, or be faced with a life of poverty and spinsterhood stuck in her humdrum family home.
Luckily, she has plenty of prospective suitors asking to dance, from dashing socialite Tom Musgrave to the stinking rich, socially awkward Lord Osborne. Which partner to pick?
So far, so familiar, but that’s when Jane Austen stopped writing. Two hundred years on, her forgotten heroine’s happy ending still hangs in the balance.
Picking up an unfinished novel, Olivier Award-winner Laura Wade’s ‘ingenious and triumphant’ (Evening Standard) new comedy pops the bonnet on Jane Austen’s world and asks: what happens when a writer loses the plot and fictional characters take control of their tale?
Laura Wade is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. Her credits include Home, I’m Darling (Theatr Clwyd, National Theatre, Duke of York’s Theatre and UK tour – Olivier Award for Best New Comedy), Tipping the Velvet (Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, adapted from the novel by Sarah Waters), Posh (Royal Court Theatre and West End), Alice (Sheffield Theatres), Kreutzer vs. Kreutzer (Sydney Opera House and Australian Tour, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Royal Festival Hall and UK tour), Other Hands (Soho Theatre), Colder Than Here (Soho Theatre and MCC Theatre New York), Breathing Corpses (Royal Court Theatre), Young Emma (Finborough Theatre), and 16 Winters (Bristol Old Vic Basement). Film credits include The Riot Club and Britain Isn’t Eating.
Samuel West directs. His directorial work includes After Electra (Tricycle Theatre), Close The Coalhouse Door (Northern Stage), Waste (Almeida Theatre) and Dealer’s Choice (Menier Chocolate Factory/Trafalgar Studios). As Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres he directed the first revival of The Romans in Britain by Howard Brenton, and As You Like It for the RSC’s Complete Works Festival. He also directed Money by Edward Bulwer-Lytton for BBC Radio. As an actor, work includes the title roles in Hamlet and Richard II for the RSC, Jeffrey Skilling in Lucy Prebble’s Enron (Chichester/Royal Court/Noel Coward theatres), three series of Mr Selfridge, the film Howards End, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Suffragette and On Chesil Beach. He will appear later this year as Siegfried Farnon in the new series of All Creatures Great and Small.
Wade and West were recently announced as the 2020 Ambassadors for Jane Austen’s House https://www.jane-austens-house-museum.org.uk/.
This production is based on the original Chichester Festival Theatre production which had its world premiere at the Minerva Theatre on 3 November 2018.
Twitter and Instagram: @TheWatsonsPlay
Facebook: /TheWatsonsPlay
Listings Information The Watsons
Harold Pinter Theatre
Panton St, London SW1Y 4DN
Box Office: 0844 871 7622
Tickets from £15
8 May – 26 September