Rose Theatre Kingston announces cast for Stephen Bill's Curtains

As part of their 10^th anniversary season Rose Theatre Kingston today announces the full cast for Stephen Bill’s award-winning play Curtains. Lindsay Posnerdirects Leo Bill (Michael), Caroline Catz (Susan), Jonathan Coy (Geoffrey), Tim Dutton (Douglas), Wendy Nottingham (Margaret), Saskia Reeves (Katherine), Sandra Voe (Ida) and Marjorie Yates (Mrs Jackson). The production opens on Wednesday 28 February, with previews from Thursday 22 February, and runs until Saturday 17 March.

Ida’s family is throwing her a birthday tea for her eighty-sixth birthday. Their efforts to be cheerful and make the event a success verge on the desperate. Ida is racked with pain and feels she has lived too long. As the painfully laboured celebrations go on, her third daughter Susan returns unexpectedly after an absence of 25 years. Tensions immediately flare between the sisters, whilst Ida struggles to recognise her.

As the party comes to an end, the family disperse leaving Katherine remembering the pact she made with Ida not to let her suffer into old age… When the family returns, old prejudices and rivalries are forced into the open in this at times hilarious, painful and moving picture of a family in turmoil.

Stephen Bill won Drama Magazine’s award for Best Play, alongside Most Promising Playwright from both Evening Standard Theatre Awards and Players London Critics’ Awards for Curtains. His other playwrighting credits include The Old Order, Piggy Back Riders, Naked in the Bull Ring, The Bottom Drawer, Over the Bar,Over a Barrel, Cassie and What the Heart Feels.

Leo Bill plays Michael. His theatre credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Young Vic), Hamlet (Barbican), Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, A Woman Killed with Kindness, Pains of Youth, The Observer, The Hothouse, The Reporter (National Theatre), Secret Theatre (Lyric Hammersmith), The Silence of the Seas (Donmar Trafalgar), Posh (Royal Court Theatre, Duke of York’s Theatre) and The Way of the World (Sheffield Theatres).

Caroline Catz plays Susan. Her theatre credits include Top Girls (Out of Joint), On Emotion (Soho Theatre), Haunted (Arts Theatre), The Recruiting Officer (Chichester Festival Theatre), Dogs Barking (Bush Theatre), Shopping and F**king (Gielgud Theatre, Queen’s Theatre, international tour) and Six Degrees of Separation (Royal Court Theatre, Comedy Theatre). Catz stars as Louisa Ellingham in ITV’s Doc Martin and previously as Helen Morton in DCI Banks and Rosie Fox in The Bill.

Jonathan Coy plays Geoffrey. Theatre credits include Ink (Duke of York’s Theatre), Ivanov, Platonov, A Month in the Country (Chichester Festival Theatre), The Hard Problem, The Magistrate, Democracy, The Power of Yes (National Theatre), Privacy (Donmar Warehouse), Relatively Speaking (Theatre Royal Bath), Noises Off (The Old Vic, Novello Theatre), Much Ado About Nothing (Wyndham’s Theatre), Racing Demon (Sheffield Theatres), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Almeida Theatre), Bear Hug, The Weather (Royal Court Theatre) and Neville’s Island (Apollo Theatre).

Tim Dutton plays Douglas. His theatre credits include Iliad (Almeida Theatre), 1984 (Almeida Theatre, Playhouse Theatre), Dangerous Corner (Salisbury Playhouse), Insufficiency (Riverside Studios), A Handful of Dust (Cambridge Theatre), Cider with Rosie (Birmingham Rep), She’s in Your Hands (Royal Exchange Theatre), London Assurance (Chichester Festival Theatre, UK tour, Theatre Royal Haymarket), The Lucky Ones, Love’s Labour’s Love and Victory (Chichester Festival Theatre).

Wendy Nottingham plays Margaret. Her theatre credits include Diminished (Hampstead Theatre), The Winslow Boy (The Old Vic), Celebrity Night at Café Red, Step 9 (of 12) (Trafalgar Studios), In Basildon, The Madness of Esme and Shaz, Ambulance (Royal Court Theatre), Grief, The Shaughraun, The Voysey Inheritance(National Theatre), Total Eclipse (Menier Chocolate Factory), Cloud Nine (Sheffield Theatres), Abigail’s Party (Ambassador Theatre, Hampstead Theatre) and The Crucible (Young Vic).

Saskia Reeves plays Katherine. Her theatre credits include King Lear (Shakespeare’s Globe), Hello and Goodbye (Trafalgar Studios), A Disappearing Number(Complicité), The Mistress Contract (Royal Court Theatre), Orpheus Descending (Donmar Warehouse), Measure for Measure, Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?(Young Vic), Much Ado About Nothing (Playhouse Theatre, international tour), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Man Of Mode (Donmar Warehouse, international tour) and Separation (Hampstead Theatre, Comedy Theatre).

Sandra Voe plays Ida. Her theatre credits Motherland (New Diorama Theatre), Macbeth (Sheffield Theatres), Chairs, Three Sisters (Lyric Hammersmith), Attempts on Her Life, The Strangeness of Others (National Theatre), Enemies, Camera Obscura, The Winter Guest, The Deep Blue Sea, Nana, The Seagull (Almeida Theatre),The Kitchen and Attempts on Her Life (Royal Court Theatre).

Marjorie Yates returns following A Day in the Death of Joe Egg to play Mrs Jackson. Other theatre credits include Babette’s Feast (The Print Room), The Crucible (Manchester Royal Exchange), This is My Family (Sheffield Theatres), Untold Stories (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Honeymoon Suite (Royal Court Theatre), Star Quality (Apollo Theatre), The Daughter-in-Law, All My Sons (Young Vic), An Inspector Calls (Garrick Theatre), Death of a Salesman, Stages (National Theatre) and Electra (Donmar Warehouse).

Lindsay Posner’s directing credits include The Lie, The Truth, Dinner with Saddam, Communicating Doors (Menier Chocolate Factory), Abigail’s Party (Menier Chocolate Factory, Theatre Royal Bath, Wyndham’s Theatre, UK tour), The End of Longing, Speed the Plow (Playhouse Theatre), Hay Fever (Duke of York’s Theatre), Harvey (Theatre Royal Haymarket), Relatively Speaking (Wyndham’s Theatre), A Little Hotel on the Side (Theatre Royal Bath), Other Desert Cities, The Winslow Boy and Noises Off (The Old Vic), The Turn of the Screw (Almeida Theatre) and Uncle Vanya (Vaudeville Theatre). He was Associate Director of the Royal Court from 1987-1992 where his productions included Death and the Maiden (which transferred to the Duke of York’s Theatre and won two Olivier Awards),Colquhoun and McBryde and The Treatment.