Plague Over England Cast Update!

Plague Over England Cast Update!

Cast announced for Plague Over England, by the Evening Standard theatre critic, Nicholas De Jongh, which opens at the Duchess Theatre 23 Feb 2009, following previews from 11 Feb - booking to 16 May 2009.

Michael Feast (John Gielgud), Celia Imrie (Dame Sybil Thorndike), Simon Dutton (Binkie Beaumont), David Burt, Hugh Ross, John Warnaby, Michael Brown, Steven Hansell, Sam Heughan, Leon Ockenden.

Michael Feast's London stage credits include "Macbeth" for Chichester at the Gielgud in 2007; "Phaedra" at he Donmar Warehouse in 2006; "World's Biggest Diamond " at the Royal Court in 2005; "The Servant" at the Lyric Hammersmith in 2001; "The Accused" at the Gielgud in 2000; "The Forest" at the Lyttelton, NT in 1999; "Faust" for the RSC at the Barbican in 1996.

Celia Imrie's London stage credits include "Acorn Antiques" at the Haymarket in 2005; "Unsuspecting Susan" at the King's Head in 2005; "Habeas Corpus" at the Donmar Warehouse in 1996; "The Hothouse" at the Comedy in 1995.

The play premiered at the Finborough Theatre, a fringe venue in Earl's Court, where it ran from 28 Feb to 22 March 2008.

It is directed by Tamara Harvey, designed by Alex Marker, lighting by James Farncombe, costumes by Trish Wilkinson, sound by Theo Holloway, and produced by Bill Kenwright / Ambassador Theatre Group.

Based around the controversial 1953 conviction of Sir John Gielgud - for persistently importuning men for immoral purposes.

More than just a dramatisation of a scandalous event in one actor's life, this new play shows how Gielgud's arrest played a small but distinct part in the battle to make homosexuality legal. It captures the spirit of Britain in the early 1950s when judges, politicians and the national press were describing homosexuality as a cancer, an epidemic and a threat to national life. It is an extraordinary insight into the dramatic changes in social attitudes to gay life in the last fifty years.