55 Days - Hampstead Theatre
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
FULL casting has been announced for Howard Brenton’s historical drama 55 Days, which runs at Hampstead Theatre from October 18 to November 24, 2012.
Joining the previously announced Mark Gatiss (as Charles I) are Douglas Henshall (as Oliver Cromwell), Abigail Cruttenden, Daniel Flynn, Matthew Flynn, Richard Henders, Simon Kunz, Gerald Kyd, John Mackay, Jordan Mifsud, Gerard Monaco, Laura Rogers, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Jem Wall and James Wallace.
Brenton’s play is about the events leading up to the execution of Charles I. Parliament votes not to put the imprisoned King on trial, so the army moves against Westminster and the only military coup in English history takes place.
However, the army leadership remains divided: Cromwell would prefer a compromise with the King, but the King will not compromise. A new nation must therefore be forged and over 55 days, an entirely new world is created…
Mark Gatiss, who rose to fame as a member of comedy group The League of Gentlemen, has recently appeared on stage in The Recruiting Officer (Donmar Warehouse), Season’s Greetings (National Theatre) and All About My Mother (Old Vic).
His numerous television credits include Sherlock (as Mycroft Holmes), Doctor Who, The Crimson Petal and The White, Being Human, Worried About The Boy and George Gently.
Douglas Henshall’s theatre credits include The Cryptogram (Donmar Warehouse), Death of a Salesman (Lyric Theatre), The Crucible (Sheffield Theatres), The Coast of Utopia (National Theatre), American Buffalo (Young Vic), The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Almeida Theatre) and Betrayal (Comedy Theatre).
Although best known on television as Primeval‘s Nick Cutter, he has also appeared in South Riding (as Joe Astell), The Silence (Jim), The Strange Case of Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle (Conan Doyle), Lewis (Alex Gansa), Collision (D.I. John Tolin) and Psychos (Daniel Nash).
Howard Brenton’s most recent theatre credits include The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (Liverpool Everyman and Chichester Festival Theatre), Danton’s Death and Never So Good (National Theatre) and the award-winning Anne Boleyn (Shakespeare’s Globe).
55 Days is directed by Howard Davies whose previous work with Brenton includes the critically acclaimed productions of Never So Good and Paul at the National Theatre. Associate Director of the National Theatre, Davies’ numerous theatre credits include The Cherry Orchard, Burnt by the Sun, The White Guard and Blood and Gifts (National Theatre), A Moon for the Misbegotten (Old Vic and Broadway) and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Almeida Theatre).
For more information and tickets, visit www.hampsteadtheatre.com/.