Neville's Island - Duke of York's Theatre
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
NEVILLE’S Island, the hit comedy by multi award-winning Tim Firth (Calendar Girls, Our House), runs at the Duke of York’s Theatre from October 10, 2014 to January 3, 2015.
First performed in 1992, Neville’s Island follows the misadventures of four out-of-condition, out-of-their-depth businessmen on an out-of-control team-building exercise.
Shipwrecked in the Lake District, menaced by wildlife and with only a sausage between them, the unlikely explorers battle the elements and each other as corporate bonding descends into an hilarious carnival of squabbling, French cricket and cagoules.
Neville’s Island is directed by Angus Jackson, Associate Director at Chichester Festival Theatre, and stars Adrian Edmondson (as Gordon), Miles Jupp, Neil Morrissey and Robert Webb.
Adrian ‘Ade’ Edmondson is best known for his roles in television series The Young Ones and Bottom. The latter he co-wrote with long-time comedy collaborator Rik Mayall. Together, Edmondson and Mayall were part of the alternative comedy boom of the 1980s, and alongside other British comedians including Nigel Planer, Peter Richardson and French and Saunders, they founded the Comic Strip Club and launched TV comedy series The Comic Strip Presents…
Edmondson has since appeared in numerous TV series including Blackadder, Jonathan Creek and Holby City. He has also worked as director, creating pop promos for Squeeze, The Pogues and 10,000 Maniacs amongst others.
After winning Celebrity MasterChef in 2013, Edmondson presented Ade in Britain, The Dales and Ade at Sea on ITV. He has also toured with his folk/punk band, The Bad Shepherds, since 2008.
Actor, comedian and writer Miles Jupp started performing stand-up on the Scottish circuit in 2000, and the following year won both So You Think You’re Funny and The Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year. He soon became a regular performer on both series of BBC Scotland’s Live Floor Show, and was nominated for the Perrier Best Newcomer award for his debut Edinburgh solo show Gentlemen Prefer Brogues.
Most recently, Jupp completed filming on Damien Trench: In And Out Of The Kitchen for the BBC, based on his successful radio 4 sitcom. He was also recently seen reprising his role of Nigel McCall in the third series of the hit BBC series Rev, in which he stars alongside Tom Hollander, Olivia Colman and Simon McBurney.
Neil Morrissey’s theatre credits include Victoria Wood’s Acorn Antiques, alongside Julie Walters, Celia Imrie and Duncan Preston, Nathan in Guys and Dolls and Fagin in Cameron Mackintosh’s national tour of Oliver!
On television, he is probably best known as Tony in seven series of the BBC sitcom, Men Behaving Badly and as Nigel Morton in the critically acclaimed Line Of Duty, a new drama series for BBC 2, which explores the world of modern policing. His other TV credits include Boon, Roll Over Beethoven, Gentlemen and Players and My Summer with Des.
Robert Webb’s theatre work includes the title role of Wooster in Jeeves and Wooster (Duke of York Theatre), the world premiere of Raving (Hampstead Theatre) and Neil LaBute’s Fat Pig (Trafalgar Studios). His screen credits include The Wedding Video, Magicians and Confetti (film); Peep Show (eight series) which won two BAFTA’s , a Rose d’Or and a British Comedy Award and That Mitchell and Webb Look (four series) which also won a BAFTA for Best Comedy Program (TV).
In 2009, Webb won Let’s Dance for Comic Relief, for his rendition of Jennifer Beal’s iconic scene in Flashdance.
Neville’s Island is designed by Robert Innes Hopkins, with lighting by Howard Harrison, music by Isabel Wallace Bridge and sound by Paul Groothuis.
Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense continues at the Duke of York’s Theatre until September 20, 2014.