Tipping the Velvet - lead cast announced
Casting news
SALLY Messham and Laura Rogers are to star as Nancy ‘Nan’ Astley and Kitty Butler in Laura Wade’s new adaptation of Sarah Waters’ bestselling novel Tipping The Velvet, which runs at the Lyric Hammersmith from Friday, September 18 to Saturday, October 24, 2015.
It’s 1887 and Nancy Astley sits in the audience at her local music hall: she doesn’t know it yet, but the next act on the bill will change her life. Tonight is the night she’ll fall in love – with the thrill of the stage and with Kitty Butler, a girl who wears trousers.
Giddy with desire and hungry for experience, Nancy follows Kitty to London where unimaginable adventures await.
Sally Messham has recently graduated from RADA where she appeared in productions of The Sugar Wife, Women of Twilight, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Stasiland and After Mies Julie. Tipping the Velvet will be her first professional lead role on stage. She will also be appearing in the new ITV drama Midwinter of the Spirit alongside Anna Maxwell Martin.
Laura Rogers’ theatre credits include An Ideal Husband, Blue Remembered Hills and Hay Fever (Chichester Festival Theatre), Pressure (Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh), Masterpieces (Royal Court Theatre), Three Sisters (The Wapping Project), 55 Days (Hampstead Theatre), The Comedy of Errors, Macbeth, A New World, A Life of Thomas Paine and As You Like It (Shakespeare’s Globe), The 39 Steps (West End), The Dark Philosophers (National Theatre of Wales) and Gloucestershire (Arcola Theatre).
On television she has appeared in New Tricks, Twelfth Night, Dr Who – Christmas Special, The Smoke, Law and Order: UK, Midsomer Murders, Dates and Dark Matters.
Tipping The Velvet is directed by Lyndsey Turner, whose previous credits include Chimerica (Almeida/West End), Fathers and Sons (Donmar Warehouse), Contractions, A Miracle and Our Private Life (Royal Court), Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, Edgar And Annabel and There Is A War (National Theatre), Joseph K and Nocturnal (Gate Theatre), My Romantic History (Traverse/Bush/Sheffield Theatres) and The Lesson (Arcola Theatre). She is currently directing Benedict Cumberbatch in Hamlet at The Barbican.
A Lyric Hammersmith and Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh production, Tipping the Velvet is designed by Lizzie Clachan, with choreography by Alistair David, lighting by Jon Clark, music by Michael Bruce, sound by Nick Manning and illusions by Richard Pinner.
Following the London dates, Tipping the Velvet will play at The Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh from Wednesday, October 28 to Saturday, November 14, 2015.
Bugsy Malone continues its extended run at the Lyric Hammersmith until September 5, 2015.