Alun Armstrong and Marlene Sidaway will star in Richard Bean’s new comedy To Have and To Hold.
Running at Hampstead Theatre from 20 October New Tricks actor Armstrong and Sidaway – known for BBC series Mum – will play an ageing married couple exasperated by their well-meaning but interferring children, played by Christopher Fulford (Screw, Channel 4) and Hermione Gulliford (The Southbury Child, Bridge Theatre).
Rounding out the cast are Rachel Dale (The Hypocrite, RSC; The Bay, ITV) and Adrian Hood (Harvest, Royal Court; The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, West End).
Directed by Richard Wilson, To Have and To Hold tackles the prickly problem of dealing with ageing parents who just don’t want to be dealt with.
“He talks about going to Switzerland, to that place where you pay them to kill you… And I say “go! It’ll do you good. Broaden your horizons…you’ve never been abroad!”
After sixty years of marriage, happily settled into their retirement village in Yorkshire, Jack and Florence have elevated bickering almost to the status of high art. That said, they’re otherwise getting along fine with the support of a cousin and the hilarious interventions of the man known locally as ‘Rhubarb Eddie’. But will their anxious son, shuttling between London and LA, and their errant daughter, who’s contemplating a move to Australia, leave them to live out their days in peace?
Writer of the international smash-hit comedy One Man, Two Guvnors, Richard Bean returns to Hampstead after successes with Kiss Me and In the Club. His other work includes Jack Absolute Flies Again (National Theatre), Young Marx (Bridge) and Made in Dagenham, The Musical (Adelphi).
Director Richard Wilson also returns to Hampstead after the success of his production of Peggy For You starring Tamsin Greig. He is reunited with Bean whose plays Toast, Under the Whaleback (both Royal Court) and The Nap (Sheffield Crucible) he also directed.
The production will be designed by James Cotterill with lighting by Bethany Gupwell and sound by John Leonard. The casting director is Robert Sterne CDG and Assistant Director is Jos Vantyler.
To Have and To Hold runs from 20 October 2023 until 25 November 2023 at Hamptead Theatre London.
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