Production photos released for Present Laughter, with Tracy-Ann Oberman as Geri Essendine

Production photographs are out for Present Laughter, which opened at Theatre Royal Bath this week and runs there until Saturday 5 September before touring to eight more venues. Press night is on Wednesday 2 September. The pictures are by Simon Annand.

The production’s hook is in the casting. Tracy-Ann Oberman plays Geri Essendine — the part Coward wrote for himself as Garry Essendine, and the first time it has been taken by a female lead. Oberman has also reimagined the text, which makes this her second run at a canonical male role after her Shylock in The Merchant of Venice 1936.

James Dreyfus, an Olivier winner for Lady in the Dark at the National Theatre, plays Monty. Adrian Lukis plays Len. The company also includes Richenda Carey as Lady Saltburn, Seb Carrington as David Stillington, Eva Feiler as Rosina Maule, Gabriella Foley as Miss Erikson, Charlotte Randle as Henrietta, Jonathan Tafler as Morris, Perry Williams as Fred and Kit Young as Johannes.

Geri is a hugely successful actress who has been 39 for the best part of a decade, adored by fans and surrounded by hangers-on. About to leave for a tour of Africa, she finds herself besieged by would-be lovers, a long-suffering secretary, an estranged husband and an obsessed young playwright — and the comedy is in whether she wants to escape any of it.

Lindsay Posner directs, following Noises Off, A View From the Bridge and The Deep Blue Sea in the West End. He is joined by set and costume designer Peter McKintosh, lighting designer Richard Howell, composer and sound designer Adam Cork and casting director Ginny Schiller CDG. The production is by Theatre Royal Bath Productions and Augusta Productions.

We published the first look at Oberman in rehearsal earlier this month.

The tour dates are: