Full Casting Announced for PRESSURE
by Best of Theatre Staff on Tuesday 29 May 2018, 3:13 pm in Cast Changes and Announcements
Alongside the previously announced David Haig, who is reprising his critically acclaimed role as Group Captain James Stagg, Malcolm Sinclair as General Eisenhower and Lauren Rogers as Kay Summersby, Andrew MacBean, Bert Seymour, David Killick, Mark Jax, Mark Kitto, Molly Roberts, Philip Cairns, Robert Heard and William Mannering complete the cast of Pressure, ahead of its West End transfer to the Ambassadors Theatre on 6 June.
Based on the remarkable true story of two warring Allied meteorologists tasked with predicting the weather conditions for the D-Day landings, David Haig’s acclaimed play Pressure will transfer to the West End for a limited season from 6 June to 1 September 2018. The transfer follows a celebrated run at Chichester Festival Theatre (5 stars from the Daily Telegraph, Observer & Evening Standard), a national tour (in association with Cambridge Arts Theatre and Touring Consortium Company) and a sold out run at the Park Theatre.
Pressure is directed by John Dove, with design by Colin Richmond, lighting by Tim Mitchell, sound by Philip Pinsky, video by Andrzej Goulding and casting by Lisa Makin.
72 hours prior to the D Day landings, Scottish meteorologist, Group Captain James Stagg, advises General Eisenhower on the weather conditions likely to prevail when 350,000 troops are to be sent across the Channel in Operation Overlord. With Stagg predicting severe storms and Irving P. Krick – Hollywood’s meteorological movie consultant – predicting beautiful weather, the future of Britain, Europe and the United States rests on one single forecast.
Pressure was originally commissioned by the Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh as a co-production with Chichester Festival Theatre. The production premiered at the Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh in 2014, followed by a run at Chichester Festival Theatre.
Pressure, at the Ambassadors Theatre, is produced by Cambridge Arts Theatre, Jenny King, Jonathan Church Productions and Oliver Mackwood Productions.
David Haig (Group Captain James Stagg) is a five-time nominee and Olivier Award-winning actor best known for his roles in the film Four Weddings and a Funeral, TV series The Thin Blue Line and stage production of The Madness of King George III (UK Tour and West End). He is also an award-winning playwright. He wrote and starred alongside Daniel Radcliffe in My Boy Jack – which was made into a TV drama for ITV in 2007.
Malcolm Sinclair (General Eisenhower) has performed extensively in leading roles with theatre companies such as the National Theatre and the RSC. He has performed widely, both in Britain and internationally. In 2001 he won the Clarence Derwent Award for his role as Gavin Ryng-Maine in the National Theatre’s production of House/Garden and was also nominated for an Olivier Award for best supporting actor for his performance as Major Miles Flack in Privates on Parade.
Laura Rogers’ (Kay Summersby) stage credits include: An Ideal Husband; Masterpieces (Royal Court), Blue Remembered Hills (Chichester Festival Theatre); The Comedy of Errors (USA Tour and Shakespeare’s Globe); The 39 Steps (Criterion Theatre); Hay Fever (Chichester Festival Theatre); Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Taming of the Shrew and Richard III (Shakespeare’s Globe); and Bad Girls – The Musical (Garrick Theatre and West Yorkshire Playhouse). Laura’s screen credits include: EastEnders; New Tricks; Dates; Twelfth Night; Doctor Who; and Bad Girls.
Andrew MacBean’s (Air Chief Marshall Sir Leigh Mallory) stage credits include: Amadeus and Twelfth Night (National Theatre); Titus Andronicus, Richard III and Measure For Measure (RSC); She Stoops To Conquer (Theatre Royal Bath); Vanity Fair (Middle Temple Hall); Twelfth Night and Much Ado About Nothing (Reading Between The Lines); Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare In The Squares); Hedda Gabler (Old Vic Theatre); Richard III (Tobacco Factory, Bristol); Rough Crossing (Vienna’s English Theatre); The Trap (Clapham Omnibus); The Little Prince (The Bike Shed, Exeter); Killer Joe (Bristol Old Vic); Mother Goose (Northcott Theatre); Twelfth Night, King Lear and The Taming Of The Shrew (Creation); The Picture Of Dorian Gray (European Tour); The Lady’s Not For Burning and Out Of Bounds (Finborough Theatre); 1:36:2600 (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); A Christmas Carol (Trafalgar Studios); and Macbeth (UK Tour). Andrew’s screen credits include: Abba; Post Code; EastEnders; Keith Lemon’s Fit; Whistleblower; Torchwood; Mrs David; The Great Escape; The Wrong Sea; Double Top; Dead Cat; Poirot: Evil Under the Sun; and The Keith Lemon Film.
Bert Seymour (Andrew) will be making his professional stage debut in Pressure (Ambassadors Theatre) after having recently graduated from LAMDA. Bert’s screen credits include: Endeavour (ITV1).
David Killick’s (Admiral Bertram Ramsay) stage credits include: A Room With a View (Theatre Royal Bath/ UK Tour); The Importance of Being Ernest (UK Tour/Vaudeville Theatre); The Crucible (West Yorkshire Playhouse); A Little Hotel On The Side (Theatre Royal Bath); The Captain of Köpenick (National Theatre); The School for Scandal (Theatre Royal Bath); The King’s Speech (Wyndham’s Theatre); The King’s Speech (Yvonne Arnaud Theatre/ UK Tour); Measure for Measure (Almeida Theatre); Restoration (Salisbury Playhouse); Funny Girl (Chichester Festival Theatre); Heartbreak House (Watford Palace); Scenes From an Execution (Hackney Empire); Summer and Smoke (Nottingham Playhouse/Apollo Theatre); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (RSC/ City of London Sinfonia); The Hypochondriac (Almeida Theatre); As You Like It (Wyndham’s Theatre); His Dark Materials (National Theatre); The Master and Margarita (Chichester Festival Theatre); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Chichester Festival Theatre); The Madness of George III (West Yorkshire Playhouse/Birmingham Rep); Coriolanus and The Merry Wives of Windsor (RSC, UK Tour and Old Vic Theatre); The Wind in the Willows (Birmingham Rep); A Servant to Two Masters (RSC/ATG); Richard II, Measure for Measure, Coriolanus, Peer Gynt, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Edward II, The Comedy Of Errors, Don Juan and Henry IV parts one and two (RSC, Stratford/ Barbican); Charley’s Aunt (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield); Richard III (RSC/ UK Tour/Savoy Theatre); Neverland (Royal Court Upstairs); The Country Wife (Centreline Productions); Hedda Gabler (ETT); Going Concern (Hampstead Theatre); Translations (Donmar Warehouse); Life Is a Dream (West Yorkshire Playhouse); A Woman of No Importance (RSC, Barbican Theatre); Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh); and Sarcophagus, Macbeth, Worlds Apart, Art of Success, Waste, The Devils, A New Way to Pay Old Debts, Julius Caesar and The Love Girl And The Innocent (all at RSC, Stratford and Barbican). David’s screen credits include: Without Motive; Midsomer Murders; Shelley; Rough Justice; The Bill; True Tilda; The Famous Five; Moving Story; A Touch of Frost; Not Even God Is Wise Enough; Lovejoy; The History Boys; Mojo; The Grotesque; and Bye Bye Baby.
Mark Jax’s (Commander Franklin) stage credits include: Faithful Russian – The Story of a Guard Dog (Belgrade/Citizens); Richard III, The Lower Depths and Platanov/Sons Without Fathers (Arcola Theatre); Much Ado About Nothing (Queens Theatre Hornchurch); Romeo and Juliet (Home); As You Like It (Transport); A Soldier in Every Son, King John and Richard III (RSC); Three Musketeers (ETT/Traverse); Fast Labour (Hampstead Theatre); Rough Crossings (Headlong); Jamaica Inn, Barbarians and The Norman Conquests (Salisbury Playhouse); Macbeth, Way of the World, The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall and Atheists Tragedy (Birmingham Rep); Romeo and Juliet (Sheffield Crucible); Mansfield Park (Chichester Festival Theatre); A Chorus of Disapproval (Stephen Joseph); and The Futurists, Pravda and The Government Inspector (National Theatre). Mark’s screen credits include: The Road To 1984; The Most Dangerous Man in the World; Marco Polo; Merlin; Mary Mother of Jesus; In the Beginning; The Prime Minister; Desi Boyz; Frankenstein; The Vice; The Two of Us; and Stealing Heaven.
Mark Kitto’s stage credits include: Soldier On (UK Tour and The Playground Theatre) and while in China, Mark acted with the Shanghai People’s Arts Theatre.
Molly Roberts’ (Secretary) stage credits include: Anna Of The Five Towns and The Snow Queen (New Vic Theatre); This Must Be The Place (Latitude Festival/Vault Festival); Jumping Puddles (Frantic Assembly/Open Clasp UK tour); Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing and Twelfth Night (Hotspur Theatre); Twelfth Night (Oxford Shakespeare Company); Apathy (Theatre Uncut/Old Red Lion); Free Fall (Pleasance, Off-West End Award nominated Best Female); Life On A Plum (Wilderness Festival); The Allotment (Live Theatre); Our Father and FlickBook (Theatre503); Burn: Fahrenheit 451 (ELAN Frantoio, Italy); Dracula (Broadway Theatre); and Shakers (Yvonne Arnaud). Molly was nominated for Best Female Performance at the 2014 Off-West End Theatre Awards for her role in Free Fall by Vinay Patel and was recently one of The Old Vic 12 at The Old Vic Theatre.Molly’s screen credits include: Inspector George Gently; Tony Robinson’s Gods and Monsters; and Flat 32.
Philip Cairns’ (Colonel Irving P. Krick) stage credits includes: Two Way Mirror (Theatre by the Lake); Vilette (West Yorkshire Playhouse); The Crucible (Royal Lyceum Theatre); View From The Bridge (English Touring Consortium); Sophocles 497/496 BC (Robin Linde Productions); Kill Johnny Glendenning (Citizens Theatre and Lyceum Theatre); Dial M For Murder (Fiery Angel); Home Theatre UK (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Duchess Of Malfi (Southwark Playhouse); Tis Pity She’s A Whore (Cheek By Jowl); The Bacchae and Blood Wedding (Royal & Derngate); Macbeth (Cheek By Jowl); Othello (Citizens Theatre); and The PearlFisher (Traverse Theatre).
Robert Heard’s (Hamilton) stage credits include: Eternal Love, Blue Stockings and The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare's Globe); The Famous Five (Gobbledigook); A Midsummer Nights Dream and The Merchant of Venice (Action To The Word); The Woman In The Moon (The Dolphin's Back) and The Two Noble Kinsmen (Just Enough). Robert’s screen credits include: The Royals.
William Mannering’s (Lieutenant Battersby) stage credits include: As You Like It, Doctor Scroggy’s War, Julius Caesar, The Tempest, Gabriel, The God of Soho, Dr Faustus, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Love’s Labour’s Lost, In Extremis, Antony and Cleopatra, We the People, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Winter’s Tale (RSC); The Picture (Salisbury Playhouse); Rookery Nook and The Inland Sea (Oxford Stage Company); Summer Lightning (Theatre Royal, Northampton); Present Laughter (Theatre Royal Bath); Stephen’s Last Night In Town (Jacobs Well Productions); Vincent River (Hampstead Theatre); The Divine Right (Birmingham Rep); The Merchant Of Venice (Birmingham Rep/National Tour); and The Winslow Boy (Gielgud Theatre). William’s screen credits include: Master and Commander, Breaking the Code, Jackpot, Poldark, Casualty, The Jury II, Tchaikovsky, Trial and Retribution, Holby City, The Infinite Worlds of HG Wells, Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Heartbeat, The Coral Island, Medics, Unfinished Business (series 1 and 2), Wuthering Heights, Casualty, Dalziel and Pascoe, Black Hearts in Battersea, Cadfael, The Old Curiosity Shop and Sharpe’s Company.