Nine actors have been named alongside Tamsin Greig in Cranford at the Orange Tree Theatre, where Josh Roche directs a new adaptation of the Elizabeth Gaskell novel from 3 November.
Sara Crowe and Alexandra Gilbreath are among nine actors joining Tamsin Greig in Cranford, the Orange Tree Theatre having confirmed the full company today. Crowe plays Mrs Forester and Gilbreath plays Miss Pole, opposite Greig as Matty Jenkyns, in a run that begins on 3 November 2026.
Abigail Cruttenden, whose stage credits include Handbagged at the Kiln Theatre and The Rivals at Chichester Festival Theatre, doubles as Deborah Jenkyns and Lady Glenmire. Sara Powell plays Mrs Jamieson, and Saffron Dey, part of the company of the RSC production of Hamnet and its international tour, takes Martha and Young Matty.
Jonny Glynn carries five roles — Older Peter, Signor Brunoni, Mr Johnson, Rev Jenkyns and Mulliner — and Michael Lumsden three, as Tom Holbrook, Dr Hoggins and Dobson. Robert Merriam plays Jem Hearn and Young Peter, and Phoebe Pryce plays Eliza Cleghorn.
Three of the company know the Richmond theatre already. Gilbreath appeared there in The Sugar Syndrome, Lumsden in While the Sun Shines and The Philanderer, and Pryce in Much Ado About Nothing, Love’s Labour’s Lost and The False Servant.
The adaptation is by Lin Coghlan and Shaun McKenna, working from the 1853 novel by Elizabeth Gaskell, and is co-created and directed by Josh Roche. The three last collaborated on The Forsyte Saga for the Park Theatre and the RSC. Natalie Johnson designs set and costume, Jamie Platt lights it and Max Pappenheim composes and designs sound, with Jacob Sparrow as casting consultant, Charlotte Rogers as assistant director and Evelien Van Camp as associate costume designer.
Gaskell’s story settles on Matty Jenkyns and the circle of women around her in a small town in the 1840s, where custom and gossip govern almost everything until the outside world arrives and stops being so easy to ignore.
It is a busy stretch for the Orange Tree, which has Murder in the Cathedral in rehearsal for a run at St John the Divine from 12 October, and which recently announced the world premiere of Sapling, winner of the Women’s Prize for Playwriting, for next summer.
Cranford runs at the Orange Tree Theatre, on Clarence Street in Richmond. Previews begin on Tuesday 3 November 2026, press night is on Friday 13 November at 7pm, and the final performance is on Saturday 16 January 2027.
