Amanda Drew, Toby Jones and Andrew Lincoln have been cast in Jez Butterworth’s Parlour Song, which plays at the Almeida theatre from 19 March.
In Parlour Song, Drew and Jones play married couple Joy and Ned, who live in a house that adjoins that of neighbour Dale (Lincoln) and 78 other houses just like theirs. Butterworth’s comedy explores what happens when two ordinary people discover they hate who they have become, in a world where all is not what it seems.
Drew has been a frequent face on the London stage of late. In November she starred with Con O’Neill in Leo Butler’s two-hander Faces In The Crowd at the Royal Court and before that appeared there in The Ugly One. She was last at the Almeida in Enemies in 2006 and A Chain Play earlier this year, and has numerous other London stage credits including Otherwise Engaged at the Criterion theatre and Blithe Spirit at the Savoy theatre. She is also well known on television for playing Dr May Wright in EastEnders.
Jones was last on stage at the Almeida in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and won a Laurence Olivier Award in 2002 for his role in The Play What I Wrote in the West End. His screen work includes the films Infamous, Amazing Grace, W and Frost/Nixon. Before playing Ned in Parlour Song, Jones will appear in Tom Stoppard and André Previn’s Every Good Boy Deserves Favour at the National Theatre in January.
Lincoln made his name on television in the series This Life and Teachers, and went on to collect big screen credits in Human Traffic and Love Actually. On stage, he appeared in The Late Henry Moss at the Almeida in 2006 and Free and Blue/Orange at the National Theatre.
Former Royal Court Artistic Director Ian Rickson directs the trio in this new play by Butterworth, whose previous plays include The Winterling, The Night Heron and Mojo.
Parlour Song is preceded in next year’s Almeida season by Tom Kempinski’s Duet For One, starring Henry Goodman and Juliet Stevenson, which runs from 22 January to 14 March. Currently playing at the Almeida is Neil LaBute’s In A Dark Dark House, which ends on 17 January.
Also appearing at the Almeida for one night only on 8 February are Eileen Atkins, Nigel Lindsay, David Morrissey, Bill Paterson, Clive Rowe and Goodman, who will take to the stage for a Cabaret Gala to raise funds for the Almeida. Imelda Staunton hosts the event.
CB