Full casting has been announced for the Lyric Hammersmith’s forthcoming stage adaptation of Tipping The Velvet, which will star the previously announced Sally Messham and Laura Rogers.
The much-anticipated theatrical take on Sarah Waters’ hugely popular novel about two Victorian women who meet and fall in love against a backdrop of music hall life will play at the Hammersmith venue from 18 September to 24 October.
Joining Messham and Rogers are a quartet of actors who all return to the Lyric Hammersmith to play principal characters, Jared Ashe, David Cardy, Addelle Leonce and Andy Rush.
Ashe and Rush have both appeared in one of the theatre’s renowned festive family offerings; Ashe in Raymond Briggs’ Father Christmas and Rush (Jumpers For Goalposts, Bush Theatre) in Dick Whittington And His Cat. Leonce was a member of the Lyric Hammersmith’s Secret Theatre Company, while Cardy, who is arguably best known for his role in television classic Birds Of A Feather, starred in the venue’s colossally successful Ghost Stories and returns to the theatre following West End roles in Made In Dagenham and Dreamboats And Petticoats.
Tipping The Velvet’s cast is completed by a number of Lyric Hammersmith debuts, including theatre regulars Kirsty Besterman (The School For Scandal, Park Theatre), Amanda Hadingue (Small Family Business, National Theatre) and Sarah Vezmar (Refugee Boy, UK tour).
Making their professional stage debuts are recent graduate Ru Hamilton and Lyric Young Company members Tamara Camacho, Grace Frogley, Georgie Lord and Aasiya Shah.
Adding to the anticipation around the production, Tipping The Velvet reunites the creative team behind the Royal Court’s hugely successful Oxford University-set drama Posh, playwright Laura Wade and director Lyndsey Turner.