Daniel Mays and Daniel Kaluuya will star in leading film director Joe Wright’s theatrical debut at the Donmar Warehouse next year, leading the cast of Arthur Wing Pinero’s classic Trelawny Of The Wells.
Playing from 15 February (press night 26 February) to 13 April, Pinero’s drama tells the story of Rose Trelawny, the brightest star in the firmament of the Wells, the theatre company that raised her from birth. But when she decides to give it all up for the love of her stage-door suitor, her family are shocked to the core by her joyful challenge to their dreary, snobby existence.
Mays will return to the much-lauded Covent Garden venue to play Ferdinand Gadd following his critically acclaimed performance in 2011’s Moonlight. A well-known face on screen, Mays has starred in numerous television series including Mrs Biggs, Public Enemies, Outcasts and Ashes To Ashes, as well as films Made In Dagenham, Vera Drake and Wright’s hugely successful Atonement.
A Royal Court regular, Mays’ appearance in the Victorian play will follow his starring role in E.V. Crowe’s new play Hero at the Sloane Square venue later this month. His Trelawny co-star Kaluuya is also a frequent face at the Royal Court having appeared in Oxford Street and Sucker Punch, the latter earning him the Evening Standard Editor’s Award for his part in the Olivier Award-winning production.
Making his Donmar Warehouse debut, Kaluuya began his career writing and appearing in Channel 4 cult drama Skins. His more recent screen credits include Black Mirror, Psychoville and Doctor Who, while next year will see the young actor on film alongside his forthcoming co-star Mays in British crime drama Welcome To The Punch.
The pair will be joined in the cast by Jamie Beamish (Anna Karenina on screen), Ron Cook (Richard II, King Lear and Hamlet, Donmar Warehouse), Aimeé-Ffion Edwards (The Recruiting Officer, Donmar Warehouse; Jerusalem, Royal Court, in the West End and on Broadway), Susannah Fielding (All New People, West End), Fergal McElherron (The Comedy Of Errors, Shakespeare’s Globe), recent RADA graduate Joshua Silver, Maggie Steed (The Belle’s Stratagem, Southwark Playhouse), Peter Wight (Atonement, Babel, Another Year on screen) and Amy Morgan, who returns to the venue following her appearance in Inadmissible Evidence to play the title role of Rose Trelawny.
Trelawny Of The Wells follows Phyllida Lloyd’s all-female version of Shakespeare’s great political drama Julius Caesar, which opens at the Donmar Warehouse next month.