Primeval star and former S Club 7 singer Hannah Spearritt is to make her stage debut in a revival of The Belle’s Stratagem at Southwark Playhouse this autumn.
The Georgian stage hit, which also stars Gina Beck, Jackie Clune and Maggie Steed, is to run at the fringe venue from 6 September until 1 October.
Set at a time when women were considered second class citizens, The Belle’s Stratagem follows a group of wily ladies determined to get their own way.
Spearritt, whose screen work includes Miss Marple and Agent Cody Banks 2, plays Lady Frances, new wife to Sir George Touchwood, who soon becomes the pet project of rambunctious wits Miss Ogle (Clune – Mamma Mia!, Billy Elliot The Musical, Taboo) and Mrs Rackett (Steed – The History Boys on stage, Shine On Harvey Moon, Born And Bred on screen).
Beck, whose West End credits include Les Misérables and The Phantom Of The Opera, plays Letitia Hardy, who sets out to disprove her betrothed’s ideas that English women are dull.
The Belle’s Stratagem is the latest project from the team behind Southwark Playhouse’s hit 2010 revival of The Rivals; production company Red Handed Theatre Company – working with Peter Huntley Productions on The Belle’s Strategem – and director Jessica Swale, whose other credits include Bedlam at Shakespeare’s Globe.
MA