CLAIRE CHITHAM LEADS BRILLIANT CAST IN AUCKLAND THEATRE COMPANY’S NELL GWYNN

AWARD-WINNING COMEDY ABOUT THE PRODIGIOUS COMIC AND FOLK HEROINE BRINGS THE RAMBUNCTIOUS ROYAL COURT TO THE ASB WATERFRONT THEATRE

A radiant and rollicking new comedy from award-winning British playwright Jessica Swale is opening at the ASB Waterfront Theatre in August, as part of Auckland Theatre Company’s stellar 2017 mainstage season.

The winner of the 2016 Olivier Award for Best New Comedy, Nell Gwynn will be directed by Artistic Director Colin McColl and performed by a spectacular cast that includes Claire Chitham ( Shortland Street, Outrageous Fortune) in the titular role.

It’s London in 1660. The Puritans and their grey cloud have gone and theatre is all the rage once more.

There's also a new fad; putting a woman, an 'actor-ess', on the ordinarily all-male stage. When The King's Company at Drury Lane casts the pretty, witty orange seller Nell Gwynn as its first leading lady, Charles is immediately smitten. Having captured the heart of her King, the unlikely heroine takes her country by storm and becomes a 17th century media sensation.

Starring alongside Chitham is a lineup of some of the best in the business including, Mark Hadlow (The Hobbit, King Kong, Fagon) Alison Bruce (Sons, Angels in America, The Almighty Johsnons), Andrew Grainger (Billy Elliot the Musical, Lysistrata, Once on Chunuk Bair, Jesus Christ Superstar), Tim Balme (The Almighty Johnsons, Horseplay, Nothing Trivial), Roy Ward (Guys and Dolls, Dirty Laundry, The Brokenwood Mysteries) Hera Dunleavy (To Kill A Mockingbird, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Other Desert Cities) and Byron Coll (Amadeus, Little Shop of Horrors, Ladykillers).

Vida Gibson (Power Rangers, Shabbat Shalom) and Samuel Austin (Mother Courage, Aristarkh) will be making their Auckland Theatre Company debut. 

This will be the twenty-second production on which Colin McColl and costume designer Elizabeth Whiting have worked together, this time recreating the luxurious and titillating lives of Londoners in 1660.

The power duo from Billy Elliot the Musical, musical director John Gibson (Amadeus, Chicago) and choreographer Malia Johnston (Rushes, Meremere), will direct the music and movement.

Jessica Swale's brilliant, bawdy and bodacious new work about theatre's most legendary love affair is a love-letter to theatre itself and a celebration of the cheerful chaos involved in putting on a play.

If you loved the sell-out season of Anne Boleyn, get ready for another riotous night at the theatre.

Nelly Gywn runs 15 - 30 August at the ASB Waterfront Theatre in Wynyard Quarter.

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