HOMECOMING QUEEN

We would like thank everyone involved with the tour for their excellent work. Alice, Carole, Paul, Alan and Steve all gave consistently high quality performances. Ben Sherratt, our Production Manager, worked tirelessly to re-light the show with invention and flair. And finally, our talented design team, Kerry, Katja and Joe, who provided us with such a detailed and authentic canvas to work with.

We now look forward to 2010, and another challenge, as the play will tour Ireland with a largely new cast before returning to London in March. But the 2009 production of 'Beauty Queen' will live long in the memory for many who saw it, and its cast will be a tough act to follow. 

Posted 2 December 2009

We are delighted to welcome back Steve Dineen into the company to play Pato Dooley for the remainder of the tour. Although he had just two days to learn the part and a few hours rehearsal, Steve made an assured debut on our first night at Oldham Coliseum this Tuesday and we would like to wish him continued success in the role. This unexpected turn of events reunites Steve with Alice Selwyn - the pair played Laurence and Beverly in our 2008 tour of Abigail's Party.  

Posted 30 October 2009

BEAUTY QUEEN CASTING

We are delighted to introduce the cast of our Autumn 2009 tour of The Beauty Queen of Leenane.

Paul Boyle will play Pato Dooley.  Theatre includes: The Shaughraun (National Theatre), Macbeth (Edinburgh Lyceum), The Seagull (Liverpool Playhouse), The Contractor (Birmingham Rep), Tuesday’s Child (Stratford East), The Bear (Wimbledon Theatre & UK Tour), Boots for the Footless (Tricycle), Grace in America (Royal Court), The Wind in the Willows (National Theatre), Waiting for Godot (Hever Lakeside Theatre) and Happy Birthday Dear Alice (Orange Tree, London & Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough).  Film & television: Last Orders Please (Channel 4), Strumpet City (RTE), Just Good Friends (BBC), In the Secret State (BBC), The Bill (Thames), Wild Geese 2, Moonshine and Whiskey and The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne.

Carole Dance will play Mag Folan.  This is Carole’s second tour with LCT.  Last year she played Mercy Lott in our 2008 production of Humble Boy.  Other theatre credits range from Mrs Medlock in The Secret Garden at Polka to the West End, where she worked with Harold Pinter in The Old Masters.  Favourite roles include Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest, Maggie in Outside Edge and Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  She also spent a year in Kenya at the Donovan Maule Theatre, Nairobi playing a wide range of roles.  Television & film: The Bill, The Detective, Strange But True, After You’ve Gone, Casualty and most recently Daisy in Daisy’s Last Stand.

Our 2009 tour of Humble Boy finished on Saturday at the Customs House, South Shields.  The production was on the road for 23 weeks, notching up 110 performances (our second longest tour ever), and despite the adverse financial climate, enjoyed solid success at the box office and a fantastic response from audiences.

The cast were quite simply a delight from start to finish.  Cathie, Jeryl, Martin, Pauline, John, Peter and Carol not only worked incredibly hard, but kept the show fresh and clear throughout its run.  Ben and Kris, our tireless stage managers, must have lost count of the times they built Jeremy Daker's complex, exquisite Humble garden, only to take it apart, then build it once more on another stage. Good humour and dedication are welcome ingredients of any long tour, and this very special company displayed both from beginning to end.

We are very pleased to welcome Jeryl Burgess to the 2009 cast of Humble Boy. Jeryl will be taking over the part of Mercy Lott until the end of the tour.