Tyler-Jo Richardson, Tom Littler, Corey Montague-Sholay, Clive Francis, Oliver Ford Davies, Patricia Allison, Stefan Bednarczyk, David Suchet, Tom Kanji, Jane Asher, Robert Mountford and Dorothea Myer-Bennett attend the press night after party for "Twelfth Night" at the Orange Tree Theatre on November 29, 2024 in London, England.
(Photo by Matt Keeble/Dave Benett/Getty Images)
William Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" will be running at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond, London, until January 25, 2025.
Book your tickets: https://orangetreetheatre.co.uk/whats-on/twelfth-night-2/
by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
directed by TOM LITTLER
★★★★ “Miraculous lightness…a lesson in comic timing” The Times
★★★★ “Perfectly pitched sad and merry musical mayhem” The Arts Desk
★★★★★ “A truly magical experience… the cast members are outstanding” West End Best Friend
Malvolio runs the Lady Olivia’s house with puritanical zeal. By day, strict order is maintained and repeated advances from Olivia’s many admirers are firmly rebuffed. But after dark, wine flows freely and Olivia’s lady-in-waiting Maria is planning to settle old scores. When a shipwreck washes up two strangers, the scene is set for a comedy of romantic chaos.
Oliver Ford Davies, one of the leading Shakespearean actors of his generation, returns to the OT to play Malvolio, opposite Jane Asher as Maria. Patricia Allison (Sex Education) plays Viola, alongside OT favourites Clive Francis as Toby Belch, Robert Mountford as Andrew Aguecheek, and Dorothea Myer‑Bennett as Olivia.
OT Artistic Director Tom Littler directs a 1940s-set production of Shakespeare’s heartrending and hilarious masterpiece of mistaken identities and secret desires.
by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE directed by TOM LITTLER SAVE WITH A SEASON TICKET: 15% OFF WHEN YOU BOOK FOR 3 SHOWS, 20% OFF WHEN YOU BOOK FOR 4 SHO
Jane Asher in a new play!
Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ‘em.
Malvolio runs the Lady Olivia’s house with puritanical zeal. By day, strict order is maintained and repeated advances from Olivia’s many admirers are firmly rebuffed. But after dark, wine flows freely and Olivia’s lady-in-waiting Maria is planning to settle old scores. When a shipwreck washes up two strangers, the scene is set for a comedy of romantic chaos.
Olivier Award-winning Oliver Ford Davies is among the greatest Shakespearean actors of his generation. He returns to the OT to play Malvolio, alongside Jane Asher playing Maria, last seen at the OT in The Circle.
OT Artistic Director Tom Littler directs a 1940s-set production of Shakespeare’s heartrending and hilarious masterpiece of mistaken identities and secret desires.
“Such truth, and such clarity, that one feels like cheering” Daily Telegraph on Oliver Ford Davies in King Lear
“Tom Littler is the most enterprising Shakespearean director outside the big venues” Guardian on Hamlet
JANE ASHER'S PRODUCTION THE CIRCLE IS TOURING IN THE UK!
Theatre Royal, Bath (10th – 20th January 2024)
Cambridge Arts Theatre (23rd – 27th January 2024)
Chichester Festival Theatre (30th January – 3rd February 2024)
Oxford Playhouse (6th – 10th February 2024)
Festival Theatre, Malvern (13th – 17th February 2024)
Richmond Theatre (20th – 24th February 2024).
Cast
Lady Catherine Champion-Cheney - Jane Asher
Arnold Champion-Cheney - Pete Ashmore
Clive Champion-Cheney - Clive Francis
Lord Porteous - Nicholas Le Prevost
Teddie Luton - Chirag Benedict Lobo
Elizabeth Champion-Cheney - Olivia Vinall
George Murray - Robert Maskell
Director - Tom Littler
Designer - Louie Whitemore
Lighting Designer - Chris McDonnell
Sound Designer - Max Pappenheim
Assistant Director - Sam Woof
Costume Supervisor - Evelien Van Camp
Production LX - Amy Hill
Deputy Stage Manger - Vicky Zenetzi
Assistant Stage Manager - Lily Collins
Somerset Maugham's THE CIRCLE, directed by Tom Littler💍
Jane Asher (Alfie) plays Lady Kitty, a society beauty who notoriously abandoned her stuffy husband Clive (Clive Francis, The Crown), and eloped with the handsome Lord Porteous (Nicholas Le Prevost, Shakespeare in Love).
Thirty years later, love’s young dream has descended into non-stop squabbling…Meanwhile, Clive and Lady Kitty’s son Arnold (Pete Ashmore, The Lovely Bones) faces the same marital fate, as his wife Elizabeth (Olivia Vinall, The Woman in White) threatens to elope with the dashing Teddie Luton (Chirag Benedict Lobo, Life of Pi).
Will history come full circle? Or can one generation learn from their parents’ disastrous mistakes?
Jane Asher first stepped foot onto the Oxford Playhouse stage aged 12 as the lead in Alice - a stage adaption of Lewis Carroll's two most re
70 YEARS AND COUNTING: We talk to Jane Asher about family, longevity and returning to Oxford Playhouse in ‘The Circle’ after her debut aged 12!
By Ox In A Box - 16th January 2024
Jane Asher first stepped foot onto the Oxford Playhouse stage aged 12 as the lead in Alice – a stage adaption of Lewis Carroll‘s two most revered books.
“I remember that even though I was quite young it was really exhausting because of course Alice is on stage the whole time. And while these amazing creatures come and go, I was always there, so it was fun but relentless.
“And yet when I appeared at the Oxford Playhouse‘s 80th celebrations to perform Lewis Carroll‘s Jabberwocky, I remembered it word-for-word from all those years ago. Very strange,” she says.
65 years later, she’s not only back, but has never really gone away, having worked constantly. Remarkably non-plussed about her seven decades in show business, having emerged as a child star aged five in the film 1952’s Mandy, she went from strength to strength, steering her career through films, TV, stage and radio and even a stint as Paul McCartney’s girlfriend.
“I’m just lucky to still have a job”
From cinematic classics such as Alfie with Michael Caine, to The Prince and The Pauper, dramas such as Brideshead Revisited and soaps including Holby City and Waterloo Road, her CV runs on and on, especially her theatrical credits. Oh and she has written three novels.
In fact the only time Jane Asher seems to have reined it in is when she had three children with her husband of 30 years the illustrator Gerald Scarfe, instead finding herself at the forefront of a burgeoning cake empire, of all things.
The fact that she couldn’t be nicer is an extra bonus, as she waxes lyrical about Somerset Maugham’s sparky comedy of manners The Circle, coming to Oxford Playhouse next month (we already have our tickets!). In it she plays Lady Kitty, a society beauty who ran away with her lover 30 years before, finally returning to England to face her family. Cue drama.
“coming from a state school helped keep my feet on the ground because I was ribbed if I ever talked about my acting at school”
It premiered at The Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond last year and did so well that the cast were then asked to tour: “We were all very keen because the audience clearly enjoyed it – it is terribly funny – and we all get on so well. So I thought why not?
“I’ve always been a Somerset Maugham fan and this is a wonderful part to play,” she adds. So does Jane Asher actually like Lady Kitty? “I certainly warmed to her, and felt great sympathy for her predicament, having been totally ostracised for so long. But she is certainly not a frail old lady wearing black and lace, and so the story unravels with quite a twist!
“But then Somerset Maugham was always sympathetic to the plight of women, being terribly unhappily married and a gay man, so The Circle has huge depth. It’s very clever, funny and simple at the same time.”
“my children were always my number one priority”
Now 77, Jane Asher’s energy shows no sign of abating, although she sympathises with Lady Kitty’s struggle with ageing. “We all know how that feels,” she chuckles. “But yes as an actress you sit around and hope people will ask you to do something you like. And now that the children have grown up, I am freer to go on tour or location, so I like a mix of both, but I know I have been extremely lucky.”
“Of course notoriety dips and wanes, and you get older there are less parts, so I just try to enjoy my work. I think coming from a state school helped keep my feet on the ground because I was ribbed if I ever talked about my acting at school, and my parents were very down-to-earth. So there was no pressure. It was all because I wanted to do it,” she says.
“And then when I had the children I fitted things around them, taking them to the studio with me as long as I was back in time to get their tea ready, because they were always my number one priority.”
So does she ever have time to look back over her career? “Oh no, that would be terribly nostalgic but it’s nice when people come up to me and say we saw you in this or that, and I think ‘oh yes I remember’. I’m just lucky to still have a job.”
Jane Asher stars in The Circle at Oxford Playhouse from Tue 6 – Sat 10 Feb. Book here https://www.oxfordplayhouse.com/events/the-circle
