Casting announced for QUIZ

Casting is announced today for James Graham’s ‘sparkling new play’, Quiz, which transfers to the Noël Coward Theatre. Following the success of Ink and Labour of Love, Quiz completes a hat-trick of productions in the West End for Graham in less than a year. Artistic Director of Chichester Festival Theatre, Daniel Evans, directs Keir Charles, Greg Haiste, Mark Meadows, Henry Pettigrew, Gavin Spokes, Stephanie Street, Jay Villiers, Lizzie Winkler and Sarah Woodward who reprise their roles from the run at Chichester Festival Theatre. They are joined by Sharon Ballard.

Also announced today, there will be a limited number of on stage seats across the run. For the previews, these will be priced at just £15.

A provocative re-examination of the case against Charles Ingram, the ‘coughing Major’, for cheating on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Quiz ‘highlights the dangerous blending of entertainment, politics and justice today’ (Sunday Times). Quiz opens on 10 April 2018, with previews from 31 March, and runs for a strictly limited London season until 16 June.

James Graham’s theatre work includes Labour of Love (Noël Coward Theatre), Ink (Almeida Theatre and Duke of York’s Theatre – nominated for Best Play at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards), This House (National Theatre – Olivier Award nomination for Best New Play, and Garrick Theatre – Olivier Award nomination for Best Revival), Monster Raving Loony (Theatre Royal Plymouth and Soho Theatre), The Vote (Donmar Warehouse, broadcast live on More4 on election night and nominated for Best Live Event at the BAFTA TV awards), The Angry Brigade (Theatre Royal Plymouth and Paines Plough), the Broadway musical Finding Neverland, written with Gary Barlow and Eliot Kennedy, Privacy (Donmar Warehouse), The Man (Finborough Theatre and on tour), The Whisky Taster (Bush Theatre) and Tory Boyz (Soho Theatre). As Writer in Residence at the Finborough Theatre his plays include Albert’s Boy, Eden’s Empire and Sons of York. His television writing includes political drama Coalition (Channel 4), Prisoner’s Wives (BBC1) and Caught in a Trap (ITV1). His first feature film X+Y was released in 2015 after being selected at the Toronto International Film Festival and London Film Festival, winner of the Writers’ Guild Award for Best Debut Screenplay. His forthcoming work includes The Culture – A Farce in Two Acts (Hull Truck as part of Hull UK City of Culture 2017), and the film Gypsy Boy.

Sharon Ballard’s theatre work includes Sleeping Beauty (Hackney Empire), All Bob’s Women (Arts Theatre) and Godspell (UK tour). For television, her work includes Good Omens, Trauma, Sherlock and The Royals; and for film, Me Before You.

Keir Charles plays Chris Tarrant. For theatre, his work includes The Lottery of Love (Orange Tree Theatre), A Christmas Carol (Noël Coward Theatre), Arden of Faversham, The Roaring Girl, The White Devil, The Merchant of Venice, The Taming of the Shrew and The Tragedy of Thomas Hobbes (RSC), Mydidae (Trafalgar Studios and Soho Theatre), The Winter’s Tale (Sheffield Theatres) and Incomplete and Random Acts of Kindness (Royal Court Theatre). For television, his work includes The Moorside, HG Wells War With the World, Green Wing, Peep Show and Attachments; and for film, Kursk and Love Actually.

Greg Haiste’stheatre work includes Peter and the Starcatcher (Royal and Derngate), Nell Gwynn (Shakespeare’s Globe and Apollo Theatre), Richard II (Shakespeare’s Globe), The 39 Steps (Criterion Theatre) and Love’s Labour’s Lost (Rose Theatre Kingston). For television, his work includes Home Fires, Touch Me I’m Karen Taylor, Jane Hall and See How They Run; and for film, The Current War, The Time of Their Lives and Starfish.

Mark Meadows’theatre work includes 5/11, King Lear, Six Pictures of Lee Miller (Chichester Festival Theatre, Tartuffe (Tobacco Factory), Flowers for Mrs Harris, High Society (Sheffield Theatres) and Urinetown (St James Theatre and Apollo Theatre). For television, his work includes Kiri; and for film Letters from Baghdad, Nicholas Nickleby and High Heels and Low Lifes.

Henry Pettigrew’s theatre work includes The Effect, Straight (Sheffield Theatres), Pitcairn (Chichester Festival Theatre/ Shakespeare’s Globe/Out of Joint), The Master and Margarita (Complicité), Anna Christie (Donmar Warehouse), Hamlet (Donmar West End), Beautiful Burnout (Frantic Assembly), Black Watch (National Theatre of Scotland) and Troilus and Cressida (RSC). For television, his work includes Death in Paradise, Taboo, The Crown, Shetland, Silent Witness and Line of Duty; and for film The Aftermath and The Danish Girl.

Gavin Spokes plays Charles Ingram. His theatre work includes Against (Almeida Theatre), Carousel (ENO), Guys and Dolls (Phoenix Theatre – Olivier Award nomination), One Man Two Guvnors (National Theatre, West End and UK tour), 1984 (Almeida Theatre, Playhouse Theatre and UK tour) and The Wind in the Willows (Royal and Derngate). For television his work includes Man Down, Will,Utopia and Obsession.

Stephanie Street plays Diana Ingram. Her theatre credits include Behind the Beautiful Forevers, King James Bible: Gospel According to John, Nightwatchmen (National Theatre), Constellations (Singapore Repertory Theatre), Shades (Royal Court Theatre), The Big Fellah, Mixed Up North (Out of Joint) and Sisters which she also wrote (Sheffield Theatres). For television, her work includes Hank Zipzer, Silk, DCI Banks, Hens and Primeval; and for film, Attack the Block.

Jay Villiers’theatre work includes Arcadia, The Admiral Crichton, Mansfield Park (Chichester Festival Theatre), Skylight (Theatr Clwyd), The Winslow Boy (The Old Vic), In Praise of Love (Royal and Derngate), Betrayal (Bristol Old Vic), Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It (Renaissance); and Ting Tang Mine, Fathers and Sons and Six Characters in Search of an Author (National Theatre). For television, his work includes Outlander, New Blood, War and Peace, Mr Selfridge, Extras, The Government inspector, Absolute Power and Lipstick on Your Collar; and for film, Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool, The Last Photograph, Birds Like Us, The Sea, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, The Lady, The International, Before the Rain and Henry V.

Lizzie Winkler’s theatre work includes Hobson’s Choice (Chichester Festival Theatre), The Suicide, Frankenstein, The Power of Yes, The Revenger’s Tragedy, Major Barbara, A Matter of Life and Death, The Man of Mode (National Theatre), Rebecca (Kneehigh), Boeing-Boeing (Sheffield Theatres) and The County Wife (Royal Exchange Manchester). For television, her work includes Upstart Crow; and for film, Stratton, Induction and The Second Hearing.

Sarah Woodward’s work forChichester Festival Theatre includes London Assurance and This House (also West End). Her other theatre work includes Nell Gwynn (Shakespeare’s Globe and Apollo Theatre), Richard II, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Comedy of Errors, Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare’s Globe), The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Gielgud Theatre), Bracken Moor (Tricycle Theatre), Love and Information, Jumpy, Presence, Built on Sand (Royal Court Theatre), The Cherry Orchard, The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other, Present Laughter, Wild Oats, The Sea (National Theatre), Judgement Day, Rape of Lucrece (Almeida Theatre), Rookery Nook (Menier Chocolate Factory), Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Playhouse Theatre), The Real Thing (Donmar Warehouse, West End and Broadway – Tony Award nomination) and Tom and Clem (Aldwych Theatre – Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor). For television, her work includes New Blood, The Politician’s Husband, Hear the Silence, Final Demand and The Two of Us; and for film, Bright Young Things and I Capture the Castle.

Artistic Director of Chichester Festival Theatre Daniel Evans directs. His work for the company includes Forty Years On and Fiddler on the Roof. He was previously Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres, where he directed Flowers for Mrs Harris, Show Boat (also West End), The Effect, Anything Goes (also UK tour), The Sheffield Mysteries, Oliver! (Best Musical Production, WhatsOnStage Awards 2015), This Is My Family (UK Theatre Award for Best Musical Production – also on tour), The Full Monty (UK Theatre Award for Best Touring Production – also national tour and West End), My Fair Lady (Best Musical Production, WhatsOnStage Awards 2014), Macbeth, Othello, Racing Demon as part of The David Hare Season, and An Enemy of the People– the opening production of his inaugural season. He also recently directed American Buffalo in the West End. As an actor, his work for Sheffield Theatres includes Company, The Pride, Cloud Nine and The Tempest. As an award-winning actor, Evans’ work includes Sunday in the Park with George (Menier Chocolate Factory, Wyndham’s Theatre and Broadway) – a role for which he won the Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical (his second Olivier Award, the first being for Merrily We Roll Along in 2001) and a Tony Award nomination. His extensive credits include work with the Donmar Warehouse, RSC, Royal Court Theatre and National Theatre. Evans is a Fellow of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Quiz The Play - tickets