Full cast announced for THE SWEET SCIENCE OF BRUISING

Kirsty Patrick Ward directs Owen Brenman (Professor Charlie Sharp), Celeste Dodwell (Violet Hunter), Jane How (Aunt George), Tom Lorcan (Paul Stokes), Emma McDonald(Anna Lamb) and Wilf Scolding (Gabriel Lamb) alongside returning cast, Ashley Cook (Doctor James Bell), Alice Kerrigan (Emily), Jessica Regan (Matilda ‘Matty’ Blackwell)and Fiona Skinner (Polly Stokes). The production opens at Wilton’s Music Hall on 7 June, with previews from 5 June, and runs until 29 June.

“When that bell rings, your life is entirely in your hands.”

1869. Deep in the heart of Victorian London is a theatre where only the strongest survive. Controlled by men and constrained by corsets, four very different women are drawn into the dark underground world of female boxing; each finds an unexpected freedom in the ring. As their lives begin to intertwine their journey takes us from grand drawing rooms to rowdy backstreet pubs where the women fight inequality as well as each other. But with the final showdown approaching, only one can become the Lady Boxing Champion of the World...

Fresh from a sold-out run at Southwark Playhouse, Joy Wilkinson (current writer for Doctor Who) brings to life this little-known but important part of the City’s history. Featuring an ensemble cast and thrilling live boxing matches, The Sweet Science of Bruising is staged in the electrifying atmosphere of the world’s oldest grand music hall located in London’s East End, Wilton’s Music Hall.

Joy Wilkinson is an award-winning writer working across theatre, film, television and radio. Her stage plays have been widely produced in the UK and internationally, and she has won prizes including Soho Theatre’s Verity Bargate Award and the International Student Playscript Competition. Her plays include Fair (Finborough Theatre/Trafalgar Studios/UK tour), Now is the Time (part of the Tricycle Theatre’s Olivier Award-nominated ‘Afghanistan’ season which toured the USA and was revived in 2017 by Teatro Elfo Puccini, Milan), Acting Leader (‘Women Power and Politics’ season, Tricycle Theatre) and Britain’s Best Recruiting Sergeant (Unicorn Theatre). She has been awarded two attachments at the National Theatre Studio and is published by Oberon Books and Nick Hern Books. For television, Wilkinson was a graduate of the first BBC Drama Writers Academy, and her screen credits include writing on the most recent series of Doctor Who, as well as Casualty, Holby City, Doctors and Land Girls. In addition, she wrote Nick Nickleby, a critically-acclaimed five-part modernisation of Nicholas Nicklebyfor BBC1. Wilkinson’s extensive work for BBC Radio 4 includes numerous adaptations and original plays.

Owen Brenman plays Professor Charlie Sharp. His theatre credits include Whipping It Up, Butterflies are Free (UK tours), The Pocket Dream (York Theatre Royal), Dead Funny, The Winslow Boy, The Trial of Lady Chatterley, The Comedy of Errors (Nottingham Playhouse), Ugly Rumours (Tricycle Theatre), Good Copy (West Yorkshire Playhouse), The Ghost Train (Lyric Hammersmith), An Evening with Gary Lineker (Duchess Theatre), Shakespeare / Shaw (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre) and Simple Simon (Stephen Joseph Theatre). His television credits include as series regular Dr. Heston Carter in Doctors, Love Soup, Oscar Charlie, Fat Friends, One Foot in the Grave, People Like Us, Drop the Dead Donkey, In Exile, Underworld,Sharpe’s Waterloo, Dangerfield, Mr. Bean, Perfect Scoundrels, Alexei Sayle’s Stuff, The Upper Hand, Dunrulin, Birds of a Feather and Jeeves and Wooster; and for film, One of the Hollywood Ten and The Martins.

Ashley Cook returns to play Doctor James Bell. His theatre credits include The Cardinal (Southwark Playhouse), Flowering Cherry, F***ing Men (Finborough Theatre), Absent Friends, The Importance of Being Earnest (UK tours), The White Carnation (Finborough Theatre/Jermyn Street Theatre), The Art of Concealment, How to Cook a Country (Riverside Studios), The Mousetrap (St. Martin’s Theatre), A Doll’s House, The Importance of Being Earnest (New Theatre Royal Lincoln), The Bootmaker’s Daughter (Brighton Festival), Stonewall (Edinburgh Festival Fringe/The Drill Hall), Romeo and Juliet (Derby Playhouse), Love and Understanding (Battersea Arts Centre) and King Lear (The Old Vic/UK tour). His television credits include Patrick Hamilton: Words, Whisky and Women; and for film, Llar and A Mind of Her Own.

Celeste Dodwell plays Violet Hunter. Her theatre credits include An Octoroon (Orange Tree Theatre/National Theatre), Hay Fever (Theatre Royal Bath/Australian tour/Duke of York’s Theatre), Testament, People Who Need People (The Vaults), In Other Words (The Hope Theatre), As You Like It (Cleveland Street Theatre, Sydney), Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (Belvoir Street Theatre, Sydney), Three Sisters (ATYP Studio, Sydney) and The Crucible (Sydney Theatre Company). Her television credits include Endeavour, Urban Myths, Call the Midwife, The Musketeers, Home and Away and Double Trouble; and for film, Allied and Careless Love.

Jane How plays Aunt George. Her theatre credits include Her Naked Skin, Separate Tables (Salisbury Playhouse), Half a Sixpence (Chichester Festival Theatre/Noël Coward Theatre), Fatal Attraction (Theatre Royal Haymarket), The Ring of Truth (Orange Tree Theatre), Home and Beauty (Lyric Theatre), High Society, Hay Fever, California Suite (Sheffield Theatres), The Breadwinner, Gaslight (UK tours), Getting Married, Cavalcade, Oh Kay (Chichester Festival Theatre), Don’t Dress for Dinner (Apollo Theatre), Easy Virtue (Garrick Theatre), The Return of A. J. Raffles (RSC) and Top People (Ambassadors Theatre). Her television credits include as series regular Jan Hammond in EastEnders, X Company, Starlings, Love & Marriage,Compulsion, Don’t Wait Up, A.D., The Spoils of War, The Foundation, Doctor Who and A Little Princess; and for film, Mr Jones, Je suis daddy, Mother’s Milk, 1st Night, Beyond the Pole, Miss Potter, Rabbit Fever, The Best Man, A Good Woman and AKA.

Alice Kerrigan returns toplay Emily. Her theatre credits include Boomerang (White Bear Theatre/King’s Head Theatre), Jumping the Shark (White Bear Theatre), The Forest (Arcola Theatre) and Julius Caesar (Bristol Old Vic); and for television, Vanity Fair.

Tom Lorcan plays Paul Stokes. His theatre credits include Beryl (East Riding Theatre), Romeo and Juliet, Richard III (Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre), Julius Caesar, Dido Queen of Carthage, Titus Andronicus (RSC), The Damned United (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Oh What a Lovely War (Theatre Royal Stratford East), One Man, Two Guvnors (Theatre Royal Haymarket), Peter and Andy (Theatre503), Billy Elliot (Victoria Palace Theatre), Jersey Boys (Prince Edward Theatre), Fiddler on the Roof (Savoy Theatre) and Blood Brothers (UK tour). His television credits include Bliss, Drifters, Suspicion, War & Peace, Waterloo Road, Day of the Match Aka Halftime and Dalziel and Pascoe; and for film, Between Two Worlds, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Little Pieces and The Days Inbetween.

Emma McDonald plays Anna Lamb. Her theatre credits include Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Picture of Dorian Gray (The Watermill Theatre), Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet (The Watermill Theatre/European tours), Much Ado About Nothing (Iris Theatre) and Pride and Prejudice (Sheffield Theatres).

Jessica Regan returns to play Matilda ‘Matty’ Blackwell. Her theatre credits include Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Bristol Old Vic/Wyndham’s Theatre/Brooklyn Academy of Music/Wallis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts), Henry V (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), Liolà, The Cherry Orchard, The Kitchen, Blood and Gifts (National Theatre), Coalition (Pleasance, London/Edinburgh Festival Fringe), All That Fall (Jermyn Street Theatre/59E59 Theaters), Stars in the Morning Sky (Belgrade Theatre), The Flags (Liverpool’s Royal Court), and The Yellow Wallpaper, Striking Distance (Granary Theatre). Her television credits include as series regular Dr. Niamh Donoghue in Doctors, Nowhere Fast, Halloween Comedy Shorts: It Should Have Been Me, Ill Behaviour, Execution, No Signal and Ladies and Gentlemen.

Wilf Scolding plays Gabriel Lamb. His theatre credits include The Madness of George III (Nottingham Playhouse), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Theatre Royal Bath), The Glass Menagerie (Nuffield Southampton Theatres), The Win Bin (Old Red Lion Theatre), Arcadia (UK tour) and Strange Interlude (National Theatre). His television credits include Mrs Wilson, Game of Thrones, Six Wives with Lucy Worsley, The Passing Bells, Borgia and Skins; and for film, Bees Make Honey; and for radio, as series regular Christopher Carter in The Archers.

Fiona Skinner returns to play Polly Stokes. Her theatre credits include The Dark Room, My Imaginary Friend Patrick Stewart (Theatre503), The Full Monty (UK tour), Our Ajax (Southwark Playhouse), Old Vic New Voices: The 24 Hour Plays (The Old Vic), Brave New Worlds (Soho Theatre), ‘Ave It (The Old Vic Tunnels) and People Like Us (Vineyard Theatre, New York). Her television credits include Endeavour, Taboo and Our Girl; and for film, Official Secrets and A Royal Night Out.

Kirsty Patrick Ward directs. Her theatre credits include the forthcoming production of Groan Ups (Vaudeville Theatre), Exactly Like You (VAULT Festival Spirit Award at Edinburgh Festival Fringe/The Vaults), Chef (Scotsman Fringe First Award at Edinburgh Festival Fringe/Soho Theatre), I’m Not That Kind of Guy (The Vaults and Paines Plough), Mary Louise (The Vaults),Evita (MT4Uth, Belfast), People Like Us (Pleasance, London), Snow White (UK tour for The Old Vic), A Writer’s Response to ‘Chavs’ by Owen Jones (Lyric Hammersmith), Present Tense (Live Theatre), Brave New Worlds (Soho Theatre), Life Support (York Theatre Royal) and Old Vic New Voices: The 24 Hour Plays (The Old Vic). Work as Associate Director includes The Comedy About A Bank Robbery (Criterion Theatre/UK tour), Brideshead Revisited (York Theatre Royal/UK tour) and Young Pretender (Edinburgh Festival Fringe/UK tour). Work as Assistant Director includes Othello and King Lear (Shakespeare’s Globe), Our New Girl (Bush Theatre) and Bunny which won a Scotsman Fringe First Award (nabokov/Edinburgh Festival Fringe/UK tour).