Full casting announced for THIS IS MY FAMILY

Also announced today is the multi-award-winning creative team joining Vicky Featherstone - Music Supervision: Caroline Humphris; Set Design: Chloe Lamford; Lighting Design: Lee Curran; Sound Design: Dominic Bilkey; Costume Design & Associate Set Design: Ethan Cheek; Music Direction: Natalie Pound; Casting Director: Amy Ball CDG; and Associate Director: Vaila Anderson.

This Is My Family was originally staged at Sheffield Theatres in 2013, winning the UK Theatre Award for Best Musical.

ANTHOLOGY THEATRE PRESENTS

THIS IS MY FAMILY

Book and Music by Tim Firth

Arrangements and Orchestrations by Caroline Humphris

SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE ELEPHANT

Cast: Nancy Allsop (Nicky), Victoria Elliott (Sian), Michael Jibson (Steve), Luke Lambert (Matt),

Gay Soper (May), Gemma Whelan (Yvonne)

Direction: Vicky Featherstone; Music Supervision: Caroline Humphris; Set Design: Chloe Lamford;

Lighting Design: Lee Curran; Sound Design: Dominic Bilkey;

Costume Design & Associate Set Design: Ethan Cheek; Music Direction: Natalie Pound;

Casting Director: Amy Ball CDG; Associate Director: Vaila Anderson

23 May - 12 July 2025

Press night: 28 May 2025 at 7pm

Close family. Dream holiday. Total nightmare.

'Describe your family and win a dream holiday'. That was the competition pinging up on Nicky's phone. So she describes the family she dreams of having, but not the one she's got. The one she fears is falling apart. And then... she wins the holiday. Instead of choosing Rome or Orlando or anywhere else on earth, Nicky takes her family camping. Back to the place her parents went once, when they were her age, a thousand years ago. The place where they first met.

This is My Family, the hilarious and uplifting story of the disastrous family holiday that eventually brings the family together, won the UK Theatre Award for Best Musical in 2013 and is brought to London for the first time by Olivier award winners Tim Firth (Our House) and Vicky Featherstone (Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour).

Nancy Allsop plays Nicky. Her theatre credits include The Hills Of California (Broadhurst Theatre, Broadway and Harold Pinter Theatre), The Fever Syndrome (Hampstead Theatre), God Bless the Child (Royal Court Theatre), Annie (Piccadilly Theatre), and The Sound of Music (international tour); and for television, Young Wallander.

Victoria Elliott plays Sian. Her theatre credits include Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Shakespeare's Globe), The Lost Disc (Soho Theatre), Hedda Gabler, Get Carter, Season Ticket Oh! What a Lovely War, Pub Quiz, The Wind in the Willows (Northern Stage), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Two, As You Like It (Royal Exchange Theatre) and I Can't Sing! (Palladium Theatre), Cooking with Elvis (Hull Truck), and Tyne, 13.1, Jump, Me and Cilla, A Nightingale Sang, and Rhino and the Drum (Live Theatre, Newcastle). Her television credits include Vera, Ted Lasso, Rain Dogs, The Bay, Vic and Bob’s Big Night Out, Boy Meets Girl, The Kennedys, Hebburn, Truckers, and The Ministry of Curious Stuff; and for film, Ammonite.

Michael Jibson plays Steve. His theatre credits include Stranger Things: The First Shadow (Phoenix Theatre), Hamilton - Olivier Award winner for Best Supporting Actor (Victoria Palace Theatre), Roots (Donmar Warehouse), Road Show, Take Flight – WhatsOnStage Award Nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical (Menier Chocolate Factory), Brighton Rock (Almeida Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Timon of Athens (Shakespeare’s Globe), Our House - Olivier and WhatsOnStage Award nominations for Best Actor in a Musical (Cambridge Theatre), The Comedy of Errors (Royal Exchange Theatre), The Canterbury Tales (RSC) and A Chorus Line (Sheffield Theatres). His television credits include Bodies, The Reckoning, The Crown, The Essex Serpent, No Return, Four Lives, Cobra, A Discovery of Witches, Honour, Quiz, Saints and Strangers, DCI Banks, Galavant, That Day We Sang, The Thirteenth Tale, Burton and Taylor, and Hatfields & McCoys. Film work includes Last Night in Soho, To Olivia, 1917, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Hunter Killer, The Lighthouse (co-written and produced), The Riot Club, Good People, Les Misérables, Hammer of the Gods, The Bank Job and Flyboys.

Luke Lambert plays Matt. He recently graduated from Arts Ed. This production marks his professional stage debut.

Gay Soper plays May. This marks her 60^th year working in showbusiness. Her most recent West End credits include The Mousetrap (St Martin’s Theatre), Funny Girl (Savoy, transferred from Menier Chocolate Factory), The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Apollo Theatre / Gielgud Theatre), Sunday in the Park with George (Wyndham’s Theatre). Other West End Credits include Jorrocks (Noël Coward Theatre), The Canterbury Tales (Phoenix Theatre), Godspell (Roundhouse / Wyndham’s Theatre), Billy (Theatre Royal Drury Lane), Side By Side (Wyndham’s Theatre / Garrick Theatre), Good (Aldwych Theatre), Mother Courage and Her Children (National Theatre), The Ratepayers Iolanthe (Phoenix Theatre), Which Witch (Piccadilly Theatre), The Mitford Girls (Gielgud Theatre, transferred from Chichester Festival Theatre), Salad Days (Vaudeville Theatre), Les Misérables (Palace Theatre), Lend Me A Tenor (Gielgud Theatre), and Marguerite (Theatre Royal Haymarket). Other theatre credit include A Little Night Music, The Crucible (Storyhouse, Chester), Pirates of Penzance (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), Saving Grace (Riverside Studios), Crazy for You (Chichester Festival Theatre), Death Takes A Holiday (Charing Cross Theatre), Maurice's Jubilee (UK Tour), The Busy Body (Southwark Playhouse), Star Quality (UK tour), Cabaret (English Theatre Frankfurt), Killing Rasputin (Bridewell), The Rink (Orange Tree Theatre), The Sister Wendy Musical (Hackney Empire Studio), Pippin, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾ (both at Menier Choc Factory), Nude With Violin (Royal Exchange Theatre), Peter Pan (Birmingham Rep), Cole (Leatherhead and Hong Kong), Betjemania (Southwark Cathedral/Shaw theatre/New York), Blithe Spirit (Stockholm), My Fair Lady (Danish Tour and Kilworth House). For television, her work includes Moonflower Murders, Unforgotten, A Christmas Carol: The Musical, Romany Jones, Father Dear Father, Barbara, Bless This House, Rude Health, The Needle Match, The History of Mr Polly, The Ups and Downs of a Handyman, A Christmas Carol, and The Agatha Christie Hour; and for film, Lace and Rupture.

Gemma Whelan plays Yvonne. Her theatre credits include Underdog: The Other Other Brontë (National Theatre), Upstart Crow (Apollo Theatre), Pinter at the Pinter: A Slight Ache (Harold Pinter Theatre), Radiant Vermin (Soho Theatre, Tobacco Factory), As Chastity Butterworth (tour), Dark Vanilla Jungle (Supporting Wall, Pleasance Theatre Edinburgh, Soho Theatre), One Man Two Guvnors (National Theatre and Theatre Royal Haymarket), Chastity Butterworth and the Spanish Hamster (Pleasance Edinburgh), Stephen and the Sexy Patridge (Trafalgar Studios), and Red Death Lates (Punchdrunk). For television, her work includes The Famous Five, Funny Woman, DI Ray, The Tower, Inside No. 9, Killing Eve, White Farm Murders, Gentleman Jack, The End of the F***ing World, The Crown, Decline and Fall, The Moorside, Game of Thrones, Morgana Robinson’s The Agency, Upstart Crow, Uncle, Hetty Feather, Horrible Histories, Comedy Playhouse: Broken Biscuits, Almost Royal, Not Safe for Work, Murder in Successville, The Art of Foley, Asylum, Mapp and Lucia, Live at the Electric, Siblings, Badults, Nick Helm’s Heavy Entertainment, Dr. Brown 4Funnies, The Harry and Paul Show, Threesome, Cardinal Burns, and The Persuasionists; and for film, The Last Disturbance of Madeline Hynde, Emma, Surviving Christmas, Prevenge, Gulliver’s Travels, and The Wolfman.

Tim Firth’s other theatre credits include Now Is Good (Chester Storyhouse, UK Theatre Nomination Best New Musical), Neville’s Island (Nottingham Playhouse and West End, Evening Standard & Olivier nomination, MEN Award), The Safari Party (Stephen Joseph, Scarborough and Hampstead), the musical Our House (West End, Olivier Award Best Musical), The Flint Street Nativity (Liverpool Playhouse) and Sign Of The Times (West End). His play Calendar Girls (Chichester Festival Theatre, West End) broke all British records for a professional and amateur play, was nominated for an Olivier and won the WhatsOnStage Best Comedy Award. Calendar Girls The Musical, co-written with Gary Barlow, opened at Leeds Opera house and transferred to the Phoenix Theatre, winning a WhatsOnStage Award and an Olivier Award nomination, and his musical The Band (Manchester Opera House, West End) won the MEN Best Musical Award. Firth recently collaborated with Gary Barlow on the show A Different Stage (West End). Work for television includes the Playhouse drama Timeless, Money For Nothing (Writer’s Guild Award), Once Upon A Time In The North, Cruise Of The Gods, The Flint Street Nativity, Preston Front (Writer’s Guild Award, British Comedy Award, RTS Award, BAFTA nomination), His children’s comedy series The Rottentrolls won a BAFTA, and was recently voted by Radio Times one of the top fifty children’s shows of all time. His film credits include Blackball, Calendar Girls, Kinky Boots, The Wedding Video and Greatest Days.

Vicky Featherstone directs. She was Artistic Director of Paines Plough 1997-2005; the inaugural Artistic Director of the National Theatre of Scotland 2005-2012, and Artistic Director of the Royal Court (2013–2023). For the Royal Court her work includes Jews. In Their Own Words [co-director], The Glow, Maryland, Living Newspaper, Shoe Lady, On Bear Ridge (and National Theatre Wales) [co-director], Cyprus Avenue (and Abbey, Dublin/MAC, Belfast/Public, NYC), The Cane, Gundog, My Mum’s a Twat, Bad Roads, Victory Condition, X, How to Hold Your Breath, God Bless the Child, Maidan: Voices from the Uprising, The Mistress Contract, The Ritual Slaughter of Gorge Mastromas, Untitled Matriarch Play, and The President Has Come to See You (Open Court Weekly Rep). For National Theatre of Scotland, her work includes Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour (and National Theatre/West End/international tour), Enquirer [co-director], An Appointment with the Wicker Man, 27, The Wheel, Somersaults, Wall of Death: A Way of Life [co-director], The Miracle Man, Empty, Long Gone Lonesome; Cockroach (and Traverse), 365 (and Edinburgh International Festival), Mary Stuart (and Citizens/Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh), The Wolves in the Walls [co-director] (and Tramway/Lyric, Hammersmith/UK tour/New Victory, NYC). For Paines Plough her work includes The Small Things, Pyrenees, On Blindness, The Drowned World, Tiny Dynamite, Crazy Gary’s Mobile Disco, Splendour, Riddance, The Cosmonaut’s Last Message to the Woman He Once Loved in the Former Soviet Union, and Crave. Other theatre includes What if Women Ruled the World? (Manchester International Festival). For television, her work includes Pritilata (from Snatches: Moments from 100 Years of Women’s Lives), Where the Heart Is, and Silent Witness.