FULL PARADISE CAST ANNOUNCED

• Full casting is announced for the world premiere of Dusty Hughes’ Paradise at Hampstead Downstairs. The cast will include Geoffrey Freshwater, Rebekah Hinds, Sara Kestelman and Claire Lams.

HAMPSTEAD DOWNSTAIRS/CELIA ATKIN PRESENT

PARADISE

By Dusty Hughes
Directed by Alice Hamilton

7 December – 19 January

Press Night Monday 7 January 7.45pm

‘Live every day like your last, and garden as if you’re going to live forever’

Hampstead Theatre presents the world premiere of Dusty Hughes’ new comedy Paradise, which looks at the cost of growing old and the joys of ageing disgracefully.

Elite Homes: offering the Platinum Package in luxury retirement living. Old friends Amanda Goose and Roddy Meakin are enjoying their twilight years on their own terms – outrageous pranks and clandestine gins in the garden, adult magazines at the dinner table and a healthy disregard for the other residents. All is idyllic – until, that is, new management is brought in to restore order…

Geoffrey Freshwater plays Meakin. His theatre work includes Ink (Almeida/Duke of York’s). Work for the RSC includes Volpone; The Jew of Malta; The Witch of Edmonton; As You Like It (also Lincoln Center, New York); King Lear; As You Like It; Henry IV Part II; Henry V; Henry VI Part I & Part II; Richard III; Sejanus: His Fall; Eastward Ho!; The Malcontent; King John; The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; The Winter's Tale and Cyrano De Bergerac. Other theatre work includes Noises Off (Old Vic/UK tour); Old Money (Hampstead Theatre); The Tempest (Theatre Royal Bath); Filumena (Almeida); The Taming of the Shrew (Theatre Royal, Plymouth); Toad of Toad Hall (Birmingham Rep); The Real Inspector Hound (Warehouse Productions) and The Alchemist (National Theatre). Film work includes The Program; Invisible Woman; Sabotage and A Bridge Too Far. Television work includes Will; Doctors; Law & Order; The Bill; The Government Inspector; David Kelly; Foyle’s War (several episodes); Midsomer Murders; EastEnders and Poirot.

Rebekah Hinds plays Sam. Her theatre work includes Much Ado About Nothing (Watford Palace); Grotty (The Bunker); Humble Boy (Orange Tree); Anita and Me (Birmingham Rep/UK tour); The Government Inspector (Birmingham Rep/UK tour); Billy Liar (Manchester Royal Exchange); Around the World (Mint Theatre, New York); The Little Prince - Concert (Savoy Theatre) and Sondheim Prom (Royal Albert Hall). Film work includes Woman of the Night; Oui, Oui, Oui and The Public Benefits. Television work includes Trollied; Inside No. 9: Empty Orchestra; Stains of Staines; Aunties; The Syndicate and Shameless. Radio work includes Animal Instinct and I Heart Amy.

Sara Kestelman plays Amanda. Her theatre credits include Filthy Business and The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures (Hampstead Theatre); Cabaret (Donmar); Girls (UK Tour); 4000 Miles (Bath Theatre Royal); Torchsong Trilogy (Menier Chocolate Factory); Making Noise Quietly, Nine, Hamlet, Love for Love, As You Like It, The Double Dealer, The Threepenny Opera and The American Clock, Copenhagen (National Theatre); Macbeth, Custom of the Country (RSC); King Lear (RSC/Barbican); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (RSC/New York); Lettice & Lovage (Gielgud) and Fiddler on the Roof (Palladium). Her television and film credits include Zardoz; Lisztomania; Lady Jane; Anna Karenina; The Last Spark of Sundown; Rome; The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes; The Last Romantics and In the Flesh.

Claire Lams plays Kim. Her theatre work includes Kiss Me (Hampstead Downstairs/Trafalgar Studios); The Lottery of Love (Orange Tree); The King’s Speech (Chichester Festival Theatre/Birmingham Rep); The Little Mermaid (Bristol Old Vic); Routes and Harvest (both Royal Court); One Man, Two Guvnors (Broadway/Adelphi/National Theatre); The Spies in Room 502 (Latitude Festival); W11 (Gate); While You Lie (Traverse); Educating Rita (Watermill Theatre); Absent Friends (Watford Palace); The Miracle; DNA and Baby Girl (all National Theatre); Faustus (Headlong); Fabulation (Tricycle); Presence (Theatre Royal, Plymouth); Chimps (Liverpool Everyman); Citizenship (National Theatre Studio); Fields of Gold and Soap (both Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough); Coming Around Again and Huddersfield (both West Yorkshire Playhouse); The Happiest Days of Your Life (Royal Exchange Theatre) and The Dice House (Birmingham Stage Company). Film work includes Pumpkin Head; Southwalk, The Movie; Beyond the Blade and The Dunns of Brixton. Television work includes Call the Midwife; Casualty; Humans; The Wrong Mans; Silent Witness; Obsessed; Random; Doctors; The Bill; Holby City; The Brief and EastEnders.

Dusty Hughes returns to Hampstead Theatre following Bad Language in 1983. He was Theatre Editor of Time Out and helped to establish that magazine’s theatre coverage as an alternative voice. He then joined the Bush Theatre as Artistic Director. In 1980 his first play "Commitments" won him the London Theatre Critics Most Promising Playwright Award. His subsequent plays have been seen at the National Theatre, The Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford and London, The Royal Court, Hampstead Theatre, The Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, The Bush, the Donmar and in the West End as well as in Europe and America. He has worked extensively in television. He was joint winner of the Writer’s Guild Award for Best Drama Series for Between The Lines and created The Brief for ITV as well as adapting Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent for BBC1. He has also written for many other series including Silent Witness and Lewis and most recently the BBC’s The Musketeers (2015).

Alice Hamilton returns to Hampstead Downstairs following Every Day I Make Greatness Happen. Her directing credits include While We’re Here (Bush); Echo’s End (Salisbury Playhouse); Orca (Papatango); Thirty Christmases (Supporting Wall); German Skerries (Orange Tree/tour); Eventide (Arcola/tour); Visitors (Bush/Arcola/tour); Orson’s Shadow (Southwark Playhouse); Fear of Music (Up in Arms/Out of Joint tour) and At First Sight (Latitude Festival/tour). She worked as Staff Director on Man and Superman at the National Theatre, and has directed development workshops and rehearsed readings with the Royal Court, National Theatre, Salisbury Playhouse and High Tide. Alice is co-artistic director of Up in Arms.

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