‘What’s a night between friends?’
Tickets for the 20thanniversary production of Kevin Elyot’s Olivier and Evening Standard award-winning play My Night With Reg go on sale to the general public from today, Wednesday 18 June. The comedy will open at the Donmar Warehouse 31 July 2014, directed by current Donmar Warehouse Trainee Associate Director Robert Hastie.
The Donmar Warehouse is hugely saddened to hear of Kevin Elyot’s death. Executive Producer Kate Pakenham and Artistic Director Josie Rourke commented, “Director Robert Hastie had been working with Kevin on script preparation, casting and design for the forthcoming production of Kevin’s play My Night With Reg. Kevin’s passing makes the whole team at the Donmar resolved to present the production in tribute to Kevin’s life and work. In the meantime our thoughts and condolences are with Kevin’s friends and family.”
On its premiere, My Night With Reg defined a moment in the lives of gay men and became an instant classic. The comedy is set in London’s gay community in the summer of 1985 against the back drop of the mounting AIDS crisis. Hastie’s production will star Julian Ovenden as John. He will be joined in the cast by Matt Bardock as Benny, Jonathan Broadbent as Guy, Richard Cant as Bernie, Lewis Reeves as Eric and Geoffrey Streatfeild as Daniel.
At Guy’s London flat, old friends and new gather to party through the night. This is the summer of 1985, and for Guy and his circle the world is about to change forever. Deliciously funny and bittersweet, Kevin Elyot’s comedy captures the fragility of friendship, happiness and life itself.
Robert Hastie (Director) most recently directed Carthage, a new play by Chris Thompson, in January 2014 at the Finborough Theatre, where he also directed the acclaimed first production in over forty years of John McGrath's Events While Guarding the Bofors Gun in 2012. Hastie directed the UK premiere of Sunburst by Tennessee Williams in 2012, as part of The Hotel Plays for Defibrillator at the Holborn Grange Hotel. As Associate Director for Sixty-Six Books, which opened the new Bush Theatre, Hastie directed the world premieres of In the Land Of Uz, The Middle Man, David and Goliath, Snow in Sheffield and A Lost Expression. Hastie is Trainee Associate Director at the Donmar Warehouse and was Associate Director on Privacy and Coriolanus. In 2011, he was Associate Director on Much Ado About Nothing starring David Tennant and Catherine Tate (Wyndham's). He has assisted Peter Gill and Laurie Sansom, and was an Associate Artist of the National Youth Theatre. He originally trained as an actor at RADA, and has performed with the National Theatre, RSC, Cheek By Jowl, Frantic Assembly, Headlong and in the West End.
Matt Bardock (playing Benny) makes his third appearance at the Donmar having previously appeared in The Dark and Josie Rourke’s production of Frame 312. Bardock also appeared in Rourke’s production of Kick for Touch (Sheffield Crucible). Other theatre credits include Mojo and Peaches (both Royal Court) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Macbeth (both Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre). Bardock has worked regularly in television including Casualty, New Tricks, No Angels and Judge John Deed and his film credits include Mike Leigh’s All or Nothing and Topsy-Turvy.
Jonathan Broadbent (playing Guy) makes his Donmar debut in My Night with Reg. Theatre credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream(Lyric Hammersmith), Hamlet (Rose Theatre), Ghost Stories (Duke Of York’s Theatre), Chekhov in Hell (Soho Theatre, The Drum Theatre Plymouth) and Three Sisters (Lyric Hammersmith). Broadbent has also appeared in feature films As You Like It and The Magic Flute.
Richard Cant (playing Bernie) makes his Donmar debut in My Night with Reg. Cant’s theatre credits include War Horse (New London),Salome (Hampstead Theatre / Tour), Cymbeline (Barbican /World Tour) and Hamlet, Cymbeline and Much Ado About Nothing (all RSC). Television credits include Vexed, Above Suspicion: Red Dahlia, Bleak House and Doctors.
Julian Ovenden (playing John) returns to the Donmar, having previously appeared in Grand Hotel and Merrily We Roll Along. Recent theatre credits include Sunday in the Park with George (Théâtre du Châtelet), Finding Neverland (Leicester Curve), Death Takes a Holiday (Roundabout, New York) and Marguerite (Theatre Royal Haymarket). Extensive television work includes Downton Abbey, Smash,Any Human Heart, Midsomer Murders and Charmed.
Lewis Reeves (playing Eric) makes his Donmar debut in My Night With Reg. Recent theatre credits include Our Boys (Duchess Theatre) and Muscle (Shock N Awe). He has appeared in well-known television productions including Our World War, Misfits, Inspector George Gently and Law and Order.
Geoffrey Streatfeild (playing Daniel) makes his Donmar debut in My Night With Reg. He has appeared on stage in productions includingMacbeth, Copenhagen (both Sheffield Crucible), Children of the Sun, Earthquakes in London (both NT) and frequently with the RSC (Henry V, Henry IV Part I, Henry IV Part II, Richard III). Extensive television work includes The Thick of It, Spooks, Ashes to Ashes andThe Other Boleyn Girl.
My Night With Reg tickets are available to all through the Donmar’s Barclays Front Row scheme. The first batch of tickets will be released at 10am on Monday 21 July, and thereafter, tickets will be made available every Monday for performances two weeks later. Barclays Front Row tickets are priced at £10 each.
