What A Carve Up! cast, tickets and first trailer revealed

Here’s all you need to know about the upcoming online production of What A Carve Up!

The Barn Theatre in Cirencester, the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield and the New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich will co-produce the piece, written by Henry Filloux-Bennett based on Jonathan Coe’s satirical novel of the same name.

The digital production, directed by Tamara Harvey (Home, I’m Darling), chronicles the events leading up to the ‘Winshaw Murders’. Filled with murder, mayhem and madness, the murder mystery turns a satirical eye on what it is like to be a member of one of the most corrupt, powerful and toxic families in the country.

What A Carve Up! cast

The cast will include Alfred Enoch as Raymond Owen, Fiona Button as Josephine Winshaw-Eaves, Sharon D. Clarke as Kim Bolton, Rebecca Front as Hilary Winshaw, Stephen Fry as Patrick Mills, Sir Derek Jacobi as Findlay Onyx, Griff Rhys Jones as John Stephens and Tamzin Outhwaite as The Journalist.

They’ll be joined by Jonathan Bailey as Henry Winshaw, Samuel Barnett as Michael Owen, Robert Bathurst as Thomas Winshaw, Celia Imrie as Joan Simpson and Dervla Kirwan as the Brunwin Advert.

Completing the cast are Catrin Aaron, Jamie Ballard, Jack Dixon, Julian Harries, James McNicholas and Lizzie Muncey

Making up the creative team alongside Harvey are Harry Smith (Henry V, Private Peaceful) as sound designer and composer, Annie May Fletcher as production coordinator and Holly Piggott as set designer.

What A Carve Up! play tickets

The play, which will be available internationally, will run from 31 October – 2 December 2020. Tickets can be purchased at whatacarveup.com with audience members receiving a screening link which will activate at their booked performance time for a 48-hour period.

A premium option, consisting of a physical programme and pre-theatre dining recipe card, will be available for UK residents.

A portion of the proceeds raised by What A Carve Up! will be donated to a freelance fund to support the creative workforce that the theatres would not be able to survive without.

For now, you can watch a first look trailer below…

Jonathan Coe said of the new adaptation: “I’m thrilled that What a Carve Up! is being brought to the stage by such a talented and experienced team. It’s twenty-five years since I wrote the book but unfortunately its political satire seems as relevant as ever – I’m sure the new adaptation will capture that, as well as the novel’s sense of fun and irreverence. I’m looking forward to getting to know it again!”

Tamara Harvey added: “There are some casts so dazzling that my job, as a director, is to not get in the way. This is one of them. My only sadness, of course, is that we don’t get to be in the rehearsal room together.

“But the fact that these brilliant actors have all agreed to create this piece to raise money for regional theatres is one of the ways we’re all still fighting to ensure that there will still be rehearsals rooms across the country, somewhere, somehow, in our future.”