Haydn Gwynne will be playing the role of Lady Wishfort at the Donmar Warehouse in James Macdonald’s new revival of William Congreve’s Restoration comedy The Way of The World, replacing Linda Bassett who has had to withdraw from the production before the start of rehearsals for personal reasons. The production runs from 29 March to 26 May 2018.
PRESS NIGHT: Thursday 5 April 2018
Full casting also includes Fisayo Akinade, Alex Beckett, Gabrielle Brooks, Phoebe Francis Brown, Sarah Hadland, Jenny Jules, Simon Manyonda, Caroline Martin, Tom Mison, Justine Mitchell, Christian Patterson, Geoffrey Streatfeild and Nathan Welsh.
Family, money, desire: the rules of the game, the way of the world. Lady Wishfort’s sprawling, dysfunctional family are riven by desire – there’s everything to lose and £6,000 to gain. Congreve’s glorious ensemble of characters battles it out in this satirical comedy where everyone needs to win just to get by.
Bios
Haydn Gwynne (Lady Wishfort) returns to the Donmar Warehouse after appearing in a concert version of Company. Most recently, Gwynne played Volumnia in Coriolanus for the RSC. She was Olivier nominated for The Threepenny Opera (National Theatre) and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (West End), and also for the original London production of City of Angels. Other theatre credits include The Audience (West End), Richard III (Old Vic/BAM New York), Becky Shaw (Almeida), The Memory of Water (Hampstead), The Merry Wives of Windsor, Peer Gynt, Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (RSC), The Recruiting Officer (Royal Exchange), and Billy Elliot the Musical (West End and Broadway).
Sarah Hadland (Foible) makes her Donmar Warehouse debut in The Way of the World. Her theatre credits include The War Has Not Yet Started (Theatre Royal Plymouth at Southwark Playhouse), The Norman Conquests (Chichester Festival Theatre), What’s In A Name? (Birmingham), Raving (Hampstead Theatre) and Canvas (Chichester Festival Theatre).
Fisayo Akinade (Witwoud) returns to the Donmar Warehouse after appearing in Josie Rourke’s Saint Joan opposite Gemma Arterton, as well as James Graham’s play for theatre and television The Vote, also directed by Josie Rourke and broadcast live on More 4 on the night of the general election. Recent theatre work includes Barber Shop Chronicles (National Theatre), Pigs and Dogs and The Crossing Plays (Royal Court), and The Tempest (Shakespeare’s Globe).
Alex Beckett (Waitwell) returns to the Donmar Warehouse after appearing in Hotel in Amsterdam. His theatre credits include Grimly Handsome (Royal Court), Pygmalion (Headlong), Blue Heart (Orange Tree/Tobacco Factory), Edward II (National Theatre), Praxis Makes Perfect (National Theatre Wales), Here (Rose Kingston), The Changeling (Young Vic), 66 Books – A Nobody (Bush), Fen (Finborough), Much Ado About Nothing (West End), Natural Selection (Theatre 503), Hamlet, The Brothers Grimm (Creation), Letters (Union), Starbucks 24hr Plays (Old Vic New Voices), Swallow Song (Oxford Playhouse), Playing Hamlet (King’s Head), What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (True Fiction) and Gull (Antic Co-operation).
Gabrielle Brooks (Mincing) makes her debut at the Donmar Warehouse in The Way of the World. Her theatre credits include The Wizard of Oz and Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (Sheffield Theatres), Queen Anne (RSC/Theatre Royal Haymarket), Lazarus (King’s Cross Theatre), Red Snapper (Belgrade Theatre, Coventry), The Book of Mormon (Prince of Wales Theatre), I Can’t Sing (London Palladium), Our House (Savoy), and Avenue Q (UK tour).
Frances Brown (Betty/Peg) makes her debut at the Donmar Warehouse in The Way of the World. Her theatre credits include (sorry) (Birmingham Rep), Finding Nana (Soho Theatre) and Life According to Saki (New York Theatre Workshop).
Jenny Jules (Mrs Marwood) returns to the Donmar Warehouse after appearing in Phyllida Lloyd’s 2013 all-female production of Julius Caesar. Her stage credits also include Her Portmanteau (New York Theatre Workshop), The Crucible (Walter Kerr Theatre, Broadway), Henry IV (St. Ann’s Warehouse, Brooklyn), Father Comes Home from the Wars (Public Theater, New York), A Raisin in the Sun (Royal Exchange, Manchester), Moon on a Rainbow Shawl and Death and the King’s Horseman (National Theatre), Ruined, King Lear, The Homecoming and Big White Fog (Almeida Theatre) and Fabulation, Gem of the Ocean, Wine in the Wilderness and Pecong (Tricycle Theatre).
Simon Manyonda (Petulant) makes his Donmar Warehouse debut in The Way of the World. His theatre credits include Barber Shop Chronicles, Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, King Lear, Greenland and Welcome to Thebes (National Theatre), King Lear (Old Vic), A Midsummer Night’s Dreaming and Julius Caesar (RSC), Giving and Wildfire (Hampstead Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (Sheffield Crucible), The Mamba (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Antony and Cleopatra (Liverpool Playhouse), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Lyric Hammersmith), Red Peppers (Old Red Lion) and All Night I Dream of Being Good (The Yard).
Caroline Martin (Mrs Fainall) makes her Donmar Warehouse debut in The Way of the World. Her theatre credits include Hamlet directed by Kenneth Branagh, Red Velvet (Garrick Theatre), The Merchant of Venice (Almeida Theatre), Medea (Royal National Theatre), A Doll’s House (West End/Broadway), The Merchant of Venice and Macbeth (RSC), and The House of Special Purpose (Chichester Festival Theatre).
Tom Mison (Fainall) makes his Donmar Warehouse debut in The Way of the World. Mison’s previous theatre credits include Posh (Royal Court/West End), Henry IV Parts 1 & 2 (Theatre Royal Bath), Elektra (Headlong & Young Vic), When The Rain Stops Falling (Almeida Theatre), Hedda (Gate Theatre), The Living Unknown Soldier, Les Enfants Du Paradis (Arcola Theatre), and Time On Fire (National Theatre/Magic Theatre, San Francisco).
Justine Mitchell (Millamant) returns to the Donmar Warehouse after her performances in King Lear directed by Michael Grandage and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui directed by Simon Evans. Theatre credits include Beginning (National Theatre/West End), The Plough and the Stars, Detroit, Children of the Sun, The White Guard and The Night Season (National Theatre), Wild Honey (Hampstead Theatre), For Services Rendered (Chichester Festival Theatre), Love For Love and Twelfth Night (RSC), Man – Three Plays By Tennessee Williams (Young Vic), The Rivals (Arcola Theatre), Mr Burns (Almeida Theatre), and Gastronauts, Bodies and The Stone (Royal Court).
Christian Patterson (Sir Wilfull Witwoud) makes his Donmar Warehouse debut in The Way of the World. He previously appeared in the Donmar’s UK tour of Guys and Dolls. His other theatre credits include My Country (National Theatre/Tour), Journey’s End (West End/UK Tour), Macbeth, Ying Tong – A Walk with the Goons, Oliver! (West End), Blackbird, The Dying of Today and Blasted (The Other Room). Christian is proud to be an Associate of Theatr Clwyd where his credits include The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, Insignificance, All My Sons, Aristocrats, Rape of the Fair Country, Glengarry Glen Ross and As You Like It.
Geoffrey Streatfeild (Mirabel) returns to the Donmar Warehouse after playing the part of Daniel in My Night With Reg, which also transferred to the West End. He has appeared on stage in productions including Cell Mates and Wild Honey (Hampstead Theatre), Young Chekhov: Ivanov and The Seagull, The Beaux Stratagem, Children of the Sun, Earthquakes in London, The Pains of Youth, The History Boys and The Bacchae (National Theatre), Macbeth and Copenhagen (Sheffield Crucible), Henry V, Henry IV: Part I, Henry IV: Part II, Henry VI: Part 1, 2 and 3, and Richard III (RSC), Eigengrau and The Contingency Plan (Bush), The Merchant of Venice and Nathan the Wise (Chichester Festival Theatre), and Journey’s End (West End).
Nathan Welsh (Mirabel’s Servant/Wishfort’s Footman) makes his debut at the Donmar Warehouse in The Way of the World. His recent theatre credit includes Circa (The Vaults).
Director James Macdonald is joined by designer Anna Fleischle, lighting designer Peter Mumford, sound designer, composer Max Pappenheim and movement director Francine Watson Coleman.
