Chiswick’s Tabard Theatre offers audiences a hilarious glimpse of a very special hotel trip this autumn, when it stages the UK premiere of Michele Riml’s global hit comedy, Sexy Laundry. The tale of a marriage in need of spicing up runs from 31 October to 25 November. Time to book tickets!
This premiere production follows a couple whose marriage has slipped into a rut. Hoping to rediscover their previous passion, they head off on a saucy mini-break:
Checking into a trendy spa hotel, Alice and Henry are on a mission; to jump start their 25-year marriage. Time has taken its toll – so have kids, stress and gravity. Hoping to rekindle their flagging sex life, Alice and Henry stumble through their fantasies, finding that flaming the fires of passion is not as simple as making a hotel reservation. Can they embrace all the wild suggestions from their marriage-saving quick start guide? What develops is a laugh-out-loud romantic comedy as the couple discover themselves and their marriage all over again.
Sexy Laundry was first staged at the Belfry Theatre in Victoria, Canada in 2004. It has since become one of Canada’s most popular plays of recent years. In addition to running widely across Canada, productions of Riml’s play have been staged in the US, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Slovenia, Germany, Mexico, Iceland and Poland, where it continues to run in rep after more than 300 performances. A treatment for a sitcom based on Sexy Laundry is in development, while it also sparked a sequel, Henry and Alice: Into the Wild.
Riml began her playwriting career at the age of 17, when her play, Souvenirs, won the British Columbia Young Playwrights Search. She has written 14 plays, including Poster Boy, Miss Teen and RAGE.
Phoebe Barran returns to the Tabard Theatre to direct Sexy Laundry, which is produced by Sightline Entertainment and Empire Theatrical Productions. Barran previously directed thriller Tryst, starring Natasha Barnes, and The Duke in Darkness at the Chiswick venue.
Tryst, previously directed by Phoebe Barran at the Tabard Theatre
Felicity Duncan, whose credits include Anyone Can Whistle and Lear at the Union Theatre, plays Alice, with Nick Raggett as Henry.
Bios
Felicity Duncan (Alice) most recently played Madame Arcati in the Frinton Summer Theatre production of Blithe Spirit. Her previous stage credits include Lear (Union Theatre), The Sins Of Jack Saul (Above the Stag) Liza Liza Liza (Tabard Theatre), My Fair Lady, Cash on Delivery, Holiday Snap, Perfect Wedding and An Evening with Gary Lineker (all Mill at Sonning). Her television credits include EastEnders, Holby City and Bergerac, while films include Blood Relative and Touch.
Nick Raggett (Henry) has starred in stage productions including Abigail’s Party (New Vic Stoke), Old King Cole (Unicorn Theatre), Captain of the Birds (Young Vic) and Cinderella (Watford Palace Theatre). On television, he has appeared in Holby City, Doctors, Casualty, Missing and The Bill, while his film credits include Three Acts and Barking at Trees.
