PRESS RELEASE Mark Goucher and Everyman Theatre Cheltenham present THE BIRTHDAY PARTY By Harold Pinter Tuesday 7 January 2020 • NATIONAL TOUR OF THE BIRTHDAY PARTY STARRING MICHELLE COLLINS, TRISTAN GEMMILL AND PAUL HICKEY TO OPEN AT EVERYMAN THEATRE, CHELTENHAM ON 2 APRIL 2020 • THE TOUR WILL VISIT SALFORD, OXFORD, GUILDFORD, EDINBURGH, NORWICH, CARDIFF, RICHMOND AND MILTON KEYNES • HEAD SHOTS AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD HERE Michelle Collins will play Meg Boles, Tristan Gemmill will play Goldberg and Paul Hickey will play McCann in a national UK tour of Harold Pinter's comedy of menace which will receive a dramatic new re-imagining from the team behind Waiting for Godot. Opening at Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham and following a two-year celebration of the works of Harold Pinter in the West End, this is Pinter’s most popular and widely performed play. Further casting to be announced in due course. The tour will open at Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham from 2 – 11 April (with press night on 7 April) followed by The Lowry Quays (14-18 April), Oxford Playhouse 21- 25 April), Guildford Yvonne Arnaud (28 April – 2 May), Edinburgh Kings (5-9 May), Norwich Theatre Royal (12- 16 May), Cardiff New (26–30 May), Richmond Theatre (2-6 June) and Milton Keynes Theatre (9- 13 June). Set in a dilapidated seaside boarding house the mysterious Stanley Webber receives a visit from two sinister strangers, Goldberg and McCann. They arrive on Stanley's birthday - or is it? What do they want and why do they want to turn Stanley's quite world upside down? The Everyman Theatre's Creative Director, Paul Milton, brings together this fine cast to present Pinter's classic darkly comic masterpiece with design by Dawn Allsopp, Lighting design by Michael Hall and Sound design by Steve Anderson. Michelle Collins has worked extensively in television and theatre over the last 30 years. She has appeared in two of Britain’s best-loved soaps EastEnders and Coronation Street, the hugely popular Two Thousand Acres of Skye and The Illustrated Mum for which she received an international Emmy. Her other TV credits include Real Women; Dr Who; Miss Marple; Sunburn; Lloyd And Hill; Death In Paradise; Can't Buy Me Love; Single; Hotel Babylon; Rock Rivals; Perfect; Midsummer Murders and Daylight Robbery. Michelle recently appeared in The Dumping Ground (CBBC), To Provide All People (BBC 1), Queens of Mystery (Acorn TV) and Casualty (BBC). Michelle’s West End theatre credits include: Calendar Girls; Rattle Of A Simple Man; Daddy Cool; Vagina Monologues and Never Forget. Further theatre credits include Romeo and Juliet and The Demolition Man (Bolton Octagon); The Glass Supper (Hampstead Theatre); A Dark Night In Dalston (The Park Theatre); Thoroughly Modern Millie (UK tour); Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (UK tour); My Dad’s Gap Year (Park Theatre) and How Love Is Spelt (Southwark Playhouse). Tristan Gemmill is best known for his long running role as Dr Adam Trueman in much loved British medical drama Casualty and most recently as lead regular Robert Preston in Coronation Street. As well as his Casualty and Coronation Street roles, Tristan has starred in other TV shows including Atlantis, Cape Wrath, Where The Heart Is, Grass, Death in Paradise, and Call the Midwife. Tristan has starred alongside Adrian Brody and Keira Knightley in the critically acclaimed film, The Jacket. Other film credits include, Flying Blind opposite Helen McCrory and The Adventurer: The Curse of The Midas Box with Michael Sheen and Sam Neill. Tristan’s most recent appearance in the West End was playing the title role in The Bodyguard opposite Beverly Knight for which he received rave reviews. Further theatre credits include A Street Car Named Desire for Theatre Clwyd, Dangerous Corner for Chichester Festival Theatre and Henry V for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Paul Hickey’s theatre credits include Waste, Our Class, Children of the Sun, The Playboy of the Western World, Romeo and Juliet and Peer Gynt (all at the National Theatre); Fewer Emergencies, Bang, Bang Bang, Crazyblackmuthafukinself, O Go My Man, and Who Cares at the Royal Court; Macbeth and The Deep Blue Sea at the Royal Exchange, Manchester; The Merchant of Venice for the RSC (World Tour); Incognito and Drink Dance Laugh Lie at the Bush; Little Light at the Orange Tree; In The Next Room (Or The Vibrator Play) at the Ustinov. Fred’s Diner and Wallenstein at Chichester Festival; Ghosts at the Arcola; Pentecost and In A Little World of Our Own at the Donmar Warehouse; Helen and I for Druid; Red Roses and Petrol, Lady Windemere’s Fan and The Ash Fire at the Tricycle; Dealer’s Choice and My Night With Reg at Birmingham Rep, The Last Yankee at The Print Room; The Silver Tassie and The Plough and the Stars at the Abbey Theatre. Television includes: Catherine The Great, The Last Czars, Three Girls, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries (series iv-vi), Doctor Who, Father Ted, Nuremberg, Whitechapel, Sunshine, The American, Critical, Doctors, Friends and Crocodiles, The Governor, Murder Squad, Rebel Heart and The Informant. Paul has played Johno in Red Rock (BBC/Virgin Media) for the last few years. Films include: 100 streets, Bitter Harvest, Saving Private Ryan, War Machine, Noble, The Matchmaker, Though The Sky Falls, Nora, Spin The Bottle, Moll Flanders, The General, On The Edge and Ordinary Decent Criminal. Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham will be producing and co-producing more work throughout 2020 including Shirley Valentine starring Claire Sweeney and directed by Ian Talbot which opens on 13 February, a 10-week national tour starting on 23 April of Ian Hislop and Nick Newman’s new comedy A Bunch of Amateurs and a co-production with Bath Theatre Royal of The Dresser staring Julian Cleary and Matthew Kelly directed by Terry Johnson which will tour nationally, opening at Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham on 10 September. For further details visit www.everymantheatre.org.uk ENDS For further information or for any interview requests, please contact Chloe Pritchard-Gordon at The Corner Shop PR: [email protected] Tel. 0207 831 7657 TOUR DATES Press night: Tuesday 7th April at Cheltenham Everyman 2 – 11 April Cheltenham Everyman www.everymantheatre.org.uk/ 01242 572 573 14 – 18 April The Lowry Quays Theatre https://thelowry.com 0343 208 6000 21 - 25 April Oxford Playhouse https://www.oxfordplayhouse.com 01865 305305 28 April – 2 May Guildford Yvonne Arnaud www.yvonne-arnaud.co.uk 01483 44 00 00 5 - 9 May Edinburgh Kings https://www.capitaltheatres.com/ 0131 529 6000 12 - 16 May Norwich Theatre Royal www.theatreroyalnorwich.co.uk 01603 63 00 00 26 – 30 May Cardiff New Theatre https://www.newtheatrecardiff.co.uk/ (0)29 2087 8889 2-6 June Richmond Theatre https://www.atgtickets.com/shows/the-birthday-party/richmond-theatre/ 0844 871 7651 9 – 13 June Milton Keynes Theatre https://www.atgtickets.com/shows/the-birthday-party/milton-keynes-theatre/ 0844 871 7652 .