Tricycle season regular Simon Chandler and Posh’s Charlotte Lucas are among the cast that will join Adrian Lester when he returns to the London stage to star in Red Velvet at the Tricycle theatre.
Chandler – part of the Kilburn venue’s The Bomb and Women, Power And Politics seasons – Lucas and Lester are joined in the first production of Indhu Rubasingham’s tenure as Artistic Director of the influential theatre by Rachel Finnegan (Punchdrunk’s Bensalem B&B), Natasha Gordon (As You Like It & Cymbeline, RSC), Ryan Kiggell (Macbeth, Cheek By Jowl), Ferdinand Kingsley (Welcome To Thebes, National Theatre) and Eugene O’Hare (A Moon For The Misbegotten, Old Vic).
Red Velvet, which is written by Lester’s wife, actress Lolita Chakrabarti, and begins its run at the Tricycle in October, is based on the true story of black American actor Ira Aldridge. When, in 1833, Edmund Kean, the greatest actor of his generation, collapses on stage while playing Othello, it falls to Aldridge to step in. But as the public riot in the streets over the abolition of slavery, how will the cast, critics and audience react to the revolution taking place in the theatre?
Red Velvet raises the curtain on a new era for the Tricycle theatre, beginning the first season programmed by Rubasingham, who replaced former Artistic Director Nicolas Kent earlier this year. It will be followed by family Christmas show The Arabian Nights, Eclipse Theatre Company’s raucous comedy One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show and Paper Dolls, the story of Filipino immigrants with an unlikely second life.