Former TV comedian Norman Pace will return to the London stage this autumn to star opposite Matthew Horne in the Menier Chocolate Factory production of Charley’s Aunt.
The pair will be joined by Jane Asher and Sam Kelly in Brandon Thomas’ hit 1892 comedy about a missing Brazilian aunt whose presence as a chaperone would allow Charley and his friend Jack to ask for their true loves’ hands in marriage. When she is delayed, they blackmail the eccentric Lord Fancourt Babberley into posing as the missing Donna Lucia… and then she arrives!
Pace, who is best known as the second half of 90s comedy duo Hale And Pace, was last at the Menier Chocolate Factory in Breakfast With Jonny Wilkinson and boasts London stage credits including Chicago, Honk! and Donkeys’ Years.
Kelly, like Horne who made his name in Gavin And Stacey, is best known for his work in TV sitcoms Porridge and ‘Allo ‘Allo, but is also a regular on the London stage, most recently appearing in Mike Leigh’s Grief at the National Theatre. Asher, who will play the delayed relative, has starred in productions including Festen and House And Garden.
Charley’s Aunt, which is directed by former Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre Artistic Director Ian Talbot, begins its run at the Menier Chocolate Factory on 20 September, following Anthony Rapp’s one man show about grief, hope and triumph, Without You (29 August to 15 September) and the current production of Harvey Fierstein’s comic drama about a drag queen, Torch Song Trilogy, which runs until 12 August.