4 – 8 June
With The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air, RSC and Shakespeare’s Globe star Joseph Marcell.
Gossip never goes out of fashion
Sir Peter Teazle (Joseph Marcell) believes his young wife is sleeping with someone else. She isn’t.
But she’s starting to think if her husband believes it, she may as well give it a go. After all, if you’re going to cause a scandal, you might as well enjoy it…
Deliciously naughty and outrageously silly, this timeless comedy is a masterclass in social satire and the art of gossip. Reimagined into the 20th century and featuring an unforgettable cast of larger-than-life characters, each armed with a lacerating wit, The School for Scandal is one of the greatest comedies ever written.
Joseph Marcell, who is probably best-known for his role as Geoffrey the Butler in the six seasons of the NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air, will play ‘Sir Peter Teazle’. He was most recently seen in Chiwetel Ejiofor’s debut feature film, The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind. TV credits include Mammoth and I Hate You, both for the BBC and he is soon be seen in Candice Carty-William’s Queenie on Channel 4. His prolific stage credits include Hamlet at the Young Vic with Cush Jumbo, Kathy Burke’s Lady Windermere’s Fan, extensive work with Shakespeare’s Globe including the titular role in Bill Buckhurst’s King Lear and Derek Walcott’s Omeros, as well as seasons at the Royal Shakespeare Company.
The School For Scandal also features Garmon Rhys (Out There (ITV), Gangs Of London (Hbo/Sky Atlantic) And Tina: The Musical (West End)) as ‘Charles Surface’, Ayesha Griffiths (soon to be seen in Channel 4’s Queenie and Get Millie Black) as ‘Maria’, Emily–Jane McNeil (The Mousetrap and Brexshit, both West End) as ‘Lady Sneerwell’, Alex Phelps (As You Like It, Shakespeare’s Globe, When Darkness Falls, Park Theatre and UK tour) as ‘Joseph Surface’, Lydea Perkins (Private Lives, The Mill At Sonning, Sense & Sensibility, Theatre By The Lake) as ‘Lady Teazle’, Tony Timberlake (Little Shop of Horrors Storyhouse Chester, Maggie May, Leeds Playhouse, When Darkness Falls UK Tour) as ‘Sir Oliver’, and Guy Dennys (Tilted Wig’s Around the World in 80 Days and Lady Chatterley’s Lover) as ‘Rowley’.
The production is directed by Seán Aydon who recently adapted and directed the national tours of The Picture of Dorian Gray and Frankenstein. He was also assistant director on the world premiere of Tom Fletcher’s The Christmasaurus at the Hammersmith Apollo.
The production is designed by Linbury Prize winner Sarah Beaton who returns to Oxford Playhouse after designing for Clare Baybutt’s The Man I Live With in 2017, co-produced by The Playhouse and Reading Rep. Her recent credits include The Merchant Of Venice (Sam Wanamaker / The Globe), Nineteen Gardens (Hampstead Theatre) and Wild East (Young Vic). She previously worked with Tilted Wig as designer of The Picture of Dorian Gray.
The School for Scandal is produced by Tilted Wig Productions and Malvern Theatres in Association with Theatre By The Lake.
Tickets for The School for Scandal at Oxford Playhouse start from £14 and are available from Box Office: 01865 305305 or book online at www.oxfordplayhouse.com
Photo credit: Robling Photography
