3 – 7 September

Seann Walsh, Chris Harper and Aden Gillett star in Yasmina Reza’s multi-award-winning comedy ART as the curtain rises on the autumn season at Theatre Royal Bath.

Yasmina Reza’s smash hit, comedy masterpiece, Art is set to tour to Bath at the start of the autumn appearing at the Theatre Royal from Tuesday 3^rd to Saturday 7^th September. Award-winning comedian Seann Walsh, Chris Harper (Call the Midwife, Coronation Street) and Aden Gillett (The Crown, The House of Eliott) star in director Iqbal Khan’s new production, which visits Bath as part of a nine-week tour presented by Joshua Beaumont and Original Theatre.

A seemingly simple purchase of contemporary art – an all-white painting – ignites a debate amongst three close friends. What begins as a light-hearted discussion about art quickly descends into a riotous exploration of the blurred lines between art and reality.

Art is a razor-sharp exploration of art, love and friendship that will stay with audiences long after the curtain falls. Nothing short of a phenomenon, Yasmina Reza’s fiendishly clever and funny play won Best Comedy at the Olivier Awards, Tony Awards and the Molière Awards.

Seann Walsh plays the role of Yvan. One of the UK’s funniest stand-up comedians, described by The Guardian as “the best observational comedian of his generation”, Seann toured his standup show Back From The Bed in 2023 and 2024, hot on the heels of After This One, I’m Going Home. His television credits include Live At The Apollo, 8 Out of 10 Cats, The Stand Up Sketch Show, The Last Leg, Alan Davies’: As Yet Untitled and I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here. Earlier this year, Seann played Malvolio in Twelfth Night for Stafford Shakespeare. His acting credits also include The Lovebox In Your Living Room, Clown and The Bystanders, for which he won the award for Best Actor in a Feature Film at the 2023 Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival. Seann also presents two popular podcasts alongside co-hosts Paul McCaffrey and Jack Dee.

Chris Harper, who plays the role of Serge, is best known on television as Geoffrey Franklin in Call The Midwife and Nathan Curtis in Coronation Street. He has also played John Hazel in Endeavour, Michael Cartwright in Holby City, and appeared in The Suspicions of Mr Whitcher, Doctors, Upstairs Downstairs, Heartbeat, Housewife 49, Life on Mars and Rosemary and Thyme. Chris produced and voiced the award-winning charity animation The Mouse. His theatre credits include the UK tour of Strangers on a Train, Much Ado About Nothing at Shakespeare’s Globe, and Persuasion, After Miss Julie and People at Sea at Salisbury Playhouse. Chris last performed at the Theatre Royal in 2020 when he toured to Bath in Dial M For Murder.

Aden Gillett plays the role of Marc. On television, Aden has played the roles of Jack Maddox in The House of Eliott, Edward Campbell in Holby City, and guest roles in numerous series including The Crown, Van der Valk, Vera, Silent Witness and Ivanhoe. His extensive theatre credits include Dominic Dromgoole’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Shakespeare’s Globe; An Inspector Calls on Broadway; productions for The Peter Hall Company at the Theatre Royal Bath, West End plays, and productions staged by the RSC and the National Theatre. Now marking his tenth production at the Theatre Royal, Aden last played Bath in Caroline’s Kitchen in 2019 and The Winslow Boy in 2018.

Director Iqbal Khan leads the creative team which also features Set and Lighting Designer Ciaran Bagnall, Composer and Sound Designer Max Pappenheim, Associate Director Olivia Millar-Ross, Production Manager Brian Watson, Costume Supervisor Nancy Surman and Props Supervisor Katie Balmforth.

Iqbal Khan is an Associate Director of Birmingham Rep, an Associate Artist of Box Clever Theatre Company, and the Artistic Director of the 2022 Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony. He has worked extensively with the RSC, as well as directing for opera and classical music events. His credits include Verdi’s Otello, The Wildman of the West Indies and Shakespeare at The Bowl. He has directed in Paris, and in Japan, where he was awarded a year-long prestigious fellowship based in Tokyo. His production of Tartuffe at the RSC, which was broadcast on BBC 4 in 2023, can be watched on BBC iplayer. Iqbal recently directed Silence at Tara Arts, Animal Farm at the Octagon Theatre, East is East for the National Theatre, and Of Mice and Men for Birmingham Rep, which toured to Bath in 2023.

Art was first seen in 1994, when it received its world premiere in Paris and won the Molière Award, before taking the West End and then Broadway by storm with the English language production translated by renowned playwright Christopher Hampton. In London, Art won both the Evening Standard Award for Best Play in 1996 and the Olivier Award for Best Comedy in 1997 having received the most nominations ever for a play. Two years later, Art transferred to New York winning a coveted Tony Award for Best Play in 1998, and went on to become the most successful play in Broadway history. Art has toured to the Theatre Royal Bath four times previously in 2000, 2003, 2005 and 2018.

French playwright, actress, novelist and screenwriter, Yasmina Reza’s stage plays also include Life x3, God of Carnage and Conversations After A Burial, all of which have previously played the Theatre Royal Bath to great acclaim.

To book tickets call the Theatre Royal Bath Box Office on 01225 448844 or visit theatreroyal.org.uk

Photography credit:  Michael Warley