5 – 10 May

Alan Ayckbourn’s JUST BETWEEN OURSELVES tours to  Theatre Royal Bath presented by London Classic Theatre in their 25^th Anniversary year.

Michael Cabot, the founder and Artistic Director of LCT, directs Joseph Clowser as Neil, Helen Phillips as Pam, Tom Richardson as Dennis, Holly Smith as Vera and Connie Walker as Marjorie.

Set in 1976, the play features five birthdays, two unhappy marriages and one possessive mother. Dennis tinkers in his garage, cheerfully indifferent to wife Vera’s impending breakdown. Marjorie hovers in the background, making tea and finding fault. Neil has planned a birthday surprise for his wife, but Pam doesn’t share his enthusiasm, preoccupied by frustrations of her own.

In perhaps his most emotionally charged play, Alan Ayckbourn masterfully evokes a world of hidden tensions and suppressed hostility as he expertly navigates the tightrope between comedy and tragedy, guiding audiences towards a hilarious, yet chilling finale.

Artistic Director of London Classic Theatre, Michael Cabot said,

“I’m delighted to be directing Just Between Ourselves as the centrepiece of London Classic Theatre’s 25^th Anniversary celebrations. Alan Ayckbourn seems to have become a regular feature for us when we hit a big milestone – we produced Absent Friends for our fifteenth anniversary and Absurd Person Singular for our twentieth! Alan’s ambition, as a writer, both in terms of the worlds he creates, and the nuance of his writing is quite unparalleled. Ostensibly, his plays are comedies, dealing with marital tensions, aspiration and that very British preoccupation with class. Just Between Ourselves explores this familiar territory with aplomb, but under the surface lies another dimension, sometimes dark and often painful. Ayckbourn treads the tightrope between comedy and tragedy with an expert hand and makes extraordinary discoveries in the tension between them. Now in his 86^th year, with 91 plays under his belt, Alan Ayckbourn is not only our most prolific playwright, but a genuine British institution. It’s a genuine privilege to be bringing Just Between Ourselves, one of his finest and most fascinating plays, to life in 2025.”

Joseph Clowser plays Neil. His theatre credits include Hummingbird at Leeds Playhouse, Seven Arts; Private Peaceful at Cambridge Arts Theatre; Living Together at Sidmouth Manor Pavilion; Short Memory at Waterloo East Theatre; Present Laughter at Sidmouth Manor Pavilion, Pomegranate Theatre; Jamaica Inn at Sidmouth Manor Pavilion, Pomegranate Theatre and Windsor Theatre Royal; The Gift at White Bear Theatre; and The Tail of Klaus and Shelly Waterbottom for Theatre503. His screen credits include Inside Balmoral; and the film, Time Cut.

Helen Phillips plays Pam. Her previous productions with London Classic Theatre include Equus and The Importance of Being Earnest. She has also performed in The Lottery at Bury Court Opera; Crush! The Musical in the West End; And in the End at Jermyn Street Theatre; The Diary of Anne Frank, Upstairs at The Gatehouse and Broadway Theatre, Catford; the UK tour of Dad’s Army Marches On and State Fair at Finborough Theatre and Trafalgar Studios. Her screen credits include This is Going to Hurt, Doctors, Call the Midwife; and the film, Arthur and Merlin and Big Day.

Tom Richardson, who plays Dennis, last performed at Bath’s Theatre Royal in London Classic Theatre production of Abigail’s Party in 2023. His other theatre credits include Hamlet at Orange Tree Theatre; The Hound of the Baskervilles at Eastbourne Theatres; Little Women at HOME Manchester; The Snow Queen, Sleeping Beauty, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Julius Caesar at Storyhouse, Chester; Sherlock, Private Lives and Little Women at Pitlochry Festival Theatre and Watford Palace Theatre; As You Like It, She Stoops to Conquer, Twelfth Night and The Merry Wives of Windsor for Guildford Shakespeare Company; The Prince and the Pauper at the New Vic; UK tours of Lady Chatterley’s Lover; Perfect Nonsense, Sense and Sensibility, Single Spies, and The Rivals at Theatre by the Lake, Keswick/York Theatre Royal.

Holly Smith, who plays Vera, returns to London Classic Theatre having previously appeared with the company in What The Butler Saw, which toured to the Theatre Royal Bath in 2024. Her other theatre credits include A Christmas Carol and The Great Gatsby at the Theatre Royal Windsor; UK tours of The Mirror Crack’d, Shadowlands, Blithe Spirit, Out of Order and Flare Path, which played Bath in 2015; Don’t Misunderstand Me, Beauty of the Father, Boeing Boeing, I’ll Be Back Before Midnight and Candida for English Theatre of Hamburg; The Odd Couple for Vienna’s English Theatre; Miss Margarida’s Way at Leicester Square Theatre; National Mourning for Theatre503; The Hothouse at Trafalgar Studios; Teechers at Harrogate Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe and in the West End; The Barchester Chronicles at Chichester Festival Theatre; Plaza Suite at Marlborough Theatre and Annie at Guildford’s Yvonne Arnaud Theatre. Her screen credits include Killing Eve, Zapped, Watson and Oliver, Coming of Age and The Frame; and the films Ghost Stories, Closer and Appearances.

Connie Walker, who plays Marjorie, returns to London Classic Theatre after appearing with the company in My Mother Said I Never Should, In Basildon and Beauty Queen of Leenane. She has previously performed at the Theatre Royal Bath in Death Of A Salesman in 2017 and To Kill A Mockingbird in 2015, which also played Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, Barbican Theatre and toured. Her other theatre credits include The Suspicions of Mr Whicher and The Importance of Being Earnest at the Watermill Theatre; The March on Russia at the Orange Tree Theatre; Reasons to Stay Alive, Macbeth and Sister Winnie on UK tour; The Taxidermists Daughter and Separate Tables at Chichester Festival Theatre; Trestle at the Southwark Playhouse; A Month of Sundays at Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch; An Inspector Calls and Deathtrap at English Theatre Frankfurt, and Seeing the Lights at the New Vic Theatre. Her screen credits include Pennyworth and Silent Witness; and the films What Do You See? and The Darkest Light.

Sir Alan Ayckbourn is one of the most widely performed living English language playwrights and a highly regarded theatre director. He is an Olivier, Tony and Molière Award-winning writer who has written over 80 full length plays, more than half of which have transferred to the West End. His contribution to theatre has been recognised with both the Olivier Special Award and a Special Tony Award.

Just Between Ourselves appears at the Theatre Royal Bath from Monday 5^th to Saturday 10^th May. Tickets are on sale at the Theatre Royal Bath Box Office on 01225 448844 and online at theatreroyal.org.uk

Photography credit: Will Green Photography

This listing appears on our front page until 11:55pm on Saturday May 10th, 2025