Home, I'm Darling UK tour to visit Bath's Theatre Royal

Home, I’m Darling visits the Theatre Royal Bath from Tuesday 21 to Saturday 25 February starring BAFTA Award-winner Jessica Ransom (Doc Martin, Armstrong and Miller, Horrible Histories), Diane Keen (Doctors, The Cuckoo Waltz) and Neil McDermott (EastEnders, The Royal) as Laura Wade’s critically acclaimed, thought-provoking comedy about one woman’s quest to be the perfect 1950s housewife tours the UK for the first time. 

Image: Home, I'm Darling - credit Jack Merriman with design by Anna Fleischle

How happily married are the happily married? Every couple needs a little fantasy to keep their marriage sparkling. But behind the gingham curtains, things start to unravel, and being a domestic goddess is not as easy as it seems.

Jessica Ransom, who stars as Judy, is well known to television viewers for her ten-year role as Morwenna in ITV’s Doc Martin, from 2011 to 2022. She also played Polly Ford in Our Zoo, Jess in Zapped and appeared as a host of historical characters in the BBC series Horrible Histories over the past seven years, winning a Children’s BAFTA. She also played Drusilla in the film of Horrible Histories and is a writer for series nine and ten. She has played guest roles in The Armstrong & Miller Show, Defending the Guilty and The Escape Artist. On stage, Jessica has starred in Laura Wade’s Posh at the Royal Court and in the West End, Straight at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre, and in her own show, Jessica Ransom: Unsung Heroes, which she performed at Leicester Square Theatre and the Edinburgh Fringe.

Diane Keen, who plays the role of Sylvia, is best known on television as Julia Parsons in Doctors, a role she played in more than 1,600 episodes between 2003 and 2010. In a career spanning more than six decades, Diane’s many screen credits range from playing Jenny Burden in The Ruth Rendell Mysteries and Fliss in The Cuckoo Waltz to roles in The Legend of Robin Hood, The Two Ronnies and Crossroads. Her stage credits include the West End production of Beautiful - The Carole King Musical, and her previous appearances at the Theatre Royal Bath include Absent Friends in 1996 and Ladybird in 1988.

Johnny is played by Neil McDermott, who is best known to television audiences as Ryan Malloy in BBC’s EastEnders, a role he has played since 2009, and as Dr Ralph Ellis in The Royal. His screen credits also include Doctor Who, George Gently, Kiss of Death and Rosemary and Thyme. His stage credits include the West End productions of Pretty Woman, The Wind in The Willows, Glory Ride, The Sound of Music, Shrek The Musical and Follies.

The role of Fran is played by Cassie Bradley, who appeared as Natalie Watkins in Coronation Street. Her television credits also include Holby City, McDonald and Dodds and Casualty. Matthew Douglas, who plays the role of Marcus, has previously performed at the Theatre Royal Bath in Othello in 2004, She Stoops To Conquer in 2018 and An Inspector Calls in 2015. Completing the cast in the role of Alex is Shanez Pattni, who recently toured the UK in Butterflies. 

Image: Home, I'm Darling - credit Jack Merriman with design by Anna Fleischle

Home, I’m Darling received its World Premiere at Theatr Clwyd in 2018, before playing at the National Theatre and then transferring to the Duke of York’s Theatre in the West End, where it was nominated for five Olivier Awards and won the 2019 Olivier Award for Best New Comedy. The production visited the Theatre Royal Bath with the cast led by Katherine Parkinson in April 2019, as one of only three venues direct from the West End. 

The 2023 UK tour reunites the entire original creative team, led by Director Tamara Harvey. Home, I’m Darling is co-directed by Hannah Noone, with design by Olivier award-winner Anna Fleischle, lighting by Lucy Carter, sound design by Tom Gibbons and choreography by Charlotte Broom. 

Playwright Laura Wade studied drama at the University of Bristol. Her plays include Posh at the Royal Court and in the West End, and its film adaptation, The Riot Club, for which she wrote the screenplay. She also adapted Jane Austen’s unfinished novel The Watsons for Chichester Festival Theatre in 2018, and adapted Sarah Waters’ Tipping the Velvet for the stage in 2015. In 2006, Laura won the Pearson Most Promising Playwright Award and was nominated for an Olivier Award for Breathing Corpses and Colder Than Here. In 2003, her adaptation of WH Davies’ Young Emma was directed by Tamara Harvey.

Director Tamara Harvey is the Artistic Director of Theatr Clwyd and the Co-Artistic Director Designate of the Royal Shakespeare Company. In 2019, her production of Home, I’m Darling, in co-production with the National Theatre, transferred to the West End, winning the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy. Tamara has directed in the West End, throughout the UK and abroad, working on classic plays, new writing, musical theatre and in film. She recently directed The Famous Five, a new musical in co-production with Chichester Festival Theatre.

Co-Director Hannah Noone is a freelance theatre and opera director. She was Resident Director for Home, I’m Darling in 2019 at Theatr Clwyd, the National Theatre and in the West End. Her directing credits also include Offie-nominated Elixir of Love at King’s Head Theatre, Worlds Apart in War for Theatr Clwyd and the National Trust, A Soldier’s Tale for Edinburgh Incidental Orchestra and, as Assistant Director, Wolf Witch Giant Fairy and A New Dark Age at the Royal Opera House.

Anna Fleischle, who designed the set and costumes for Home, I’m Darling, was Olivier Award nominated for her work on the production. She won an Olivier Award, Critics’ Circle Award and Evening Standard Award for Hangmen in the West End and was nominated for a Tony Award on Broadway. Her recent theatre work also includes the West End productions of 2:22 A Ghost Story and Everybody’s Talking About Jamie; Death of A Salesman on Broadway, at the Young Vic and in the West End, and A Very, Very, Very Dark Matter and John Gabriel Borkman at London’s Bridge Theatre. 

Home, I’m Darling appears at the Theatre Royal Bath from Tuesday 21 to Saturday 25 February. To purchase tickets, contact the Theatre Royal Bath Box Office on +44 (0)1225 448844 or book online at www.theatreroyal.org.uk.