Catherine Tate
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The popular TV comedienne Catherine Tate returns to the West End this summer to star in David Eldridge's
Under the Blue Sky, a play that was first seen at the Royal Court's Jerwood Theatre Upstairs in September 2000. She will be joined by Francesca Annis, whose more notable theater credits include
The Vortex at the Donmar, opposite Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Gertrude to Ralph Fiennes' Hamlet
, which transferred to Broadway.
Anna Mackmin's production will open on July 25, following previews from July 15. The show will run through September 20 in the same theater, the Duke of York's, where Mackmin last year directed Orlando Bloom's professional stage debut in David Storey's
In Celebration.
Unusually, all the characters in the play are teachers: three couples glimpsed at various defining moments in their lives. The remainder of the cast includes Lisa Dillon, Chris O'Dowd, and Dominic Rowan, with one last male role still to be cast.
Though best known for her TV work, Tate is no stranger to the stage, having appeared alongside David Schwimmer in Neil LaBute's
Some Girls as well as several plays earlier on for the National, before she had yet made her mark.
The producers are Sonia Friedman Productions and Robert G. Bartner. Lez Brotherston is doing the designs.