Ayckbourn cast confirmed for Chichester Festival Theatre - how to get your tickets

Joining Jenna Russell as Susan are: Will Attenborough (Another Country at Chichester and the West End) as Rick, Matthew Cottle (The Deep Blue Sea and The Chalk Garden at Chichester) as Bill, Marc Elliott (EastEnders, Holby City) as Andy, Flora Higgins (The Crown) as Lucy, Stephanie Jacob (Small Island, Absolute Hell at the NT) as Muriel, Orlando James (Another Country at CFT, Shakespeare in Love) as Tony, and Nigel Lindsay (TV’s The Capture, Victoria, The Salisbury Poisonings) making his Chichester debut as Gerald.

Alan Ayckbourn’s black comedy takes its audiences on a dizzying journey through the looking glass into a woman’s mind. A knock on the head from a garden rake splits Susan’s world in two. Is she living happily with her devoted husband, charming brother and talented daughter, revelling in her rose-filled garden with its swimming pool and tennis court, and combining her blissful family life with a successful career? Or is Susan trapped in a suburban existence with her pedantic husband, resentful sister-in-law and estranged son, wrestling with desperate frustration at her aimless life of routine domesticity? Which of these lives is real? Which one does she want? And is Susan in control of either of them?

Jenna Russell’s extensive theatre work includes Sunday in the Park with George in London and on Broadway, for which she won an Olivier Award and was nominated for a Tony; Ayckbourn’s Season’s Greetings at the National Theatre, the title role in Piaf (Nottingham Playhouse); and Anna Mackmin’s production of Di and Viv and Rose (Vaudeville Theatre). Television includes Midsomer Murders, Gentleman Jack, EastEnders and Call The Midwife; she appeared at Chichester in Celebrating Sondheim in 2020.

Director Anna Mackmin makes her Chichester debut; her theatre work includes Hedda Gabler and The Real Thing (Old Vic). Tickets from £10; cft.org.uk; box office 01243 781312.