Chichester Festival Theatre

Present Laughter

Date: 20 April – 12 May
Time: 2:30pm / 7:30pm
Price: From £10
More info & Booking link: https://www.cft.org.uk/whats-on/event/present- laughter
Actor Garry Essendine is at the height of his fame. He’s handsome, witty, surrounded by
adoring fans, and about to take his latest theatrical hit overseas. He’s also in the middle of a
raging mid-life crisis.
Holed up in his studio, he is assailed from all quarters: a beautiful debutante wants to bed
him, an aspiring playwright from Uckfield wants to worship him, and his own producer’s
wife wants to… well, what exactly does she want?
Under the sardonic eye of his long-suffering secretary and the unshockable gaze of his
estranged but determined wife, Garry struggles to keep all the balls in the air.
This sparkling comedy about sex, fame and the theatre itself – and a man wrestling with his
own self-image – is widely regarded as Noël Coward’s most autobiographical play.
Sean Foley’s hit West End productions include The Painkiller, Jeeves & Wooster in Perfect
Nonsense (Olivier Award for Best Comedy), The Ladykillers, The Dresser (at Chichester in
2016) and the multi award-winning The Play What I Wrote.
Actor, comedian and presenter Rufus Hound plays Garry, returning to Chichester
following Neville’s Island (2013). His stage work also includes One Man, Two
Guvnors and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (West End).
Katherine Kingsley plays Liz Essendine; last seen here in The Rehearsal and as Lina Lamont
in Singin' in the Rain, her recent West End work includes Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and A
Midsummer Night's Dream.
Tracy-Ann Oberman plays Monica; she played Golde in Fiddler on the Roof (Festival 2017),
and her stage credits also include Boeing-Boeing and Stepping Out in the West End.