A man on the phone lies on a piano

ROUGH CROSSING

Mon 8 - Sat 13 April 2019
Tickets £20 - £35*

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Bill Kenwright presents a brand new production of one of the most hilarious and brilliant plays by Tom Stoppard, the Tony and Academy award-winning writer of Arcadia, Travesties and the hugely acclaimed film Shakespeare in Love.

Two famous but desperate playwrights are stuck on an ocean liner headed for New York, feverishly trying to rehearse their latest show before reaching land, and opening night. But they are constantly distracted by their delicate composer’s attempts to end it all, having overheard his lover confess her feelings to the leading man. Add an absurdly unorthodox waiter, a mistimed lifeboat drill and a vanishing glass of brandy and soon the sharp Atlantic winds turn to world-class gales of laughter as these colourful characters become tangled up in a typically Stoppardian string of absurd events.

Buffet Box

 

 

 



 

Click here to pre-order a delicious Buffet Box to enjoy before the show.

Running Time

2 hours 20 minutes including an interval

General Guidance

Contains adult themes of a comic nature

Age Guidance

12+

Tickets

Monday - Saturday, 7.45PM
and Saturday, 2.30PM: £20/£25/£30/£35*
Thursday, 2.30PM: £20/£25/£30*

*All ticket prices include a £3 per-ticket booking fee.

Assisted Performances:

Audio Described performance: Saturday 13 April, 2:30pm

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John Partridge
John Partridge (Turai)

West End credits include: Rum Tum Tugger in Cats; Zack in the London revival of A Chorus Line; Robert Martin in The Drowsy Chaperone; Grinfoire in Notre-Dame de Paris; The Fix at the Donmar Warehouse, directed by Sam Mendes; Hawker/Captain Walker in Tommy; Grease at the Dominion Theatre; Electra in Starlight Express; The Butcher in The Hunting Of The Snark; Billy Flynn in Chicago the Musical on UK Tour; John in Miss Saigon on UK Tour; Roger in the European Tour of Rent; Black Goes With Everything at the Churchill Theatre, Bromley; and Marilyn in Boy George’s musical Taboo. Most recently, John toured the UK starring as Albin (who moonlights as star drag act Zaza) in a brand new version of La Cage Aux Folles.

Television credits include: Christian Clarke in EastEnders (BBC) Winner of Celebrity Masterchef 2018 (BBC); The Real Full Monty (ITV); Judge on Taking The Next Step (CBBC); Battlechefs (Watch); Tumble (BBC); Over The Rainbow (BBC); regular guest host of The National Lottery Draws (BBC); and frequent contributor on This Morning (ITV).

Charlie Stemp
Charlie Stemp (Dvornichek)

Theatre Credits include: Wicked (Apollo Victoria Theatre); Eddie in Mamma Mia! (International Tour); Arthur Kipps in Half A Sixpence (Chichester Festival Theatre & Noel Coward Theatre); Prince in Snow White (London Palladium); Dick in Dick Whittington (London Palladium); Barnaby Tucker in Hello, Dolly! (Shubert Theater, New York) opposite Bette Midler and Bernadette Peters.

Forthcoming: Bert in Mary Poppins (Prince Edward Theatre).

Awards: Nominated for the 2017 Olivier Award for Best Actor In A Musical; the 2017 Carl Alan Performer's Award; the 2016 UK Theatre Award for Best Performance In A Musical; and winner of the 2017 WhatsOnStage Award for Best Actor In A Musical. For his performance as Barnaby Tucker, Charlie was awarded the 2018 Theatre World Award for Outstanding Broadway Debut.

Issy Van Randwyck
Issy Van Randwyck (Natasha)

Theatre credits includes: Dazzling Divas (The Pheasantry); Anything That Flies (Jermyn Street Theatre); The Go Between (Apollo Theatre West End); A Further Education, Raving and No Naughty Bits (Hampstead Theatre); Dirty Dancing (Aldwych Theatre); Once in a Lifetime and A Little Night Music (National Theatre); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Two Gentlemen of Verona and Kiss Me Kate – Olivier Award Nomination for Best Supporting Performance in a Musical (Regents Park Open Air Theatre); A Small Family Business, Arcadia, The Man Who Came to Dinner and A Song of Singapore (Chichester Festival Theatre); The American Clock (Finborough Theatre); Closer Than Ever (Jermyn Street Theatre); Plaza Suite (Mill at Sonning); For Services Rendered (The Watermill Theatre); Becoming Marilyn (Riverside Studios and Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh); and Anyone Can Whistle and The Betrayal of Nora Blake (Jermyn Street Theatre).

Screen credits includes: Action Team; The Hippopotamus; The Danish Girl; Partners In Crime; Trial and Retribution; Spooks; Kingdom; Christopher and His Kind. 

Matthew Cottle
Matthew Cottle (Gal)

Theatre credits include: The Chalk Garden (Chichester Festival Theatre); Wonderland (Nottingham Playhouse); How The Other Half Loves (Theatre Royal Haymarket/Duke of Yorks/UK Tour); Communicating Doors (Menier Chocolate Factory); Our Country’s Good  (National Theatre); A Small Family Business (National Theatre); What the Women Did (Southwark Playhouse); Quartermaine’s Term (Wynham’s Theatre); A Chorus of Disapproval (Harold Pinter Theatre); Neighborhood Watch (UK Tour); Racing  Demon (Sheffield Crucible); The Habit of Art (National Theatre); Taking Steps (The Orange Tree); Absurd Person Singular (UK Tour); Man of the Moment, Private Fear in Public Place and Just Between Ourselves (The Royal Northampton); The Ghost Train (UK Tour); Just Between Ourselves (UK Tour); The Sunshine Boys (UK Tour); Comic Potential (Lyric); The Schoolmistress (Chichester Festival Theatre) and Rattle of a Simple Man (UK Tour).

Screen credits include: The Windsors; Plebs; Unforgotten; The Dresser; Citizen Khan; Man Down; Hoff the Record; Fried; Doctors; The Job Lot; Pram Face; Holby City; Sex the City and Me; Spooks; EastEnders; Life Begins; The Commander; Down to Earth; The Infinite World of H.G. Wells; Comin’ Atcha; The Bill; Game on; Get Well Soon; A Perfect State; Harry Enfield and Chums; An Independent Man; Karaoke; Casualty; Drop the Dead Donkey; Men of the World; Taking the Floor; Blessed; Bright Young Things; A Christmas Carol; and Chaplin.

Rob Ostlere
Rob Ostlere (Adam)

Theatre credits include: Sweet Bird of Youth (Chichester Festival Theatre); A Woman Killed with Kindness (National Theatre); Confessional (Southwark Playhouse); Masterpieces (Finborough Theatre); The Trial of Ubu (Hampstead Theatre); Sixty-Six Books (Bush Theatre); and Playlist, Epic and Slaves (Theatre 503).

His screen credits include: Arthur Digby in Holby City; Restless; Game of Thrones; and Doctors.

Simon Dutton
Simon Dutton (Ivor)

Theatre credits include: Kenny Morgan (Arcola Theatre); Private Lives (Kensington Palace); Plague Over England (Finborough Theatre); 20 Cigarettes (National Youth Theatre); Semi Monde (Lyric Theatre); Helping Harry (Jermyn Theatre); What You Get & What You Suspect (Lyric Hammersmith); Heartbreak House (Almeida); Lady Windermere’s Fan (Albery Theatre);  Time and The Conways (Old Vic); The Importance of Being Earnest (Whitehall Theatre); Not About Heroes and The Duchess of Malfi (National Theatre); Another Country (Queens Theatre); The Small Hours (Windsor Theatre); Odyssey: Missing Presumed Dead (UK Tour); The Rehearsal (Chichester Festival Theatre); Hamlet, Ghosts, The Winslow Boy, A Doll’s House, An Ideal Husband, Private Lives and Boeing Boeing (Theatre Clwyd); A Marvelous Year for Plums  (Chichester Festival Theatre); Venice Preserved, Endgame, Pygmalion, The Relapse and The Cherry Orchard (Citizens Theatre Glasgow); Present Laughter and Chips with Everything (Birmingham Rep); A Brief Encounter (UK Tour); and The Merchant of Venice and Much Ado About Nothing (RSC).

Screen credits include:  A Christmas Prince 2; Endeavour; Doctors; Eastenders; Midsomer Murders; Garrows; Come Rain or Come Shine; Holby City, Dr Who; Bones; Not Going Out; The Real Deal; New Tricks; The Rise and Fall of Rome; Heartbeat; Holby City; As If; The Royal Matchmaker; Jupiter Ascending; Suite Francaise; 1911; Death Train; Lasko, The Hunt Feast; Dangerous Beauty; King David; Memed My Hawk; A Man From A Far Country; and Walking With The Enemy.

Tom Stoppard (Playwright)

Tony and Olivier award-winning work for the stage includes: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, The Real Inspector Hound, Jumpers, Travesties, Night and Day, The Real Thing, Hapgood, Indian Ink, Arcadia, The Invention of Love, The Coast of Utopia, Rock ‘n’ Roll and The Hard Problem

Translations and adaptations include works by Lorca, Nestroy, Schnitzler, Molnar, Pirandello and Chekhov. 

Academy award-winning film work includes: Shakespeare In Love, Billy Bathgate, Brazil, Empire of the Sun, Enigma, and Anna Karenina. He directed the film of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Most recent radio for BBC is Darkside (with Pink Floyd). 

Rachel Kavanaugh (Director)

Theatre credits include: The Wind in the Willows (London Palladium), Half a Sixpence (Chichester Festival Theatre), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, The Sound of Music, Much Ado about Nothing, As You Like It, Cymbeline, The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night and Love’s Labor’s  Lost (all at The Open Air Theatre Regent's Park).

During Rachel’s time as Artistic Director of Birmingham Repertory Theatre, her theatre credits include: Arthur and George, His Dark Materials, Hapgood, Peter Pan – A Musical Adventure, Uncle Vanya, The Wizard of Oz, Racing Demon, The Madness of George III, A Doll’s House (and UK Tour) and Arcadia. For Chichester Festival Theatre An Ideal Husband, Love Story, The Way of the World, The Music Man and A Small Family Business.

Rachel’s other theatre credits include: Single Spies (Chichester Festival Theatre, Birmingham Repertory Theatre and UK Tour), Oklahoma! (UK Tour), Hope Place (Liverpool Playhouse Theatre), Alice in Wonderland and The Merry Wives of Windsor (both for the Royal Shakespeare Company), Guys and Dolls (Sheffield Crucible Theatre), A View From the Bridge (Greenwich Theatre) and Saigon Rose (Orange Tree Theatre).

Gallery

  • A waiter stands among guests
  • A waiter is smiling on the telephone
  • A man in an old swimsuit carries a box
  • A man in a suit sits in a deckchair
  • Three men in evening wear are stood talking
  • A man is at a table point his fork, it has a cherry on it
  • An older man in pajamas stands behind a woman on a settee
  • A group of men surround a woman at a table
  • three men and a lady are arm in arm dancing
  • 'Few modern playwrights server a fizzier champagne of verbal wit than Tom Stoppard'

    NEW YORK TIMES