Ladies Down Under
Hilarious heart-warming comedy
The autumn season at the Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch takes flight with the hilarious
heart-warming comedy Ladies Down Under from 27 August – 11 September.
Starring the Queen’s professional resident company cut to the chase…, Ladies Down Under is award-winning writer Amanda Whittington’s side-splitting sequel to Ladies’ Day, last autumn’s sell-out show at the Queen’s.
In Ladies’ Day, we watched four girlfriends win the jackpot at Royal Ascot. In Ladies Down Under, which has recently completed a successful national tour, we catch up with motherly Pearl, lovelorn Jan, label-obsessed Shelley and gentle Linda, who decide to leave their jobs in a Hull fish-packing factory and celebrate with a sun-soaked, laughter-filled holiday to Australia.
Forget Sex and the City and join our four Sheilas as they journey through their own exotic deserts filled with handsome strangers - from adventures in the outback to the bright lights of Sydney! But as the sun sets and reality bites, the girls soon realise there’s more to life than money.
Queen’s Theatre Artistic Director Bob Carlton said: “Ladies’ Day was hugely popular here last year. But you don’t need to have watched it to enjoy Ladies Down Under, which is a hilarious and heart-warming comedy about life and friendship as the girls embark on a whole new story and adventure. Audiences will love it.”
Amanda Whittington, who has been described as Britain's ‘most consistently popular female dramatist’ (The Guardian), has written and adapted over 10 plays for stage, screen and radio.
Her play Bollywood Jane won the BBC2 Dennis Potter Screenwriting Award in 2001.
Ladies Down Under stars members of cut to the chase… Diana Croft, Sarah Scowen,
Lucy Thackeray and Helen Watson. And playing all the men between them – from hunky backpackers to show-stealing drag queens - will be Simon Jessop and Oliver Seymour-Marsh.
Sarah Scowen, of Grays, and Oliver Seymour-Marsh starred in last spring’s smash hit musical Camp Horror. Saucy comedienne Helen Watson is also known and loved at Hornchurch for her Music Hall performances. The Queen’s is also delighted to welcome back cut to the chase… regulars Diana Croft, Simon Jessop and Lucy Thackeray.
Ladies Down Under is directed by Queen’s Theatre Associate Director Matt Devitt, with set design by Claire Lyth and lighting design by Mark Dymock.
Leave the kids at home, book your tickets to Oz and enjoy this feel-good chick-flick for the stage. Women of all ages will love this poignant, laugh-a-minute comedy set in a land of beaches, barbies and billabongs – fair dinkum!
“Whittington has created ladies to care about and laugh with” The Stage
WhatsOnStage.com
Ladies Down Under will be playing at the Queen’s Theatre, Billet Lane, Hornchurch, from
27 August – 11 September. Tickets cost between £14 - £23. To book, call the Box Office on 01708 443333 or book online at www.queens-theatre.co.uk
