Full cast and creative team announced for THE RIVALS at Orange Tree Theatre
Orange Tree Theatre has announced the full cast and creative team for the 250th Anniversary production of Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s comic classic The Rivals, which plays at the venue from 29 November 2025 – 24 January 2026 before touring to Bath and Cambridge.
Directed by Artistic Director Tom Littler, the cast includes Robert Bathurst (Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol, Southbank Centre) as Anthony Absolute and Patricia Hodge (Watch on the Rhine, Donmar Warehouse) as Mrs Malaprop, alongside Pete Ashmore (Macbeth, National Theatre) as Frederick Arnold Gieves, Joëlle Brabban (Stig of the Dump, Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre) as Lucy, Zoe Brough (The Still Room, Park Theatre) as Lydia Languish, Dylan Corbett-Bader (Revenge: After the Levoyah, The Yard Theatre/Soho Theatre) as Bob Acres, Jim Findley (Girl on an Altar, Abbey Theatre/Kiln Theatre) as Tim, Colm Gormley (An Interrogation, Hampstead Theatre) as Lucius O’Trigger, Robert Maskell (The Importance of Being Earnest, Storyhouse) as David, Boadicea Ricketts (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, RSC) as Julia Melville, James Sheldon (Pride and Prejudice, Octagon Theatre/Hull Truck Theatre) as ‘Faulty’ Faulkland, and Kit Young (All’s Well That Ends Well, Shakespeare’s Globe) as Jack Absolute.
You thought! Thought does not become a young woman.
Bath in the Roaring Twenties: risqué revelry, romance, and rivalry in the Assembly Rooms – a town torn between tradition and the new age.
Lydia and Jack are made for each other – but Lydia’s a rebel and Jack’s too posh to be her beau. What’s a chap to do? A little harmless deception, of course. Meanwhile, Jack’s father, Anthony Absolute, is absolutely determined to be obeyed, and Lydia’s guardian Mrs Malaprop is seeking a love-affair of her own – if only she could find the right words...
Tom Littler said: “It’s a real pleasure to be working with this brilliant company on The Rivals. Each actor brings their own insight, energy, and creativity, and I’m excited to see how we’ll capture Sheridan’s humour and wit in the glamour and chaos of the Roaring Twenties.”
The production features set and costume design by Anett Black and Neil Irish, lighting by William Reynolds, sound and composition by Tom Attwood, movement direction by Leah Harris, and casting consultancy by Ginny Schiller CDG.