London Classic Theatre brings Alan Aykbourn play to the Suffolk stage
London Classic Theatre (LCT) is touring a production of Alan Aykbourn’s emotionally charged play, Just Between Ourselves, this year to mark the company’s 25th anniversary - and they will be visiting two great Suffolk theatres along the way.
The group was launched in 2000 and twenty-four years and forty-eight shows later, it is now an established part of the commercial UK touring theatre scene. Celebrating their success and marking the milestone birthday, the anniversary tour launches at the New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich on February 26, before heading to 20 further venues across the UK over the following five months – including a performance at Theatre Royal in Bury St Edmunds in June.
Featuring a cast of five, the play is set in 1976, where we find Dennis tinkering in his garage, cheerfully indifferent to wife Vera’s impending breakdown. Marjorie hovers in the background, making tea and finding fault. Neil has planned a birthday surprise for his wife, but Pam doesn’t share his enthusiasm, preoccupied by frustrations of her own. As the story unfolds, Ayckbourn masterfully evokes a world of hidden tensions and suppressed hostility, skilfully navigating the tightrope between comedy and tragedy and guiding us towards a hilarious, yet chilling finale.
Founder and artistic director, Michael Cabot, said: “I’m delighted to be directing Just Between Ourselves as the centrepiece of LCT’s 25th anniversary celebrations. Alan Ayckbourn seems to have become a regular feature for us when we hit a big milestone - we produced Absent Friends for our fifteenth anniversary and Absurd Person Singular for our twentieth! Alan’s ambition as a writer, both in terms of the worlds he creates and the nuance of his writing, is quite unparalleled. Ostensibly, his plays are comedies, dealing with marital tensions, aspiration and that very British preoccupation with class. Just Between Ourselves explores this familiar territory with aplomb, but under the surface lies another dimension, sometimes dark and often painful. Now in his 86th year, with 91 plays under his belt, Alan Ayckbourn is not only our most prolific playwright, but a genuine British institution. It’s a genuine privilege to be bringing Just Between Ourselves, one of his finest and most fascinating plays, to life in 2025.”
Alan Ayckbourn is one of the most widely performed living English language playwrights and a highly regarded theatre director. He is an Olivier, Tony and Molière Award-winning writer who has written over 80 full length plays, more than half of which have gone on to the West End. His contribution to theatre has been recognised with both the Olivier Special Award and a Special Tony Award.
The cast of Just Between Ourselves:
Connie Walker plays Marjorie. She returns to London Classic Theatre after having appeared in My Mother Said I Never Should, In Basildon and Beauty Queen of Leenane. Further theatre credits include The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, The Importance of Being Earnest (Watermill Theatre), The March on Russia (Orange Tree Theatre), Reasons to Stay Alive, Macbeth, Death of a Salesman, Sister Winnie (UK tour), The Taxidermists Daughter, Separate Tables (Chichester Festival Theatre), Trestle (Southwark Playhouse), A Month of Sundays (Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch), To Kill A Mockingbird (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, Barbican Theatre and UK tour), An Inspector Calls, Deathtrap (English Theatre Frankfurt) and Seeing the Lights (New Vic Theatre). Her television credits include Pennyworth and Silent Witness; and for film, The Darkest Light and What Do You See?
Joseph Clowser plays Neil. His theatre credits include Hummingbird (Leeds Playhouse, Seven Arts), Private Peaceful (Cambridge Arts Theatre), Living Together (Sidmouth Manor Pavilion), Short Memory (Waterloo East Theatre), Present Laughter (Sidmouth Manor Pavilion, Pomegranate Theatre), Jamaica Inn (Sidmouth Manor Pavilion, Pomegranate Theatre, Windsor Theatre Royal), The Gift (White Bear Theatre), The Tail of Klaus and Shelly Waterbottom (Theatre503). For television Inside Balmoral; and for film, Time Cut.
Helen Phillips plays Pam. She returns to London Classic Theatre after having appeared in Equus and The Importance of Being Earnest. Further theatre credits include The Lottery (Bury Court Opera), Crush! The Musical (Harold Pinter Theatre), And in the End (Jermyn Street Theatre), The Diary of Anne Frank (Upstairs at The Gatehouse and Broadway Theatre, Catford), Dad’s Army Marches On (UK tour) and State Fair (Finborough Theatre, Trafalgar Studios). Her television credits include This is Going to Hurt, Doctors, Call the Midwife; and for film, Arthur and Merlin and Big Day.
Tom Richardson plays Dennis. He returns to London Classic Theatre having previously appeared in Abigail’s Party. Further theatre credits include Hamlet (Orange Tree Theatre), The Hound of the Baskervilles (Eastbourne Theatres), Little Women (HOME Manchester), The Snow Queen, Sleeping Beauty, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Julius Caesar (Storyhouse, Chester), Sherlock, Private Lives, Little Women (Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Watford Palace Theatre), As You Like It, She Stoops to Conquer, Twelfth Night, The Merry Wives of Windsor (Guildford Shakespeare Company), The Prince and the Pauper (New Vic), Lady Chatterley’s Lover (UK tour), Perfect Nonsense, Sense and Sensibility, Single Spies and The Rivals (Theatre by the Lake, Keswick and York Theatre Royal).
Holly Smith plays Mrs Prentice. She returns to London Classic Theatre having previously appeared in What The Butler Saw. Further theatre credits include A Christmas Carol, The Great Gatsby (Theatre Royal Windsor), The Mirror Crack’d, Shadowlands, Flare Path, Blithe Spirit, Out of Order (UK tour), Don’t Misunderstand Me, Beauty of the Father, Boeing Boeing, I’ll Be Back Before Midnight, Candida (English Theatre of Hamburg), The Odd Couple (Vienna’s English Theatre), Miss Margarida’s Way (Leicester Square Theatre), National Mourning (Theatre503), The Hothouse (Trafalgar Studios), Teechers (Harrogate Theatre, Haymarket Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe), The Barchester Chronicles (Chichester Festival Theatre), Plaza Suite (Marlborough Theatre) and Annie (Yvonne Arnaud Theatre). Her television credits include Killing Eve, Zapped, Watson and Oliver, Coming of Age and The Frame; and for film, Ghost Stories, Closer and Appearances.
Michael Cabot directs and is the founder and Artistic Director of London Classic Theatre. He has directed all forty-eight LCT productions since their touring debut in 2000, including Faith Healer, Abigail’s Party, Boeing Boeing, Same Time, Next Year, Absurd Person Singular, No Man’s Land, My Mother Said I Never Should, Private Lives, Hysteria, The Birthday Party, Waiting for Godot, Absent Friends and Equus. His recent freelance work as director includes three collaborations with award-winning playwright Henry Naylor, The Collector (Arcola Theatre/UK tour), Angel and Borders (Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Adelaide Fringe & Brits Off Broadway).
Just Between Ourselves is at New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich on 26 February - 1 March 2025.
FOR FULL SHOW DETAILS AND BOOKING LINK, CLICK HERE
Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds details to follow when available.
For full UK tour details, visit the show’s website.