The UK première of a “razor-sharp new comedy” What’s in a Name? opens the 2017 spring and summer season at Birmingham REP.
Adapted and directed by Jeremy Sams from the award-winning French play and movie Le Prenom by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière, What’s in a Name? “hilariously” captures a particularly awkward family dinner-party conversation in which a “startling revelation” about the name chosen for an expected child becomes the catalyst for a “destructive argument which spirals hysterically out of control”.
A co-production between the REP and Just For Laughs Theatricals, What’s in a Name? features Nigel Harman, best known for playing Dennis Rickman in the BBC soap EastEnders, and Sarah Hadland who was Miranda Hart’s sidekick Stevie Spencer in the BBC comedy series Miranda.
The cast also includes Raymond Coulthard—who returns to the REP after playing King George VI in David Seidler’s The King’s Speech in 2015—Jamie Glover and Olivia Poulet.
What’s In A Name? is designed by Francis O’Connor with lighting design by Rick Fisher. It runs at the REP from Friday 27 January until Saturday 11 February. Press night will be Tuesday 31 January.