Nottingham-born Aisling Loftus is to take the lead in the Nottingham Playhouse production of Dennis Kelly’s play Girls & Boys.
Loftus took the role of Agnes Towler in the ITV period drama Mr Selfridge, which started in 2013. Earlier in 2024, she featured in the second series of James Graham’s Sherwood for the BBC.
In 2017, she appeared in Stephen Lowe’s wartime drama Touched at Nottingham Playhouse alongside another Nottingham actress, Vicky McClure, who was making her professional stage debut.
Kelly is probably best known for writing the book for the Royal Shakespeare Company production of Matilda the Musical, which had its West End debut at the Cambridge Theatre in 2011 after a run at Stratford over the previous Christmas period.
Girls & Boys had its première at the Royal Court Theatre Downstairs in 2018, with Carey Mulligan in the “tour de force one-woman show full of savage humour and raw intensity”. The Nottingham Playhouse production will be directed by Anna Ledwich, who directed Lauren Gunderson’s anthropology at Hampstead Theatre in 2023.
Loftus said, “I’m over the moon to be working with Anna on this, and to be doing it in Nottingham is very exciting and scary. It’s a funny, dark, unforgettable play. I can’t wait to get started.”
Ledwich added, "Girls & Boys manages to be that rare beast: a funny, provocative, shocking and moving play. It lures you in, charms you and then pulls the rug out from under you. It’s a magnificent tour de force for an outstanding actress, and Aisling Loftus has the wit, steel, vulnerability and power that will make this play sing. I can’t wait to unpack the play’s mysteries with her.”
Designer is Janet Bird, lighting designer is Matt Haskins, sound design is by Harry Blake, movement director is Chi-San Howard, Joel Trill is voice and dialect coach and casting director is Arthur Carrington.
Nottingham Playhouse artistic director Adam Penford commented, “what an honour to be producing the regional première of Dennis Kelly’s Girls & Boys. Dennis is one of the UK's best writers and this play goes off like a rocket. It’s very timely and sadly has become even more so since it premièred in London in 2018. So far, only Carey Mulligan has performed this immense role and we’re thrilled to have Nottingham’s own Aisling Loftus take on the challenge.”
Girls & Boys will run at Nottingham Playhouse from Saturday 8 February until Saturday 1 March 2025, with press night on Wednesday 12 February.