25 Jan CASTING: Full Casting Announced for Danielle Tarento’s Gods and Monsters

Director – Russell Labey
Producer and Casting Director – Danielle Tarento
Costume Designer – Jason Denvir
Lighting Designer – Mike Robertson
Sound Designer – John Chambers
Projection Designer – Louise Rhoades-Brown
Image Credit – Annabel Vere

Frankenstein director James Whale, long forgotten by the studios and in reclusive Hollywood retirement has fallen victim to a series of strokes. The only demons he fights now are in his head. Handsome new gardner, Clayton Boone, becomes an unlikely friend and unwitting player in Whale’s grand finale. Not so much a Hollywood history as a glorious imagining, exploring the sometimes divine, sometimes monstrous landscape of obsession and desire.

Gods and Monsters, soon to have its world prèmiere in a five-week season at the Southwark Playhouse, is based on the novel Father of Frankenstein by Christopher Bram – the same source material as the 1998 Oscar-winning movie of the same name.

It has been announced that Ian Gelder, who played Kevan Lannister in the epic TV drama series Game of Thrones, is to play the lead as James Whale, alongside Will Austin as gardener Clayton Boone, who becomes the object of Whale’s obsession.

Ian Gelder’s distinguished stage career also includes playing Marcus Andronicus in Lucy Bailey’s acclaimed, ultra-gory production of Titus Andronicus at Shakespeare’s Globe, Jack Bryant in Roots at the Donmar Warehouse, Kent in Michael Attenborough’s King Lear at the Almeida, The Low Road at the Royal Court, and Larry in Company at Sheffield Crucible. On TV he has featured in Mr Selfridge, Endeavour, and Psychoville.

Will Austin has just finished filming Mission Impossible 5 with Tom Cruise. He was in 24: Die Another Day alongside Kiefer Sutherland and Danny Boyle’s Babylon. Gods and Monsters marks his professional London stage debut.

The cast is completed by Lachele Carl, who was a series regular in Dr Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures, and just appeared in the acclaimed production of A Streetcar Named Desire with Gillian Anderson at the Young Vic. Will Rastall was Serius in Game of Thrones, and he recently appeared in both Mock Tudor and Daddy Took My Debt Away at London’s Theatre503. Finally, Joey Phillips makes his professional London stage debut, having just graduated from Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Venue: The Large, Southwark Playhouse
Dates: 5th February – 7th March 2015
For tickets and information: southwarkplayhouse.co.uk