Hayley Mills to star in LADIES IN LAVENDER at Northampton Royal & Derngate then national tour

Hayley Mills and Belinda Lang star in stage premiere of

Ladies In Lavender

Royal & Derngate, Northampton

TV and stage icon Hayley Mills will be starring alongside Belinda Lang in the world premiere stage production of Ladies In Lavender at Royal & Derngate this spring. This evocative and heart-warming story of unfulfilled dreams and unrequited love runs from Friday 6 April to Saturday 28 April, as part of the 2012 Made In Northampton season before embarking on a national tour.

Based on the hit film screenplay by Charles Dance starring Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, and on the original short story by William J Locke, Ladies In Lavender tells the tale of two sisters Ursula and Janet who live in a close-knit fishing village in picturesque Cornwall, in 1936. When a handsome and talented young Polish-Jewish violinist bound for America is washed ashore, the Widdington sisters take him under their wing and nurse him back to health. However, the presence of the mysterious young man disrupts their peaceful lives and the community in which they live.

Hayley Mills stars as Ursula Widdington in the stage production. Hayley is from one of Britain’s greatest theatrical families. Signed to Walt Disney Studio as a child, she has worked extensively in film and on stage. Her theatre work includes the UK tour of The King And I and Humble Boy, and on television, she appears as Caroline in ITV's Wild At Heart. Belinda Lang, who plays her sister Janet, has starred in the West End opposite Dame Judi Dench in Hay Fever and more recently in The Killing of Sister George at the Arts Theatre, and is most well-known on television for 2 Point 4 Children.

The cast includes Robert Duncan, well-known as the jargon-spouting Gus in the award-winning Channel 4 sitcom Drop the Dead Donkey; Carol Macready who was recently seen on the Royal stage in JB Priestley’s Eden End, directed by Laurie Sansom and who received a Whatsonstage nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mrs Clegg in Enjoy on tour and in the West End and Abigail Thaw, who most recently played a newspaper editor in the ITV Christmas special Endeavour, a prequel to Inspector Morse. Robert Rees plays the young violinist.

Director Robin LeFevre was nominated for the New York Drama Desk Award for Best Director for Brian Friel’s Aristocrats and won the Evening Standard Best Musical Award for Alan Bleasdale’s Are You Lonesome Tonight? More recently he has directed a host of classic, critically acclaimed revivals often at the Gate Theatre, Dublin. Ladies in Lavender has been adapted for the stage by Shaun McKenna and features Nigel Hess’ music from the film, which earned him a Classical Brit award.

A Royal & Derngate co-production with Daniel Schumann and Lee Dean in association with Charles Diamond

Ladies In Lavender

Performance Schedule: Friday 6 to Saturday 28 April 2011

Press Night (regional press only): Tuesday 10 April 7pm

Evenings 7.45pm (except Tuesday 10 April 7pm)

Matinees – Thursday and Saturday 2.30pm (excluding Sat 7 April)

No performances on Sundays

Creative Team

Director Robin LeFevre

Designer Liz Ascroft

Lighting Designer Mick Hughes

Sound Designer John Leonard