Withnail and I
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Cult classic becomes an astonishing, rapier-sharp stage comedy”
★★★★★ WhatsOnStage
Birmingham Rep presents the premiere of a new stage adaptation by Bruce Robinson of the iconic comedy Withnail and I.
Regarded as one of the finest British films ever made, this Rep Original comedy is written by its original creator, the legendary Bruce Robinson, and directed by The Rep’s Artistic Director, double Olivier award-winner, Sean Foley.
Manic fun… spot on.”
★★★★ The Times
London, September 1969, the sixties are in full swing, rock ’n’ roll has electrified a generation, and bohemianism rules.
But, away from the bright lights two young unemployed actors, the flamboyant, boozy Withnail, and the shy, contemplative Marwood live in utter squalor in a flat in Camden Town, praying for a job.
Not to be missed!”
★★★★★ Culture Bab
Their only visitor is their drug dealer, Danny; their only expeditions are to the local pubs; and their only friends each other.
Needing a break from the positively atrocious state of their acting careers, they hit upon the idea of a holiday in the country, and borrow the cottage owned by Withnail’s wealthy Uncle Monty. Will escaping London reinvigorate their addled brains and kick start their professional fortunes?…
An entertaining and well-crafted show”
★★★★ Birmingham Live
Hilarious, tragic, and wild, Withnail and I, is a comedy like no other. This stage adaptation brings to life the classic dialogue, the insane situations, and above all the boozy, irresistibly hilarious relationship of one of the most famous slacker duos ever created.
Presented by
Birmingham Rep, Handmade Films and George Waud for Groove International
Based on
the film Withnail and I, written and directed by Bruce Robinson, produced by Handmade Films
Written by
Bruce Robinson
Directed by
Sean Foley
Designed by
Alice Power
Price
From £19.50
Age Guidance
14+
Please note, no under 5s will be admitted to the auditorium.
Content Advice
Please note, this production contains strong language, including racist terms and homophobic references, and scenes of drug/alcohol use and smoking.
Running Time
Approximately 2 hrs 15 mins including a 20 minute interval.
Access Performances
Audio Described: Sat 25 May 2.30pm (described by Carolyn Smith)
A Free Touch Tour is available to book before the Audio Described performance.
BSL Interpreted: Wed 15 May 7.30pm (interpreted by Karen Ward-Welch).
Captioned: Tue 21 May 7.30pm (captioned by Cara Lawless)
Relaxed: Mon 20 May 7.30pm
Post Show Talk
A post show talk with The Rep’s Artistic Director Sean Foley will take place after the performance on Tue 21 May, 7.30pm.
Please note, the post show talk will not be captioned.
Special Offers
3 for 2: Add 3 shows into your basket and at checkout enjoy 33% off each production for selected productions. T&Cs apply – Find Out More
Teens Go Free: Receive one complimentary young persons ticket (13-19 years) when you book one standard ticket for selected productions. Discount will be applied automatically at checkout when you add both tickets to your basket. T&Cs apply – Find Out More
Fees & Charges
Please note, there is a transaction fee of £3.50 on all payment types.
Venue
Upgrade to Chesterfield Seats
Want to feel like you too could hop in the MkII and go on holiday by mistake? Then, take your seat in one of our five Chesterfield sofas, with seating for up to two for a performance of Withnail and I.
Situated at the very front of our auditorium, this unique experience will give you a front row couch to soak up all the action, and a choice of hospitality packages.
Experiences start from £80.
We've gone on stage... by mistake!
Photography by Manuel Harlan
Photography by Manuel Harlan
Photography by Manuel Harlan
Photography by Manuel Harlan
Cast
Adonis Siddique
Adonis Siddique graduated from the Guildford School of Acting.
Theatre credits include: Wythe Edwards & The Kings Footman in ‘The Crown Jewels’ (Garrick Theatre) Saleem in ‘East Is East‘ (National Theatre); Dorian Gray in ’The Picture Of Dorian Gray’ (Pleasance London); Crowther in ’The History Boys’ (The Wolverhampton Grand); Jav in ‘Mismatched’ (Sky Comedy/ Birmingham Rep) Quasim in ‘Very Special Guest Star’ (Soho Theatre); and Kyle in Dad (Southwark Playhouse). Adonis was a creative collaborator and actor in Shunt’s ‘Party Skills For The End Of The World’ at The Manchester International Festival
Film & Television credits include: ‘Newark Newark‘ (UKTV Gold); ‘Tin Star’ (Sky Atlantic) ‘Tyrant’ (FX); ‘Beyond Reasonable Doubt’ (CNN); ‘The Grass Is Always Grindr’ (London Live); and feature film ‘Me Myself and Di’.
Robert Sheehan
Robert Sheehan made his acting debut in Aisling Walsh’s acclaimed feature Song For A Raggy Boy.
His screen work includes: Season of the Witch (Atlas), Cherrybomb (Generator), Killing Bono (Generator/Cinema Three), The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (Constantin), The Road Within (Amasia), The Song of Sway Lake (Grack), Anita B (Jean Vigo Italia), The Messenger (Gateway), Moonwalkers (Partizan), Jet Trash (Aimimage), Geostorm (Warner/Netflix), Bad Samaritan (Electric), Three Summers (TSF), Mute (Liberty), Mortal Engines (MRC/Universal), the BAFTA winning Red Riding trilogy (Revolution/Channel 4), multi-IFTA winning Love/Hate (RTE/Octagon), BAFTA winning Misfits (Clerkenwell/E4), for which he was also BAFTA nominated, The Borrowers (Working Title/BBC), Accused (BBC), Fortitude (Fifty Fathoms/Sky), Genius: Picasso (National Geo/Disney), The Last Bus (Netflix), The Umbrella Academy (Universal/Netflix) and the upcoming Red Sonja (Millennium Films)
Theatre credits include: The Playboy of the Western World directed by John Crowley for the Old Vic, Richard III in The Wars of the Roses directed by Trevor Nunn for the Rose Theatre and Endgame directed by Danya Taymor for the Gate Theatre Dublin.
Malcolm Sinclair
Theatre credits include: Dear Octopus (National Theatre); The Inquiry (Chichester Festival Theatre); As You Like It (RSC); Pressure (Royal Alexandra Theatre, Toronto); My Fair Lady (West End, London Coliseum); Copenhagen (Theatre Royal Bath); Coriolanus (Crucible Theatre); The Light in the Piazza (Chicago); An Enemy of the People (Nottingham Playhouse); The Light in the Piazza (Los Angeles); The Light in the Piazza (Royal Festival Hall); Pressure (Chichester/Royal Lyceum/ Ambassador’s Theatre); This House (Chichester Festival Theatre / Garrick); Showboat (New London Theatre); The Meeting (The Hampstead Theatre); Songs of the 1916 Rising (Helix Theatre, DCU); Bliss: Morning Heroes (Hereford Cathedral); Temple (Donmar Warehouse); Quartermaine’s Terms (The Wyndham’s Theatre); The Doctor’s Dilemma (The National Theatre); The King James Bible Readings (The Royal National Theatre); 66 Books (The Bush Theatre); Rattigan’s Nijinksy (Chichester Festival Theatre); Racing Demon (Sheffield Crucible); The Habit Of Art (Royal National Theatre); The Power Of Yes (Royal National Theatre); Ivanov (Donmar Warehouse); Man of the Moment (Royal & Derngate, Northampton); Rosmersholm (Almeida); Dealer’s Choice (Menier Chocolate Factory / Trafalgar Studio); The History Boys (Royal National Theatre Broadway); What The Butler Saw (Hampstead & Criterion Theatre); Journey’s End (Playhouse Theatre); Twelfth Night (Sheffield Crucible); Richard III (Royal Shakespeare Company); My Fair Lady (Theatre Royal Drury Lane); Luther (Royal National Theatre); Privates On Parade (Donmar Warehouse); House/Garden (Royal National Theatre); Cressida (Almeida @ The Albery); Hay Fever (Savoy Theatre); Richard III (Royal National Theatre); Heartbreak House (Almeida Theatre); Racing Demon (Royal National Theatre); By Jeeves (Duke of York’s Theatre); Uncle Vanya (Royal Shakespeare Company at The Young Vic); Comedy Of Errors (Royal Shakespeare Company Tour); The Misanthrope (Royal National Theatre); Hamlet (Royal Shakespeare Company Tour); Splendids (Lyric Hammersmith); The Case of Rebellious Susan (Orange Tree); Dark River (Orange Tree); Facades (Lyric Hammersmith); The Millionairess (Greenwich Theatre); Anatole (The Gate Theatre); London’s Cuckolds (Lyric Hammersmith); Little Lies (Wyndhams Theatre).
TV credits include: Andor: A Star Wars Story (Disney +); Midsomer Murders (Bentley Productions); Virtuoso (HBO); Tubby and Enid (Endor Productions for BBC2); Worricker (BBC 2 / Carnival Films); Silk – Series 2 and 3 (BBC 1); Henry V (BBC 2); Parade’s End (HBO/BBC); The Hollow Crown (Neal Street Productions, NBC Universal Television for BBC Two, PBS) Material Girl (Carnival); Midsomer Murders (Bentley Productions); Daphne (BBC); Foyle’s War (Greenlit); Hustle (Kudos); Judge John Deed (BBC); The Amazing Mrs Pritchard (Kudos); Life Begins (Granada for ITV); Judge John Deed (BBC); Falling (Yorkshire TV); Rosemary and Thyme (Carnival); The Brief (Carlton TV); Making Waves (Carlton TV); Anybody’s Nightmare (Carlton TV); A & E (Granada TV); Relic Hunter (Julian); Murder Rooms (BBC); Victoria & Albert (Allahoo Ltd); Anna Karenina (Company for Channel 4); Fish (Principal Pictures for BBC); Midsomer Murders (Bentley Productions Ltd); Kavanagh QC (Carlton TV); Casualty 13 (BBC); McLibel (Channel 4); Writing On The Wall (Little Bird Productions); Pie In The Sky – Series 4 (SelecTV for BBC); A Touch of Frost (ITV); Scarlett (US Mini Series); The Scarlett and The Black (BBC); A Question of Gulit (BBC); Big Battalions (Carnival for Channel 4); Hancock (BBC); Poirot (LWT); Rumpole of the Bailey (Thames TV); Everyone A Winner (Channel 4); Me And The Girls (BBC); Prisoner of Zenda (BBC); Byron – A Personal Tour (BBC).
Film credits include: Drowning; The Man Who Knew Infinity (Animus Films); Survivor (Millennium Films); A Belfast story (Joltme Features); The Young Victoria (Initial Entertainment); Casino Royale (Eon Productions); V for Vendetta (Warner Brothers); The Statement (Company Pictures); Secret Passage (Delux Productions); Keep The Aspidistra Flying (Aspidistra Productions); Young Poisoner’s Handbook (Bavaria Film and Television Fund); God On The Rocks (Channel 4); Now That It’s Morning (Channel 4); Success Is The Best Revenge (Gaumont)
Radio credits include: The Long View
Adam Young
Training: Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts
Theatre includes: Call Me Vicky (Pleasance Theatre); The Duchess of Malfi (Sam Wanamaker Festival, The Globe), No Quarter (Soho Theatre); Twelfth Night, Henry V, Macbeth, The Merry Wives of Windsor (Petersfield Shakespeare Festival); The Alchemist (Shakespeare Festival at Globe-Nuess)
Film includes: Don’t Breathe 2, Two For Joy, Clergymen, ULTRA
Television includes: Masters of the Air, The Witcher: Blood Origin, Romantic Getaway, Rise of the Tudors, Sex Education, EastEnders
Israel J. Fredericks
Training: Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama
Theatre includes: Mike in This is Not a Coup (Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama); Mr Coombes in The Welkin (Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama); Ensemble Macbeth ( Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama); Stanley in Richard III (Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama); Company in Phoenix/Ubuntu/Alchemy (Maktub Arts), The 10 (Maktub Arts).
This is Israel’s first professional engagement since leaving drama school.
Morgan Philpott
Morgan trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
His theatre credits include: Horrible Histories (Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue); The Merchant of Venice (RSC); The 101 Dalmatians (Birmingham Rep); Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, The Tempest (Stafford Castle); Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, Othello (Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory); The Importance of Being Earnest, The Secret Adversary, Peter Pan, Treasure Island, Gulliver’s Travels, Arabian Nights, The Snow Queen (Watermill Theatre); Partners In Crime (Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch); Larisa and the Merchants (Arcola Theatre); As You Like It, Bleak House, Henry V, King Lear (Creation Theatre); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Comedy Of Errors, The Merry Wives of Windsor (Guildford Shakespeare Company); The Sound of Music (Kilworth House); Dick Turpin’s Last Ride (Bury St. Edmunds Theatre Royal); Larkrise to Candleford (New Perspectives); Don Quixote (Croydon Warehouse); Twelfth Night, George’s Marvellous Medicine (Birmingham Stage Company); James and the Giant Peach (Northampton Theatre Royal); Pinocchio (Polka Theatre); Jack and the Beanstalk, Beauty and the Beast, Robin Hood (Little Wolf Entertainment).
Film and television credits include Beau Brummel, Casualty, Doctors, Horrible Histories (BBC), Coronation Street (ITV), The Story Of George Muller (CTA) and Then Voyager (Filmro Productions).
Matt Devitt
Extensive theatre includes: Shylock in Merchant Of Venice, Touchstone in As You Like It; Al in April In Paris; Sidney Bruhl in Death Trap; Daffyd in A Chorus Of Disapproval; Landlord in Two; Lionel Bart in It’s A Fine Life (Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch); Bottom in A Midsummer Nights Dream; Dromio of Ephesus in Comedy Of Errors (Ludlow Festival); Stephano in The Tempest (Nottingham Playhouse); Eric Glamis in (and as director) From A Jack To A King (Ambassadors Theatre, London); Olivier nomination for creating the role of ‘Cookie’ in Return To The Forbidden Planet (Cambridge Theatre, London).
TV includes: Red Dwarf, Keen Eddie, The Life & Crimes Of William Palmer, Down To Earth, Playaway, Jackanory, Melvin & Maureen’s Music A Gram and Campus.
Film includes: Waking Ned Devine and Funny Man.
Matt directed over 70 productions as Associate Artistic Director of the Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch over 18 years.
Adam Sopp
Training: Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
Theatre: Dal Segno (Tabard); No Picnic (Shooting Fish); Ubu (Kneehigh), Macbeth (Shakespeare Project); Much Ado About Nothing (New English Shakespeare Co.); Henry V (Barn Theatre); We’ll Live and Die In These Towns (Belgrade Theatre); OV200 (Old Vic); Dog Beneath The Skin (Jermyn Street/Proud Haddock); 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips (Kneehigh & Shakespeare’s Globe/US tour); Sunny Afternoon (Hampstead Theatre/West End); Symphony (Nabokov/Waterloo Vaults); The El Train (Hoxton Hall); Backbeat (West End/US Tour); The Daughter In Law (New Vic); This Place Means (Greenwich Docklands International Festival); Chorus of Disapproval (Colchester Mercury/Ipswich Wolsey); All Quiet On The Western Front (Nottingham Playhouse).
Film & Television: Too Much (Netflix); Suspect (ITV/Disney+); Last Night in Soho (Universal); Becoming Elizabeth (Starz); Invasion (Apple TV); Roadkill (BBC); Dream Horse (Film 4); The Capture (BBC); Call The Midwife (BBC); Casualty (BBC); Stan Lee’s Lucky Man (Sky); Lost Honour (ITV); Father Brown (BBC); WPC 56 (BBC); Holby City (BBC); Teenage Kicks (ITV); Doctors (BBC); Casualty 1907 (BBC); Grange Hill (BBC).
Adam plays keyboards for the band Attawalpa and is a producer for various acts including Lillie Flynn, Lonesome Frets and Strawberry Sunrise.
Sooz Kempner
Sooz is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music and is known as a multi-award-winning stand-up comedian, comedy sketch artist and actor.
Theatre includes: Nick Helm’s I think you Stink! (Soho Theatre); Jonny Woo’s All Star Brexit Cabaret (London Coliseum).
Workshops include: Grayson Perry: The Musical.
Recordings include: Doctor Who: Doom’s Day (BBC); Doctor Who: Four from Doom’s Day (BBC); The Now Show (BBC Radio 4); Noncensored (Audible); The Day the Earth Didn’t Die (Audible); Kosmokrats (Pixel Delusion).
Television includes: Dinner with the Parents (Big Talk/CBS); Numberblocks (Netflix/CBeebies); Zombie BBQ (BBC); The Impression (ITV/Pet productions).
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