RSC actress Katy Stephens stars in Nick Walker’s brand new B2 Xmas Show

28/11/2013

Award-winning RSC actress Katy Stephens returns to Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre this Christmas to provide festive fun for grown-ups in the theatre’s brand new B2 Xmas Show, Oh No It Isn’t!, which has been written and directed by Coventry’s very own Nick Walker

As the Belgrade’s traditional panto Jack and the Beanstalk runs on the Main Stage, new comedy thriller Oh No It Isn’t! will run in B2 from Sat 7 to Sat 22 Dec and tells the story of four actors performing their own, slightly more chilling version of Jack and the Beanstalk. For the audience it’s a fun, yuletide treat, but for the actors on stage, it’s a matter of life and death.

It soon becomes clear that the cast are all embroiled in a plot to kill each other. A prop gun is swapped for the real thing and a poisoned apple is on the menu. The audience are left to work out who’s bean-stalking who, whether the Giant will come out on top, or if it will be curtains for Daisy the cow.

As ever, the Belgrade’s B2 Xmas Show has been created especially for grown-ups and at just over an hour long it’s perfect for office parties or anyone who wants to enjoy a Christmas night out away from the kids.

The cast of this new comedy thriller includes Katy Stephens, who returns to the Belgrade after playing the Wicked Fairy Carabosse in last year’s panto Sleeping Beauty. She also played Laura in the Belgrade’s critically acclaimed production of Strindberg’s The Father and in 2005 she played Jack in Jack and the Beanstalk.

She has also appeared in numerous Royal Shakespeare Company productions including The Histories Cycle, for which she won the What’s On Stage Award for Best Actress in a Play. Along with the company, she also won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Ensemble Performance and the Evening Standard Editor’s Award.

Joining Katy in Oh No It Isn’t! is theatre and TV actress Clare Louise Connolly and Richard Kidd and John McKeever, who local audiences may recognise from the Belgrade’s hit FA Cup Play We Love You City, which was also written by Nick Walker.

As well as writing Oh No It Isn’t!, Nick Walker is also directing the play. Formerly writer in residence at the Coventry based theatre company Talking Birds, Nick is a Perrier Award nominated writer with two critically acclaimed novels under his belt, Helloland and Blackbox. He has also written extensively for the stage and television.

Tickets for Oh No It Isn’t! are available now from the box office on 024 7655 3055 priced from £8.75 to £16.25 or via www.belgrade.co.uk where cheaper tickets are available.