Cast and creative team announced for world premiere of Benjamin Britten biopic TURNING THE SCREW

New Wimbledon Theatre and K-Squared Productions have announced casting and the full creative team for Kevin Kelly’s Turning the Screw, which premieres at the Studio at New Wimbledon Theatre from 20-29 October.

This new biopic explores composer Benjamin Britten's then-illegal gay relationship and his infatuation with a boy in 1950s Britain.  

The cast comprises of Gary Tushaw (Sunset Boulevard, Sweeney Todd; ENO) as Benjamin Britten, Christian Andrews (A  Pissedmas Carol, West End) as David Hemmings, Adam Lilley (The Mousetrap, West End and UK tour) as Peter Pears, Jo Wickham (Into the Woods, The Cockpit) as Imogen Holst, and Jonathan Clarkson (Around the World in 80 Days) as Basil Coleman.

Playwright Kevin Kelly uses the piece to delve into Britten's behind-the-scenes  relationships and asks the question: can we value someone's artistic endeavours even  when there is something about the artist that is unsettling and immoral?

Turning the Screw’s creative team is further composed of director Tim McArthur, sound designer and composer Rudy  Percival, set and costume designer Amy Mitchell, and lighting designer Vittorio Verta.

Director Tim McArthur said: "When we think about  hidden LGBT+ history, there is something appealing about Britten and Pears living openly  as a gay couple. The pressure on them must have been immense and then Britten risks it  all when Hemmings comes to stay with them, And the fact that the play is based wholly  on historical events makes it even more compelling! I’m thrilled to be directing this new  play and bringing it to Wimbledon." 

The narrative not only revolves around Britten's illegal homosexual relationship with the  singer Peter Pears, who was three years his senior, and his work on an opera based on  the Henry James novella, "The Turn of the Screw". But it also explores Britten's decision to  cast a 12-year-old choirboy, David Hemmings; for the part of Miles in the spooky opera,  a decision that was highly questionable - not least because Hemmings was not a gifted  singer, but also because of the burgeoning relationship between the pair. Britten began  an intensive series of private lessons when Hemmings came to live with him and Pears,  and Hemmings' roguish charm caused issues in the household. Through a combination of  words and music, the play explores the tensions that arose between Britten and Pears  against the backdrop of rehearsals for the premier performance of the opera, in Venice.

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