Catz alumna Set to Open World Premiere of Play

St Catherine’s College is delighted to announce that award-winning playwright and poet Caroline Bird (2007, English) will premiere her new play, The Last Stand of Mrs Mary Whitehouse, at Nottingham Playhouse this autumn.

The production, which opens on Friday, 5th September, stars Maxine Peake (Inside No. 9, Black Mirror, Shameless) as Mary Whitehouse, the controversial morality campaigner whose private prosecution of Gay News in the 1970s became a defining moment in Britain’s cultural history. Peake will be joined onstage by Samuel Bartlett (Feeling Afraid as if Something Terrible is Going to Happen) in over 15 diverse roles.

The play is directed by Sarah Frankcom (West Side Story, Our Town, Orpheus Descending) and runs until Saturday, 27th September.

To WhatsOnStage, Peake commented: “I’m extremely excited to be taking on the role of Mary Whitehouse in Caroline Bird’s extraordinary new piece […] I’m delighted to be working with Sarah Frankcom yet again, and to be invited by Adam and the team to the fabulous Nottingham Playhouse.”

Caroline Bird is the author of several acclaimed plays and poetry collections, and she was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize in 2020. In the same year, she was awarded the Forward Prizes for Poetry ‘Best Collection’ for The Air Year. Bird’s poetry has been published in several anthologies, magazines, and collections, including Poetry Nation Review, The Poetry Review, and The North Magazine. In 2023, she received a Cholmondeley Award for her work. Her previous theatre work includes Red Ellen, about the life and work of Ellen Wilkinson, which premiered to critical acclaim in 2022.

Bird remarked: “This is a play about censorship, shame and homophobia in the 70s and 80s. Maxine Peake brings Mary Whitehouse to life, with all her charisma and force, to explore the dangers (and allure) of moral certainty.”

For more information, or to purchase tickets, please visit the landing page.