A LEADING lady from Doctor Who and a professional jouster are among the team of promising young actors brought together for the travelling production of Mansfield Park, which comes to the Palace Theatre, Westcliff, in early September.

Mansfield Park is a new stage version of Jane Austen’s classic novel, set in the familiar bonneted Austen world of fine country houses, gracious manners, carriages, clink-ing teacups, and genteel plotting in the back of horse-drawn coaches.

The play went on tour for the first time last year, and proved so popular it has been revived for a second tour, with a new team taking over.

The new hand-picked cast has been put together for the production by the Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmonds. Currently in rehearsal, they will take Mansfield Park to all corners of the UK.

Among the cast are Laura Doddington, who appears as recurring character Zara in several audioplay versions of the time-travel saga, and Eddie Eyre, who works as a horse-riding stuntman for medieval re-enactment group the Knights of Middle England, when not appearing on stage.

The narrative of Mansfield Park centres around the faithful and gentle Fanny Price. Unceremoniously uprooted from her humble family home, she is dropped into the bustling, aristocratic household of her uncle, Sir Thomas Bertram, where she finds herself buffeted from one crisis to the next.

Yet through this turmoil, one thing remains a constant – her love for the generous, worthy and steadfast Edmund Bertram.

Mansfield Park
Palace Theatre,
London Road,
Westcliff.
Tuesday, September 3 to Saturday, September 7
01702 351135