The Comeback

LIMITED 3 WEEK RUN

☆☆☆☆☆
A GAG-A-MINUTE TRIUMPH!
The Telegraph

THE COMEBACK, a brilliantly original and hilarious new comedy, is set to delight all generations at the Noël Coward Theatre this July. This debut play from The Pin’s award-winning Ben Ashenden and Alex Owen – ‘destined to become one of the great comedy duos’ (Radio Times) – tells the story of two double acts fighting to wrestle control of the most chaotic, farcical and high-stakes gig of their respective careers. Directed by Emily Burns, THE COMEBACK will have audiences doubled over laughing and wiping a tear away at the end with its heart-warming exploration of bittersweet nostalgia and the enduring power of friendship. This show is a much needed dose of feel-good, dizzying escapism with real emotional heart, and a celebrity guest each night to boot.

Up-and-coming comics Ben and Alex have been booked in the warm-up spot for a beloved but fading double act’s comeback tour. Neither duo are delighted to be playing to a sparse crowd in a sleepy, seaside town, but when it’s revealed that a Hollywood director is in the audience, both acts glimpse a final chance for their big break. Cue sabotage, mistaken identity and full on farcical mayhem, as the performance descends into a desperate battle for the limelight.

With the action alternating between offstage and on, and the tone between Noises Off and Morecambe and Wise’s old-school charm, this is a warm-hearted, joyful, and dazzlingly funny new comedy.

Furiously funny. London’s new heartwarming hit.
Variety

Surreal, silly and very, very funny!
Evening Standard

Health & Safety Information

See It Safely

Cast & Creative Team

Written by and starring

Ben Ashenden and Alex Owen (known as The Pin)

Director

Emily Burns

Set and Costume Designer

Rosanna Vize

Lighting Designer

Prema Mehta

Sound Designer

Giles Thomas

Company

Charlie Ferguson

Charlie Ferguson

Company

Alex MacKeith

The Comeback is presented by

Sonia Friedman Productions

Tulchin Bartner Productions

in association with

Playing Field, Eilene Davidson Productions, Rupert Gavin/Mallory Factor, David Mirvish

BEN ASHENDEN AND ALEX OWEN | THE PIN

Ben and Alex have recorded four series of their critically lauded show ‘The Pin’ for BBC Radio 4, picking up nominations at the Writers’ Guild Awards and Radio Academy Awards and winning the BBC Radio Award for Best Comedy. Ben and Alex have also recently made an eight part series for Audible, The Special Relationship, co-starring Fred Armisen, Cecily Strong, Kate Berlant, Lolly Adefope and Jamie Demetriou.

They have created the animated series Oi, Leonardo!for BBC3 and written for BBC1 shows Walliams and Friend, Tracey Ullman’s Show, BBC3 series Famalam and Showtime’s Who is America?. Their lockdown Zoom sketches have gained over 6 million views online.

As an actor Ben’s credits include Bridget Jones’s Baby, Avenue 5 (HBO) and W1A (BBC1) and Alex’s include Victoria (ITV), Crackanory (Dave) and Wannabe (BBC3). They have both appeared in Stath Lets Flats (C4), Sky Christmas special After Ever After and the upcoming feature Jurassic World: Dominion.

EMILY BURNS | DIRECTOR

Emily is Resident Director at the National Theatre. Directing work includes: Travesty for Fight in the Dog; Nesting (Watermill); Britney (Soho Theatre); Margaret Atwood Live for Fane Productions; The Other Side of the Sea (King’s Place); Esio Trot (Edinburgh Fringe). As Associate Director: Antony & Cleopatra and Hansard (National Theatre); The Book of Dust, Julius Caesar and A Midsummer Night’s Dream(Bridge). As dramaturg:Timon of Athens (RSC, TFANA New York, STC Washington); Much Ado About Nothing (STC, Washington).

ROSANNA VIZE | SET AND COSTUME DESIGNER

Forthcoming credits include: HOME Digital Project (Young Vic); Gulliver’s Travels (Unicorn); The Two Character Play (Hampstead, Upstairs); The Glass Menagerie (Royal Exchange, Manchester); Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Curve and UK Tour).

Theatre credits include: Incantata (Irish Rep Theatre, NYC and Galway Festival), Hedda Gabler (Sherman Theatre); The Phlebotomist (Hampstead, Upstairs); Midsummer Party (The Old Vic); The Audience (Nuffield, Southampton); Don Carlos (Exeter Northcott); An Adventure, Leave Taking (Bush); Yous Two (Hampstead); The Almighty Sometimes (Royal Exchange); King Lear (Globe Theatre); Earthworks and Myth (RSC); Low Level Panic (Orange Tree); After October (Finborough); Henry I (Reading Between the Lines); Girls (Soho Theatre, Hightide & Talawa Theatre); FUP, Noye’s Fludde (Kneehigh); Dark Land Lighthouse, St Joan of the Stockyards, A Thousand Seasons Passed, The Tinder Box, The Last Days of Mankind, Talon (Bristol Old Vic); Diary of a Madman, The Rise and Shine of Comrade Fiasco (Gate); Infinite Lives (Tobacco Factory); Banksy: The Room in the Elephant (Tobacco Factory and Traverse); Coastal Defenses (Tobacco Factory).

PREMA MEHTA | LIGHTING DESIGNER

Theatre credits include:A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (Trafalgar Studios); Swive (Elizabeth), Bartholomew Fair, Richard II (Shakespeare’s Globe); A History of Water in the Middle East, Superhoe (Royal Court); Studio Créole(Manchester International Festival); Things of Dry Hours (Young Vic); Of Kith & Kin (Sheffield Crucible/Bush Theatre); The Effect (English Theatre of Frankfurt); The Hired Man (Queen’s, Hornchurch/Bolton Octagon/Hull Truck); Fame (UK Tour/Peacock Theatre); East is East (Northern Stage/Nottingham Playhouse); The Importance of Being Earnest (Bolton Octagon); Talking Heads (Leeds Playhouse); Chicken Soup (Sheffield Crucible); Holes, Hercules (Nottingham Playhouse); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Leicester Curve); Mighty Atoms (Hull Truck); A Passage to India (Royal and Derngate/UK Tour); The Wizard of Oz (Storyhouse); The York Suffragettes, Murder, Margaret & Me (York Theatre Royal); Love Lies & Taxidermy, Growth, I Got Superpowers for My Birthday (Paines Plough); Coming Up, Jefferson’s Garden, Fourteen (Watford Palace); The Electric Hills (Liverpool Everyman); The Great Extension (Theatre Royal Stratford East); The Snow Queen (Derby Theatre); The Canterville Ghost, Huddle (Unicorn); Wipers (UK Tour). Dance credits include Bells (Mayor of London 2012); Spill(Düsseldorf); Sufi Zen (Royal Festival Hall); Dhamaka (O2 Arena) and Maaya (Westminster Hall). Event credits include A-List Party Area (Madame Tussauds, London).

GILES THOMAS | SOUND DESIGNER

Composer & Sound Design includes: Equus (English Touring Theatre and Theatre Royal Stratford East); Othello (English Touring Theatre, Tobacco Factory and Oxford Playhouse); A Streetcar Named Desire (English Touring Theatre, Nuffield Southampton Theatres and Clwyd Theatr Cymru); Cock (Chichester Festival Theatre); Henry V (Tobacco Factory, Bristol); Buggy Baby (Yard Theatre); The Importance of Being Earnest (UK Tour 2018); Wait Until Dark (UK Tour); Handbagged (Theatre by the Lake); Death of a Salesman (Royal and Derngate); How my Light is Spent (Royal Exchange); Wish List, Yen (Royal Exchange & Royal Court); Contractions (Sheffield Theatres); Pomona (National Theatre, Royal Exchange Theatre & Orange Tree Theatre); Little Malcolm and his Struggle Against The Eunuchs (Southwark Playhouse); Outside Mullingar (Theatre Royal Bath); Back Down (Birmingham Rep); I See You, Wolf from the Door, Primetime, Mint, Pigeons, Death Tax, The President Has Come to See You (Royal Court); Lie With Me (Talawa); The Sound of Yellow (Young Vic); Take a Deep Breath and Breathe, The Street (Oval House Theatre).

Sound Design includes: The Almighty Sometimes (Royal Exchange); Hijabi Monologues (Bush Theatre); Disco Pigs (Trafalgar Studios & Irish Rep Theatre NY); The Ugly One, A Dark Night in Dalston (Park Theatre); They Drink it in The Congo (Almeida); The Sugar-Coated Bullets of the Bourgeoisie (Arcola, HighTide Festival); The Snow Queen (Southampton Nuffield & Northampton Royal & Derngate); Orson’s Shadow (Southwark Playhouse); Defect (Arts Ed); Betrayal (I Fagiolini, UK Tour); A Harlem Dream (Young Vic); Khandan (Birmingham Rep, Royal Court); Superior Donuts (Southwark Playhouse); Three Men In A Boat (Original Theatre Company, UK Tour); King John (Union Theatre); It’s about Time (Nabokov Theatre Company, Hampstead Theatre); Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat (Royal Court, Gate Theatre, Out of Joint, Paines Plough, National Theatre); House of Agnes (Paines Plough).

CHARLIE FERGUSON | COMPANY

Charlie Ferguson is an actor and writer from Northern Ireland. After leaving East 15 Acting School he appeared in Eris (The Bunker) and recently toured with Action Theatre in English across Northern Italy. Charlie is thrilled to be making his West End debut.

ALEX MACKEITH | COMPANY

Alex is a writer and performer. He is one third of sketch trio Princes of Main and a finalist of the Musical Comedy Awards 2020/21. His first play, School Play, was produced at the Southwark Playhouse and is published by Oberon Books. He received an Off-West End Award nomination as Most Promising New Playwright for the piece.

Alex’s TV pilot Mersea was recently a finalist for the International Emmy Sir Peter Ustinov Television Scriptwriting Award. He currently has TV projects in development with Big Talk and Ray Pictures, and a feature film under option with Golden Arrow Productions.