Casting Announced For New Shelagh Stephenson Play About Ground-Breaking Geordie Feminist
Live Theatre has announced that Phillippa Wilson and Tessa Parr will star in absurdist comedy Astell & Woolf by North East legend Shelagh Stephenson. The razor-sharp two-hander about two feminists, one famous and one forgotten, meeting in the afterlife will be directed by Karen Traynor, with a fully female/non-binary creative team, opening Live Theatre’s new season on a truly radical footing on Thursday 14 May.
Phillippa Wilson (The Pitmen Painters, Stars In The Morning, Where The Heart Is) takes on the role of Newcastle feminist Mary Astell, forgotten, consigned to oblivion and tethered by her ankle for all eternity. Tessa Parr (As You Like It, Secretaries, There Are No Beginnings) steps into the shoes of celebrated novelist Virginia Woolf from London. Very much not forgotten and free to roam as she pleases.
Phillippa started her professional career with Live Theatre in 1989 where her credits include Bandits, 1990, Some Like it Cold, Here I Come, Oh What a Lovely War, Twelve Tales of Tyneside, For The Crack, Seafarers, A Walk on Part, Nativity and The Pitmen Painters which transferred to the National followed by a national tour and culminated at the Manhattan Theatre Club, Broadway. Most recently, she appeared at the Newcastle Quayside Theatre in Shuggy Boats for Jackdaw Media.
Tessa Parr’s theatre credits include: Unexpected Item In The Bagging Area (ARC), As You Like It (The Globe), The Secretaries (Young Vic), There are No Beginnings (Leeds Playhouse), Hamlet, Christmas Carol, Europe, Road (Leeds Playhouse Rep), B!RTH (Royal Exchange Theatre), Frogman (Traverse Theatre), The Breakfast Plays (Traverse Theatre), Romeo & Juliet (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Playdough (Unlimited Theatre Co), The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz (Northern Stage), Theatre Uncut ’15 (Theatre Uncut), The Soaking of Vera Shrimp (Live Theatre/Pleasance), Dead To Me (Greyscale/Kitchings Co), Alice in Bed (Tender Buttons), Funny Not Funny (Drywrite/ Bush). Tessa’s solo show I AM JOHNNY will premier in August at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Tessa Parr said: “Traynor’s direction paired with Stephenson’s writing is a match made in heaven – as an audience, what’s not to be excited about?”
Phillippa Wilson commented: “I’m over the moon to be cast as Mary Astell in this wonderful important hilarious new play by Shelagh Stephenson playing such an iconic, under celebrated woman. Often the women in our history are forgotten and it’s great to see that the first feminist from Newcastle is finally being recognised in her own right and coming to life on the Live Theatre stage.”
Karen Traynor added: “Tessa and Phillippa are an excellent partnership and bring both gravitas and a lightness of touch to these erudite women. Shelagh’s well-crafted dialogue zips along allowing them to play out their intellectual sparring; sometimes funny, sometimes ferocious!”
Packed with jokes and fierce feminist fire, in Astell & Woolf the action unfolds in the afterlife where the two radical women bide their time. Between them, armed with sharp tongues and several bottles of sherry, they confront life, God, art, the patriarchy and gradually find their route towards salvation.
Astell and Woolf runs from Thursday 14 May to Saturday 6 June 2026 with more details and tickets available from www.live.org.uk
