Casting has been announced for the Ustinov’s season of three black comedies this autumn, which will feature Alun Armstrong, Kenneth Cranham, Lia Williams, Greg Hicks, Sally Dexter and Richard Clothier.

One of the UK’s most recognisable and acclaimed characters actors, Alun Armstrong, is best known for the role he played in New Tricks.

He will be starring in the new translation of the Eugene Ionesco play, Exit The King, which follows the last day in the life of the great King Berenger, now 400 years old and with millions of subjects, but on his last legs.

Kenneth Cranham stars alongside Lia Williams in the UK Premiere of Florian Zeller’s new play The Father.

Nominated for a Tony Award for Stephen Daldry’s An Inspector Calls, Kenneth Cranham’s numerous stage credits also include The Cherry Orchard at the National Theatre. Lia Williams’ extensive stage credits include A Streetcar Named Desire and Skylight, for which she received a Tony Award nomination.

The Father, focussing on the relationship between an elderly man and his daughter, here receives its UK premiere in a translation by Christopher Hampton.

The Season opens with Play Strindberg, the UK premiere of Friedrich Durrenmatt’s black comedy, starring Greg Hicks, Sally Dexter and Richard Clothier.

Play Strindberg, a surreal love triangle played out in a desolate island outpost, is directed by Nancy Meckler, Artistic Director of Shared Experience for 22 years, where her work included the award-winning productions of Anna Karenina and War and Peace.

Tickets for all shows in the Ustinov Studio’s Autumn Season – Three Black Comedies – are on sale now from the Box Office on 01225 448844 or online at www.theatreroyal.org.uk/ ustinov