HAVING helped launch the theatre, film and television careers of a string of our top actors the next play heading for Malvern’s Festival Theatre could well do the same for some members of its cast.

Straight from the West End Julian Mitchell’s critically acclaimed Another Country, directed by Jeremy Herrin, comes to the Festival for a week long run from Monday, June 30 to Saturday, July 5.

When it originally opened in the West End in 1982 it created a sensation.

It not only heralded a resurgence of great British drama, it also inspired a film and launched the careers of such acting luminaries as Rupert Everett, Kenneth Branagh, Daniel Day Lewis and Colin Firth.

Dazzlingly witty, Another Country is set at an English public school during one summer term in the 1930s.

When a scandal rocks the corridors of learning, the reaction of two idealistic, rebellious students shakes the school to its foundations and has a momentous impact on their lives, their friends and even on the future of the country.

The cast of rising stars includes Will Attenborough (Judd), who played Gloucester in Richard Eyre's Henry IV for the BBC; Cai Brigden (Delahay) last seen in the West End in Butley; Rob Callender (Bennett) who made his professional acting debut in Another Country in Chichester after graduating from Guildhall in 2013; Mark Donald (Devenish) who previously appeared on stage in Widowers' Houses (New Vic Theatre); Dario Coates (Sanderson), known as Alex Neeson in Coronation Street; Bill Milner (Wharton), whose film credits include ‘Son of Rambow’ and ‘X-Men’; and James Parris (Menzies) last seen in the RSC’s Richard III and King John.

Others in this male dominated cast are Rowan Polonski (Fowler) has just finished filming ‘Secret Service’ with director Matthew Vaughan for Marv Films and this is his professional and West End debut; Mark Quartley (Barclay) seen on stage the Trafalgar Studios in Macbeth and in Private Peaceful (West End and tour) and Julian Wadham (Vaughan Cunningham) , who has worked extensively with the National Theatre, most recently starring in This House. His television credits include ‘Downton Abbey’, ‘Father Brown’, ‘Middlemarch’ and ‘Egypt’ and film credits ‘Posh’, ‘The Iron Lady’ and ‘Warhorse’.

Jeremy Herrin has directed Uncle Vanya (2012) and South Downs (2011) for the Chichester Festival. Last year he was announced as the new Artistic Director of Headlong Theatre and he is associate director of the Royal Court Theatre. His credits this year included the critically acclaimed Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies for the RSC.