First Look: Rehearsal Images Released for New Three Men in a Boat Comedy at Rose Theatre

Elena Leo is the Culture & Lifestyle Editor of Ikon London Magazine.

Al Smith’s new adaptation of Jerome K. Jerome’s Thames-side classic arrives at Kingston’s Rose Theatre this September, with original songs by Tony Award nominee Grant Olding.

A boat, three old friends, one increasingly troublesome dog and a journey up the Thames that goes rather less smoothly than planned: rehearsal images have been released for Three Men in a Boat, a new comedy coming to Rose Theatre in Kingston upon Thames this September.

Written by Al Smith and based on Jerome K. Jerome’s much-loved 1889 novel, the new production puts a musical spin on the comic misadventures of Jerome, George and Harris as they set off from Kingston towards Oxford.

Jonny Weldon, Bronte Barbe, Richard David-Caine, Calum Donald-Bruce. Photo: Helen Murray

The production features original songs by Tony Award nominee Grant Olding, who also serves as Musical Director and Sound Designer. It is directed by Rose Theatre Artistic Director Christopher Haydon, with physical comedy created by John Nicholson.

Jonny Weldon plays Jerome, with Bronté Barbé as Harris, Richard David-Caine as George and Calum Donald-Bruce as Montmorency. The four are joined by a creative team working across movement, puppetry, voice, lighting, set and costume.

Jonny Weldon, Bronte Barbe, Richard David-Caine. Photo: Helen Murray

Jerome K. Jerome’s original story is hardly short on comic disasters, and this adaptation promises to lean into its more chaotic possibilities. The friends’ supposedly carefree trip encounters torrential rain, eccentric dogs, hallucinations and some particularly suspect cheese, along with what the production describes as eighteen “extremely angry swans”.

Smith’s new version brings the 19th-century novel into the theatre as a physical comedy, with the production’s description of its tone placing Jeeves and Wooster alongside Apocalypse Now. Quite how that combination plays out on a boat heading up the Thames will be revealed when the production opens.