What’s In A Name?

Internationally acclaimed comedy, What’s In A Name? captures a particularly awkward family dinner party. This hilarious show premiered in Paris in 2010 to great acclaim under the title Le Prénom, with the production receiving six Moliere Award nominations (the equivalent to the Olivier Awards!). The show has gone on to play in over 30 countries and was even adapted into a best-selling French film in 2012. 

Father-to-be Vincent and his partner Anna are invited to dinner by his sister Elizabeth and her husband, Peter. They are joined by childhood friend Carl for a mature and sophisticated gathering. 

The meal is lovingly prepared, and wine carefully selected. The friends are prepared for the usual humorous exchanges they've come to expect. 

But tonight, a startling revelation about the name chosen for Vincent's and Anna’s expected child becomes the catalyst for a destructive argument which spirals hysterically out of control. Tonight no one is holding back! Egos, childish resentment and unspoken feelings are relentlessly and hilariously exposed for the first time. 

The cast is led by Joe Thomas, famed for his role as hapless teenager “Simon” from The Inbetweeners, he is joined by fellow TV stars, Bo Poraj, who you may recognise as love interest “Mike” from Miranda and Laura Patch from Channel 4’s Star Stories. Making up the rest of the cast are the wonderfully talented stars of the West End stage – Summer Strallen, who’s most recently starred in Young Frankenstein, and Alex Gaumond, who starred in the multi-Olivier Award-winning musical Company this Spring. 

Highly respected director Jeremy Sams has adapted and directed multiple celebrated productions. As a director his credits include Oklahoma! (Chichester Festival Theatre), The Wizard of Oz (West End and World Tour), The Sound of Music (West End and Toronto), Noises Off (National Theatre, West End, UK Tour and Broadway) and Benefactors (UK Tour and West End).