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Denise Gough to Reprise Olivier Award-Winning Role in PEOPLE, PLACES & THINGS at St. Ann's Warehouse

By: Jan. 27, 2017
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St. Ann's Warehouse, building upon its rich history of partnerships with the UK's most exciting theaters and theater artists, is proud to join forces with the National Theatre and Headlong for the first time to present the American Premiere of Duncan MacMillan's People, Places & Things, a National Theatre / Headlong co-production, directed by Jeremy Herrin, which was one of last season's must-see shows on the West End. Denise Gough will reprise her Olivier Award-winning role as an actress whose life has spun recklessly out of control because of her addiction to alcohol and drugs.

The National Theatre, Headlong and St. Ann's Warehouse present the production in association with Bryan Singer Productions October 19 - November 19, as part of St. Ann's 2017-18 season.

St. Ann's continues its highly successful 2016-17 season this spring with two highly successful productions that have garnered tremendous acclaim across the Atlantic. Kneehigh, Cornwall's beloved theatrical alchemists, and their longtime Artistic Director Emma Rice will return with the New York Premiere of 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips, "a gripping, moving portrait of a community under siege," (The Times), March 16 - April 9, 2017. St. Ann's will then present the American Premiere of Enda Walsh's new play, Arlington, in which Walsh "embraces a new form of category-defying theatre in a story of love and oppression that echoes Orwell's 1984" (The Guardian). The Landmark Productions / Galway International Arts Festival production comes to St. Ann's Warehouse May 3-28, 2017.

Susan Feldman, Artistic Director of St. Ann's Warehouse, said, "It's an honor and a privilege to continue to celebrate our long relationship with our British and Irish friends, in a time of great flux. 946 and Arlington share the passions of artists Emma Rice and Enda Walsh at the height of their creative powers. Both plays tell beautifully wrought stories-one that takes place in the real past, the other in an imagined, not-so-distant, Orwellian future. Each deploys music and comedy as a first line of defense against tragedy for the little guy caught up in monumental world events. I love and am thankful for Emma and Enda, for their empathy and humanism at this moment in time. And I feel for Denise Gough's character too, as she rails and frails boldly against the odds in the fantastic People, Places and Things. We are pleased to open our doors to this new collaboration with the National Theatre."

Tim Levy, Director of NT America, said, "We are absolutely delighted to be collaborating with St. Ann's to give New York audiences the opportunity to see Duncan MacMillan's extraordinary play about addiction, and thrilled that Denise Gough, who originated the complex central character of Emma in London, will be reprising her powerful and visceral performance in Brooklyn."

During its limited run at the Wyndham's Theatre on London's West End, March-June, 2016, People, Places and Things garnered unanimous praise from critics and audiences alike. For her heart-breaking performance, Gough won both the 2016 Olivier Award and the Critics' Circle Award for Best Actress. The Times applauded her for a "career-making performance," and The Evening Standard raved,"Denise Gough gives the greatest stage performance since Mark Rylance in Jerusalem...a remarkable, truthful performance-awe-inspiring and utterly convincing."

Kneehigh's 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips, making its New York Premiere March 16 - April 9, 2017 at St. Ann's Warehouse, is adapted by Emma Rice and Michael Morpurgo from Morpurgo's book The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips, which tells the true tale of Devon, England townsfolk and the African American soldiers sent to rehearse the Normandy invasion from their shores.

Rice employs Kneehigh's signature blend of high theatrics-performances alternately poignant and comic, evocative spectacle, and gorgeous live music-in a tender coming-of-age story told from the perspective of a little girl named Lily, who lives with her family and her fiercely independent cat, Adolphus Tips, in the idyllic seaside village of Slapton. They have scarcely been touched by war before American soldiers arrive to share their home and land in preparation for the D-Day invasion.

946 takes its title from the number of casualties sustained during these bungled maneuvers, a secret kept by the American and British governments. The Times (UK) has called 946 "a wonderfully life-affirming piece of theatre...touchingly and gloriously imaginative," and The Guardian has described it as a "profoundly moving celebration of the love and hope Morpurgo writes about in his books."

The productionfeatures original music by Stu Barker, design by Lez Brotherston, lighting by Malcolm Rippeth, and a cast including Mike Shepherd, Ewan Wardrop, Kyla Goodey, Katy Owen, Emma Darlow, Adam Sopp, Nandi Bhebhe, Chris Jared, Ncuti Gatwa, Pat Moran and Seamas Carey.

St. Ann's Warehouse has been Kneehigh's New York home since 2009, when St. Ann's premiered director Emma Rice's adaptation of Noël Coward's Brief Encounter. The production went on to a successful Broadway run at Studio 54. The company returned to St. Ann's with The Red Shoes, an adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen tale, in 2010; The Wild Bride, an adaptation of The Brothers Grimm fairy tale The Handless Maiden, in 2012; and, most recently, with Tristan & Yseult, Rice's adaptation of the epic Cornish drama, in 2014. 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips comes to St. Ann's Warehouse after a sold-out run at Kneehigh's Asylum in Cornwall in the summer of 2015, a run at Shakespeare's Globe in the summer of 2016, and a highly successful American Premiere at Berkeley Rep, December 2016 - January 2017.

St. Ann's Warehouse presents 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips in association with Birmingham Repertory Theatre and Berkeley Repertory Theatre.

Arlington (May 3-28, 2017), written and directed by Enda Walsh, is a strange and tender love story. Inside a tower, in a waiting room, Isla waits for her number to be called. A young dancer finally understands her fate. And a young man reckons with his stark decision.

In a four-star review of the play's World Premiereat the Galway International Arts Festival in 2016, The Guardian wrote, "Dance, art and poetry explode in Enda Walsh's brave new world." A review in The Sunday Independent asked, "Is it better to submit, and survive to live a half-life? Or to break for fearful freedom, living with an intense awareness in the short period before destruction? The prolific Enda Walsh's new play Arlington poses the question in a powerfully political work that turns his trademark devices of pop music, even sweeties, into a metaphor for our increasingly homogenized and controlled society."

While St. Ann's is presenting Arlington, Irish Arts Center will offer Walsh's Rooms, a trio of installations, at the site of their future home, May 3-28, 2017. Together, Arlington and Rooms comprise a season of new Enda Walsh works in New York, supported in part by Culture Ireland.

Since their relationship began with the American Premiere of The Walworth Farce in 2008, St. Ann's Warehouse has introduced numerous Enda Walsh works to New York City and American audiences, including the Druid productions of The New Electric Ballroom (2009) and Penelope (2010), as well as Misterman (2011), written and directed by Walsh, starring Cillian Murphy and produced by Landmark Productions and the Galway International Arts Festival. St. Ann's collaborated once again with Walsh and Landmark for the American Premiere of Walsh's first opera, The Last Hotel, a co-production with Wide Open Opera that was part of the PROTOTYPE: Opera/Theatre/Now festival in 2016. Over the course of these years, Walsh has entered the ranks of New York's-and the world's-most beloved theater-makers, winning a Tony Award for his book to the Broadway musical Once in 2012, among many other accolades.

Tickets for 946 and Arlington are on sale now, and can be purchased at www.stannswarehouse.org, 718.254.8779 and 866.811.4111. Tickets for People, Places and Things will go on sale to Members on May 16 and to the public on June 20. St. Ann's Warehouse will announce its complete 2017-18 season this spring.




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