BBC Cuffs Star Jacob Ifan to Star in A TALE OF TWO CITIES

BBC Cuff's Jacob Ifan will make his professional theatrical debut in a new adaptation of Charles Dickens', A TALE OF TWO CITIES at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre from Wednesday 19 - Saturday 22 October 2016.

Jacob, who trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama will play Charles Darnay. He is best known for playing the lead role of PC Jake Vickers on the BBC's recent TV series Cuffs.

Joining Jacob is Joseph Timms as Sydney Carton, whose credits include Twelfth Night and Richard III (Donmar on Broadway), Privates on Parade (Noel Coward Theatre) and The Hudsucker Proxy (Nuffield/Liverpool Everyman).

Shanaya Rafaat who has appeared in Great Expectations (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Around the World in 80 Days (St James Theatre) and King Lear (Shakespeare's Globe), will play 'Lucie Manette' and Sue Wallace, whose National Theatre credits include Husbands and Sons, Emil and the Detectives and Alan Bennett's Untold Stories, takes the role of 'Miss Pross'. Patrick Romer, who has numerous RSC credits to his name, plays 'Dr Manette'.

Harry Attwell, whose credits include The Skriker (Royal Exchange Theatre), The Crucible (Old Vic) and Henry V (Michael Grandage Company) will play 'Defarge' and Noa Bodner, whose credits include Testing the Echo/Moving Stories (National Theatre) and Playing for Time (Sheffield Crucible), will play 'Madame Defarge'. Michael Garner, fresh from Nell Gwynn in the West End, appears as 'Lorry'.

Sean Murray (The Hook and Cat on at Hot Tin Roof, Royal & Derngate) plays 'Barsad' and Christopher Hunter (The Surprise of Love and Iphigenia, Theatre Royal Bath; Romeo and Juliet, RSC) will be the 'Marquis'. The cast is completed by Rebecca Birch, Jonathan Dryden Taylor and Jon Tarcy.

Dickens considered his novel, A Tale Of Two Cities the best story he had ever written. Interweaving one family's intensely personal drama with the terror and chaos of the French Revolution, it is an epic story of love, sacrifice and redemption amidst horrific violence and world changing events.

A TALE OF TWO CITIES was first produced in Northampton in 2014, to great critical and public acclaim, and was director James Dacre's inaugural production at the theatre. Adapted by Mike Poulton (Fortune's Fool, Old Vic and Broadway, Wolf Hall RSC, West End & Broadway), and with an original score by Oscar-winning composer Rachel Portman (The Cider House Rules, Beloved), and UK Theatre Award nominated design by Mike Britton, with lighting design by Paul Keogan, sound design by Adrienne Quartly, movement direction by Struan Leslie, and fight direction by Terry King.

Director James Dacre said, "Dickens wrote A Tale of Two Cities in 1859 as a meditation on politics and power, the individual versus the system and the private versus the public. Mike Poulton, Rachel Portman and I first mounted this adaptation in the aftermath of the Arab Spring to cast a light on the protests, fanaticism and political unrest that were spreading across the world at that time.

Our decision along with Jenny King, Producer of The Touring Consortium, to revisit the production during this year of elections, referendums and revolutions across the world is motivated by a shared belief that great historical dramas can play an important role in contemporary political conversations by emotionally engaging audiences in human stories, countering the disaffection that seems to dominate so much of today's political debate. Theatre and music can be imbued with a passion that a novel cannot capture and Royal & Derngate and Touring Consortium's A Tale of Two Cities aims to focus on the humanity of Dickens' novel in a way that gives the historical events an immediacy and urgent relevance for today's audiences."

Created by producer Jenny King, The Touring Consortium Theatre Company is celebrating their 20th anniversary this year having produced the highly successful Of Mice and Men earlier in the year.

Jenny King said, "The company was created in 1996 in response to a need expressed by chief executives of several of the UKs leading touring venues for quality text based drama that reached out to new, young audiences as well as sustaining the interest of core theatre goers. Since its creation we have produced over 25 productions and played to over a million people, involving some 25,000 young people in our workshops and creative learning programmes."

A TALE OF TWO CITIES will play at at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre from Wednesday 19 - Saturday 22 October 2016, tickets are on sale now from the box office, by calling 01902 42 92 12 or online at grandtheatre.co.uk.

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