CLARION Coming to Arcola Theatre

Following an acclaimed, sell-out run in April, Critics' Circle award-winner Greg Hicks and three-time Olivier award-winner Clare Higgins are to resume their starring roles in Mark Jagasia's Clarion, one of the smash-hit plays of the year.

Clarion, directed by Artistic Director Mehmet Ergen, earned universal five and four star rave reviews from publications across the political spectrum, from The Daily Mail to the Morning Star, and received three Off West End Award nominations - Best New Play, Best Female and Best Male.

All the original cast are returning for a four-week season at Arcola Theatre from Tuesday 20 October - Saturday 14 November. There are 500 seats at just £10 during the season.

Press night is Thursday 22 October at 7.30pm.

The Daily Clarion is Britain's worst newspaper. Power-crazed editor Morris Honeyspoon (Greg Hicks) spends his weekends dressed as Julius Caesar, and life at his beloved paper is a masterclass in incompetence and deceit. But as political storm clouds gather over an uneasy country, it seems the Clarion's worst crimes are about to be exposed. While Honeyspoon searches for an office traitor, washed-up foreign correspondent Verity Stokes (Clare Higgins) masterminds a murderous day of reckoning...

Clarion is a hilarious dark comedy about free speech, nationalism and the state of the British media.

Written by former journalist Mark Jagasia, who has worked for some of the UK's leading newspapers, it shines a dazzling light on the dark heart of our democracy.

Cast: John Atterbury, Jim Bywater, Peter Bourke, Greg Hicks, Clare Higgins, Laura Smithers, Ryan Wichert.

Director Mehmet Ergen. Designer: Anthony Lamble. Lighting Designer: David Howe. Music and Sound Designer: Neil McKeown.

Clare Higgins recently co-starred with Glenn Close on Broadway in Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance. She has been nominated six times as Best Actress in the Olivier Awards and won three times for Vincent in Brixton, Sweet Bird of Youth, and Hecuba. She was twice named London Critics' Circle Theatre Award Best Actress, for her performances in Vincent in Brixton and The Children's Hour and Sweet Bird of Youth. She won the Evening Standard Best Actress Award for Vincent in Brixton. She was nominated for the Best Actress Tony Award for Vincent in Brixton and won the 2003 Theatre World Award for outstanding major Broadway debut. Her film and TV credits include the Philip Pullman adaptation The Golden Compass; Woody Allen's Cassandra's Dream; Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont; Stage Beauty; House of Mirth; Hellraiser, and Hellbound: Hellraiser II;

Downton Abbey; Shameless; and Parade's End. Last year she co-starred with Paul McGann in a special online episode of Doctor Who, The Night of the Doctor, which preceded the 50th Anniversary special, The Day of the Doctor - as Ohila, a member of the Sisterhood of Karn who help the Doctor regenerate into his next incarnation, John Hurt. She returned to Doctor Who in the two-part season 9 opening episode earlier this month.

Greg Hicks has been a member of The Royal Shakespeare Company since 1976. He was nominated for the Best Actor Olivier Award, and won Best Shakespearian Performance at the Critics' Circle Theatre Awards, for playing the title role in Coriolanus at the Old Vic. Leading RSC roles include the title roles in King Lear and Macbeth and Brutus in Julius Caesar. He was Orestes in The Oresteia at the National Theatre and Christ in Steven Berkoff's Messiah at the Old Vic. He is returning to Arcola Theatre for the first time since playing Dr Thomas Stockmann in Mehmet Ergen's 2008 production of An Enemy of the People.

Mark Jagasia is a former staff journalist on the Evening Standard, a former showbusiness editor of the Daily Express and a contributor to other newspapers including the Guardian and Sunday Telegraph. He is originally from Bolton but has lived in London for the past 20 years. Clarion is his first stage-play."

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