Casting Announced For The Olivier Award-Winning GOODNIGHT MISTER TOM

The producers of Chichester Festival Theatre's production of Goodnight Mister Tom are delighted to announce today that the Oliver award-winning stage adaptation of Michelle Magorian's classic novel will embark on a UK Tour in 2016 after its strictly limited West End run at the Duke of York's Theatre this Christmas.

The production will open at Manchester Opera House and continue on to Milton Keynes Theatre, Glasgow Theatre Royal, Birmingham New Alexandra Theatre, Oxford New Theatre, York Grand Opera House, Richmond Theatre, Aylesbury Waterside, Woking New Victoria, Bath Theatre Royal, Cambridge Arts Theatre, Cardiff New Theatre and Newcastle Theatre Royal.

The previously announced David Troughton will play the central role of Mister Oakley joined by an ensemble cast featuring Clark Devlin, Elisa de Grey, Guy Lewis, Simon Markey, Abigail Matthews, Jane Milligan, Martha Seignior, James Staddon, Melle Stewart, Georgina Sutton andHollie Taylor.

Six talented young performers have been cast in the key roles of William and Zach. Joe Reynolds, Freddy Hawkins and Alex Taylor-McDowall will alternate the role of William and Sonny Kirby, Harrison Noble and Oliver Loades will alternate as Zach.

David Wood's stage adaptation enjoyed great critical acclaim in 2012/13, winning the Olivier Award for Best Entertainment and Family.

Angus Jackson leads a stellar creative team that includes designer Robert Innes Hopkins (Oppenheimer; RSC/ West End), lighting designer Tim Mitchell (King and Country: Henry IV Part I And Part II; RSC/ Barbican) and sound designer Gregory Clarke (The Boy in the Striped Pajamas; Chichester Festival Theatre & Children's Touring Partnership). They are joined by composer Matthew Scott (Taken at Midnight; Chichester Festival Theatre/ West End), puppet maker and director Toby Olié (associate puppetry director of War Horse; West End) and choreographerLizzi Gee (Future Conditional; Old Vic).

The novel Goodnight Mister Tom is now a modern classic and is celebrating its 35th anniversary. Michelle Magorian's wonderfully uplifting tale is brought gloriously to life in this magical stage adaptation by David Wood. Set during the dangerous build up to the Second World War,Goodnight Mister Tom follows young William Beech, who is evacuated to the idyllic English countryside and forges a remarkable and heart-warming friendship with the elderly recluse, Tom Oakley.

Winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and commended for the Carnegie Medal, Goodnight Mister Tom is now a world-wide literary favourite and BAFTA award-winning TV film (starring John Thaw), and continues to inspire audiences and bring generations together.

David Troughton is currently playing the role of Tony Archer on BBC Radio 4's long-running British contemporary rural drama, The Archers(since 2014). He has performed numerous times with both the RSC (The Shoemaker's Holiday, Macbeth, Macbett, Henry IV: parts 1 and 2,Richard II and Richard III, The Cherry Orchard, The Tempest, King Lear, A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Venetian Twins) and the National Theatre (Season's Greetings, Playing with Fire, Measure for Measure, Peter Pan and Fool For Love). He is also a regular on TV where his appearances include Grantchester, Unforgotten, The Hollow Crown and many more.

Goodnight Mister Tom is adapted for the stage by David Wood OBE, the country's leading writer and director of plays and musicals for children. This Christmas David also his Olivier nominated stage production of The Tiger Who Came to Tea running at the Lyric Theatre and The Witches running in Leicester.

Author Michelle Magorian was inspired to write Goodnight Mister Tom after hearing her mother's tales about her time as a nurse in the war. Published in 1981, it has been translated into 11 languages and won awards in the UK, America and Australia. Her novel Just Henry won the Costa Award for children's fiction in 2008, was adapted for television in 2011, and starred Sheila Hancock who appears briefly as her younger self in Michelle's latest novel, Impossible! Michelle is currently working with the composer Stephen Keeling on the musical Sea Change.

The production is directed by Angus Jackson, whose work includes Oppenheimer for the RSC Swan and Vaudeville Theatre, King Lear for Chichester and the Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Browning Version for Chichester and the Harold Pinter Theatre, Bingo for the Young Vic and Chichester, The Power Of Yes for the National's Lyttleton theatre, and Elmina's Kitchen for the National's Cottesloe theatre and the Garrick Theatre. Forthcoming work includes Don Quixote in a new version by James Fenton for the RSC's 400th anniversary season, starring David Threlfall and Rufus Hound.

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