Celebrating the 80th birthday of playwright and novelist David Storey, the first London production in over 30 years - and the first production in London since the original National Theatre production- David Storey's Early Days plays at the Finborough Theatre for a limited run of nine Sunday and Monday evening and Tuesday matinee performances from tonight, 16 June 2013 (Press Night: Monday 17 June 2013 at 7.30pm).
Originally written for Sir Ralph Richardson, Early Days is an intrinsically poignant lament on loneliness and abandonment. Desolate yet full of gentle humour, the play is an astute study on the realizations of old age by one of England's greatest contemporary writers, David Storey.
Kitchen, a retired politician, is placed in the care of his daughter and son-in-law for his own safety. Paranoia and fear set in as his isolation forces him to reflect on his life, the passing of time, loss and remembered love. All the while his family and the people around him lose patience and faith in his ability to speak truth.
Playwright David Storey was born in Wakefield, Yorkshire, in 1933. A former professional rugby league player, he studied at the Slade School of Fine Art. His plays include The Restoration of Arnold Middleton (1967), which won the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright;The Contractor (1969), Home (1970) and The Changing Room (1972), all of which won the New York Critics Best Play of the Year Award; In Celebration (1969), which was adapted as a film in 1974 starring Alan Bates; Life Class (1975); and The Farm (1973). All of these plays were first performed at The Royal Court Theatre. Early Days (1980), The March on Russia (1989) and Stages(1992) all premiered at The National Theatre. He also wrote the screenplay for the classic film This Sporting Life, directed by Lindsay Anderson, adapted from Storey's first novel of the same name. His novels include Flight into Camden which won the 1963 Somerset Maugham Award and the 1961 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize; Pasmore which won the 1973 Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, and Saville which won the 1976 Booker Prize.
Director Tim Newns is a former Resident Assistant Director at the Finborough Theatre. Directing includes The Northerners (Finborough Theatre), As You Like It (International tour for Off The Ground), Angeldust (Etcetera Theatre) and The Importance of Being Earnest (Morlan Centre, Abersytwyth). Assistant Direction includes And I And Silence, Country Magic, I Was A Beautiful Dayand The Druid's Rest (Finborough Theatre), MUCH (Cock Tavern Theatre) and Julius Caesar(Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse Youth Theatre).
Finborough Theatre, The Finborough, 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED. Box Office 0844 847 1652 or www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk. The show plays Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays, 16, 17, 18, 23, 24, 25, 30 June, 1 and 2 July 2013; Sunday and Monday evenings at 7.30pm. Tuesday matinees at 2.00pm.. Tickets £14, £10 concessions
Cast biographies:
Abigail Bond | MathildaAndrew Glen | Doctor
Trained at the Royals Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.
Theatre includes Oedipus (Blue Elephant Theatre), Hotel Confessions (Southwark Playhouse), Plenty More Fish In the Sea (Old Red Lion Theatre), Snow White (Citizens Theatre, Glasgow), Peer Gynt, Twelfth Night (Lost Theatre), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Gda?sk Shakespeare Festival), Birthday (Waterloo East Theatre), East Coast Chicken Supper (Gilmorehill Centre, Glasgow), The Importance of Being Earnest, Sailor, Beware! (Baron's Court Theatre) and Prometheus, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Brief Encounter, Blade Runner (Secret Cinema).
Film includes Blind Fate, Last Drink, Entrée, Sleepless, Return and Young Working Professionals.
Television includes Power and Influence.
Max Gold | Bristol
At the Finborough Theatre, Max appeared in Rigor Mortis (2011).
Trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama.
Theatre includes Othello, The Dillen, Mary After the Queen, Flight, Worlds Apart, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Royal Shakespeare Company), King Lear, A Midsummer's Night Dream (Renaissance Theatre Company), Johnny Johnson (Lilian Baylis Theatre at Sadler's Wells), Love Bites (Resurgence Theatre Company), Vex (Half Moon Theatre), Les Liaisons Dangereuses (English Theatre, Frankfurt), Dreyfus (Tricycle Theatre), The Story of Jude (Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond), Cider with Rose (York Theatre Royal), Our Country's Good, Hamlet, The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh), Othello, Rope, Volpone (Birmingham Rep), Anna Karenina (Shared Experience), Strange Interlude (Duke of York's Theatre), Sleuth (Salisbury Playhouse) and Flight (Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith).
Film includes Suzie Gold, Inferno, Crimetime. The Wonderland Experience, The Commissioner, Man with the Rain in his Shoes, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Crimetime.
Television includes The Bill, EastEnders, Holby City, William and Mary, Rosemary and Thyme, Swag, Casualty, The Swap, The Fragile Heart, The Bill, 20 Steps, Mccallum, Eastenders, Chandler and Co, The Buddha Of Suburbia, Dangerfield, Bergerac, French and Saunders, Christmas Show, The Last Song, Dombey And Son and The White Guard.
Toby Manley | Steven
Trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.
Theatre includes Above and Beyond, The Love Project, Nola, You Once Said Yes, The Caravan (Look Left Look Right), Love Re-Imagined (Only Connect), Short Plays by Joel Horwood (Kristopher Milnes Productions) and Accomplice: London (Menier Chocolate Factory).
Film includes Electric Man.
Television includes Enid, Identity and Rush IV.
Andrew McDonald | Benson
At the Finborough Theatre, Andrew has appeared in A Man With Connections (2001), The Boatswain's Mate (2007) and The Insurgents (2007).
Trained at LAMDA.
Theatre includes This House (National Theatre), Out the Back (Cockpit Theatre), Blue/Orange and DAndy Dick (Theatre Royal Brighton and National Tour), An Inspector Calls (National Tour), Jimmy in Broadmoor (Theatre 503), Butley (Duchess Theatre), The Arabian Nights, The Odyssey, The Canterbury Tales, Much Ado About Nothing and The Simple Truth (Bridewell Theatre), Sign of the Times, Ghosts (Duchess Theatre), Deathtrap (Noël Coward Theatre), Othello (LauderDale House), Bedroom Farce (Duke of York's Theatre), The Rise and Fall of Little Voice (Vaudeville Theatre), The Fairy Queen (Glyndebourne Festival), Spring Awakening (Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, andNovello Theatre), Born in the Gardens (Peter Hall Company at the Theatre Royal Bath and National Tour), Equus (National Tour), The Entertainer (The Old Vic), The Alchemist, The Royal Hunt of the Sun and Tartuffe (National Theatre), Heroes (Wyndham's Theatre), Scenes from A Separation, Hamlet and The Merchant of Venice (Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond), Don Carlos (Gielgud Theatre and Crucible Theatre, Sheffield), The Goat (Apollo Theatre), Walking Out (Proteus), Waiting For Lefty (BAC), Golden Boy (Greenwich Theatre), Abigail's Party (Whitehall Theatre and National Tour), Travels With My Aunt (National Tour), Epsom Downs, Antigone, The Wind in The Willows, Macbeth and The BFG (Nuffield Theatre, Southampton), Look Back in Anger (National Tour), Medea (Queen's Theatre), A Small Family Business, Arcadia, Katherine Howard, Chimes atMidnight, Sexual Perversity in Chicago and A Man With Connections (Chichester Festival Theatre) and The Alchemist, Julius Caesar and Columbus and the Discovery of Japan (Royal Shakespeare Company).
Television includes On Dungeness, Don't Call Back, Guerilla, Crimewatch: Drugs in Rugs, Que Sera, Sera, Born of Hope, Sex on Trial, The Soapstar's Story, EastEnders and The Bill.
Radio includes Don Carlos, All The Presidents, Spring Awakening and An Eye For An Eye.
Simon Molloy | Kitchen
At the Finborough Theatre, Simon played Pope Pius in The Representative (2006).
Theatre includes A Kind of Alaska (Derby Playhouse), Deep Cut (Traverse Theatre and Tricycle Theatre), Humble Boy (Royal and DernGate Theatres, Northampton), I Am Falling (Gate Theatre),The Pillars of the Community (National Theatre), Beyond Belief and Pygmalion (Library Theatre, Manchester), Accidental Death of An Anarchist and Educating Rita (Haymarket Theatre, Leicester), One For The Road (Hampstead Theatre), Duet For One (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield) and The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs (The Young Vic).
Television includes Heartbeat, Holby City, Silent Witness, The Innocents, Clocking Off, Nuremberg, Doctors, EastEnders, Ashes to Ashes, Behind Closed Doors, Poirot and Mr Sloane.
Hannah Taylor Gordon | Gloria
Trained at LAMDA.
Theatre includes Macbeth (European Shakespeare Theatre Project), King Lear (European Shakespeare Theatre Project) and One for the Road (Cochrane Theatre)
Film includes Jack Ryan, The Tragedy of Macbeth, Jakob The Liar, Mansfield Park, The Fine Art of Love and Vipere au Poing.
Television includes Anne Frank (for which she was nominated for both an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress In A Mini-Series) and The Ten Commandments.
Radio includes The Cazalets.
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