Fiona Hampton, Joseph Millson and Flora Spencer-Longhurst Will Lead THE FORSYTE SAGA World Premiere

Troupe and Park Theatre have announced initial casting for the world première of a new stage adaptation of John Galsworthy's seminal work, The Forsyte Saga. Leading the company are Fiona Hampton as Irene Forsyte, Joseph Millson as Soames Forsyte and Flora Spencer-Longhurst as Fleur Forsyte. Josh Roche's production will be staged in two parts The Forsyte Saga Part 1: Irene and The Forsyte Saga Part 2: Fleur.

The production opens in Park200 at Park Theatre on 19 October 2024, with previews from 11 October 2024, and runs until 7 December 2024.

The Forsyte Saga Part 1: Irene and The Forsyte Saga Part 2: Fleur will play across alternate nights and run consecutively on matinee days.

Full casting will be announced shortly.

Performances run 11 October – 7 December 2024.

London, 1886.  Wealthy solicitor Soames Forsyte is a man of property, and his beautiful wife Irene is his most prized possession. When he commissions an architect to build him a house in which to keep her, the cracks in their marriage finally begin to show, until something happens so shocking that it tears the Forsyte family apart. Years later, Soames' daughter Fleur is haunted by the family secret when history begins to repeat itself…  

John Galsworthy's classic story The Forsyte Saga is newly dramatised for the stage in two parts by Shaun McKenna and Lin Coghlan, bringing the unheard female voices to the fore for the first time. Spanning 40 years from the last gasp of the Victorian age to the beginning of the roaring 1920s, this is an epic tale of sex, money and power. The Forsyte Saga was famously televised by the BBC in 1967 and was again serialised by ITV in 2002. Shaun McKenna and Lin Coghlan adapted the novels for BBC Radio 4 in 2016 under the title The Forsytes.

Biographies

Novelist and playwright John Galsworthy (1867-1933) was educated at Harrow and studied law at New College, Oxford. The Man of Property (1906) began the novel sequence known as The Forsyte Saga, for which Galsworthy is chiefly remembered, followed by In Chancery (1920) and To Let (1921). The story of the Forsyte family after the war was continued in The White Monkey (1924), The Silver Spoon (1926), and Swan Song (1928), and two interludes A Silent Wooing and Passersby (1927) collected in A Modern Comedy (1929), and a collection of short stories On Forsyte Change (1930). John Galsworthy won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1932.

Fiona Hampton plays Irene Forsyte. Her theatre credits include Touching the Void (Bristol Old Vic, Duke of York's Theatre), Ralegh: The Treason Trial (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse), Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare's Globe), Tamburlaine (UK tour), A Midsummer Night's Dream (New Wolsey Theatre), Private Lives, The Glass Menagerie, Tull, Of Mice and Men, Lighthearted Intercourse (Octagon Theatre Bolton), Playhouse Creatures (Chichester Festival Theatre), The Changeling (Southwark Playhouse), Roar and Clockheart Boy (Rose Theatre Kingston). Her television credits include Summer Lane Drive, The Collection, Switch, Holby City (as series regular Lulu) and The Sarah Jane Adventures; and for film, The Good Neighbour, Kingsman: The Secret Service, The Windmill and Legacy.

Joseph Millson plays Soames Forsyte. His theatre credits include Noises Off (Phoenix Theatre), Betrayal (Bath Theatre Royal), Mary Poppins (Prince Edward Theatre), Keith (Arcola Theatre), Apologia (Trafalgar Studios), The Rover, King John, Much Ado About Nothing, The House of Desires, The Dog in the Manger, Pedro The Great Pretender (RSC), Mr Foote's Other Leg (Hampstead Theatre, Theatre Royal Haymarket), Macbeth (Shakespeare's Globe), Rocket to the Moon, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Pillars of the Community (National Theatre), Twelfth Night, The Borrowers and Henry V (Storyhouse). His television credits include Van Der Valk, The Chelsea Detective, The Last Kingdom, Grantchester, Queens of Mystery, Catch 22, Ransom, Penny Dreadful, 24, Banished, Ashes to Ashes, Harley Street and The Sarah Jane Adventures; and for film, Creation Stories, Dragonheart Vengeance, No Vacancies, Angel Has Fallen, Burning Men, All the Devil's Men, Tango One, I Give it a Year and Casino Royale.

Flora Spencer-Longhurst plays Fleur Forsyte. Her theatre credits include Amélie (Criterion Theatre), Seagulls, Beryl (Octagon Theatre Bolton), A Pupil (Park Theatre), The Real Thing (Rose Theatre Kingston), The Christmas Truce, Much Ado About Nothing, Love's Labour's Lost (RSC), Once (Phoenix Theatre), Titus Andronicus (Shakespeare's Globe), The Importance of Being Earnest – The Musical (Theatre Royal Windsor, Riverside Studios), The Beggar's Opera (Regent's Park Open Air Theatre), Ghosts, The Member of the Wedding (Young Vic) and Toad of Toad Hall (Birmingham Rep). Her television credits include Oasis, Father Brown, The Bastard Executioner, Leonardo, Unforgiven, Wallander: One Step Behind, The Real Deal, Losing It, The Family Man, Lewis and Dalziel and Pascoe; and for film, The Irish Connection, Say Your Prayers and Walking with the Enemy.

Shaun McKenna's work for theatre includes The Lord of the Rings for which he was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Musical (Watermill Theatre Newbury, Theatre Royal Drury Lane and Princess of Wales Theatre, Toronto - Dora Mavor Moore Award for Best Musical), The Paradine Case, Wish You Were Dead, Looking Good Dead, The House on Cold Hill, The Perfect Murder, Dead Simple, Not Dead Enough (UK tours), Maddie (New York Theater Festival and Lyric Theatre), Boy on the Roof (Ted Shawn Theatre, Becket), Ladies In Lavender for which he won a BroadwayWorld UK Award for Best Regional Play (Royal and Derngate and UK tour), Last Dance (York Theatre, New York), Heidi, Heidi and Johanna (Walenstadt – Prix Walo Award nomination), La Cava (Victoria Palace Theatre and Piccadilly Theatre), Only You Can Save Mankind (Edinburgh Festival Fringe), Ruling Passions, How Green Was My Valley, To Serve Them All My Days (Royal and Derngate), and Fever (Old Red Lion Theatre). Screen work includes The Crooked Man, Like Father Like Son, The Cuckoo, and Great West End Theatres. Radio credits include The Forsytes, and Home Front (BBC Audio Drama Award for Outstanding Contribution to Radio Drama).

Lin Coghlan's theatre work includes Kingfisher Blue (Bush Theatre), Apache Tears (Clean Break – Peggy Ramsay Award), Mercy, Waking (Soho Theatre), The Miracle (National Theatre), Bretevski Street (Theatre Centre) and The Night Garden (National Theatre Studio and Northcott Theatre, Exeter). Screen work includes First Communion Day (Dennis Potter Play of the Year Award), Electric Frank (Leopard of Tomorrow Award at Toronto Film Festival), Some Dogs Bite (Audience Award at Nantes Film Festival) and Patrick's Planet. Radio credits include The Forsytes.

Josh Roche directs. His credits for theatre include The Importance of Being Earnest (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester), My Name is Rachel Corrie  (Young Vic – JMK Award), Home (Minerva Theatre, Chichester),  Orlando (59E59 Theaters, New York), Radio (Arcola Theatre), It's a Motherf**king Pleasure (Soho Theatre and Underbelly Edinburgh - Underbelly Untapped Award), Winky (Soho Theatre), No Particular Order (Theatre503), Pennyroyal (Finborough Theatre - BroadwayWorld UK Award for Best Director), Magnificence, A Third (Finborough Theatre), I Feel Fine, Specie, Uninvited (New Diorama Theatre), Plastic (Old Red Lion Theatre and Mercury Theatre Colchester), and This Must Be The Place (VAULT Festival). Associate and Assistant Director work includes Dr Faustus, The Alchemist (RSC at Barbican Theatre), Death of a Salesman (RSC at Nöel Coward Theatre), The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare's Globe, UK and international tours), Doctor Scroggy's War (Shakespeare's Globe), and Farinelli and the King (Duke of York's Theatre).

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