Full Cast Set for World Premiere of EVENTIDE at Arcola Theatre

Up in Arms and Arcola Theatre today announce the full cast for the world première of Barney Norris's new play, Eventide. Alice Hamilton directsHasan Dixon (Mark), James Doherty (John) and Ellie Piercy (Liz). The production opens on 25 September at Arcola Theatre, with previews from 23 September, and runs until 17 October, ahead of a national tour to Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds, The North Wall, Salisbury Playhouse and The Brewery, Bristol Tobacco Factory.

'Try and do something with your life. Be deliberate, you know?'

A love song, an elegy, a celebration - Eventide tells the story of three people whose worlds are disappearing. John is a landlord forced to sell up; Liz is a church organist who can't get a gig; Mark takes what work he can just to pay the rent. Their tales unfold round the back of a pub hidden deep in the heart of the Hampshire countryside. But is that heart still beating?

Barney Norris won the Critics' Circle and Off West End Most Promising Playwright Awards for Visitors ('Extraordinary' The Guardian, 'Heartbreaking' New York Times), which played a sell-out run at Arcola before transferring to the Bush Theatre. Eventide reunites him with director Alice Hamilton in a powerful new production from Up In Arms.

Up In Arms Artistic Directors Barney Norris and Alice Hamilton said, "Up In Arms exists to get the highest quality actors touring beyond London and bringing news of life in this country right now back to the capital. We're thrilled to be doing that with actors as exciting as Hasan, James and Ellie. This story will be funnier, more moving and more seductive because they're telling it."

Arcola Theatre's Artistic Director Mehmet Ergen added, "I commissioned Barney to write this play after the huge success of Visitors at Arcola. Eventideis every bit as touching and enthralling, but funny and surprising too. We're delighted to be working with Up In Arms, and with a first-rate cast, to bring the play to life. After the premiere at Arcola, and befitting a story about the vitality of local communities, we'll be taking it right across the country."

Barney Norris' plays include the critically acclaimed Visitors which sold out at Arcola Theatre in 2014. His first book, To Bodies Gone: The Theatre of Peter Gill, is published by Seren. In spring 2015 his short play Every You Every Me was produced by Salisbury Playhouse on a tour of schools and secure psychiatric units around Wiltshire. His first novel will be published by Doubleday in 2016. He is the Martin Esslin Playwright in Residence at Keble College, Oxford.

Hasan Dixon plays Mark. For Up in Arms, his work includes Fear Of Music; and for the Arcola, The Spanish Tragedy. His other theatre work includesWar Horse (National Theatre), The Alchemist (Liverpool Playhouse), The Glass Menagerie (Everyman Cheltenham), You: the Player (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Yerma (Gate Theatre), Ghosts (Hull Truck), The Return (Southwark Playhouse), None But Friends (Rose Theatre Kingston), The Little Prince(Exeter Bike Shed). For television, his work includes Call The Midwife and Silent Witness; and for film This Is Not Happening, John Carter andCoincidence.

James Doherty plays John. His theatre work includes London Road, NT:50 (National Theatre), Chicago, Les Miserables, A Slice of Saturday Night (West End), Kiss Me Kate (Royal Albert Hall), God of Carnage (Northampton Theatre Royal), Teenage Kicks (Assembly Rooms), Teechers (Haymarket),Gangster No. 1, Harlequinade, Separate Tables (King's Head), Buddy (UK and Toronto) and The Rocky Horror Show (UK tour). For television, his credits include From the Cradle to the Grave, The Job Lot, Top Coppers, Him and Her The Wedding, Veep, Endeavour, Ambassadors, Boomers, The IT Crowd, Phoneshop, Count Arthur Strong, Waterloo Road, Watson and Oliver, A Touch of Cloth, Miranda, Rev, Mongrels, The Thick of It, Footballer's Wives, Small Potatoes, Is Harry On The Boat?, All About George, According to Bex, The Jury, The Wyvern Mystery, Bob Martin, Dad, 2 Point 4 Children, In Sickness and In Health and Hippies; and for film, London Road, In The Loop, Closed Circuit, Deviation, The Forgotten, Inbred, Verity's Summer, City Rats, Backbeat.

Ellie Piercy plays Liz. Her theatre work includes The Heresy of Love, As You Like It, Blue Stockings, All's Well That Ends Well, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Liberty, Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare's Globe), The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd (Orange Tree), Much Ado About Nothing (Manchester Royal Exchange), The Taming the Tempest, A Touch of the Sun(Salisbury Playhouse), How To Be A Giant, The Eyes of Marie, The Best In Town (Unicorn) and Plunder (Watermill). For television, her work includes The World of the Impressionists; and for film, Brothers of War and Mr Duncan.

Alice Hamilton's productions for Up in Arms include Barney Norris's plays Visitors (Arcola, Bush Theatre, national tour and rural tour), Fear of Music (tour with Out of Joint) and At First Sight (tour and Latitude Festival). Other theatre includes Orson's Shadow (Southwark Playhouse). Short plays include Belarus (Arcola for the Miniaturists), Extinct and Starcrossed (Bush for Courting Drama), The Kingdom of Me (Park Theatre for Hatch) and The Coldest Day Yet (Upstairs at the Western). She was recently Staff Director on Man and Superman (National Theatre).

UP IN ARMS is a touring theatre company from the south west. Founded in 2008 by co-artistic directors Alice Hamilton and Barney Norris, who first met in their local youth theatre, the company has grown in the last few years from presenting work above pubs, in classrooms and in woods, to collaborating with some of the UK's leading artists and organisations to develop acclaimed, award-winning work. Previous productions include Visitors(2014-2015), Fear Of Music (2012-2013) and At First Sight (2011).

www.upinarms.org.uk

Twitter: @upinarmstheatre

ARCOLA THEATRE is one of London's leading off-West End theatres. Locally engaged and internationally minded, Arcola stages a diverse programme of plays, operas and musicals. World-class productions from major artists appear alongside cutting-edge work from the most exciting emerging companies. Arcola delivers one of London's most extensive community engagement programmes, creating over 5000 opportunities every year. By providing research and development space to diverse artists, Arcola champions theatre that's more engaging and representative. Its pioneering environmental initiatives are internationally renowned, and aim to make Arcola the world's first carbon-neutral theatre.

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