Photo Flash: First Look at SPRING and THE LAST DANCE at Frontier Theatre

Linked by ocean sounds and the figure of a silent female listener, Spring, and The Last Dance, are a potent, poetic pairing. The girl in Susan Hill's Spring considers the life she has already lived, and the life that lies ahead of her. What might she have to look forward to? But although the sea air on a clifftop in Spring gives the feeling of hope, she's far from carefree.

Mitch Hooper's The Last Dance takes us into older age. A married couple look out to sea and contemplate the reluctant departure of one partner before the other. But what if, in sharing the truth of one's deep hidden self, more damage is done than good?

Susan Hill is an award-winning writer whose novels include The Bird of The Night for which she won the Whitbread, The Albatross for which she won the John Llewellyn Rhys and I'm The King of The Castle for which she won Somerset Maugham Prize, and she has also been shortlisted for the Booker. She was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Honours. Her novels include Strange Meeting, I'm the King of the Castle, A Kind Man and The Woman in Black, the stage adaptation of which has been running in London's West End since 1988 and has been adapted into a film starring Daniel Radcliffe. She has also published autobiographical works and collections of short stories as well as the Simon Serrailler series of crime novels.

Mitch Hooper founded the Body and Soul Theatre company and his plays include Only Connect, Living the Lie, Losers, I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know, Love Exists, Killing the King, Tumult in the Clouds, Betrayal.

Portia Van de Braam plays The Girl. She recently graduated from the Drama Centre and her theatre credits include Time and The Conways (Tower Theatre Company) and Writers Bloc (Canal Theatre Café).

Sally Faulkner plays Older Woman/Suzanne. Her recent theatre credits include Dinner (Upstairs at the Gatehouse), The Great Highway (Gate Theatre), Abyssinia (national tour), Virginia Plain (White Bear Theatre), Final Judgement (Theatre Royal Windsor), Crash (Fifth Column Theatre) and Hamlet (Oval House). Her television credits include Just Good Friends; Pure Wickedness; Forgotten; Big Kids; Bremner, Bird and Fortune; House of Cards; and Identity.

David Mallinson plays Peter and recent credits includes Squirrels (Orange Tree Theatre), The Winter's Tale, Edward II, Romeo and Juliet, Grapes of Wrath and Hamlet (Sheffield Crucible), Democracy (Sheffield Crucible/The Old Vic), The History Boys (National Theatre tour/West End), A Difficult Age (English Touring Theatre), Noises Off (Liverpool Playhouse), Cloud Nine, Macbeth, (Contact, Manchester), Time and the Conways (Theatr Clwyd/tour/The Old Vic), The Swaggerer, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Regent's Park Open Air Theatre), Tristram Shandy, The Importance of Being Earnest, Travesties, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, She Stoops to Conquer and Henry IV Part I (Oxford Playhouse) and Streets of London (Theatre Royal Stratford East/West End). Television credits include Dead Gorgeous, Peak Practice, This Life, Enemy at the Door and The Professionals.

Harry Burton directs and recent credits include The Lover (Bridewell Theatre), The Room (Royal Court Theatre), The Dumb Waiter (West End), Quartermaine's Terms (UK tour), I Found My Horn and The Leisure Society (Chichester & Trafalgar Studios), Where I Come From (Kentucky Rep) What The Butler Saw (Vaudeville Theatre), Casualties and Positive (Park Theatre), Barking in Essex (Wyndham's Theatre) and Blue On Blue (Tristan Bates Theatre).

Frontier Theatre Productions was founded by James Roose-Evans, founder of The Hampstead Theatre and it was set up with two main objectives: to make practical use of the best of a neglected generation of mature 60-plus actors and to ensure, through a rolling programme of productions, workshops and masterclasses, that younger members of the profession can learn from the experience of their older colleagues.

IF YOU GO:

Double Bill: Spring and The Last Dance

At The Theatre Room
6 Fredericks Place, London, EC2R 8AB
(Close to Bank tube station)

18 October - 5 November
Monday - Saturday Evenings at 7:30pm
Saturday matinee 29 October at 3.00pm

Tickets: General Admission: £10; Senior/Student Concession: £8
www.frontiertheatreproductions.co.uk

Photo Credit: Gavin Watson

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