RGENERATION to Play Wolverhampton Grand Theatre, 4-8 Nov

Pat Barker's Booker-nominated novel, REGENERATION, has been adapted for the stage by Olivier Award-winning playwright Nicholas Wright (His Dark Materials, Vincent in Brixton), it opened at Royal & Derngate, Northampton on 29 August 2014 prior to a national tour. The production plays Wolverhampton Grand Theatre from 4 - 8 November 2014.

REGENERATION is a co-production between the Touring Consortium Theatre Company and leading regional producing theatre, Royal & Derngate Northampton. The production is directed by Simon Godwin, with design by Alex Eales, lighting design by Lee Curran, music by Stuart Earl, sound by George Dennis, and movement by Struan Leslie.

The full cast are Stephen Boxer (Captain Rivers), Christopher Brandon (Robert Graves), Simon Coates (Yealland/Anderson), Tim Delap (Siegfried Sassoon), Joshua Higgott (Campbell), David Morley Hale (Callan), Jack Monaghan (Billy Prior), Garmon Rhys (Wilfred Owen) and Lindy Whiteford (Sister Rogers)

A war saga in which not a shot is fired, but where battles are fought for the minds of men.

Marking the centenary of the start of the First World War, Regeneration is a compellingly compassionate look at war and the devastating after effect it had on a generation of young men. The play examines the insanity of war with shocking clarity; a powerful anthem for the youth of the First World War and the lives of young soldiers today.

"I am making this statement as an act of wilful defiance of military authority, because I believe the war is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it", Siegfried Sassoon, July 1917.

Craiglockhart War Hospital, Scotland 1917. Poet and soldier Siegfried Sassoon has been institutionalised in an attempt to undermine his public disapproval of the war. His Army Psychiatrist, Dr William Rivers, has been tasked with returning shell-shocked officers to the trenches, yet under Sassoon's influence, has become tormented by the morality of what is being done in the name of medicine.

Pat Barker was born in 1943. Her books include the highly acclaimed Regeneration trilogy, comprising Regeneration (1991), which was made into a film of the same name, The Eye in the Door (1993), which won the Guardian Fiction Prize, and The Ghost Road (1995), which won the Booker Prize, as well as the more recent novels Another World, Border Crossing, Double Vision and Toby's Room. She lives in Durham.

Nicholas Wright trained as an actor and joined the Royal Court Theatre in London as Casting Director before becoming the first Director of the Royal Court's Theatre Upstairs, where he presented an influential programme of new and first-time writing. From 1975 to 1977 he was joint Artistic Director of the Royal Court. He joined the National Theatre in 1984 as Literary Manager and was an Associate Director of the National until 1998. His plays include Treetops and One Fine Day at Riverside Studios, The Gorky Brigade at the Royal Court, The Crimes of Vautrin for Joint Stock, The Custom of the Country and The Desert Air both Royal Shakespeare Company and Cressida fro the Almeida Theatre at the Albery. At the National Theatre: Mrs. Klein, Vincent in Brixton (Olivier Award 2003), The Reporter and Travelling Light. His adaptation of Philip Pullman's three-book cycle His Dark Materials was premiered at the National Theatre in 2003 and revived in 2004. The Last of the Duchess, adapted from the book by Caroline Blackwood, was produced at Hampstead Theatre in 2011. His play A Human Being Died That Night, based on the book by Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, was produced at Hampstead in 2012 and 2014 and is scheduled to play at BAM in new york in the Spring of 2015.His versions of Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman and Chekhov's Three Sisters were presented at the National Theatre, and his versions of Pirandello's Naked and Wedekind's Lulu were produced by the Almeida. His opera libretto The Little Prince (music by Rachel Portman) was premiered at Houston Grand Opera in 2003 and his opera for television, Buzz on the Moon, with music by Jonathan Dove, went out on Channel 4 in 2006. His writing about the theatre includes 99 Plays - a personal selection from Aeschylus to the present day - and Changing Stages, co-written with Richard Eyre.

Simon Godwin is the Associate Director of the Royal Court and an Associate Artist at Bristol Old Vic. He was nominated for an Evening Standard Award for Best Newcomer for his direction of Wanderlust at the Royal Court in 2010 and won the Burberry Award for an emerging director at the Evening Standard Awards in 2012. Last year he directed Anne Marie Duff in Strange Interlude at the National Theatre and makes his debut at the RSC this year directing The Two Gentlemen of Verona and in 2015 is directing Ralph Fiennes in Man and Superman at the National Theatre.

Stephen Boxer's (Captain Rivers) stage credits include King Lear and The Holy Rosenbergs, both at the National Theatre, Titus Andronicus and Written on the Heart, both for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Anjin: The Shogun and The English Samurai at Sadler's Wells, Hayfever at The Rose Theatre, Kingston and The Hypochondriac at the Almeida Theatre. Stephen's screen credits include The Honourable Woman, Foyle's War, Death in Paradise and Luther.

Christopher Brandon's (Robert Graves) stage credits include Microcosm at the Soho Theatre, Moon Tiger at the Theatre Royal Bath, The Great Gatsby at Wilton's Music Hall, Three Men in a Boat for the Original Theatre Company, Mixed Marriage at the Finborough Theatre, The Charming Man at Theatre 503, and Timon of Athens and A Midsummer Night's Dream, both at The Globe Theatre. Christopher's screen credits include Endeavour and M.I High.

Simon Coates' (Yealland/Anderson) stage credits include 1984 at the Almeida and Playhouse Theatres, Donkeys' Years at the Rose Theatre, Kingston, The Misanthrope on UK Tour, Plenty at the Sheffield Crucible, The Prince of Homburg at the Donmar Warehouse, Translations and Arcadia both at the National Theatre, and Coriolanus and The Merry Wives of Windsor both for the RSC. Simon's screen credits include Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Doctors and EastEnders.

Tim Delap's (Siegfried Sassoon) stage credits include Moon Tiger at the Theatre Royal Bath, The Woman in Black at the Fortune Theatre, You Can Still Make a Killing at the Southwark Playhouse, Persuasion at the Salisbury Playhouse, Vincent in Brixton at Salisbury Playhouse and UK Tour, Hamlet at the Sheffield Crucible, The History Boys at the National Theatre, As You Desire Me at the Playhouse Theatre and All's Well That Ends Well for the RSC. Tim's screen credits include Black Mirror - Be Right Back, Doctors and Foyle's War.

Joshua Higgott (Campbell) stage credits include 1984 at The Almeida Theatre, Birdsong on UK Tour, The Alchemist at Liverpool Playhouse, Making Noise Quietly at the Donmar Warehouse, Twelfth Night at the Cambridge Arts Theatre, and Two Gentlemen of Verona on US Tour for ADC Theatre. Joshua's screen credits include 21 Clicks and The Machine.

Jack Monaghan (Billy Prior) has appeared in Uncle Dima for London Sinfionietta, Wendy and Peter Pan for the RSC, The Shawshank Redemption at The Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh and Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, War Horse at the New London Theatre, Cinderella The Midnight Princess at the Rose Theatre, Kingston, The Merchant of Venice at the Said Amphitheatre, Oxford and Love on The Dole at the Finborough Theatre. Jack's screen credits include About Time, The Somnambulists, Noah and Black Mirror 2: The Waldo Effect.

David Morley Hale (Callan) has appeared in Relative Values in the West End and UK Tour, Little Voice at The Queen's Theatre, Romeo and Juliet for the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds, The King's Speech for Playful Productions, and Gotcha at Riverside Studios, London. Screen credits include The Sex Researchers for Channel 4, Charlie Brooker's How TV Ruined My Life and The Sitcom Trials for ITV West.

Garmon Rhys' (Wilfred Owen) stage credits include On The Razzle, As You Like It, Boys, Macbeth, The Rivals, and HIndle Wakes all for LAMDA. Garmon also starred in two short films called Pushaway for LAMDA and VP for Take Cover Films. He was also a TV Presenter for Y LLE, and appeared as Dai in Canrif/Century for the National Youth Theatre Of Wales.

Lindy Whiteford (Sister Rogers) stage credits include Fathers and Sons at The Donmar Warehouse, Men Should Weep at The National Theatre, Guys and Dolls at the Piccadilly Theatre, Twelfth Night at The Bristol Old Vic, Romeo and Juliet at The Liverpool Playhouse and A Free Country at the Tricycle Theatre. Screen credits include What Remains, Shetland: Red Bones, Getting On, Casualty, Doctors and The Bill.

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