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Theatre by the Lake Announces Two-Company Ensemble for Summer Season
By: BWW News Desk May. 03, 2017
Layo-Christina Akinlude, Adam Buchanan, Matthew Darcy, Josie Dunn, Charlotte Hamblin, Nathan Hamilton, Jessica Hayles, Richard Keightley, Matthew Mellalieu, Alex Parry, James Sheldon, Izabella Urbanowicz will play across three productions - a major revival of Terence Rattigan's heart-rending and beautifully written After the Dance, a collaboration with Shared Experience creating a new production of one of Shakespeare's best-loved comedies, As You Like It, and Howard Brenton's new adaptation of Strindberg's masterpiece, Miss Julie.
They are joined by Matt Addis, Ian Barritt, Emma Carter, Eliza Hunt, Alice Selwyn and Julia Watson completing the Summer Season line up with the regional première of the celebrated and critically acclaimed Handbagged by Moira Buffini; and in the Studio as part of new writing season, the world première of Remarkable Invisible - by award-winning American writer Laura Eason.
MAIN HOUSE
A THEATRE BY THE LAKE PRODUCTION
AFTER THE DANCE
25 May - 4 November
Press night: 30 May
Cast: Layo-Christina Akinlude (Julia Browne), Adam Buchanan (Peter Scott-Fowler), Matthew Darcy (Arthur Power), Josie Dunn (Miss Potter), Charlotte Hamblin (Helen Banner), Nathan Hamilton (Cyril Carter), Jessica Hayles (Moya), Richard Keightley (David Scott-Fowler), Matthew Mellalieu (John Reid), Alex Parry (Williams), James Sheldon (Dr George Banner / Lawrence Walters), Izabella Urbanowicz (Joan Scott-Fowler)
Directed by Philip Wilson; Designed by Colin Falconer
Lighting Designer: Ciaran Bagnall; Composer and Sound Designer: Jon Nicholls
A dazzling dissection of love, class and the capacity for self-deceit.
David and Joan Scott-Fowler were Bright Young Things of the 1920s and live a glamorous life of hedonism and pleasure: debauched parties, serious drinking, sparkling wit and superficiality.
But times have moved on and they are no longer as bright or as young as they once were. When a young and idealistic couple come into their lives, they begin to realise that the gaiety of their youth is wearing thin and the precarious game around which their existence is constructed begins to fall apart.
Sharply satirical and heartrendingly beautiful, After the Dance is about a world on the cusp of enormous change. Neglected for many years, it is now considered to be one of the great works of a master dramatist.
Terence Rattigan's (1911 - 1977) major works include The Deep Blue Sea, The Browning Version, Separate Tables, French without Tears and The Winslow Boy.
Philip Wilson directs. His theatre credits include The Star, The Norman Conquests, Noises Off, Doctor Faustus, The Astonished Heart/Still Life (Liverpool Playhouse), As You Like It (Storyhouse, Chester), Beacons (Park Theatre), his own adaptations of Philip Pullman's Grimm Tales (Oxo Tower Bargehouse & Shoreditch Town Hall), The Three Lions (St. James Theatre & Edinburgh & UK tour), How Many Miles to Babylon? (Lyric Theatre Belfast), Toro! Toro! (national tour), Twist of Gold (Polka Theatre), Sixty-Six Books (Bush Theatre & Westminster Abbey), The Importance of Being Earnest/Travesties (Birmingham Rep), If Love Were All, In Praise Of Love (Chichester Festival Theatre), The Found Man (Traverse Theatre), Ain't Misbehavin' (Sheffield Crucible) and Breaking The Code (Theatre Royal Northampton). As Artistic Director of Salisbury Playhouse (2007-11): The Game of Love and Chance, The Constant Wife, The Picture, Private Lives, Arsenic and Old Lace, The Winslow Boy, his own adaptation of JL Carr's A Month in the Country, What the Butler Saw, People at Sea, Alphabetical Order, Corpse!. As director/designer: Blackbird, Faith Healer and Toro! Toro! (TMA Award nomination, Best Show for Children and Young People).
Pre-show talk on Mon 28 May at 5.45pm. Free entry but booking essential.
MAIN HOUSE
A THEATRE BY THE LAKE PRODUCTION
HANDBAGGED
15 June - 3 November
Press night: 20 June
Cast: Matt Addis (Actor 1), Ian Barritt (Actor 2), Emma Carter (Liz), Eliza Hunt (Q), Alice Selwyn (Mags), Julia Watson (T)
Directed by TBTL Associate Director Liz Stevenson; Designed by Louie Whitemore
Lighting Designer: Chris Davey; Composer and Sound Designer: Ed Lewis
When Maggie met the Queen
Tea at four
Handbags at dawn
Two icons, one destined to rule, the other to lead. But when the gloves came off, who had the upper hand? Moira Buffini's sensational comedy looks behind the closed doors of the palace to speculate what really happened when two of the most powerful women in the world clashed.
This funny, insightful and brilliantly sharp satire was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best New Comedy in 2015 and went on to be a West End smash hit.
Moira Buffini's plays include Women, Power & Politics for the Tricycle Theatre, wonder.land, Welcome To Thebes and Dinner for the National Theatre, Dying For It (adapted from Nicolai Erdman's The Suicide) and Marianne Dreams (adapted from Catherine Storr's book) for the Almeida Theatre, A Vampire Story for NT Connections, Loveplay for the RSC, Silence for Birmingham Rep (Susan Smith Blackburn Prize), Gabriel for Soho Theatre (LWT Plays On Stage Award and the Meyer
Whitworth Award), Blavatsky's Tower for the Machine Room, and Jordan with Anna Reynolds for the Gate (Writers Guild Award for Best Fringe Play). For television, her work includes Harlots; and her screenplays include Viceroy's House, Tamara Drewe directed by Stephen Frears, Jane Eyre directed by Cary Fukanaga, and Byzantium directed by Neil Jordan. She recently directed her first short film, Father.
Associate Director of Theatre by the Lake Liz Stevenson directs. As a director, her work includes How My Light is Spent (Royal Exchange, Sherman Theatre, Theatre by the Lake), Barbarians (Young Vic, Olivier Award nomination for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre), The Gap and Talking Down (The Gap project, Halle St. Peter's), We are the Multitude (24:7 Theatre Festival), The Dumb Waiter (Lee Rosy's Nottingham), The Match (Liverpool Write Now Festival), Beef (Edinburgh Festival), The Country (Blackburn Empire), and Orphans, Rope, Road (Nottingham New Theatre & NSDF). She was the winner of the JMK Young Director Award 2015 and has worked as an assistant director at the Royal Exchange, Hampstead Theatre, Shakespeare's Globe, Menier Chocolate Factory and Gate Theatre.
Pre-show talk on Mon 19 June at 5.45pm. Free entry but booking essential.
STUDIO
A THEATRE BY THE LAKE & JERMYN STREET THEATRE CO-PRODUCTION
MISS JULIE
by August Strindberg in a new adaptation by Howard Brenton
Cast: Charlotte Hamblin (Miss Julie), James Sheldon (Jean), Izabella Urbanowicz (Christine)
Directed by Tom Littler; Designed by Louie Whitemore
Lighting Designer: Jo Town; Composer and Sound Designer: Max Pappenheim
30 June - 3 November
Press night: 4 July
Midsummer's Eve, Sweden. A night when the sun doesn't set. A night of drinking and dancing. A night to break the rules.
When Julie finds herself alone on her father's estate, she throws caution to the wind and gate-crashes the servants' party. In the sultry heat of that long, light night, she finds herself in a dangerous tryst with her father's manservant, Jean. What begins as a flirtatious game, as the two vie for power, slowly descends into a savage fight for survival.
Miss Julie was written at a time of industrial and social unrest, a ground-breaking masterpiece that still provokes and shocks audiences today. Award-winning playwright Howard Brenton brings Strindberg's genius to life in this brilliant new adaptation. The production transfers to London's Jermyn Street Theatre following its run in Keswick.
Johan August Strindberg (1849 - 1912) was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter. His principal works for the stage include Creditors, The Father, A Dream Play, The Ghost Sonata and The Dance of Death.
Howard Brenton's many plays include Christie in Love (Portable Theatre, 1969), REVENGE (Theatre Upstairs, 1969), Magnificence (Royal Court Theatre, 1973), The Churchill Play (Nottingham Playhouse, 1974 twice revived by the RSC 1978 and 1988), Bloody Poetry (Foco Novo 1984 and The Royal Court Theatre, 1987), Weapons Of Happiness (National Theatre, winner of the Evening Standard Award 1976), Epsom Downs (Joint Stock Theatre, 1977), Sore Throats (RSC, 1978), The Romans In Britain (National Theatre, 1980, revived Sheffield Crucible Theatre 2006), Thirteenth Night (RSC, 1981), The Genius (1983), Greenland (1988) and Berlin Bertie (1992) all presented by the Royal Court, Kit's Play (RADA Jerwood Theatre, 2000), Paul (National Theatre 2005, nominated for the Olivier Award, 2006), In Extremis (Shakespeare's Globe, 2006), The Ragged Trousered Philantropists (Chichester Festival Theatre/ Liverpool Everyman, 2010) and Anne Boleyn (Shakespeare's Globe and UK Tour 2010/2011 - winner of Best New Play at the 2011 Whatsonstage Awards). In 2013, his play 55 Days, directed by Howard Davies and starring Mark Gatiss, played to wide critical and popular acclaim at Hampstead Theatre, shortly followed by his play Drawing The Line. He also adapted the two parts of Strindberg's The Dance of Death into one play called Dances of Death, which opened at the Gate Theatre in 2013. In 2014, his play Doctor Scroggy's War opened at the Shakespeare's Globe, and his piece Ransomed made up part of Salisbury Playhouse's Magna Carta Festival showcase.
Tom Littler was appointed Artistic Director of Jermyn Street Theatre in 2017. He was previously Artistic Director of Primavera, a company specialising in revivals of forgotten classics, from 2006-16. He was also Associate Director of new writing venue Theatre503 from 2012-16, and Associate Director of the Peter Hall Company for three years. Recent work includes the world premiere of Howard Brenton's new version of Strindberg's Dances of Death (Gate Theatre), Good Grief (Theatre Royal Bath and national tour), A Little Night Music (Menier Chocolate Factory / Central Theatre Budapest), Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night, The Wind in the Willows and As You Like It (Guildford Shakespeare Company), As You Like It (Creation), Merit, Martine, Jingo (Finborough Theatre), Murder in the Cathedral (Oxford Playhouse / Christ Church Cathedral), The Picture of DorIan Gray, The Glass Menagerie, Other Desert Cities, Strangers on a Train (Frankfurt) and Absurd Person Singular (Mill at Sonning). At Jermyn Street Theatre, his productions include the first major revivals of Terence Rattigan's First Episode, Graham Greene's The Living Room, Stephen Sondheim's Anyone Can Whistle, Howard Brenton's Bloody Poetry, and the first UK revival of Stephen Sondheim's Saturday Night, which subsequently transferred to the West End.
The production contains scenes of a sexual nature.
Pre-show talk on Mon 3 July at 5.45pm. Free entry but booking essential.
MAIN HOUSE
A THEATRE BY THE LAKE & SHARED EXPERIENCE CO-PRODUCTION
AS YOU LIKE IT
7 July - 4 November
Press night: 11 July
Cast: Layo-Christina Akinlude (Celia/Jaques De Boys), Adam Buchanan ( Charles/Silvius/Sir Oliver Martext), Matthew Darcy (Oliver/Amiens/Audrey), Josie Dunn (Phebe), Nathan Hamilton (Orlando), Jessica Hayles (Rosalind), Richard Keightley (Jacques/Le Beau), Matthew Mellalieu (Touchstone/Adam), Alex Parry (Duke Frederick/Duke Senior/ Corin)
Directed by Kate Saxon; Designed by Libby Watson
Lighting Designer: Chris Davey; Composer and Sound Designer: Richard Hammarton
Shakespeare's poetic and irresistibly funny comedy of mistaken identity and love.
Set in the modern world of alternative facts and fiercely jealous leaders, the young Rosalind and her friend Celia find themselves pawns in a power struggle. Together they decide to flee the city and its politics for the forest where they discover a countryside wonderland of peace and harmony. Disguised as a boy, Rosalind meets Orlando and, amidst the intoxicating atmosphere of the forest, counsels him in the art of love.
One of Shakespeare's most popular comedies with the most witty and wise-cracking heroine of them all, As You Like It is transformed in a bold new production by Kate Saxon.
An exciting collaboration with Shared Experience, the award-winning theatre company lauded for their visually dynamic storytelling whose iconic productions include Mill on the Floss and Jane Eyre.
Following performances at Theatre by the Lake, the production embarks on a UK tour in November 2017.
Kate Saxon directs. She has directed over 35 theatre productions, including the world première of John Fowles' The French Lieutenant's Woman, which opened in the US and then transferred to the UK, the first revival of Susan Glaspell's Chains Of Dew, The Real Thing (West Yorkshire Playhouse), and the US première of Nine Parts of Desire at The Public, New York. She was Associate Director of Shared Experience Theatre, working with Artistic Directors Nancy Meckler and Polly Teale from 2000 - 2012. Currently, she is working with Jess Swale, developing her new play The Mission, for Chichester Festival Theatre. For television, her work includes EastEnders. She was Voice Director on Paramount's Animated feature film, Capture The Flag, which won the Goya Award for Best Animated Film 2016. She is developing a new film by Samuel Evans, Working Title Hold Me. She is currently Co-Chair of Stage Directors UK, alongside Jeremy Herrin.
Pre-show talk on Mon 10 July at 5.45pm. Free entry but booking essential.
STUDIO
A THEATRE BY THE LAKE PRODUCTION
REMARKABLE INVISIBLE
by Laura Eason
Cast: Matt Addis (Christopher), Ian Barritt (Peter), Eliza Hunt (Helen), Alice Selwyn (Astrid)
Directed by Zoë Waterman; Designed by Bronia Housman
Lighting Designer: Jo Town; Sound Designer and Composer: Ed Lewis
11 August - 4 November
Press night: 15 August
"He wouldn't be the first misguided, self-delusional genius. So smart and so dumb."
Peter Solverson is an ageing academic who cannot let go of his work and his dreams of making a scientific breakthrough.
When his grown up children return home to help their parents downsize, their final hours in the family home bring long buried tensions to the surface and accusations, secrets, and bitter truths spill out.
This rich and compelling new play from award-winning writer Laura Eason is a resonant American family drama exploring the complex joy, love, and disappointments anyone with a family will recognize.
Laura Eason is the author of twenty plays including The Undeniable Sound of Right Now, Sex With Strangers, 40 Days, Rewind, Area of Rescue and They All Fall Down, and adaptations of Around the World in 80 Days and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Eason is also a writer for the Emmy award-winning Netflix series, House of Cards.
Zoë Waterman directs. For the company, her theatre work includes Enlightenment, Shining City and The Bogus Woman (also UK tour). Her other credits include The Rubenstein Kiss, Amy's View, After Miss Julie (Nottingham Playhouse), Swan Song: an evening of music and song (Swan Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company), The Promise (New Wimbledon Theatre Studio), Philistines (RWCMD), The Lark, Blackshirts, The Europeans (East 15), Blue Stockings, 13, Arcadia, The Laramie Project (Arts Educational School) and A Kind of Alaska (Edinburgh Fringe Festival). Assistant directing includes 2012-13 at the Royal Shakespeare Company, including assisting Gregory Doran on The Orphan of Zhao. She was the recipient of the New Wimbledon Theatre's Emerging Directors Award 2007.
The production contains strong language.
Pre-show talk on Mon 14 August at 5.45pm. Free entry but booking essential.
Casting for the summer season is by Ellie Collyer-Bristow. For tickets (£10-£36) and more information, contact the Box office at 017687 74411 or go online at www.theatrebythelake.com. Performance times: Monday - Saturday - 7:30pm; Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees- 2:00pm.
Theatre by the Lake, hailed by The Independent as "the most beautifully located and friendly theatre in Britain", opened in 1999. It is a short stroll from Derwentwater on the edge of Keswick, amid the magnificent western fells of the Lake District. Comprising of two stages, a 400-seat Main House and 100-seat Studio, the theatre presents up to nine of its own productions throughout the year as well as hosting a variety of festivals and visiting companies, playing to over 130,000 people per year. It is the only Arts Council funded producing theatre in Cumbria and for three years running has been voted the Most Welcoming Theatre in the North West in the UK Theatre Awards.
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