Torben Betts's INVINCIBLE Comes to the Stephen Joseph Theatre

The Original Theatre Company is delighted to announce that, due to popular demand, its production of Torben Betts's critically acclaimed Invincible is touring the UK for the second consecutive year and can be seen at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough next month.

Directed by Christopher Harper, the show plays at the SJT from Wednesday 22 to Saturday 25 February.

Alastair Whatley, Emily Bowker and Graham Brookes reprise the roles of Oliver, Emily and Alan, and SJT regular Elizabeth Boag joins the 2017 tour as Dawn. Elizabeth was brought up in Pickering, North Yorkshire, and has been seen at the SJT in 2013's Arrivals and Departures and Farcicals and Roundelay in 2014, and in 2015's Confusions and Hero's Welcome which played to great acclaim as part of the Brits Off Broadway festival in New York early last year.

Artistic Director of The Original Theatre Company Alastair Whatley says: "We are delighted to be taking Invincible back on the road in 2017. Torben's state-of-the-nation comedy reached out to audiences across the UK in 2016 with his vision of a nation divided, cleft in two down the Watford Gap. We look forward to navigating the play through post-Brexit Britain in 2017."

With the recession biting hard, Emily and Oliver have decided to downsize and shift their middle-class London lifestyle to a small town in the north of England. One night, they open their doors to their next-door neighbours, Dawn and Alan. Over the course of a disastrous evening of olives, anchovies, Karl Marx and abstract art, class and culture collide resulting in consequences that are both tragic and hilarious.

Invincible had its world premiere at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond in 2014 and transferred later that same year to St James Theatre, London. A Spanish version, Invencible, has just begun a nine-month tour of Spain, starring film actress Maribel Verdu.

Torben Betts was born in Lincolnshire and studied at Liverpool University. He became the resident dramatist at the SJT in 1999. Poet and dramatist Liz Lochhead said he 'is just about the most original and extraordinary writer of drama we have'. His play The Unconquered won Best New Play 2006/07 at the Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland. In 2015 there was a revival of his acclaimed 2012 play Muswell Hill at London's Park Theatre, his latest work, What Falls Apart, opened at Newcastle's Live Theatre, and his version of Chekhov's The Seagull was staged at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. In February 2016, he adapted Get Carter for Northern Stage in Newcastle.

Director Christopher Harper is an Associate of the Original Theatre Company and directed the 2011 production of See How They Run. As an actor, he played Benedick on a world tour of Much Ado About Nothing for the Globe and starred as Victoria Wood's son, Cliff, in the television film Housewife 49.

Invincible is designed by Victoria Spearing with sound by Max Pappenheim. The national tour is produced by Tom Hackney for The Original Theatre Company, Adrian Grady for Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds and Ghostlight Theatre Productions (a Bob and Co Company).

Invincible can be seen at the SJT at 7.30pm on Wednesday 22 and Friday 24 February; at 1.30pm and 7.00pm on Thursday 23 February; and at 2.30pm and 7.30pm on Saturday 25 February.

Tickets are priced from £10 to £24.50, and are available from the Box Office on 01723 370541 or online at www.sjt.uk.com.

Photo credit: James Findlay

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