Full Cast Announced For MRS DALLOWAY at Arcola Theatre

Arcola Theatre and Forward Arena today announce the full cast for Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway, a new adaptation by Hal Coase. Thomas Bailey, co-Artistic Director of Forward Arena, directs Emma D'Arcy (Rezia), Sean Jackson (Peter), Clare Lawrence Moody (Sally), Clare Perkins (Clarissa) and Guy Rhys (Septimus). The production opens at Arcola Theatre on 1 October, with previews from 25 September and runs until 20 October.

On a single day in London, 1923, Clarissa Dalloway prepares to throw a party for her high-society friends.

On the same day, in the same city, First World War veteran Septimus Warren Smith seeks help from the ruling class that Clarissa entertains.

Forward Arena present a fast-paced, dynamic staging of Hal Coase's bold new version of Mrs Dalloway renewing the collaboration between the company and Hal Coase following their previous production of Callisto: a queer epic at Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Arcola Theatre.

Hal Coase adapts. His playwrighting credits include Callisto: a queer epic which was presented at Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Arcola Theatre in a previous collaboration with Forward Arena. His other work has been performed at Camden People's Theatre, Pleasance Theatre, Ashmolean and North Wall Arts Centre.

Emma D'Arcy plays Rezia and is also Joint Artistic Director of Forward Arena. Her theatre credits include Against (Almeida Theatre), A Girl in School Uniform (Walks into a Bar)(West Yorkshire Playhouse), Clickbait (Theatre503), and Children and Animals and Callisto: A Queer Epic (Edinburgh Festival Fringe). She will next be seen in BBC 1'sWanderlust, starring alongside Toni Collette and Steven Mackintosh.

Sean Jackson plays Peter. His theatre credits include Macbeth (Shrewsbury), The Hook (Royal & Derngate Northampton/Everyman Theatre), Antony & Cleopatra, Holy Warriors(Shakespeare's Globe), Richard III (Nottingham Playhouse/York Theatre Royal), Say It With Flowers (Hampstead Theatre), Waves (National Theatre/The Duke on 42nd Street, New York), Beauty and the Beast, The Seagull, A Dream Play, The Mandate, Iphigenia at Aulis, The Talking Cure, Ivanov (National Theatre), Hamlet (Donmar Warehouse/Broadhurst Theatre, New York), Richard II, The Wild Duck (Donmar Warehouse), The Jewish Wife (Young Vic) and Henry V (Royal Exchange Theatre). His television credits include Da Vinci's Demons and The Fear; and for film, Eddie the Eagle.

Clare Lawrence Moody plays Sally. Her theatre credits include The Divide (Edinburgh Festival Fringe/The Old Vic), Punts (Theatre503), Home Chat (Finborough Theatre), Mill Hill (St James' Theatre), The Distance (Orange Tree Theatre), A Door Should Be Open Or Shut (Chichester Festival Theatre), Late In The Day (Reckless Moment), Shelley (West Yorkshire Playhouse/Oxford Playhouse), Age of Arousal (Royal Lyceum Theatre) and The Girls of Slender Means (Edinburgh Festival Fringe). Her television credits includeLongitude and This Could Be the Last Time; and for film, Pride.

Clare Perkins plays Clarissa. Her theatre credits include Emilia (Shakespeare's Globe), Genesis Inc (Hampstead Theatre), Female Parts: Shorts - The Immigrant (Hoxton Hall),Daisy Pulls it Off (Park Theatre), Three Mothers (Waterloo East), Primetime (Royal Court Theatre), Roundelay (Southwark Playhouse), The Convert (Gate Theatre), Removal Men(Yard Theatre), Play On, Little Revolution (Almeida Theatre), The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (National Theatre/UK tour), The House that Will Not Stand, How Long is Never? Darfur- a Response, Fabulation (Tricycle Theatre), Welcome to Thebes (National Theatre), A Fag Burn in the Carpet (Kings Head Theatre), Our Country's Good, Cyrano De Bergerac (Nuffield Southampton Theatres), Generations of the Dead (Young Vic) and Ready or Not (Theatre Royal Stratford East). For television her credits include as series regular Ava Hartman in EastEnders, Denise Boulter in Family Affairs and Cathy Kelsey in Pig Heart Boy.

Guy Rhys plays Septimus. His theatre credits include Not Now, Bernard, Jason & the Argonauts, My Father, Odysseus (Unicorn Theatre), The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, St Joan(Donmar Warehouse), Bird (Sherman Theatre/Royal Exchange Theatre), Pomona (Orange Tree Theatre/National Theatre/Royal Exchange Theatre), Wendy & Peter Pan (RSC), Star Cross'd (Oldham Coliseum), A View From The Bridge (Royal Exchange Theatre), Rafta Rafta (Bolton Octagon/New Vic Theatre), Mother Courage and Her Children, The Powerbook (National Theatre), The Allotment (New Perspectives), A Streetcar Named Desire (Theatr Clwyd), Murmuring Judges, Transmissions (Birmingham Rep), Othello(Nottingham Playhouse), Hijra (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Romeo & Juliet (Chichester Festival Theatre), The Ramayana (Birmingham Rep/National Theatre). His television credits include The Crimson Field and Fallout; and for film, The Festival.

Co-Artistic Director of Forward Arena Thomas Bailey directs. For the company, his credits include The Games We Played (Theatre503) and Callisto: a queer epic (Edinburgh Festival Fringe/Arcola Theatre) and Rehearsing for Planet B (North Wall Arts Centre). He was awarded the Bryan Forbes Directing Bursary in 2017.

ABOUT FORWARD ARENA

Forward Arena make theatre that is culturally and politically awake, without ever forgetting theatre's responsibility to be an impressive and stimulating feast of liveness. The company was formed in 2016 by co-Artistic Directors Emma D'Arcy and Thomas Bailey, and Executive Director Ellie Keel.

Most recently the company presented Callisto: a queer epic by Hal Coase which premièred at Pleasance Dome for the full Edinburgh Festival Fringe run in August 2016, transferring to Arcola Theatre in October 2016 before returning for a full run at the venue the following December. Previous Forward Arena shows include The Games We Playedby Michelle Sewell at Theatre503 and Children and Animals by Florence Read at The North Wall Arts Centre, Oxford before a month run at Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

http://forwardarena.com/home

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