The full cast of Sydney & The Old Girl has been confirmed, as previously announced Miriam Margolyes and Mark Hadfield will be joined by Vivien Parry for Eugene O'Hare's world premiere black comedy. Directed by Phillip Breen, the production will open on 31 October, with a national press night on Tuesday 5 November at 7pm.
London is becoming an alien landscape to Sydney Stock; a man who has lived for over fifty years cooped up with his mother Nell in her grubby East End home. Theirs is a relationship of mutually assured destruction where the ghosts of the past continue to stalk and accuse. As the twisted game around family inheritance reaches breaking point, Irish care worker Marion Fee finds herself an unwitting pawn being played from both sides.
At the centre of Eugene O'Hare's second full-length black comedy is a family's obsession with versions of the past, and a paranoia about a future in a city which no longer feels like home.
Following the sell-out hit Madame Rubinstein in 2017, Miriam Margolyes returns to Park Theatre to play Nell Stock. Born in Oxford, England in 1941 & educated at Newnham College, Cambridge, Miriam is a veteran of stage and screen, an award-winning actress who has achieved success on both sides of the Atlantic. Major film credits during her long and celebrated career include Yentl, Little Shop of Horrors, I Love You To Death, End of Days, Sunshine, Scorsese's The Age of Innocence, Cold Comfort Farm & Magnolia. She starred in Stephen Hopkins' The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, Modigliani, Istvan Szabo's Being Julia & Ladies in Lavender (dir. Charles Dance, with Dames Smith & Dench). Margolyes was Professor Sprout in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows (Part II).
Her most memorable TV credits include: Old Flames, Freud, Life and Loves of a She Devil, Blackadder, The Girls of Slender Means, Oliver Twist, The History Man, Vanity Fair and Supply & Demand. In 2016 Miriam joined an all-star cast in The Real Marigold Hotel, the sequel The Real Marigold On Tour, and presented her own BBC documentary series Miriam's Dead Good Adventure in 2019.
Mark Hadfield will play Sydney Stock. Mark's stage credits include The Weatherman (Park Theatre), Tamburlaine (Swan Theatre), Road (Royal Court), The Libertine (Bath/ Theatre Royal Haymarket), Richard III (Almeida), The Painkiller (Garrick Theatre), Made in Dagenham (Adelphi Theatre), Jeeves and Wooster: Perfect Nonsense (Duke of York's Theatre), Singing in the Rain (Palace Theatre) and Uncle Vanya (Vaudeville Theatre). His screen credits include: Outlander, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, A c*ckand Bull Story and Wallander.
Vivien Parry will play Marion Fee. Vivien's theatre credits include: Les Miserables (Queen's Theatre), A Christmas Carol, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night's Dream & The Shoemaker's Holiday (RSC); The Girls (UK Tour), Half a Sixpence (Noel Coward Theatre), Top Hat (Aldwych Theatre), Mamma Mia! (Prince of Wales Theatre), Which Witch (Piccadilly Theatre), Blood Brothers (Phoenix Theatre). Her screen credits include the live action Disney film Beauty and the Beast, as well as TV roles in: Holby City (BBC), Outside the Rules (BBC), The Bench (BBC) and The Bill (ITV).
Eugene O'Hare is a writer and actor. He has written for National Theatre Connections and short stories for BBC Radio 4. In 2017 he penned the BBC short film The Music Room featuring the Ulster Orchestra. He is currently developing original work for theatre, television and film. Sydney & the Old Girl and The Weatherman are his debut full length plays - both published by Bloomsbury in 2019. Eugene is a member of Field Day Theatre Company. He lives in London.
Director Phillip Breen's theatre credits include: The Provoked Wife (Royal Shakespeare Company), Shakespeare in Love (Eleanor Lloyd / Bath Theatre Royal national tour, Broadway World Awards, Best Touring Production nomination), The Hypocrite (Royal Shakespeare Company, Hull Truck Theatre and Hull UK City of Culture 2017), Treasure Island (Birmingham Repertory Theatre), Lady Chatterley's Lover (English Touring Theatre and Sheffield Theatres), Cyrano de Bergerac (Theatr Clwyd), The Shoemaker's Holiday (Royal Shakespeare Company), The Merry Wives of Windsor (RSC) and Sex With A Stranger (Trafalgar Studios).
Videos