Sherman Theatre Extends THE CHERRY ORCHARD Due to Popular Demand

In response to hugely positive advance sales the run of performances for The Cherry Orchard will be extended.

The Cherry Orchard opens on Friday 13 October and will now run until Friday 3 November. Five additional performances will take place from Tuesday 31 October to Friday 3 November at 7.30pm including a matinee on Thursday 2 November at 2.00pm. The five extra performances will go on sale at 10.00am on Friday 6 October. Tickets are still available across the run although a number of performances are sold out or close to sold out.

Cardiff audiences have seized the opportunity to experience The Cherry Orchard which is the first major Sherman Theatre produced piece of new writing on the main stage during Rachel O'Riordan's tenure as Artistic Director.

Rachel O'Riordan has said "I am delighted that Sherman Theatre's production of Gary Owen's The Cherry Orchard will play for an extra week, due to audience demand. This represents our audiences' faith in us and their wonderful commitment to supporting their local theatre. Our production includes some of Wales' finest actors, and is made here in our capital city. We are so pleased that more Cardiff citizens will have the opportunity to see it."

This reimagining of Chekhov's masterpiece is the latest project from the team behind the smash-hit successes of Iphigenia in Splott and Killology, writer Gary Owen and director Rachel O'Riordan.

Set in Pembrokeshire in 1982, Owen's play looks back at our recent history to see the world we know today taking root. Like Chekhov's original, the play is set in a time on the cusp of huge social change. Pre-Revolutionary Russia is exchanged for Britain in the early days of Margaret Thatcher's regime, an era in which many people were filled with a new confidence, a new energy and a sense that anything was possible.

The action is set in a rambling, ramshackle old manor house on the sun-kissed south Pembrokeshire coast where Rainey raised her children, surrounded by golden beaches and lush green orchards. But the untimely death of her beloved son and husband sent her fleeing to London, abandoning what remained of her family. Now, with the bank threatening to repossess, Rainey is forced back home to face her ghosts - and her furious daughters - or lose everything.

An exceptional cast, comprising of both actors celebrated for their work on stage and screen and the brightest emerging talent has been assembled for this world premiere production. The cast includes Denise Black (Coronation Street, Queer as Folk, Cucumber) as Rainey, Simon Armstrong (Coronation Street, Game of Thrones) as Rainey's brother Gabriel, Morfydd Clark (King Lear,Old Vic) as Anya, Richard Mylan (Killology, Coupling) as Ceri, Hedydd Dylan (Lady Chatterley's Lover, Sheffield Theatres) as Valerie, Matthew Bulgo (Kenny Morgan, Arcola Theatre) as Lewis and Alexandria Riley (How My Light Is Spent, Sherman Theatre/ Royal Exchange Manchester/ Theatre by the Lake) as Dottie.

At the start of the rehearsal process Denise Black said: "Rainey is a dream come true for any actress and I'm lucky to be the first Rainey but no doubt there will be others."

For more information visit www.shermantheatre.co.uk.

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