Toby Jones And Niamh Cusack To Star In THE PAINTER

Toby Jones will play one of the most celebrated British artists, Joseph Mallord William Turner, in the world premiere of The Painter by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, written to open the new Arcola Theatre at 24 Ashwin Street in January 2011.

Jones will be joined by Niamh Cusack, playing the role of Sarah Danby, the mistress that Turner had two daughters with, yet never publicly acknowledged. The cast also includes Amanda Boxer, Jim Bywater, Denise Gough and Ian Midlane, in a production directed by Arcola Theatre's Artistic Director Mehmet Ergen, with design by Ben Stones and lighting by Emma Chapman.

At the start of the 19th century, a young Turner was on his way from being just a working-class Cockney to a painter who would change the landscape of British and international art forever. Turner was a man obsessed. Heavily reliant on his father and deeply affected by his mother's rejection, the intensely prolific painter was isolated from the usual breed of artists. The Painter explores the relationships, the competition with Constable and the passion of the artist on the threshold of superstardom.

Arcola Theatre relocates to 24 Ashwin Street in January 2011 after ten years at Arcola Street. Its new home at Colourworks, directly opposite Dalston Junction station, was the former home of Reeves whose colour blocks were made famous by artists such as Turner and Constable.

Toby Jones' past work in theatre includes Every Good Boy Deserves Favour and Complicite's Measure For Measure (NT), Parlour Song (Almeida) and The Play What I Wrote (West End & Broadway) for which he received an Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor and a Tony nomination. Past film roles include Infamous, W, The Painted Veil, Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll and Frost/Nixon.

Niamh Cusack's extensive work in theatre includes His Dark Materials and The Enchantment (NT), Dancing At Lughnasa (Old Vic), Three Sisters (The Gate, Dublin and Royal Court), The Playboy of the Western World (West Yorkshire Playhouse) as well as leading roles in As You Like It, The Art of Success, Romeo and Juliet, Othello and Mary After The Queen for the RSC.

Rebecca Lenkiewicz's first play, Soho - a Tale of Table Dancers, won a Fringe First at Edinburgh and opened the Arcola Theatre in 2001. The Night Season, which opened at the National Theatre in 2004, received the Critics' Circle's Most Promising Playwright Award and was nominated for the Charles Wintour Evening Standard Award and the Susan Smith Blackburn Award. Other plays include Shoreditch Madonna (Soho Theatre), Her Naked Skin (NT Olivier) and Faeries (ROH Studio and Theatre Royal Bath). She has adapted Ibsen's An Enemy of the People and Ghosts for Arcola.

Mehmet Ergen is the founder and artistic director of Arcola Theatre in Dalston and Arcola Istanbul. Prior to this, he co-founded Southwark Playhouse and was Artistic Director there from 1993-1999. Past directorial credits for Arcola include: The Cradle Will Rock, Release the Beat, Plebeians, Rehearse the Uprising, I Can Get It For You Wholesale, Jitterbug, Chasing the Moment and Ibsen's An Enemy of the People. He has received a Time Out Award for Outstanding Achievement and Best Fringe Production, an Angela Carter Award, an Equity Award for Best Studio Theatre, and Arcola is a two-time recipient of the Peter Brook Empty Space Award.

LISTINGS INFORMATION for THE PAINTER
Running from 12 January - 12 February 2011 at 7.30pm in Arcola Studio 1.
22, 29 January, 5, 12 February at 2.30pm and 7.30pm.

Arcola Theatre, 24 Ashwin Street, Dalston, London E8 3DL
Box Office: 020 7503 1646 / boxoffice@arcolatheatre.com
Booking opens Monday 13 December 2010.

TEN10 - first 10 performances at £10:12, 13, 15, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22 (matinee), 22, 24 January (must be booked by phone)
Tickets: £17 / £11 concessions

 

 

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