Churchill's Far Away Transfers to Albery, 18 JanDate: 9 January 2001
Caryl Churchill's latest, Far Away, will transfer to the West End this month. The play, which received its world premiere last month at the Royal Court, marks a return to the stage for former Court artistic director Stephen Daldry, fresh from his film debut success with Billy Elliot.
Far Away had a sell-out season at the Court's Jerwood Theatre Upstairs from 1 to 22 December 2000. It will re-open at the West End's Albery Theatre on 18 January 2001 for a strictly limited seven weeks. The Albery's stage will be specially adapted to recreate the feel of the original, much smaller space in which the work was first performed.
Far Away concerns a young girl who pays a visit to her auntie's house and feels out of sorts in the strange place. It stars Linda Bassett, who appeared in East is East on both stage and screen. Bassett is joined in the cast by Kevin McKidd, Annabelle Seymour-Julen and Katherine Tozer.
One of Britain's leading contemporary playwrights, Caryl Churchill's many plays include Top Girls, Serious Money, Cloud Nine and Blue Heart. Far Away is designed by Ian MacNeill, with lighting by Rick Fisher and sound by Paul Arditti.
Director Daldry has been a darling of the London stage since his 1991 expressionist revival of JB Priestley's An Inspector Calls, which won a string of awards and has been running continuously at the West End's Garrick Theatre for six years. While at the Royal Court, he helped to spearhead the theatre's recent £26m refurbishment, and his acclaimed productions included David Mamet's Oleanna and David Hare's Via Dolorosa.
Daldry left the Royal Court in 1997 (though he remains an associate director) to pursue his film career but, in spite of his success with Billy Elliot, Daldry has said he has no intention of abandoning either London or the theatre. A good thing, perhaps, as his name has often been bandied about as a possible successor to Trevor Nunn as artistic director at the National Theatre.
Currently at the Albery, Peter Ackroyd's The Mystery of Charles Dickens, starring Simon Callow, completes its run this week on Saturday, 13 January.
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