Tennyson, Hollingworth & Kestelman make Noise at Donmar

Comprised of three short plays – Being Friends, Lost and Making Noise Quietly, the cast is, for Being Friends, Jordan Dawes as Oliver Bell, and Matthew Tennyson is Eric Faber; for Lost, Susan Brown (May Appleton) and John Hollingworth (Geoffrey Church); and Making Noise Quietly, Ben Batt plays Alan Tadd, Sara Kestelman is Helene Ensslin and the role of Sam will be played by three young actors alternating the role.

Brown and Kestelman are both Donmar returnees, having starred in The Wild Duck and Cabaret respectively (Kestelman won an Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical). Tennyson’s recent theatre credits include Flare Path (Haymarket Theatre Royal), while Hollingworth was recently seen in Earthquakes in London and The Power of Yes at the National.

Billed as a “delicately poetic triptych of plays”, Holman’s work paints “a very human picture of the subtly devastating effects of war and examines the bonds of suffering shared by us all”. Making Noise Quietly premièred at the Bush Theatre in 1987 – continuing a long association between the venue and the playwright, and was nominated for an Olivier Award.

Robert Holman hails from North Yorkshire. He moved to London in 1971 with a view to becoming a playwright, though he first worked on a book stall on Paddington Station. In 1974 Holman received an Arts Council bursary which enabled him to write full time. He has been Resident Dramatist at the National Theatre and Royal Shakespeare Company.

His plays include The Grave Lovers, The Natural Cause, German Skerries (Winner of the George Devine Award), Rooting, The Estuary, Other Worlds, Today, The Overgrown Path, Across Oka, Rafts and Dreams, Jonah and Otto and 1000 Stars Explode in the Sky (co-written with David Eldridge and Simon Stephens).

Currently at the Donmar, new artistic director Josie Rourke presents her inaugural production, The Recruiting Officer later this month (14 February 2012, previews from 9 February).