Theatre News

Cast: Tricycle Women, Almeida\’s Glass & Quartet

Theo Bosanquet
London's West End

The cast for the Tricycle’s Women, Power and Politics season, exploring the history and current role of women in politics in Great Britain, has been announced.
The season, which comprises nine plays, a film festival, three ‘curtain raisers’ (in conjunction with the National Theatre Studio) and an art exhibition, opens on 11 June 2010 (previews from 4 June), continuing until 17 July 2010.

The ensemble cast will feature: Niamh Cusack (Andersen’s English), Oliver Chris (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Rose Kingston), Kika Markham (Bufonidae), Simon Chandler (All Mouth), Claire Cox (Macbeth, Globe), Heather Cranley (Joe Guy), Stella Gonet (Skylight), John Hollingworth (The Power of Yes), Amy Loughton (Nation), Tom Mannion (Copenhagen, Royal Lyceum), Felix Stott (Sudden Loss of Dignity) and Lara Rossi.

Women, Power and Politics will be presented in two parts: the first, Then, examines the historical aspects of women and politics; the second, Now, takes a more contemporary focus. The two parts will be performed on alternate evenings, with an opportunity to see parts 1 and 2 on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

The plays, by leading female dramatists including Bola Agbaje, Moira Buffini, Zinnie Harris, Marie Jones, Rebecca Lenkiewicz and Sue Townsend, will be directed by Indhu Rubasingham with associate director Amy Hodge, designed by Rosa Maggiora and produced by Rubasingham and Tricycle artistic director Nicolas Kent. For the verbatim pieces, political interviews were conducted and edited by Gillian Slovo.

Full casting has been announced for the new stage adaptation of Ingmar Bergman’s Through a Glass Darkly, which opens at the Almeida Theatre on 16 June 2010 (previews from 10 June).
Joining the previously announced Ruth Wilson (Karin) will be: Dimitri Leonidas (Chris), Ian McElhinney (David) and Justin Salinger (Martin).

Adapted by Andrew Upton (who translated Philistines at the NT in 2007, which starred Wilson), Through a Glass Darkly concerns Karin, a young schizophrenic woman who is taken on a recuperative holiday to a bleakly beautiful island, where the relations between herself and three male family members become increasingly entangled.

Directed by Almeida artistic director Michael Attenborough, it’s booking until 31 July 2010.

In other play casting news:

  • Ronald Harwood‘s comedy Quartet will be revived for a major national tour this summer, opening at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford on 16 June. Joe Harmston will direct a cast featuring Timothy West (Wilfred), Sam Kelly (Reggie), Gwen Taylor (Cissy), and Susannah York (Jean). The play is set in a twilight home for musicians, where three retired opera singers plan a concert to mark the re-release of their famous recording of Rigoletto. But their plan is disturbed by the arrival of a legendary diva, prompting old rivalries to resurface and long-forgotten secrets to be revealed.
  • Deborah Findley (last seen on stage in Madame de Sade) will lead the cast in the premiere of Anthony Weigh’s Like a Fishbone, which runs at the Bush Theatre from 14 June to 10 July 2010 (previews from 7 June). Josie Rourke directs the play, which centres on a prominent architect who is commissioned to design a memorial to the victims of an “unspeakable crime”, and finds herself confronted by the mother of one of the victims.