Cast: Open Air Flies, Full Much Ado & HighTide
Casting has been announced for the first production of the Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park season, a new staging of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies to mark the Nobel prize-winning author’s centenary.
Open Air artistic director Timothy Sheader and Liam Steel co-direct a cast of up-and-coming young actors including George Bukhari (Piggy), James Clay (Jack), Sam Clemmett (Bill), Theo Cowan (Henry), Matt Ingram (Roger), Jordan Maxwell (Maurice), James McConville (Sam), Stuart Matthews (Eric), Alistair Toovey (Ralph) and Joshua Williams (Simon). Harrison Sansostri, Spike White and Adam Thomas Wright are sharing the role of Perceval.
Golding’s 1954 novel, which is adapted by Nigel Williams, tells the story of a group of schoolboys stranded on a desert island. What starts as an adventure becomes a struggle for survival as superstition and immorality sees the community slide into a darkly sinister world.
Subsequent productions in the 2011 season include John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera, directed by Lucy Bailey (23 June-23 July), Shakespeare’s Pericles directed by Natalie Abrahami for ages six and over (2–23 July), and a revival of George and Ira Gershwin’s musical comedy, Crazy for You (28 July-10 September).
Full casting has been announced for Shakespeare’s Globe’s production of Much Ado About Nothing with Joseph Marcell, Ewan Stewart, Paul Hunter, Matthew Pidgeon and Joe Caffrey joining the previously announced Eve Best and Charles Edwards.
Best and Edwards play sparring lovers Beatrice and Benedick in Jeremy Herrin‘s production (making his Globe debut) which runs from 21 May to 1 October this summer.
Paul Hunter, who plays Dogberry, has recently been seen in The Play What I Wrote and The Fantasticks in the West End. A co-founder of Told By An Idiot he will appear in the company’s production of And The Horse You Rode In On at the Barbican later this month.
Matthew Pidgeon, whose recent stage credits saw him at the Soho and Tricycle Theatres alongside Cora Bissett in Midsummer, plays Don John. Ewan Stewart, whose recent credits include the National Theatre of Scotland’s Beautiful Burnout as well as Sergeant Musgrave’s Dance, Major Barbara and The Murderer for the National Theatre, plays Don Pedro
They are joined in the cast by Joe Caffrey, Phillip Cumbrus, Marcus Griffiths, Adrian Hood, Lisa McGrillis, David Nellist, John Stahl, Ony Uhiara and Helen Weir.
Full casting has been announced for this year’s HighTide Festival, which runs in Halesworth, Suffolk from 28 April to 8 May 2011.
The festival, which was established in 2007, showcases up-and-coming playwrights and contemporary theatre, with recent successes including Adam Brace’s critically-acclaimed Stovepipe (Brace is returning this year).
This year’s productions are:
