Almeida Postpones Adamson’s Island Premiere

In A Quiet Island, Vick ventures to a remote Greek island in search of her music icon father Tom Stark, who disappeared five years ago. There she meets husband and wife Sean and Charlotte, who are recovering from the accidental death of their child. A brief encounter leads to a dangerous obsession. Indhu Rubasingham had been signed up to direct.

Samuel Adamson’s other original plays include Southwark Fair, Clocks and Whistles and Mrs Affleck, which premiered at the National this past January. His adaptation of Pedro Almodovar’s Spanish film All About My Mother won the 2008 Whatsonstage.com Award for Best New Play.

More recently, Adamson has been linked with another screen-to-stage crossover, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, which is tipped to be the next production, following the McKellen-Stewart Waiting for Godot, in Sean Mathias’ in-house season at the West End’s Theatre Royal Haymarket (See The Goss, 1 May 2009). The 1961 film version, based on Truman Capote’s 1958 novella of the same name, starred Audrey Hepburn in arguably her most memorable role as Holly Golightly. Anna Friel is expected to star on stage. An official announcement about the Haymarket season is due imminently.

Currently at the Almeida, the European premiere of Adamson’s Australian compatriot Andrew Bovell’s climate change epic When the Rain Stops Falling starts previews tonight (14 May 2009), before opening on 21 May and running until 4 July 2009. First seen in February 2008 at the Adelaide Festival, the play spans four generations and two continents, moving from the claustrophobia of a 1950s London flat to the heart of the Australian desert. Almeida artistic director Michael Attenborough directs.

– by Terri Paddock