Arcadia to embark on new tour

Tom Stoppard's Arcadia is to tour the country next year, starting at the Theatre Royal in Brighton.

The show, directed by Blanche McIntyre, will be a collaboration between English Touring Theatre and Theatre Royal Brighton Productions and the first major tour of the play since the original 1993 production at the National Theatre.

The tour will also be one of the first to benefit from the new Theatre Tax Relief, as announced by a visit from George Osborne. The relief provides an additional corporation tax deduction, or payable tax credit, worth up to 25% of qualifying expenditure for touring productions such as Arcadia.

Stoppard said he "welcome[s] the news that a new tour of Arcadia is to be one of the very first to take advantage of the new funding incentives for touring live performance", also adding that the news of this tax relief has "directly helped realise the ambitious vision of this tour". Rachel Tackley, director of English Touring Theatre has also expressed her gratitude at the introduction of the tax relief, saying that without it, "this production simply wouldn't happen".

Arcadia is a story that blends history into reality and reality into history. Beginning in a stately home in Derbyshire in 1809, student Thomasina makes a discovery before her time. Flitting to the present day, academics Hannah and Bernard try to piece together the fragments of her life in the hopes of being able to tell her story. Arcadia has recently been voted one of the nations top five favourite plays in a poll conducted by the English Touring Theatre as part of their 21st birthday celebrations.

Arcadia is due to open at Brighton's Theatre Royal on 30 January 2015, where it will run until 7 February, before setting off on a nationwide tour, with dates and cast to be announced.