The author of Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks, will join the cast for a one-off surprise ‘cameo’ performance in Brighton tomorrow night (1 August 2013) to celebrate the six-month tour as it approaches its final date.
Faulks will join Sarah Jayne Dunn (Isabelle) and Jonathan Smith (Stephen) on stage at the Theatre Royal, Brighton for the evening performance of the stage adaptation of his wartime epic.
Faulks will be playing Cartwright, one of the ‘sappers’ (tunnellers).
Birdsong follows young Englishman Stephen Wraysford as he embarks on an affair in pre-war France with his host’s wife, Isabelle Azaire. When the civil war breaks out, Stephen is forced to lead troops in the Battle of the Somme, with only the memory of Isabelle to cling to.
The production of Faulks’ novel, adapted by Rachel Wagstaff and produced by Original Theatre Company & Birdsong Productions Ltd, began touring on 25 January 2013 and will play its final show in Brighton on 3 August 2013.
Other cast include: Arthur Bostrom, Charlie G. Hawkins, Joshua Higgott, Polly Hughes, Malcolm James, Liam McCormick, Poppy Roe, Emily Stride, Tim Treloar and Tim Van Eyken.
Faulks, who graduated from Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1974, wrote Birdsong in 1993. He has recently been invited to sit on the advisory board for a historic commemoration ceremony of the centenary of the start of World War I, to be held on Remembrance Day, 2014.
– Louise Miles
