Willmott Celebrates Finborough’s 30th with Tennesse Williams

The play, ‘a free adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s The
Seagull‘, was first produced at the Vancouver Playhouse in 1981,
although Williams first spoke of writing such a piece early on in his career.
It received its British premiere at Exeter’s Northcott Theatre in 2008 in
a production directed by the theatre’s then artistic director, Ben Crocker.
The upcoming Finborough production celebrates both the theatre’s 30th anniversary
and the 150th anniversary of Chekhov’s birth.

Willmott has a special connection with the Finborough,
having directed more shows there than any other director, most recently his
2009 adaptation of Arthur Wing Pinero’s The Enchanted
Cottage, entitled Country Magic. Willmott’s
F**king Men, which began life at the Finborough before
transferring to the King’s Head then the Arts Theatre, was nominated for a
Whatsonstage.com Award for Best Off-West End Production (see Interview, 28 July 2009).

The cast of The Notebook of Trigorin will
include Stephen Billington
and Morgan James, both returning to the Finborough following roles in F**king Men. The show will be designed by Kim
Alwyn and Aimee Sajjan-Servaes.

The theatre
will also be presenting Three Seagulls, three staged
readings chosen to complement The Notebook of Trigorin. Two
versions of Chekhov’s The Seagull – Irish playwright Thomas Kilroy’s The
Seagull and the world premiere of journalist and critic Patrick
Marmion’s Pieta – will be staged on 10 April and 24 April respectively.
Daniel MacIvor’s His Greatness, which will be presented on
17 April, is a fictionalized account of the writing of The
Notebook of Trigorin.