I want to be able to resist anything to do with Alan Ayckbourn, but the cast and creatives for Chichester’s production of The Norman Conquests is making it very hard indeed. Wunderkind director Blanche McIntyre is at the helm of a company for the trilogy of plays that consists of Jonathan Broadbent, Trystan Gravelle, Sarah Hadland, John Hollingworth, Hattie Ladbury and Jemima Rooper. Best get booking then!
The National Theatre have announced Toby Stephens in the role of social-scientist Terje Rød-Larsen, with Lydia Leonard as his wife, diplomat Mona Juul and Peter Polycarpou plays Ahmed Qurie, theformer Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority. The Lincoln Center Theater’s critically acclaimed production of OSLO begins performances at the National Theatre on 5 September and later transfers to the Harold Pinter Theatre (2 October – 30 December 2017).
Oslo tells the true story of how one young Norwegian couple Mona Juul (Lydia Leonard) and her husband, Terje Rød-Larsen (Toby Stephens) planned and orchestrated top-secret, high-level meetings between the State of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation, which culminated in the signing of the historic 1993 Oslo Accords. Featuring dozens of characters and set in locations across the globe,Oslo is both a political thriller and the personal story of a small band of women and men struggling together – and fighting each other – as they seek to change the world. (Mona Juul is currently the Norwegian Ambassador to the UK – the first woman to occupy the role).
Joining Leonard, Stephens and Polycarpou is Geraldine Alexander, Philip Arditti, Thomas Arnold, Nabil Elouahabi , Paul Herzberg. Karoline Gable, Anthony Shuster, Daniel Stewart and Howard Ward. Further casting will be announced
Doubt, A Parable, directed by Ché Walker, is to get its first London revival in 10 years at Southwark Playhouse from Wednesday 6 September to Saturday 30 September, and features Stella Gonet in the epic role of Sister Aloysius Beauvier.
She’s joined by Clare Latham, Jo Martin and Jonathan Chambers in what looks to be a production to look forward to in the autumn..
“What do you do when you’re not sure?” asks Father Flynn, the progressive and beloved priest at the St. Nicholas Church School in the Bronx, in his sermon. It’s 1964, and things are changing, to the chagrin of rigid principal Sister Aloysius. However, when an unconscionable accusation is levelled against the Father, Sister Aloysius realises that the only way to get justice is to create it herself. And as for the truth of the matter? As Father Flynn says, “Doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty.” In stunning prose, John Patrick Shanley delves into the murky shadows of moral certainty, his characters always balancing on the thin line between truth and consequences.
Doubt, A Parable is an exquisite, potent drama that raises questions and answer none, leaving the audience to grapple with the discomfort of their uncertainties.
