Following Rebecca Frecknall and Patsy Ferran’s Critics’ Circle Award-winning collaboration on Summer & Smoke at the Almeida Theatre, the director and actress will join forces on Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters in a new adaptation by Cordelia Lynn (8 April to 1 June 2019, press night is 16 April), for which full casting is announced today.
Joining the previously announced Ferran and Pearl Chanda are Lois Chimimba, Alexander Elliot, Annie Firbank, Elliot Levey, Eric MacLennan, Freddie Meredith, Peter McDonald, Sonny Poon Tip, Shubham Saraf, Akshay Sharan, Alan Williams and Ria Zmitrowicz.
Also in the creative team are: Hildegard Bechtler (design), Jack Knowles (lighting), George Dennis (sound), Angus MacRae (composition) and Julia Horan CDG (casting).
Bios
Pearl Chanda plays Masha Sergeyevna. She previously appeared in Ink at the Almeida (also West End). Her other credits include One For Sorrow (Royal Court); Julie (Northern Stage Theatre); The Glass Menagerie (Nuffield Southampton Theatres); The Angry Brigade (Bush Theatre); Crave and 4.48 Psychosis (Sheffield Theatres); The Two Gentlemen of Verona (RSC); Godchild (Hampstead Theatre); and The Seagull (Headlong Theatre).
Lois Chimimba plays Natasha Ivanovna. Her stage work includes Vulcan 7 (Jonathan Church Productions and Theatre Royal Bath); Parliament Square (Manchester Royal Exchange and Bush Theatre); Common, Peter Pan and wonder.land (National Theatre); Diary of a Madman (Gate Theatre); Pitcairn (Out of Joint, Shakespeare’s Globe and Chichester Festival Theatre).
Alexander Elliot plays Vasily Vasilevich Solyony. Three Sisters marks his professional stage debut.
Patsy Ferran plays Olga Sergeyevna. She previously appeared in Summer and Smoke at the Almeida (also West End – Critics’ Circle Theatre Award for Best Actress). Her other theatre credits include My Mum’s A Twat (Royal Court); Speech and Debate (Trafalgar Studios); As You Like It and Treasure Island (National Theatre); The Merchant Of Venice (RSC); The Angry Brigade (Paines Plough) and Blithe Spirit (Gielgud Theatre).
Annie Firbank plays Anfisa. She previously appeared in Oresteia at the Almeida (also West End). Her other theatre credits include The Crucible (Old Vic); To Kill A Mockingbird; Three Sisters; An Ideal Husband; Separate Tables; Habitat; The Candidate (Royal Exchange, Manchester); The Golden Dragon (Arcola Theatre/tour); Billy Liar; Postcards from Rome; A Working Woman; Tess of the D’Urbervilles; Macbeth (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Only the Lonely (Birmingham Repertory Theatre); Becket (Theatre Royal Haymarket); Dance of Death (Lyric Hammersmith); Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Liverpool Playhouse); Henry V and The Comedy of Errors (RSC).
Elliot Levey plays Fyodor Ilyich Kulygin. He previously appeared in the West End transfer of the Almeida production of Mary Stuart. His theatre credits include Snowflake (The Old Fire Station); Saint Joan and Coriolanus (Donmar Warehouse); The Mighty Walzer (Royal Exchange, Manchester); The Ruling Class (Trafalgar Studios); Much Ado About Nothing (Wyndham’s Theatre); Danton’s Death, The Habit of Art, All’s Well That Ends Well, England People Very Nice, His Dark Materials and Henry IV Parts I & II (National Theatre).
Eric MacLennan plays Ferapont Spiridonych. He previously appeared in Summer and Smoke at the Almeida. His other credits include 1984 at Creation Theatre; The Government Inspector and Annie Get Your Gun at Young Vic; Henry V at Southwark Playhouse and Cyrano de Bergerac at Manchester Royal Exchange.
Peter McDonald plays Alexander Ignatevich Vershinin. He has previously appeared at the Almeida in Nocturne. His theatre credits include The Weir (Donmar Warehouse and West End); The Veil, Greenland, Exiles, The Aristocrats (National Theatre); Red Bud (Royal Court); The Caretaker (Liverpool Everyman/Trafalgar Studios); Dancing at Lughnasa and Resurrection Blues (The Old Vic); Glengarry Glen Ross (Apollo Theatre).
Freddie Meredith plays Andrey Sergeyevich. His theatre credits include The Jungle (West End) and Fracked! (Chichester Festival Theatre and UK tour).
Sonny Poon Tip plays Vladimir. He is part of the Almeida’s Young Company and is currently appearing in the Young Company production of Cacophony. This is his professional stage debut.
Shubham Saraf plays Nikolay Lvovich Tuzenbach. His theatre credits include An Adventure (Bush Theatre); Hamlet and As You Like It (Shakespeare’s Globe) and Lions and Tigers (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse).
Akshay Sharan plays Alexey. His credits include The Reluctant Fundamentalist (National Youth Theatre – Best Actor in a Play at the Stage Debut Awards); A Tale of Two Cities (Darlington Civic Theatre); Daughter of the Forest (Komola Collective) and Sara Pascoe’s Christmas Assembly (Battersea Arts Centre).
Alan Williams plays Ivan Romanovich Chebutykin. He previously appeared in Mary Stuart and The Jew of Malta at the Almeida. His theatre other credits include Gundog, The Ritual Slaughter of George Mastromas, The President Has Come To See You, President, Mint, Stoning Mary, Lucky Dog, Under The Whaleback and Crave (Royal Court Theatre); As You Like It, Here We Go, Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour and Warhorse (National Theatre); The Crucible (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Krapp’s Last Tape (Hull Truck Theatre); A Thousand Stars Explode In The Sky and The Birthday Party (Lyric Hammersmith).
Ria Zmitrowicz plays Irina Sergeyevna. She previously appeared at the Almeida in Dance Nation. Her theatre work includes Gundog; Bad Roadsand X (Royal Court); Plastic (Ustinov Studio); The Crucible (Manchester Royal Exchange); Arcadia (English Touring Theatre); Four Minutes Twelve Seconds (Hampstead Theatre and Trafalgar Studios); Chapel Street (Bush Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe, Liverpool Everyman); God’s Property (Soho Theatre) and Skanky (Arcola Theatre).
