Casting Announced For Spring Season
As the critically acclaimed production of Company continues its performances on the Crucible stage, Artistic Director Daniel Evans announces a fantastic line-up for the Company’s forthcoming spring season, which opens on Thursday 2 February 2012. Faces coming to Sheffield in the spring include Henry Goodman (returning to Sheffield Theatres following his role in Fiddler on the Roof), Deborah Findlay (Cranford), Ben Lloyd-Hughes (currently starring in Young James Herriot on the BBC), Rebecca Lacey (May to December) and Aidan McArdle (Garrow’s Law).
The Way of the World, William Congreve’s classic Restoration comedy about morals, money and everything in between, opens the spring season. Cast includes rising talent Ben Lloyd-Hughes, currently starring as Rob McAloon in BBC 1’s Young James Herriot, Deborah Findlay (Miss Tomkinson in BBC’s Cranford), Mike Leigh’s protegée, Sinéad Matthews (Vera Drake and Happy-Go-Lucky) and Samuel Barnett, one of the original History Boys. Sheffield Theatres’ Associate Director Lyndsey Turner makes a welcome return to direct following her previous work for the company including My Romantic History (also Traverse Theatre and Bush Theatre) and Alice.
Following on from the success of last year’s David Hare Season, Sheffield Theatres presents a festival dedicated to the work of multi-award-winning playwright Michael Frayn in March. The season of work will take place in each of the theatre’s spaces and includes major revivals of Copenhagen, Benefactors and Democracy.
Copenhagen, the Tony Award-winning play based on the real-life events of two eminent scientists, brings Henry Goodman back to Sheffield following his performance in Fiddler on the Roof in 2006, which transferred to the West End following its run in Sheffield. He plays Niels Bohr alongside Geoffrey Streatfeild (Calum in the final series of Spooks) as Heisenberg in this new production directed by David Grindley. David previously directed the Olivier Award-nominated and Tony Award-winning revival of Journey’s End, which toured to the Lyceum this Autumn.
In Benefactors, Abigail Cruttenden (Kate Weedon in Benidorm and Sean Bean’s onscreen wife in several episodes of ITV’s Sharpe), Rebecca Lacey (Irene Stuart in series 4 of Monarch of the Glen and Hilary in May to December) and Simon Wilson (EastEnders, Waking the Dead, Doctors) will appear alongside one another in the Studio. Directed by Charlotte Gwinner, Benefactors is an Olivier award-winning comedy about idealism, realism and the tangled nature of human relations.
Completing The Michael Frayn Season is Democracy, a witty, compelling Olivier Award-winning play about an inspirational man. Aidan McArdle (Silvester in Garrow’s Law), Patrick Drury (Cold Blood, Silent Witness and Inspector Morse) and Richard Hope (Malokeh in Dr Who, Holby City and EastEnders) star together with William Hoyland, James Quinn, David Mallinson, Rupert Vansittart and Ed Hughes. Democracy will be directed by Associate Director of Sheffield Theatres, Paul Miller, whose previous work for the company includes True West and the hugely successfully production of Hamlet with John Simm.
Full casting for The Michael Frayn Season and Betrayal with John Simm, will be announced in the New Year.