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Press Information !

!

! VIBRANT NEW WRITING | UNIQUE REDISCOVERIES September–November Season 2018

Part of the Finborough 's

! series'

The first professional UK production for 80 years BURY THE DEAD by Irwin Shaw.

Directed by Rafaella Marcus. Set and Costumes Designed by Verity Johnson. Lighting Designed by Martha Godfrey. Sound Designed by Anna Clock. Movement by Chi-San Howard. Presented by Brickdust in association with Neil McPherson for the . Cast: Simon Balfour. Keeran Blessie. Luke Dale. Liam Harkins. Sioned Jones. Tom Larkin. Stuart Nunn. Malcolm Ward. Guy Warren-Thomas. Scott Westwood. Natalie Winsor.

“They’re still standing up. They’re going to stand up from now till Doomsday. They’re not going to be able to bury soldiers anymore”

In a production commissioned by the Finborough Theatre, Bury The Dead by American playwright Irwin Shaw opens at the Finborough Theatre for a four week limited season on Tuesday, 30 October 2018 (Press Nights: Thursday, 1 November 2018 and Friday, 2 November 2018 at 7.30pm).

When six dead soldiers stand up in their graves and refuse to be buried, the military are at a loss for what to do. The captains and generals attempt to persuade the men to lie down quietly but quickly discover it’s difficult to negotiate with men who have nothing left to lose.

If the greatest honour is to die for your country, how could you ever refuse?

The last in the Finborough Theatre’s GREATWAR100 series, this poignant, expressionistic American protest play, presented during the centenary of the end of the First World War, gives a voice to generations of fighting soldiers across the world lost to countless wars.

Bury the Dead was first performed on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in 1936 and became an overnight hit. It was last seen in the UK at ’s Unity Theatre in 1938. The show was revived off-Broadway in 2008 and was described as "an expressionistic masterpiece” by Variety.

118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED Telephone 020 7244 7439 e-mail [email protected] www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk Artistic Director Neil McPherson

The Finborough Theatre is managed by The Steam Industry. Registered in England and Wales as a company limited by guarantee, no. 3448268. Registered Charity no. 1071304. Registered address: 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED. A member of the Independent Theatre Council. Press Information ! This production will mark Rafaella Marcus’ debut at the Finborough Theatre following her critically acclaimed production of I Have A Mouth and I Will Scream at VAULT Festival earlier this year.

Playwright Irwin Shaw (1913-1984) was born in New York. He was a playwright, screenwriter and novelist. His full- length plays included Siege (1937), Quiet City (1939) and The Gentle People (1939). After returning from the Second World War, the subject of war continued to feature throughout much of Shaw’s work including his first, best-selling novel – The Young Lions (1948), about three young German and American soldiers, which later became a screenplay starring Marlon Brando and Dean Martin. Later in his career, Shaw came to be described as the ‘master of the popular novel’ by critics. His novel Rich Man, Poor Man (1970) was made into a highly popular television miniseries.

Director Rafaella Marcus is an award winning theatre director. She has worked across the country at venues that include Sheffield , , , , Playhouse and the Bunker. Earlier this year, she directed Abi Zakarian’s play I Have a Mouth and I Will Scream, winner of the People's Choice Award (VAULT Festival). Other direction includes Alley. Pearls. Gunshot. (The Yard), Spooky Action At A Distance (Bunker), Crave (Damsel Develops at the Bunker), The Wild Party (Hope Theatre), The Window/Blank Pages (Hope Theatre), Harry the King ( Festival), Sonya and Andrew (Sheffield Theatres) and Laughing Boy (site specific in Bethnal Green). She has assisted directors , Richard Wilson, Iqbal Khan, Paul Miller, Alex Clifton, Jonathan Humphries and Roisin McBrinn on Pericles (Shakespeare's Globe), , The Wind in the Willows (Chester Performs), Boeing Boeing, Afterplay, Love Your Soldiers, The Winter's Tale (Sheffield Theatres) and The Killing of Sister George (). She trained on the Birkbeck Theatre Directing MFA and was a Finalist for the JMK Award in 2017.

The cast is: Simon Balfour | Second General, Priest, Bevins Productions at the Finborough Theatre include Man Is Man. Trained at Arts Educational Schools London. Theatre includes Idiot Hero, The Bespoke Overcoat and Hebrew Lesson (, ), The Icarus Girl (Arcola Theatre), This Is The Truth (Theatre503), Goblin Market (), Where It Never Rains (Zone 7 and Shunt Vaults), Dancing In The Dark (Croydon Clocktower), Hunter (), An Audience with Sid and Nancy () and Black Aspirins (). Film includes UK 18, Dragonfly, Flush, The Mad Axeman, I, Anna, Culture Shock, Abundance, Break Clause, Frontman and Seven Seconds To Heaven. Television includes Casualty, The Bill, Doctors, My Ex Imaginary Friend, Brits Who Changed The World, When Harry Met Sheila and Million Pound Hoax. Radio includes Kipps, Alfie and The Attractive Young Rabbi.

Keeran Blessie | Driscoll Trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama. Theatre while training includes The Three Sisters. Theatre includes Scenes from the End of the World (The Yard). Film includes Strike Back.

Luke Dale | First Soldier, Levy Trained at Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Theatre includes, Lend Me A Tenor and Jamaica Inn (Paul Taylor Mills Summer Rep Season), I Capture the Castle (Palace Theatre, Watford) and Flowers for Mrs Harris (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield). Film includes Sue and Lost and Found. Television includes Holby City, Genius: Einstein, Doctors and The Royals.

Liam Harkins | Second Soldier, Morgan Trained at Drama Centre, London. Theatre includes The German Girls (Lion and ), Alice's Adventures Underground (Les Enfants Terribles), The Enchanted (The Bunker), Adventures in Wonderland (Les Petits Theatre) and Captured (White Slate Theatre). Film Includes The Cost of Living: Task Two, Retreat for which he was nominated for Best Actor at the British Independent Film Festival 2018, and The One Millionth Lounge Visit.

Sioned Jones | Martha Webster, Julia Blake, Mrs Dean, Doctor, Editor, Whore Productions at the Finborough Theatre include Khadija is 18 and The Illustrious Corpse. Trained at Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art.

118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED Telephone 020 7244 7439 e-mail [email protected] www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk Artistic Director Neil McPherson

The Finborough Theatre is managed by The Steam Industry. Registered in England and Wales as a company limited by guarantee, no. 3448268. Registered Charity no. 1071304. Registered address: 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED. A member of the Independent Theatre Council. Press Information ! Theatre includes 13, Women Beware Women, All's Well That Ends Well, Oedipus and Never So Good (National Theatre), (), Shakespeare In Love (Noël Coward Theatre), Shadowlands ( and Wyndham’s Theatre), The Letter (Wyndham’s Theatre), Glorious! (), Tolstoy ( Theatre), (Oxford Stage Company), Portmanteau and Twelfth Night (Sarwanam Theatre, Kathmandu), Lettice and Lovage (), Henry VI (Wales Millennium Centre), Monumental (Citizens Theatre, Glasgow), The Giraffe, the Pelly and Me (Birmingham Old Rep), The Killing of Sister George (London Theatre Workshop), Love on the Tracks (Watermill Theatre, Newbury), The Memory of Water (Frinton Theatre), Expectations (), Palm Wine and Stout (Eastern Angles), Romeo and Juliet (GB Theatre Company), Lilies on the Land (National Tour), Wolf (Pulse Festival), The Diary of Anne Frank (, Catford), 101 Dalmations (Castle Theatre, Wellingborough) and Pippin and The Wild Party (Union Theatre). Film includes Happy Now?, Flamenco Fever, Madharasapattinam, Cleanskins, Accountable and Dark Signal. Television includes Cadfael - The Potter's Field, Family Affairs and The Bill.

Tom Larkin | Schelling Trained at Drama Centre, London. Theatre include Demons (St Leonard’s Church), Warhorse (National Tour), An Inspector Calls (National Tour), Peter Pan (Off-Broadway US Tour), Tomten (), The Emperor Self (Arcola Theatre), Robin Hood (Cambridge Touring Theatre) and The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart (Pleasance Edinburgh).

Stuart Nunn | Dean Productions at the Finborough Theatre include Just to Get Married. Trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Theatre includes Network (National Theatre), Hobson’s Choice (Theatre Royal Bath in the West End), The Secret Garden (Ambassadors Theatre), The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Richard Burton Company), The Last Ambulance (Sherman Cymru, Cardiff and ) and Caged (Old Red Lion Theatre).

Malcolm Ward | First General, Rabbi Trained at Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Theatre includes The View (Arcola Theatre), Theatresports (), The Lover and A Slight Ache (English Theatre, Vienna and The ), The Nose (King’s Head Theatre), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (), The Woman Who Cooked Her Husband (Theatre Royal Plymouth), The Elephant Man (Swan Theatre, Worcester) and Hovering (Edinburgh Festival). Film includes The Hand of the Creator, Help, Born of Fire, Jack Brown and the Curse of the Crown, Blue Moon, Sweet William and The Tip-Off. Television includes The Kennedys, Not Going Out, EastEnders, Holby City, Canary Wharf, Peak Practice, The Bill, Manchild, Lazarus and Dingwall and Target. Radio includes Milena Jesenka, Love is Strange and Hamlet.

Guy Warren-Thomas | Captain, Charley Trained at London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Theatre includes The Slaves of Solitude (Hampstead Theatre), The Picture of Dorian Gray (Trafalgar Studios, The Other Palace and National Tour), Who Is This Please? (Come As You Are Festival), Edward II (Rose Theatre, ), The Art of Concealment: The Life of Terence Rattigan (Brighton Festival), Oh The Humanity and Other Good Intentions (), Christmas (White Bear Theatre), Deep Pit (Brass Works, Bristol), Spare (New Diorama Theatre) and The Cave (). Film includes The Hustle, The Unfamiliar, Spooks: The Greater Good, Two Down and Miss In Her Teens.

Scott Westwood | Sergeant, Webster Trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Theatre includes Imperium (), Hamlet (Cunard Line), The Shawshank Redemption (National Tour), Circa (The Vaults), One Year Off (Old Red Lion Theatre) and The Window (Hope Theatre).

Natalie Winsor | Bess Schelling, Joan Burke, Katherine Driscoll, Reporter, Whore, Stenographer Trained at Arts Educational Schools London. Theatre includes Mariage Blanc (Asylum Chapel), (Frogmore Paper Mill), Peter Pan (Grand Opera House, Belfast), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Theatre Royal Bath), Dirty Dancing (National Tour), (), What a Feeling! (National Tour), Jekyll and Hyde (National Tour), Robinson Crusoe (Theatre Royal, Newcastle), Peter Pan (Theatre Royal Plymouth), Cinders (National Tour), Jack and the Beanstalk (Towngate Theatre, Basildon) and Live and Upfront ().

118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED Telephone 020 7244 7439 e-mail [email protected] www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk Artistic Director Neil McPherson

The Finborough Theatre is managed by The Steam Industry. Registered in England and Wales as a company limited by guarantee, no. 3448268. Registered Charity no. 1071304. Registered address: 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED. A member of the Independent Theatre Council. Press Information !

! THEGREATWAR100 series is an occasional series of works written during or in the aftermath of the Great War presented by the Finborough Theatre to commemorate the centenary of the First World War.

The press on Bury the Dead ★★★★ “Timeless....a social-realist stage poem on the tests that every generation faces” Time Out New York “An expressionistic masterpiece” Variety “There’s no question about the timeliness of this fantastical farce” CurtainUp “Easily manages…to move 21st century audiences” TheatreMania

The press on director Rafaella Marcus ★★★★ “One of the funniest and fiercest shows of the festival… hugely enjoyable hour of scattergun satire and full- blooded fury” The Stage on I Have a Mouth and I Will Scream ★★★★★ "throws stereotypical scenarios and behaviours in our faces with unrelenting force…Rafaella Marcus’ direction smashes through all that with the sledgehammer of feminist reality” Miro Magazine on I Have A Mouth and I Will Scream ★★★★★ "a dynamic and scintillating production” LondonTheatre1 on I Have A Mouth and I Will Scream “Marcus gives [The Wild Party] a brisk, earthy treatment here, revelling in the syncopated sprung rhythm of the language, keeping her two performers in constant, dynamic motion” The Stage on The Wild Party

PRESS NIGHTS: THURSDAY, 1 NOVEMBER 2018 AND FRIDAY, 2 NOVEMBER 2018 AT 7.30PM PHOTOCALL: TUESDAY, 30 OCTOBER 2018 AT 1.00PM–3.30PM

Finborough Theatre, 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED Book online at www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk - No booking fees on online, personal or postal bookings Box Office 01223 357851. (Calls are free. There will be a 5% booking fee.) Lines are open Monday–Saturday 10.00am-6.00pm Tuesday, 30 October – Saturday, 24 November 2018 Tuesday to Saturday evenings at 7.30pm. Sunday matinees at 3.00pm. Saturday matinees at 3.00pm (from 10 November 2018). Prices until 11 November 2018 Tickets £18, £16 concessions, except Tuesday evenings £16 all seats, and Friday and Saturday evenings £18 all seats. Previews (31 and 31 October) £14 all seats. £10 tickets for Under 30s for performances from Tuesday to Sunday of the first week when booked online only. £14 tickets for residents of the Royal Borough of and Chelsea on Saturday, 3 November when booked online only. Prices from 13 November 2018 – Tickets £20, £18 concessions, except Tuesday evenings £18 all seats, and Friday and Saturday evenings £20 all seats. Performance Length: Approximately 75 minutes with no interval

For more information, interviews and images, please contact Antonella Petrancosta on e-mail [email protected] or 07512 609614 Download press releases and images at http://www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk/press-resources.php

118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED Telephone 020 7244 7439 e-mail [email protected] www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk Artistic Director Neil McPherson

The Finborough Theatre is managed by The Steam Industry. Registered in England and Wales as a company limited by guarantee, no. 3448268. Registered Charity no. 1071304. Registered address: 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED. A member of the Independent Theatre Council.