PRESS RELEASE 21 January 2019

Royal & Derngate, , and Out of Joint, in association with Oxford Playhouse, present

The Remains of the Day

Royal & Derngate, Northampton – Saturday 23 February to Saturday 16 March 2019 Then touring nationwide

Press Night: Wednesday 27 February 7pm

Cast and creative team and tour details announced for world premiere of ’s , adapted for the stage by Barney Norris

• Cast to include Stephen Boxer and Niamh Cusack

• 2017 Nobel Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day is adapted for the stage by Barney Norris, directed by Christopher Haydon and designed by Lily Arnold, lighting design by Mark Howland and sound design by Elena Peña

• Commissioned by Royal & Derngate and co-produced by Royal & Derngate and Out of Joint in association with Oxford Playhouse

• After its world premiere in Northampton the production embarks on a 10 week Out of Joint tour including Oxford Playhouse, Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds, Salisbury Playhouse, Theatre Royal , Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Nuffield Southampton, Derby Theatre and Bristol Old Vic

The cast and full creative team, along with details of the Spring 2019 tour, has been announced today for The Remains of the Day, a co-production between Royal & Derngate, Northampton and Out of Joint, in association with Oxford Playhouse. The cast will be led by Stephen Boxer (Regeneration, Royal & Derngate) and Niamh Cusack (The Winter’s Tale, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse).

2017 Nobel Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro’s masterpiece has entranced generations as a novel and its story of memory, regret and undeclared love is now re-imagined for the stage for the first time by one of Britain’s most exciting young writers, Barney Norris (At First Sight, Oxford Playhouse; Visitors, - Critics’ Circle Award and Offwestend Award for Most Promising Playwright for Visitors, Arcola Theatre; Times best-selling novelist) in collaboration with Ishiguro himself.

Through the memories of a proud butler, we discover the shocking, morally compromised truth behind the manicured gardens and grand receptions of an English stately home. Years later, faced

with a life half-lived, he sets out on a journey to find the friend from his past who might finally offer him redemption.

The Remains of the Day will be directed by Christopher Haydon (, Rep and West End; Fringe First and Offie-winning Grounded, Traverse Theatre Edinburgh, Studio Theatre Washington DC, national and international tour; On The Exhale, Traverse Theatre), who recently directed Royal & Derngate’s co-production of The Caretaker. The production will be designed by Lily Arnold (Rules for Living, Royal & Derngate; Yellow Face, National Theatre Shed). Lighting design is by Mark Howland (Soul, Royal & Derngate/Hackney Empire; Twelve Angry Men, Birmingham Rep and West End; several productions for English Touring Opera) and sound design is by Elena Peña (Misty, ; The Bear/The Proposal, ; The Caretaker, Royal & Derngate and Bristol Old Vic).

The cast will be led by Stephen Boxer as the butler Stevens. His credits include Stories, and King Lear (National Theatre) and Regeneration (Royal & Denrgate and Touring Consortium Theatre Company). Kenton is played by Niamh Cusack whose stage credits include My Brilliant Friend at and The Winter’s Tale at Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. The cast also includes Stephen Critchlow, Pip Donaghy, Edward Franklin, Miles Richardson, Sadie Shimmin and Patrick Toomey.

The play will open at Royal & Derngate, Northampton in February, as part of the theatre’s Made in Northampton season, with a National Press night on Wednesday 27 February, and will tour nationally from March 2019. The tour venues will include Oxford Playhouse, Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds, Salisbury Playhouse, Theatre Royal York, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Nuffield Southampton Derby Theatre, and Bristol Old Vic.

Kate Wasserberg, Artistic Director of Out of Joint, said: “Out of Joint are absolutely delighted to be working with Royal & Derngate and Oxford Playhouse to bring Ishiguro’s seminal story to stages around the country. We’re incredibly excited to be working with Barney and Chris to adapt this classic tale of love, loss and regret.”

James Dacre, Artistic Director of Royal & Derngate, added: “After several years of development, we can’t wait to bring the world premiere of the iconic story to the stage. We are thrilled to be working with playwright Barney Norris and delighted to be welcoming Christopher Haydon back to Royal & Derngate.”

The Made in Northampton season is sponsored locally by Michael Jones Jewellers.

#RemainsTour19

ENDS For more information, images, interviews and press tickets please contact Amanda Howson on 01604 655719 or email [email protected].

Note to editors:

Royal & Derngate Royal & Derngate is the main venue for arts and entertainment in Northamptonshire, with audience members for live shows and films numbering 378,000 last year, and an additional 115,000 seeing its work on tour. The theatre won the UK Theatre Awards for Best Presentation of Touring Theatre in 2015 and Best Touring Production in 2016 for The Herbal Bed,

Its Made in Northampton productions have also transferred to the West End and Broadway as well as Shakespeare’s Globe, the National Theatre, Hackney Empire and the Lyric Hammersmith. The venue also presents a diverse range of visiting productions on both the Derngate and Royal stages, featuring musicals, dance, comedy and music, including a residency from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Its award-winning Get Involved programme engages with over 21,000 participants each year and the theatre’s Generate artistic development programme supports hundreds of local and emerging artists and practitioners. www.royalandderngate.co.uk Facebook: /royalandderngate Twitter: @royalderngate

Out of Joint Out of Joint develops, produces and tours political, humane and socially engaged shows of outstanding quality, that spark and enrich conversations at kitchen tables around the UK. Through partnerships and touring, the company engages as wide an audience as possible across the UK. With the strong belief that theatre should be the start of political conversation, Out of Joint commissions productions that open hearts and minds through fearless writing. www.outofjoint.co.uk Twitter: @Out_of_Joint

Oxford Playhouse

Oxford Playhouse and its Burton Taylor Studio presents and produces a wide range of live performance, runs Artist Development schemes and presents Playhouse Plays Out; an ongoing series of off-site events which happen at locations across the county. The theatre's Participation team works with over 15000 people each year through post show discussions, workshops, work experience, a youth theatre and a young people’s theatre company.

Oxford Playhouse celebrated its 80th Birthday in 2018. As part of its celebrations, Oxford Playhouse co-produced with English Touring Theatre and Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory, Women in Power with Nuffield Southampton, and Wise Children with Emma Rice’s new company and The

Old Vic. Its upcoming 80th Birthday co-productions Richard III and The Remains of the Day, begin touring in Spring 2019.

Throughout Spring and Summer 2018, Oxford Playhouse revived its 2008 production of One Small Step to tour around schools, attractions and parks across Oxfordshire. June 2018 also saw Offbeat, Oxford Playhouse’s festival collaboration with Arts at the Old Fire Station, enter its third year.

To finish off 2018, Oxford Playhouse presented and produced two family Christmas shows. Alby the Penguin Saves Christmas, which has been co-produced with Reading Rep, entertained young Children in the Burton Taylor Studio. Its family pantomime, Dick Whittington and His Cat, was watched by nearly 35000 people.

www.oxfordplayhouse.com

Barney Norris

Barney Norris is a playwright and novelist. His work includes Visitors, which won the Critics Circle award for most promising playwright, and the best-selling novel, Five Rivers Met On A Wooded Plain. He founded the theatre company Up In Arms with the director Alice Hamilton after they met in a youth theatre in Wiltshire, and together they have made and toured work around woods, schools, hospices, pupil referral units, village halls and theatres across the UK. He worked for Out of Joint from 2011 - 2013 and is proud to return to the company to adapt The Remains of the Day. His second novel Turning for Home is published in paperback this spring, and his third novel, The Vanishing Hours, will be published this summer. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, the Martin Esslin playwright in residence at Keble College, Oxford, and sits on the Society of Authors’ scriptwriters committee.

Christopher Haydon

Christopher Haydon is an award-winning director. His work includes Grounded, which won a Fringe First and an Off West End award for Best Production and On The Exhale which won a Fringe First award and garnered rave reviews. Christopher was formerly Artistic Director at the , where his credits include: Diary of a Madman (Traverse Theatre), The Iphigenia Quartet, The Christians (also Traverse Theatre, winner: Fringe First), Image of An Unknown Young Woman (winner: Best Production, Off West End Awards), The Edge Of Our Bodies, Trojan Women, Purple Heart, The Prophet and Wittenburg. His other theatre credits include Twelve Angry Men (Birmingham Rep/West End/national tour), The Caretaker (Bristol Old Vic/Royal and Derngate Northampton), Trying It On (China Plate/RSC/Royal Court), Sixty-six Books, In The Beginning (Bush Theatre/Westminster Abbey); Grace, Pressure Drop (On Theatre); Deep Cut (Sherman Cymru/National Tour). His first short film In Wonderland has screened at festivals all over the world winning several awards - most recently Best Drama at the BAFTA-accredited Aesthetica Short Film Festival. As a journalist he has written for: The Scotsman, The Financial Times, , , The New Statesman, The Stage and Prospect Magazine. He was a 2017 Clore Fellow.

Performance Dates and Venues

Royal & Derngate, Northampton Sat 23 Feb - 16 Mar 19 Press Night: Wed 27 Feb 7pm https://www.royalandderngate.co.uk/

York Theatre Royal Mon 18 Mar – Sat 23 Mar 19 https://www.yorktheatreroyal.co.uk/

Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds Tue 26 Mar – Sat 30 Mar 19 https://www.theatreroyal.org/

Nuffield Southampton Tues 2 Apr – Sat 6 Apr 19 https://www.nstheatres.co.uk/

Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Mon 8 Apr – Mon 15 Apr 19 https://www.yvonne-arnaud.co.uk/

Oxford Playhouse Tue 16 Apr - Sat 20 Apr 19 https://www.oxfordplayhouse.com/

Derby Theatre Tue 23 Apr – Sat 27 Apr 19 https://www.derbytheatre.co.uk/

Salisbury Playhouse Tue 30 Apr – Sat 11 May 19 https://www.wiltshirecreative.co.uk/

Bristol Old Vic Tue 21 May – Sat 25 May 19 https://bristololdvic.org.uk/

Creative team:

Adaptor Barney Norris Director Christopher Haydon Designer Lily Arnold Lighting Designer Mark Howland Sound Designer Elena Peña Composer Sophie Cotton Movement Director Lucy Cullingford Video Designer Andrzej Goulding Casting Director Gabrielle Dawes CDG Assistant Director Matilda Reith

Cast: Stevens Stephen Boxer Morgan/Spencer/Ensemble Stephen Critchlow Kenton Niamh Cusack Stevens Senior/Waiter Pip Donaghy Reginald/Ensemble Edward Franklin Darlington/Carlisle/Ensemble Miles Richardson Mrs Taylor/Mme Dupont/Ensemble Sadie Shimmin Lewis/Ensemble Patrick Toomey