Media Release April 2012 Belvoir presents Strange Interlude Written by SIMON STONE after EUGENE O’NEILL Director SIMON STONE Set Designer ROBERT COUSINS Costume Designer MEL PAGE Lighting Designer DAMIEN COOPER Composer & Sound Designer STEFAN GREGORY With AKOS ARMONT NICHOLAS BAKOPOULOS-COOKE EMILY BARCLAY MITCHELL BUTEL CALLUM McMANIS KRIS McQUADE ELOISE MIGNON ANTHONY PHELAN TOBY SCHMITZ TOBY TRUSLOVE BELVOIR ST THEATRE | UPSTAIRS 5 MAY – 17 JUNE An experimental play from the 1920s may not be the most obvious choice for inclusion in Belvoir’s strikingly contemporary season, but in the hands of Simon Stone theatre-goers will know to expect a radical interpretation of Eugene O’Neill’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play. In the vein of Stone’s The Wild Duck, a sell-out at both Belvoir and Melbourne’s Malthouse Theatre, Strange Interlude will be completely rewritten. Strange Interlude is one of the few modern plays to use soliloquy interwoven with the dialogue, revealing the characters’ inner thoughts; this technique will be maintained in the rewrite. Twenty-year-old Nina Leeds (Emily Barclay) has lost the love of her life in the war. Overcome with grief, she quits university, falls out with her father and moves away from home. What follows is an epic and compelling narrative that spans 25 years in Nina’s life, but the story is compressed into a series of heightened, life altering moments. The significance of each of these moments is revealed as the page-turning story unravels. The cast assembled for this production is truly stellar, with the luminous Emily Barclay as Nina and Mitchell Butel, Toby Schmitz and Toby Truslove as three men in her life, each vying for her attention and affection in his own way. Schmitz is joined by Wild Duck co-stars Eloise Mignon and Anthony Phelan. Fresh from her touching portrayal of Milova in Neighbourhood Watch, Kris McQuade rounds out this stunningly talented cast. Strange Interlude offers a touching insight into the minutiae of our daily worries, joys and hopes, set against the vast backdrop of life’s irreversible decisions and the fickle hand of fate. For media information contact publicist Elly Michelle Clough [email protected] | + 61 (0)2 8396 6242 .