PRESS RELEASE 29 November 2017 CASTING ANNOUNCED FOR FANNY & ALEXANDER WORLD PREMIERE Based on ‘Fanny and Alexander’ written and directed by Ingmar Bergman Adapted by Stephen Beresford Directed by Max Webster Previews from 21 February 2018, press night 1 March 2018 Casting is today announced for Fanny & Alexander at The Old Vic. Legendary filmmaker Ingmar Bergman's masterpiece Fanny and Alexander is adapted for the stage by BAFTA award-winning writer Stephen Beresford and directed by Old Vic Associate Director Max Webster, opening on 1 March 2018 with previews from 21 February 2018. The cast includes Penelope Wilton, Thomas Arnold, Lolita Chakrabarti, Kevin Doyle, Karina Fernandez, Annie Firbank, Matt Gavan, Tim Lewis, Gary MacKay, Gloria Obianyo, Vivian Oparah, Michael Pennington, Hannah James Scott, Jonathan Slinger, Catherine Walker and Sargon Yelda. ‘There should be no shame in us taking pleasure in our little lives.’ Amongst the gilded romance and glamour of 1900s Sweden, siblings Fanny and Alexander's world is turned upside down when their widowed mother remarries the iron-willed local bishop. As creative freedom and rigid orthodoxy clash, a war ensues between imagination and austerity in this magical study of childhood, family and love. Penelope Wilton plays Mrs. Helena Ekdahl. Her extensive theatre credits include Taken at Midnight (Theatre Royal Haymarket/Chichester Festival Theatre) for which she won an Olivier Award for Best Actress in 2015, Delicate Balance, Heartbreak House, The Deep Blue Sea (Almeida), The Family Reunion, The Chalk Garden - winning her the London Evening Standard Award Best Actress in 2008, John Gabriel Borkman, Little Foxes (Donmar Warehouse), The House of Bernarda Alba, Tess, Piano, The Secret Rapture, Major Barbara, Much Ado About Nothing, Man and Superman, Betrayal, The Philanderer, Sisterly Feelings, Landscape (National Theatre), Hamlet, Tishoo (Wyndham’s Theatre) and Women Beware Women (RSC Swan Theatre). Television includes Brief Encounters, Downton Abbey, Miss Marple: They do it with Mirrors, South Riding, Doctor Who, The Passion, Five Days, The Whistle-Blower, Wives and Daughters, Half Broken Things, Celebration, Ever Decreasing Circles. Film work includes Guernsey, Zoo, The BFG, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Belle, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, The History Boys, Pride and Prejudice and Shaun of the Dead. Thomas Arnold plays Carl Ekdahl/Mr. Landhal. His theatre credits include Oslo, Henry IV Parts 1 & 2, Cyrano De Bergerac, Mourning Becomes Electra, Three Sisters and The Stoppard Trilogy (National Theatre), The Kid Stays in the Picture (Royal Court), Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax (2015 - The Old Vic), Hamlet, Orlando (Manchester Royal Exchange), A Door Must be Open or Shut (King’s Head Theatre), Outlying Islands (Bath Theatre Royal), and Poor Mrs Pepys (New Victoria Theatre). Television credits include Broken, The Missing, War and Peace, Call the Midwife, Wolf Hall, Director, Bert & Dickie, Midsomer Murders, This is England, Broadside, Demons, Miss Marple - Towards Zero, The Last Detective and Abolition. His film credits include The Woman in Black: Angel of Death, Far from the Madding Crowd, Posh, The Fifth Estate, Thor 2, Kon Tiki, One Day, Made In Dagenham, Robin Hood, Me and Orson Welles, The Duchess, The Golden Compass and Cromwell and Fairfax. Lolita Chakrabarti plays Alma Ekdahl/Helena Vergérus. Theatre credits include Gertrude in Hamlet (Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company/RADA), Last Seen (Almeida), which Lolita also wrote, Free Outgoing (Royal Court/Edinburgh Festival), John Gabriel Borkman (Donmar), The Great Game: Afghanistan (Tricycle Theatre), The Waiting Room and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (National Theatre). Television credits include Delicious, Born to Kill, Beowulf, My Mad Fat Diary, Jekyll and Hyde, The Casual Vacancy and The Smoke. Writing credits include Red Velvet (Tricycle Theatre 2012 and 2014, St Ann’s Warehouse New York 2014, The Garrick Theatre 2016). Red Velvet was nominated for nine awards. Lolita won the Charles Wintour Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright 2012, the Critics Circle Most Promising Playwright Award 2012 and the AWA Award for Arts and Culture in 2013. Kevin Doyle plays Bishop Edvard Vergérus. Theatre includes: NSFW, Spur Of The Moment (Royal Court), One For The Road/Victoria Station (Young Vic), The White Guard, Mutabilitie (National Theatre), For King And Country (Touring Partnership),Three In The Back, Two In Head, The Mob, A Hole In The Top Of The World (Orange Tree Theatre), Comedy Of Errors (Southampton), Henry V, Coriolanus, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Artistes and Admirers, Romeo and Juliet, A Woman Killed With Kindness, Henry IV Parts I & II, Kissing The Pope, Twelfth Night, The Plantagenets, The Plain Dealer (all For The RSC), The Crucible (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Much Ado About Nothing (Queen’s Theatre and tour), Therese Racquin (Chichester Minerva Theatre),Othello (Bristol Old Vic), The Admirable Crichton, Great Expectations and Cymbeline (Royal Exchange). Television includes Happy Valley, Reg, Downton Abbey, A.D – Beyond the Bible, The Crimson Field, Snodgrass, Open Doors, The Accused, New Tricks, Room at the Top, Scott & Bailey, Law and Order, Vexed, Survivors, Five Days, Paradox, Silent Witness, The Tudors, Till We Die, George Gently, Sleep With Me, Heartbeat, Belle De Jour, Drop Dead Gorgeous, Dalziel and Pascoe, Casualty, The Royal, New Street Law, The Brief, Brief Encounters, Afterlife, Big Dippers, The Rotters Club, Blackpool, Midsomer Murders, Family Business, Murphy's Law, Silent Witness, The Lakes, Holby City, At Home With The Braithwaites and Badger. Film includes A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Social Call, Good and The Libertine. Karina Fernandez plays Lydia Ekdahl/Justina. Her theatre credits include Mare Rider (Arcola Theatre), There is a War, Edgar and Annabel (National Theatre), Bites (The Bush Theatre), Blue Hart (Royal Court), Cahoot’s Macbeth (King’s Head Theatre), Crocodile Seeking Refuge (Lyric Hammersmith), Dealing with Claire (Union Theatre), Macbeth (Bristol Old Vic), Trips (Birmingham Rep) and Wedding Day at the Cro-Magnons (Soho Theatre). Television credits include Holby City, Quick Cuts, A Touch of Cloth II, A Young Doctor’s Notebook, The Blind Man of Seville, My So Called Life Sentence, Twenty Twelve, My Family, Happy Birthday Shakespeare, Married. Single Other and The Forsythe Saga. Her film credits include Sense of an Ending, Pride, Untitled 13, Now is Good, Another Year, Happy Go Lucky, Gabriel and The Return and Daphne. Annie Firbank plays Vega/Blenda Vergérus. Her theatre credits include Richard III (Arcola/Madrid), Oresteia, Macbeth (Almeida Theatre), Who Do We Think We Are?, Roundelay (Southwark Playhouse/Visible Ensemble), The Crucible (The Old Vic), To Kill a Mockingbird, Three Sisters, An Ideal Husband, Separate Tables, Habitat (Royal Exchange, Manchester), The Golden Dragon, Orpheus, The Belle Vue, Ion, Celestina (ATC), Billy Liar, A Working Woman, Macbeth (West Yorkshire Playhouse), An Argument About Sex (Tramway/Traverse Theatre), Only the Lonely, Death of a Salesman (Birmingham Rep), Becket (Theatre Royal Haymarket), Maps of Desire (Wonderful Beast), The Hollow Crown, Henry V, The Comedy of Errors (RSC), Much Ado About Nothing (Cheek By Jowl), Hedda Gabler (ETT/Donmar Warehouse), The Invisible Woman (Gate Theatre), The Winter’s Tale, Romeo and Juliet (Acter-USA), Mary Stuart (BAC), A Handful of Dust (Shared Experience), High Society (Victoria Palace), The Passion, Julius Caesar (National Theatre), Twelfth Night, Richard III, and Anthony and Cleopatra (Stratford, Ontario). Television includes New Tricks, Midsomer Murders, East Enders, Elizabeth I, Doctors, Kavanagh QC, Heartbeat, Heart of the Country, Growing Rich, Poirot, Mother Love, Hotel du Lac, Flesh and Blood, Lillie, The Nearly Man, Crown Court and Persuasion. Film credits include Anna and the King, Strapless, A Passage to India, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Sunday Bloody Sunday, A Severed Head, Accident, The Servant and Carry on Nurse. Matt Gavan plays Michael Bergman/Aron Retzinsky. His recent theatre credits include King Lear (The Old Vic). His film credits include Murder on the Orient Express and Goodbye Christopher Robin. Tim Lewis is in the Ensemble. Theatre includes The Elephantom, War Horse (National Theatre/West End), The Man of Mode (National Theatre) The Edge (UK tour), The Hudsucker Proxy (Nuffield Theatre/Liverpool Playhouse), At The End Of Everything Else, Something Very Far Away (Unicorn Theatre) The Guinea Pig Club, (York Theatre Royal), The Railway Children (Waterloo Station Theatre), and Romeo and Juliet (Birmingham Rep/UK tour). TV credits include Mr Selfridge, Five Daughters, and Coming Up: The King. Film includes A Night in Hatton Garden, A Congregation of Ghosts and In the Dark Half. Gary Mackay is in the Ensemble. His theatre credits include Farm Boy (Mercury Theatre), ‘Art’ (The Old Vic), Run for Your Wife (Vienna English Theatre), Let The Right One In (NTS/West End/New York), The 39 Steps (UK tour), The Madness of George III (West End/UK tour), The Signal Man (Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds), Little Otik (NTS/UK tour), When Five Years Pass, The Highway Crossing (Arcola Theatre), Lark Rise to Candleford (Finborough Theatre) and Julius Caesar (Barbican Theatre). His television credits include Derren Brown’s - Twisted Tales, EastEnders, Emmerdale, Lip Service, Hollyoaks, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Half Moon Investigations and Francis. His film credits include E=Motion, He Who Dares 2, The Magic