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Casting announced for
Zoe Cooper’s premiere
Petrification
Newcastle Live Theatre
Thursday
26th to Saturday 28th
May 2016
Then
Wednesday 15th
June 2016: South Shields
Customs House
The cast for the world premiere of Petrification at Live Theatre, Newcastle from Thursday 26th
to Saturday 28th May 2016 have been confirmed.
James
Baxter (BBC1’s Still Open All Hours), Neil Grainger (BBC2’s Hebburn) and Jamie Quinn (BBC Scotland’s The Still Game) will star in writer Zoe
Cooper’s (Nativities, Live Theatre)
new theatre production Petrification
directed by Mark Maughan (National Theatre, Paines Plough).
The
play boasts an engaging and innovative script that recreates the atmosphere of
a booze-fuelled night out at the pub, with all the action taking place around
you.
The
three talented actors are currently receiving significant critical acclaim for
their roles on stage and TV.
James Baxter |
James
Baxter, playing Sean, is best known to TV audiences as series regular Leroy in
the BBC’s Still Open All Hours. For two years he played Jake Doland in the
long-running ITV soap opera Emmerdale. He’s
also familiar face to audiences at Live through his appearances in productions
of Present: Tense, Jump! and Swansong. His performance in Scarborough as a teenager
embarking upon an illicit affair with his PE teacher won him a best-actor
nomination for a Festival Fringe Award.
Neil Grainger |
Middlesbrough-born
Neil Grainger, playing Simon, first came to prominence as a series regular in
ITV’s revived Crossroads. More
recently, he played the ongoing character of Gervaise in the first two series
of the BBC’s Hebburn. At Live Theatre he has previously appeared in Jump! And has previously worked
extensively with the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, where his
credits include Time and Time Again, Clearing the Colours and My Sister Sadie.
Jamie Quinn |
Completing
the trio is Jamie Quinn, playing Aidan. Jamie trained at
the Drama Centre London. His past work includes the hugely successful Black Watch (National Theatre of
Scotland), The Slab Boys (Citizen’s
Theatre, Glasgow) and The Marriage of
Figaro (Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh). On TV, he
has appeared in Two Doors Down, Still Game and Coming Up.
Mark Maughan |
Director
Mark Maughan commented “I’m very excited
that we’ve been able to bring together such a talented and committed acting
team to bring Zoe’s fantastic script to life. Both James Baxter and Neil
Grainger worked on the show during its development phase, so I’m delighted that
we’re able to welcome them back as we bring the show to full production.
Joining with Jamie Quinn, whose work I’ve admired for a long time, I’m
confident we’re going to create a show that is immersive, intoxicating and
incisive.”
Gez
Casey, Literary Manager at Live Theatre said: “We were delighted to award Petrification a prize at GIFT for the quality of writing that explored the
universal themes of memory, sibling rivalry and loss, whilst also experimenting
with time shifts and disputed family recollections. We’re looking forward
to enjoying the fully developed play and experiencing the intimacy of the
setting that allows the audience to eavesdrop on the characters’ lives and be
at the heart of the action.”
In
the play Simon and Sean’s dad is dead. Returning home from London, Simon is
shocked to find Sean in a relationship with a man called Aidan. Sean is
irritated by Simon’s new cosmopolitan ways. And Aidan? He just wants to be part
of the family.
Attempting
to find common ground, they head for a night out in Gateshead. But before long they’re arguing. What is it
about the memory of a childhood trip to Whitby that sets
them off? Darts, pints and fists fly across the room, as past and present
collide with dizzying consequences. Joining the characters in the pub, the
audience is thrust into the heart of one family’s search for truth.
Petrification began its
life at the Gateshead International Festival of Theatre (GIFT) in May 2013,
originally developed as thirty-minute work-in-progress. The show was awarded
festival prizes from Northern Stage and Live Theatre. The company then
successfully applied for an Arts Council England Grants for the Arts award. The
show was later shortlisted for the Kevin Spacey Foundation Award, making the
final round of 6 from over 1000 applications.
Zoe Cooper |
Writer
Zoe Cooper’s credits as a playwright
include Nativities (Live Theatre), Utopia (Live Theatre / Soho Theatre), The Winter’s Tale (adaptation for The
Globe Theatre), Longshore Drift (Old
Vic New Voices) and Learning How to Swim (ATC/Root Theatre). She
has also had work developed or produced with the RSC and National
Theatre Studios, as well as with Ovalhouse, Theatre503, Nabakov and the Tristan
Bates Theatre.
Mark
Maughan (director) has recently worked as staff director on the National
Theatre’s hugely successful production of Les
Blancs. Other credits include Made in China’s Tonight I’m Gonna Be The New Me, How Was It for You? (Brighton Dome), Address Unknown (JW3 for Soho Theatre)
and The Money $hot Cabaret. He was
resident trainee director at Paines Plough.
Telltale’s
work is produced by LittleMighty. The company works with remarkable artists to
make brilliant theatre happen. Recent successes include Move to Stand’s Fat Man (“For theatre like this I’d
follow them anywhere” – The Times);
Unfolding Theatre’s Lands of Glass
(“charming, harmonizing, enchanting” – The
Telegraph) and Testament’s Blake
Remixed, a co-production with West Yorkshire Playhouse (“An entertaining
fusion of hip-hop, rap and beatboxing that thrusts the Blake mythology into the
21st century – The Stage).
Running time: 75mins /
Suitable for ages 14+
Creatives:
Written by Zoe Cooper
Directed by Mark Maughan
Design by Emma Bailey
Lighting Design by Josh Pharo
Sound Design by Guy
Connelly
Produced by LittleMighty
Development supported by
Live Theatre, Northern Stage, GIFT and the Kevin Spacey Foundation.
Read
the original North East Theatre Guide preview: http://nomorepanicbutton.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/preview-petrification-at-newcastle-live.html
Tickets:
Petrification
comes to Newcastle’s Live
Theatre from Thursday 26 – Saturday
28 May, 7.30pm
Saturday
28 May, 2pm
£18
- £10 full, £16 -£12 over 60s, £10 - £6 other concessions
Box
Office: (0191) 232 1232
Future Tour Dates
2 June: The
Victorian Craft Beer Cafe
In Association with
Halifax Square Chapel Centre for the Arts Plays in Pubs www.squarechapel.co.uk
3 June: Brewery
Arts Centre, Kendal www.brewaryarts.co.uk
18 June: The Lowry, Salford Quays www.thelowry.com
20 - 22 June: Pub gigs with 2’s Company Festival in association with Harrogate Theatre
20 June - The Mitre Inn, Knaresborough
21 June – Pub gig (tbc), Ripon
22 June - Tap and Spile, Harrogate
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