ARCOLA THEATRE ANNOUNCE FULL CAST FOR
THE WORLD PREMIÈRE OF
BARNEY NORRIS’ NEW PLAY WE STARTED TO SING
ARCOLA THEATRE ANNOUNCE FULL CAST FOR
THE WORLD PREMIÈRE OF
BARNEY NORRIS’ NEW PLAY WE STARTED TO SING
Arcola Theatre today announces the full cast for the world première of Barney Norris’ new play We Started To Sing, which marks the reopening of the theatre since March 2020. Barney Norris directs Barbara Flynn, David Ricardo-Pearce, Naomi Petersen, George Taylor and Robin Soans. The production opens on 23 May, with previews from 19 May, and runs until 18 June
STUDIO 1
ARCOLA THEATRE PRESENTS
WE STARTED TO SING
Written and Directed by BARNEY NORRIS
Cast: Barbara Flynn, David Ricardo-Pearce, Naomi Petersen, George Taylor and Robin Soans.
Frankie Bradshaw (Designer); Bethany Gupwell (Lighting Designer); Jamie Lu (Sound Designer);
Josephine Tremelling (Production Manager)
19 May – 18 June 2022
“I wish there could be a day where families came together and just said it all to each other. Because then everyone would know it all, and there’d be nothing left to hurt anyone.”
Sussex. London. Wiltshire. Northamptonshire. Wales. Over three decades, a family spreads across the country, and the chord they once made together starts to fray. How will the distance growing between them change the music of their lives?
Barney Norris returns to the Arcola with a brand-new play – We Started To Sing is a love song to the people who raised him, and a hymn to the bravery of our brief lives.
Barney Norris’ previous work at Arcola is Eventide (2015) and Visitors (2014) – the latter which won the Critics’ Circle Award and the Off West End Award for Most Promising Playwright. His other plays include Nightfall (Bridge Theatre), While We’re Here (Bush Theatre), Echo’s End (Salisbury Playhouse), and acclaimed adaptations of Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day, and Federico García Lorca’s Blood Wedding. His novels include Five Rivers Met on a Wooded Plain, Turning for Home, and The Vanishing Hours.
Barbara Flynn’s theatre credits include Elegy, Versailles, The Bullet (Donmar Warehouse), High Society (Old Vic), Copenhagen (Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield), Hamlet, Sorry (Crucible Theatre), An Experiment with an Air Pump, The Perfectionist, Short List (Hampstead Theatre), The Revengers Tragedy, King Lear, Antigone, Tales from Hollywood, Early Days, The Philanderer, Plunder, (National Theatre), Agamemnon’s Children, Women of Troy (Gate Theatre) and The Way of the World (Lyric Hammersmith). Her recent television credits include Death in Paradise, Doctor Who, The Durrells, 1864, Pat and Cabbage, Moving On, The Borgias, Just Henry, Cranford, 10 Days to War, The Marchioness Disaster, Cracker, The Line of Beauty, Elizabeth I, Malice Aforethought, Sea of Souls and Sea of Souls. Her recent film credits include The Christmas Candle, Cheerful Weather for the Wedding, Burlesque Fairytales, Miss Potter, You’re Dead and King Lear.
David Ricardo-Pearce’s theatre credits include Kiss Me Kate (Watermill Theatre), The Last Yankee Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, The Hired Man (Octagon Theatre), The Lorax (Old Vic), The Middlemarch Trilogy, De Montford (Orange Tree Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Bristol Old Vic), The Rover (Hampton Court Palace), The Big Fellah (Lyric Hammersmith), Anyone Can Whistle, Saturday Night (Jermyn Street Theatre), Annie Get Your Gun (Young Vic Theatre), Privates on Parade (West Yorkshire Playhouse/Birmingham Rep), The Car Cemetery (Gate Theatre), Two Cities (Salisbury Playhouse) and Tom’s Midnight Garden (Unicorn Theatre). His television credits include Traitors, Trauma, The Spa, Outnumbered, Extras and Border Crossing.
Naomi Petersen’s theatre credits include Baskerville! (Mercury Theatre), The Girl Next Door, Birthdays Past Birthdays Present, Joking Apart, Better off Dead (Stephen Joseph Theatre), By Jeeves (The Old Laundry Theatre), The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Ambassador’s Theatre), I Am Telling You I’m Not Going (Pleasance Theatre), Tender Loving Care (New Theatre Royal Plymouth), The Witches of Eastwick (Watermill Theatre), Angus, Thongs and Even More Snogging (West Yorkshire Playhouse) and Schnapps (Lyric Hammersmith). Her television credits include Drifters and Jitterman and for film; At First Sight.
George Taylor’s theatre credits include The Moderate Soprano, The Trial of Ubu (Hampstead Theatre), Character Solos (St James Theatre), People Like Us (Old Vic/Pleasance Theatre), A Woman Wtith Kindness (National Theatre) and The Duchess of Malfi (Oxford Playhouse). His recent televisions credits include X Company and Partners in Crime, and for film; Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, The Lady in the Van, You & I, Howards End and Wanderlust.
Robin Soans’ recent theatre credits include Uncle Vanya (Hampstead Theatre), Echo’s End (Salisbury Playhouse), Visitors (Bush Theatre/UK tour), Hamlet, As You Like It (RSC). His television credits include Victoria, Doctor Who, Endeavour – Fugue and Doctors. For film, his credits include The Princess Switch 3, The Princess Switch: Switched Again, The Princess Switch, Red Joan, Victoria and Abdul and Viceroy’s House.
LISTINGS
WE STARTED TO SING
Arcola Theatre
24 Ashwin Street, London, E8 3DL
19 May – 18 June 2022
Monday to Saturday at 7.30pm
Wednesday and Saturday matinees at 3pm
Relaxed performances: Wednesday 8 June 2022 at 3pm and 7.30pm
Touch tour available before Wednesday 25 May 2022 at 7.30pm performance
Box Office: 020 7503 1646
Tickets from £12 – £30