Cast announced for The Moor
Old Red Lion Theatre, 418 St John Street, London EC1V 4NJ
Tuesday 6th February – Saturday 3rd March 2018
Jill McAusland (Call the Midwife, BBC1; Pygmalion, English Speaking Theatre Frankfurt; Arms and the Man, Watford Palace Theatre), Oliver Britten (Walrus, The Vaults; Alice Adventures Underground, VAULT Festival; Back to the Future, Secret Cinema) and Jonny Magnanti (Three Winters, National Theatre; The Hound of the Baskervilles, Stables Theatre Hastings; Midsummer Night’s Dream, Mercatoria Theatre Company) will form the cast for the world premiere of Catherine Lucie’s The Moor, a tense psychological thriller set in a place where nothing is as it seems
Bronagh has lived at the heart of the moor for as long as she can remember, but recently she has started having the same troubling dream. Are the voices trying to tell her something? When a boy vanishes, Bronagh has to tell someone what she suspects, entangling herself and her boyfriend in a murder investigation.
Haunting and touching in equal parts, The Moor pits Bronagh against her own past and present, dragging her, her baby daughter and those closest to them into something deeper than the marsh on the moor.
Presenting a female character with nuance, depth and agency who is emotionally and intelligently charged, Lucie explores what people are capable of when isolated and under pressure, ensnaring and unsettling the audience.
Part domestic tale, part folk tale, the play will use inventive design to create an ever-changing landscape reflecting Bronagh’s shifting mental state and the shifting ground of the moor. Directed by Blythe Stewart (Skin a Cat), the play will also be supported by an all-female creative team, demonstrating the impact of women when they take the responsibility of representation into their own hands.
Director Blythe Stewart comments, I am delighted to be bringing Catherine Lucie’s thrilling and unnerving play to life – it’s an ambitious and bold work. At the heart of this play is a woman trying to make a difference in her life. I’m thrilled people will have the chance to see more than just a ‘strong female character’. Bronagh is nuanced: acute, reserved, ordinary, distinct, and changeable, and her fight is for herself. We are passionate about making work that gives a space for people usually on the edge of society and of our stories.