REND Productions and Lighthouse Poole present the
UK Tour of Howard Barker’s Judith:
A Parting From The Body
Tuesday 5th – Saturday 30th September 2017
Judith: A Parting From The Body by internationally-renowned playwright Howard Barker returns to the stage for a UK tour this autumn, telling the apocryphal story that has fascinated artists for centuries. Barker, lauded by The Times as ‘England’s greatest living dramatist’, pulls back the dusty sheets of Holofernes’ tent in this radical re-telling revealing what really happened in this mystic tale.
Catherine Cusack (Coronation Street, ITV; The Crucible, Belfast Lyric; All That Fall, Broadway, Arts Theatre, Jermyn Street) leads the cast of this powerful reimagining. The cast also includes Liam Smith (Cuffs, BBC; The Winterling, Theatre by the Lake in Keswick; Through The Night, Finborough) playing Holofernes and Kristin Hutchinson (Beyond Caring, National Theatre; The Empress, RSC; The Waves, National Theatre) playing the Servant.
The city under siege, the night before the battle that will see this country fall. A beautiful widow, Judith, infiltrates the enemy camp with her Servant, with the intention of seducing and killing the blood-crazed army general, Holofernes, to save her country from invasion and destruction. Her land is at stake – but what of her heart and mind? In Robyn Winfield-Smith’s unsettling and emotionally
charged production, we see a passionate double-seduction and a web of truth and lies between a man who has chosen murder and a woman who has chosen love.
Brimming with political potency, Judith probes deep into fundamental questions about the human experience, about the nature of truth, and about the apparently inescapable cycles of violence in our world.
Robyn Winfield-Smith, Artistic Director of REND Productions, comments, REND is thrilled to be taking JUDITH on national tour in co-production with Lighthouse, Poole, following the success of our 4-week run at Arcola in 2015 (the 20th anniversary year of the play’s TMA-winning premiere at the Traverse). With ongoing global controversy over the trustworthiness of those in political power, and with continued violence and political unrest sweeping across the world, this intense and hard-hitting play is as devastatingly urgent as it was in both 1995 and 2015 – testament to the state of affairs internationally, the uncomfortable truths about human nature, and the calibre of Barker’s writing.
Stephen Wrentmore, Artistic Producer of Lighthouse, says, In a little less than 60 minutes, Judith manages to deftly expose the hypocrisy and influence of the state that other plays take hours to tackle. It is a brilliant and exposing piece that muscularly deals with complex themes of desire, love, power and its abuse. It addresses war, propaganda, and wraps itself around the most physical and
gruesome acts of apocryphal storytelling. This production is important to Lighthouse and our new Sherling Studio theatre as we continue to celebrate new and bold plays in our programming, working in partnership and collaboration, and setting our bar of quality and ambition high.
Howard Barker’s original TMA-winning production of Judith premiered at the Traverse in 1995. Judith was first performed at the Arcola Theatre as part of REND Productions’ HOWARD BARKER DOUBLE BILL in 2015, which received an Arts Council England Grant For The Arts.
Exhilarating and provoking. An insightful, innovative staging that breathes humanity and humourinto [a play] by one of the UK’s most uncompromising writers (★★★★ Tom Wicker, The Stage).
Following a successful partnership on the HOWARD BARKER DOUBLE BILL at Arcola in 2015, REND Productions will once again be collaborating with VocalEyes to provide accessible performances where possible, most notably Omnibus’ first ever tour and audio-described performance.
Alongside this production of Judith, REND Productions will continue to organise university and sixth form workshops, directing masterclasses as well as additional educational and outreach events.
Tour Dates
5th – 9th September Arcola Theatre, Studio 2, London (£17/£14 concessions)
24 Ashwin Street, Dalston, London E8 3DL
Tickets available from www.arcolateatre.com (0207 503 1646)
13th – 15th September Omnibus Theatre, London (£15/£12 concessions)
1 Clapham Common Northside, London SW4 0QW
Tickets available from www.omnibus-clapham.org (0207 498 4699)
28th September Lighthouse, Sherling Studio, Poole (£14/£12 + booking fee)
21 Kingland Road, Poole BH15 1UG
Tickets available from www.lighthousepoole.co.uk (01202 280 000)
29th – 30th September Mercury Theatre, Studio, Colchester (£13.50/£9 concessions)Balkerne Gate, Colchester, CO1 1PT
Tickets available from www.mercurytheatre.co.uk (01206 573 948)