Sebastian Faulks’s
BIRDSONG
12-23 MAY, QUARRY THEATRE
Director: Alastair Whatley. Stage version by Rachel Wagstaff based on the novel by Sebastian Faulks. Set design: Victoria Spearing. Lighting: Alex Wardle for Charcoalblue. Sound: Dom Bilkey.
The stage play based on Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks’s world-famous novel of love and courage before and during the First World War, comes to the Quarry Theatre at West Yorkshire Playhouse from 12-23 May.
This adaptation by Rachel Wagstaff has young Englishman Stephen Wraysford embarking on a passionate and dangerous affair with the beautiful Isabelle Azaire in pre-war France that turns their world upside down. As war breaks out, Stephen must lead his men through the carnage of the Battle of the Sommer and through the sprawling tunnels that lie deep underground. Faced with the unprecedented horror of the war, he clings to the memory of Isabelle and the idyll of his former life as the world explodes around him.
Director Alastair Whatley says:
“Birdsong genuinely has a huge and broad appeal. The play and the book manage to speak across age and gender lines. You have the excitement and knuckle-edged tension in the tunnel scenes contrasted with the slow-burning and sweeping epic romance all set against the painfully accurate portrayal of life in the trenches of World War One. I challenge everyone not to be moved to tears at one point.”
Having played the role in the 2014 tour, Peter Duncan returns as Jack Firebrace, one of the tunnellers or “sappers” digging deep tunnels under No Man’s Land on the Western Front. Perhaps best known as a presenter on TV’s Blue Peter and Duncan Dares, he began his acting career in the 1970s when he joined the National Theatre. Other stage credits include The Card (for which he received an Olivier nomination), Alan Ayckbourn’s Things We Do For Love, Stan Laurel in Laurel and Hardy, and the title role in Charlie Peace – His Amazing Life and Outstanding Legend.
The romantic leads of Stephen Wraysford and Isabelle Azaire are played by Edmund Wiseman, whose recent theatre credits include Harry Percy in the RSC production of Richard II, Duchess of Malfi and Filumena, and Emily Bowker, who counts A Bunch of Amateurs, What the Women Did and London Wall among recent stage roles.
Also in the cast are Emily Altneu, Max Bowden (Justin Fitzgerald in BBC One’s Waterloo Road), Selma Brook, James Findlay (winner of the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award 2010), Roger Martin, Liam McCormick, James Staddon, Cloudia Swann and Alastair Whatley.
Birdsong is produced on tour by Alastair Whatley for The Original Theatre Company and Anne-Marie Woodley and Jon Woodley for Birdsong Productions Ltd.
Quarry Theatre
12-16 May, 19-23 May, 7.30pm
14 and 21 May, 1.30pm
16 and 23 May, 2pm
Post-show discussion May 13
Tickets £28-£12
West Yorkshire Playhouse has a reputation both nationally and internationally as a leading UK producing theatre. The theatre is a cultural hub, a place where people gather to tell and share stories and to engage in world class theatre. From large scale spectacle to intimate performance the Playhouse develops and makes work for the stage, for found spaces, for touring, for schools and community venues. Alongside work for the stage the Playhouse is dedicated to providing creative engagement opportunities, building and running sustainable projects that reach out to a diverse range of communities. Supporting new and emerging artists is key and the theatre provides creative space for new writers, emerging directors, companies and individual theatre makers to refine their practice. Work for 2015 includes a new version of UNCLE VANYA directed by Mark Rosenblatt, LITTLE SURE SHOT – a new commission by Lucy Rivers, THE RISE AND FALL OF LITTLE VOICE directed by James Brining and the redevelopment of Brining’s award-winning production of SWEENEY TODD with the WNO and WMC.
Original Theatre Company is one of the most prolific touring companies in the UK, in the past 24 months alone staging five productions to over 200,000 people. Touring theatre is at the heart and soul of everything they do, taking diverse and engaging productions of the highest quality to as many people and as much of the UK as possible. Vitality, honesty and, of course, originality are the basic ingredients of all of their shows, infused by the one, very simple, mantra: “Tell a story and tell it well”. Recent productions include The Private Ear and The Public Eye, Three Men in a Boat, Our Country’s Good, See How They Run, Twelfth Night, Dancing at Lughnasa and The Madness of King George.
Birdsong Productions Ltd was formed in early 2012 and led by Anne-Marie and Jon Woodley. It was formed specifically to produce, create and develop exciting and powerful drama that will engage audiences, promote audience development and explore innovative new dimensions of theatre making including book adaptations and the integration of technology in live performance.
