Arthur Milner's FACTS Opens 26 February at the Finborough Theatre

The European premiere of Facts by Arthur Milner opens on Tuesday, 26 February 2013 (Press Night: Thursday, 28 February 2013 at 7.30pm) for a limited four week season at the Finborough Theatre.

A prominent American archaeologist working in the West Bank is found murdered by a single bullet to the heart. What was he unearthing that cost him his life?

In this powerful new play, inspired by a true story, two detectives - one Israeli, one Palestinian - must put aside their differences to find the killer and negotiate the dangerous boundaries between facts and faith.

Critically acclaimed director Caitlin McLeod returns to the Finborough Theatre to direct this hard-hitting and provocative play about what happens when the truth becomes too dangerous to reveal.

Playwright Arthur Milner is an acclaimed Canadian playwright and theatre director. Born in Frankfurt, West Germany, the son of Jewish refugees, Milner emigrated with his parents to Montreal, where his father, an active Zionist, was president of their local synagogue. His published plays include Learning to Live with Personal Growth, 1997, Zero Hour, Crusader of the World, The City, It's Not a Country, It's Winter, Masada and Facts which toured the West Bank and Israel in an Arabic translation in September 2012. He has a long association with the Great Canadian Theatre Company in Ottawa, Canada, where he was Resident Playwright and subsequently Artistic Director. He has worked in play development for the Manitoba Association of Playwrights, the Banff Playwrights Colony and Playwrights Workshop Montreal; and has taught at Canada's National Theatre School, Montreal's Concordia University, and at the University of Ottawa and Carleton in Ottawa. His articles on social, economic and arts issues have appeared in Saturday Night and The Globe and Mail, and he is a member of the editorial board of Inroads, A Journal of Opinion. He is also a past President of the Canadian Association of Professional Theatres.

Director Caitlin McLeod returns to the Finborough Theatre where she has directed two critically acclaimed sell out productions - the GB premiere of Stewart Parker's Northern Star, and the world premiere of Naomi Wallace's And I And Silence., which she also directed as a reading for Vibrant 2010 - An Anniversary Festival of Finborough Playwrights and The Public Theater, New York City. A winner of the prestigious Buzz Goodbody award for Best Director, other direction includes One Short Sleepe (South Bank Literary Festival) and Elephant's Graveyard (Warwick Arts Centre). She was Trainee Director at The Royal Court Theatre from 2011-2012, where she directed Mahua (New Plays From India reading series) and Love, Love, Love (Mousson d'ete Festival, France), and was Assistant Direction on Haunted Child, In Basildon, Love, Love, Love and Love and Information. Other Assistant Direction includes the forthcoming Strange Interlude (National Theatre), Hamlet (Shakespeare's Globe) and The Talented Mr Ripley (Royal and DernGate Theatres, Northampton).

The cast is:

Philip Arditti
Trained at RADA.
Theatre includes Sixty Six Books (Bush Theatre), The Holy Rosenbergs, Blood and Gifts, England People Very Nice (National Theatre), Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, Silver Birch House (Arcola Theatre) and Rope (Almeida Theatre).?Film includes Red 2, Sarki Soyleyen Kadinlar, Wall, World War Z, Born of War, John Carter of Mars and Happy-Go-Lucky.?Television includes Da Vinci's Demons, Borgia, Twenty Twelve, Five Days, Father and Son, House of Saddam and 10 Days to War
Radio includes The Reluctant Spy and Book of the Week: Then They Came For Me.

Michael Feast
Theatre includes The Tempest (Plays and Players Best Newcomer Award), The Forest, American Buffalo, Dispatches, Watch It Come Down (National Theatre), original cast of No Man's Land (National Theatre and Wyndham's Theatre), Faust, Measure for Measure, Murder in the Cathedral (Royal Shakespeare Company), The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Month in the Country, Twelfth Night, The Master and Margarita, Dr. Faustus, Nathan the Wise, The Seagull, A Christmas Carol and Vivat Vivat Regina (Chichester Festival Theatre), Macbeth (Chichester Festival Theatre, West End and Broadway), Oliver Twist, The Servant, Saved (Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith), Prairie Du Chien, The Shawl and Ourselves Alone (Royal Court Theatre), The Alchemist, Carousel, Uncle Vanya, The Skin of Our Teeth, Present Laughter and What the Butler Saw (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester), Pygmalion (Garrick Theatre), Plague Over England for which he was nominated for the Evening Standard Award for Best Actor (Duchess Theatre), the original cast of Hair (Shaftesbury Theatre), The Beggars Opera (Wilton's Music Hall), The Possessed (Almeida Theatre), The Accused (Haymarket Theatre), The Passion of Dracula (Queen's Theatre), Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (Royal Festival Hall), The King's Speech (Wyndham's Theatre) and Three Sisters (The Young Vic).
Television includes all the usual series, but Michael would like to draw attention to State of Play and The Stephen Lawrence Case.
Film includes Macbeth, Sleepy Hollow, Prometheus, Velvet Goldmine, The Draughtsman's Contract, Brother Sun, Sister Moon and Private Road.

Paul Rattray
Theatre includes Three Sisters (The Young Vic), Racing Demon (Sheffield Theatres), Ditch (High Tide Festival), The Shawl (Arcola Theatre), Black Watch (National Theatre of Scotland), East Coast Chicken Supper (Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh), The Long and the Short and the Tall (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield), In The Blue (Theatre 503 and The Young Vic), Cool Water Murder (Belgrade Theatre, Coventry), The Anatomist (Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh), Hand Bag (Actors Touring Company at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith), Wolfskin (Hardware Theatre), Playing the Game (Edinburgh Festival), Decky Does A Bronco (Grid Iron Theatre) and Dinner (National Theatre).
Film includes Rear View, Hollow, Creep, Mike Bassett England Manager, Morvern Callar, Enigma, Max, Furnished Room and Night Sweeper.
Television includes Doctors, Casualty, Last Rights, The Bill, Simple Things and Wet Work.
Radio includes Blackwatch.