Finborough Theatre Presents SUMMER DAY'S DREAM, Now thru Sept 24

SUMMER DAY'S DREAM

by J. B. Priestley.
Directed by Alex Marker. Designed by Philip Lindley. Costume Design by Josie Thomas.
Lighting Design by Simeon Miller.
Cast: Lisa Armytage. Kevin Colson. Tom Grace. Helen Keeley. Keith Parry. Patrick Poletti. Eleanor Yates.

The first London production in over 60 years

"I spent more than half my life, when I ought to have been enjoying myself, arguing and planning and running around like a maniac, all to sell a lot of things to people I didn't know, so that I could buy a lot of things that I didn't have time to use. Sheer lunacy. And it took nothing lass than and atom bomb to blow me out of it."

Following its recent international success with rediscoveries from his work, J.B. Priestley's Summer's Day Dream, unseen in London since its original production over 60 years ago, opens at the Finborough Theatre for a limited run of nine Sunday and Monday evening and Tuesday matinee performances on Sunday, 8 September 2013 (Press Night: Monday, 9 September at 7.30pm).

First performed in 1949, Summer's Day Dream is set in the post apocalyptic future - 1975.

Following a devastating nuclear war which has seen Britain bombed back into the pre-industrial past, Stephen Dawlish and his family live a quiet rural life. Until their quiet, agrarian existence is disrupted by the appearance of three representatives of the New World Order - an American, a Russian and an Indian - who have devastating plans that will end their new peaceful way of life forever...

Starring Tony nominee Kevin Colson as Stephen Dawlish, Summer's Day Dream is another Finborough Theatre rediscovery from J.B. Priestley, following the huge critical acclaim for the sell-out production and New York transfer of Priestley's Cornelius, and the recent sell-out production ofLaburnum Grove. This production marks its first London production since the original. It was also filmed for BBC TV in 1994 starring John Gielgud as Stephen Dawlish.

Playwright J.B. Priestley was born in 1894 in Bradford, Yorkshire. His plays dominated the London stage from the 1930s to the 1950s with such classics as Dangerous Corner, Eden End, Laburnum Grove, Cornelius, I Have Been Here Before, Time and the Conways, When We Are Married, Johnson Over Jordan, They Came to a City, An Inspector Calls, The Linden Tree and The Glass Cage. His many novels include The Good Companions, Angel Pavement, Bright Day and Lost Empires. During the Second World War, he also gained a new reputation as a broadcaster and social commentator. He died in 1984.

Director Alex Marker's direction at the Finborough Theatre has included staged readings of Atman, starring Jasper Britton and Alan Cox, and Colleen Murphy's Pig Girl as part of the Finborough'sVibrant - A Festival of Finborough Playwrights (2010 and 2012) as well as a sell-out revival of William Douglas Home's Portraits (2011). He is also Director of the Questors Youth Theatre, the largest youth theatre in London. Alex has been Resident Designer of the Finborough Theatre since 2002 where he has designed over 30 productions while his other designs have been seen in the West End, on tour and in regional theatres across the UK. His work has been extensively featured in exhibitions, most recently as part of the Transformation and Revelation: UK Design for Performance in Cardiff.

Finborough Theatre, 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED
Box Office 0844 847 1652 Book online at www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk
Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24 September 2013
Sunday and Monday evenings at 7.30pm. Tuesday matinees at 2.00pm.
Tickets £16, £14 concessions.