Casting Announced for World Premiere of Elinor Cook's PILGRIMS

Casting is today announced for HighTide, Vicky Graham Productions and Theatr Clwyd world première production of Elinor Cook's new play Pilgrims for which she won the 2013 George Devine Award. Tamara Harvey, Artistic Director of Theatr Clwyd, will direct Steffan Donnelly, Jack Monaghan and Amanda Wilkin in the production which premieres at the tenth annual HighTide Festival of new plays from 8 - 18 September before moving to the Yard Theatre in London from 20 September - 15 October and then Theatr Clwyd from 18 - 29 October.

"You just want to stick flags on virgin territory and claim it as your own"

Dan and Will climb mountains. Aged 18, they climbed Everest. Their pictures were in the national papers. They were legends.

Rachel studies folklore. She's writing a PhD about men like Dan and Will, their impulse to climb, to overcome, to claim.

Rachel isn't interested in being a character in Dan's story. She intends to make her own. But with the thrill of a climb just days away, it's not just principles, but people, in danger.

Pilgrims is a play about friendship, betrayal, and man's desire to conquer the world.

Elinor Cook won the 2013 George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright for Pilgrims. Her play The Girl's Guide to Saving the World was produced by HighTide as part of their festival in April 2014, directed by Amelia Sears. This Christmas her adaptation of Mac Barnett's book Extra Yarn runs at the Orange Tree Theatre. Her other plays include Ten Weeks (Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama at Gate Theatre), Microwave (short-listed for the Old Vic/Theatre 503 Award for new writing), The Boy Preference (National Theatre Connections), The Circle Game (Old Vic New Voices Time Warner Ignite 3 recipient and performed at Latitude Festival) and This is Where We Got to When You Came In (co-written with non zero one and Bush Theatre). She wrote an episode The Secrets, which was directed by Dominic Savage on BBC One.

Steffan Donnelly plays Will. His theatre credits include The Winter's Tale, Pericles, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Titus Andronicus (all at Shakespeare's Globe), Y Tw?r/The Tower (Invertigo Tour), A World Elsewhere (Theatre503), Journeying Boys (Barbican), Outside on the Street (Pleasance Edinburgh/Arcola Theatre), The Winslow Boy (Theatr Clwyd), Saer Doliau/Doll Mender (Finborough Theatre) and I am Not Manuel (Teatre Lliure, Barcelona). His television work includes London Spy. He is Joint Artistic Director of Invertigo Theatre Company, and has adapted My People (co-production with Theatr Clwyd), and is currently developing their new one-man show, My Body Welsh.

Jack Monaghan plays Dan. His theatre credits include As You Like It (Shakespeare's Globe), Deposit (Hampstead Theatre), Regeneration (Royal and Derngate, Northampton & tour), Wendy and Peter (RSC), The Shawshank Redemption (Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh), Cinderella and the Midnight Princess (Rose Theatre Kingston), War Horse (West End). His television work includes Jack Taylor, The Ark and Black Mirror.

Amanda Wilkin plays Rachel. For Shakespeare's Globe, she performed in Hamlet with which toured to every country over two years, as well as Gabriel and The Tempest. Her other theatre work includes Hopelessly Devoted (Paines Plough & Birmingham REP), Arabian Nights (Watermill Theatre), The Bacchae, Blood Wedding (Royal and Derngate), Marat/Sade, A Midsummer Night's Dream (RSC), Stamping, Shouting and Singing Home (Nuffield Theatre) and The Twits (The Dukes, Lancaster). Her television credits include Gavin and Stacey.

Tamara Harvey is Artistic Director of Theatr Clwyd for whom she has directed Much Ado About Nothing. She was a freelance director for fifteen years, directing in the West End, throughout the UK and abroad. Beginning her career at Shakespeare's Globe, her first major productions as director were the all-female Much Ado About Nothing, the first UK tour of The Graduate and as co-director with Terry Johnson of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Her most recent directing credits include Pride and Prejudice at the Sheffield Crucible, the world premiere of Tim Rice's musical From Here To Eternity in the West End and the award-winning The Kitchen Sink at the Bush Theatre. She directed the premières of Elephants by Rose Heiney, Hello/Goodbye by Peter Souter and In the Vale of Health, a cycle of four plays by Simon Gray, all for Hampstead Theatre. Other world premières include Breeders (Vicky Graham Productions, St James' Theatre), The Contingency Plan and tHe dYsFUnCKshOnalZ! (Bush Theatre), Who's the Daddy? (King's Head) and Plague Over England (Finborough Theatre & Duchess Theatre). Other West End productions include Bash (Trafalgar Studios) and Whipping it Up (New Ambassadors). Further theatre work includes Educating Rita and Smash (both Menier Chocolate Factory/Theatre Royal Bath and on tour), Romeo and Juliet (Theatre of Memory at Middle Temple Hall), Dancing at Lughnasa (Birmingham REP), Bedroom Farce (West Yorkshire Playhouse), The Importance of Being Earnest (Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey), Closer (Theatre Royal Northampton) and Tell Me On a Sunday (UK tour).