Casting Announced For Classic American Anti-War Drama BURY THE DEAD at Finborough Theatre

In a production commissioned by the Finborough Theatre, Bury The Dead by American playwright Irwin Shaw opens at the Finborough Theatre for a four week limited season on Tuesday, 30 October 2018 (Press Nights: Thursday, 1 November 2018 and Friday, 2 November 2018 at 7.30pm).

When six dead soldiers stand up in their graves and refuse to be buried, the military are at a loss for what to do. The captains and generals attempt to persuade the men to lie down quietly but quickly discover it's difficult to negotiate with men who have nothing left to lose.

If the greatest honour is to die for your country, how could you ever refuse?

The last in the Finborough Theatre's GREATWAR100 series, this poignant, expressionistic American protest play, presented during the centenary of the end of the First World War, gives a voice to generations of fighting soldiers across the world lost to countless wars.

Bury the Dead was first performed on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in 1936 and became an overnight hit. It was last seen in the UK at London's Unity Theatre in 1938. The show was revived off-Broadway in 2008 and was described as "an expressionistic masterpiece" by Variety.

This production will mark Rafaella Marcus' debut at the Finborough Theatre following her critically acclaimed production of I Have A Mouth and I Will Scream at VAULT Festival earlier this year.

Playwright Irwin Shaw (1913-1984) was born in New York. He was a playwright, screenwriter and novelist. His full-length plays included Siege (1937), Quiet City (1939) and The Gentle People (1939). After returning from the Second World War, the subject of war continued to feature throughout much of Shaw's work including his first, best-selling novel - The Young Lions (1948), about three young German and American soldiers, which later became a screenplay starring Marlon Brando and Dean Martin. Later in his career, Shaw came to be described as the 'master of the popular novel' by critics. His novel Rich Man, Poor Man (1970) was made into a highly popular television miniseries.

Director Rafaella Marcus is an award winning theatre director. She has worked across the country at venues that include Sheffield Theatres, the Other Palace, Theatre503, Arcola Theatre, Southwark Playhouse and the Bunker. Earlier this year, she directed Abi Zakarian's play I Have a Mouth and I Will Scream, winner of the People's Choice Award (VAULT Festival). Other direction includes Alley. Pearls. Gunshot. (The Yard), Spooky Action At A Distance (Bunker), Crave (Damsel Develops at the Bunker), The Wild Party (Hope Theatre), The Window/Blank Pages (Hope Theatre), Harry the King (Edinburgh Festival), Sonya and Andrew (Sheffield Theatres) and Laughing Boy (site specific in Bethnal Green). She has assisted directors Dominic Dromgoole, Richard Wilson, Iqbal Khan, Paul Miller, Alex Clifton, Jonathan Humphries and Roisin McBrinn on Pericles (Shakespeare's Globe), Romeo and Juliet, The Wind in the Willows (Chester Performs), Boeing Boeing, Afterplay, Love Your Soldiers, The Winter's Tale (Sheffield Theatres) and The Killing of Sister George (Arts Theatre). She trained on the Birkbeck Theatre Directing MFA and was a Finalist for the JMK Award in 2017.