Photo Flash: Christopher Shaw Joins The Cast Of NEVER LAND At Rogue Machine

Fierce passions flood through Phyllis Nagy's award-winning play, a visionary love story set in a remote, rain-swept village in the South of France.  Never Land's exploration of love, loss, cultural dispossession and the abiding power of the human imagination moves from scabrous wit to heart-breaking tenderness as it charts the course of three fateful days in the lives of a singular French family that yearns to be English.

Never Land was first produced at London's Royal Court Theatre, where Phyllis Nagy was writer-in-residence during Stephen Daldry's tenure as artistic director.  The play has been translated into more than 20 languages, and has been produced throughout Europe-most recently in Finland. Rogue Machine presents the play's American premiere.

Phyllis Nagy (Writer/Director) has dual citizenship in the US and the UK.  She lived in London for 15 years prior to returning to the US, several years ago, to direct her first feature film, Mrs. Harris, which starred Annette Bening and Ben Kingsley. The film, which premiered as a gala presentation at the Toronto Film Festival, aired on HBO, and was nominated for multiple Emmy and Golden Globe awards, including nods for Nagy as writer and director. She won a PEN USA award for her script, and Prism, WIN, and Gracie Allen awards for her direction.

Nagy's plays have been performed widely throughout the world and include Weldon Rising, Disappered, and The Strip, first produced by The Royal Court Theatre; Butterfly Kiss, first produced by The Almeida Theatre Company; the Scarlett Letter, an adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic novel, first produced by the Denver Centre Theatre; Trip's Cinch, first produced by The Actors Theatre of Louisville; and The Talented Mr. Ripley, adapted from the novel by Patricia Highsmith and first produced at the Palace Theatre, Watford. Phyllis has translated Claudine Galea's Les Idiots into English for The Royal Court Theatre and has provided a new version of Chekhov's The Seagull for the Chichester Festival Theatre.

Phyllis Nagy is currently under commission to write new plays for the Royal National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and The Royal Court Theatre.  Her current feature film projects in development as writer/director include an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's CAROL, and TUMBLE UP-an original screenplay set largely in and around Hollywood Park Racetrack and Casino-for Film 4 in the UK.   

Never Land opens on Thursday, October 8, 2009 and runs Thursdays-Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 2pm thru November 15, 2009.  Rogue Machine in Theatre Theater is located at 5041 Pico Blvd., LA, CA 90019.  Tickets are $25 and may be purchased by calling (323) 960-7774 or at www.roguemachinetheatre.com. 

Rogue Machine has been in existence for a little over one year.  In that time, the company has presented 2 Los Angeles premiere (Compleat Female Stage Beauty and Stop Kiss), 3 West Coast premiere (American Dead, Bingo with the Indians, and Half of Plenty), and 2 World premiere productions which include Treefall and last season's critically acclaimed production of Razorback.  Rogue Machine is a collective of award winning entertainment veterans bringing a new and distinctive voIce To Los Angeles Theatre.  This presentation of Never Land is the fourth main stage production for the company's second season.  The Rogue Machine mission includes building a theatre of ideas and nurturing the development of plays from contemporary writers while manifesting current culture, and consciousness. 

Photos by arsonistphotography.com

Lisa Pelikan, Bradley Fisher, Shannon Holt, and Christopher Shaw

William Christopher Stevens, Katherine Tozer, and Lisa Pelikan

Katherine Tozer and Bradley Fisher