Harry Melling's PEDDLING Receives US Premiere at 'Brits Off Broadway', Now thru 5/18

59E59 Theaters will welcome HighTide Festival Theatre with the US premiere of PEDDLING, written and performed by Harry Melling, and directed by Steven Atkinson. PEDDLING begins performances tonight, April 23 for a limited engagement through Sunday, May 18.

Press Opening is Tuesday, April 29 at 7:30 PM. The performance schedule is Tuesday - Thursday at 7:30 PM; Friday at 8:30 PM; Saturday at 2:30 PM & 8:30 PM; and Sunday at 3:30 PM & 7:30 PM. Performances are at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street, between Park and Madison Avenues). Single tickets are $25 ($17.50 for 59E59 Members). To purchase tickets, call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200 or go to www.59e59.org.

A peddler wakes up in a field, somewhere in London, surrounded by the burnt and empty remnants of the night before. With no memory of how he has come to be there, he knows he must go back to 'the very start of it all'. His attempts to retrace events from the previous day lead him on a haunting journey where everything comes into question: his life, his world, his future.

Harry Melling's remarkable debut play follows the day in the life of a man on the fringes of society as he battles difficult questions and attempts to come to terms with the answers.

The design team includes Lily Arnold (set and costume design), Azusa Ono (lighting design), and George Dennis (sound design).

From the age of 11, Harry Melling (actor/playwright) appeared in five of the Harry Potter films, playing Harry's dastardly cousin Dudley Dursley. Maturing into adulthood, Harry stepped comfortably into the theater, appearing on top stages in the UK and US along side some of contemporary theaters' most acclaimed performers. Select roles include Mother Courage and her Children, directed by Deborah Warner and co-starring his Harry Potter mum Fiona Shaw (The National), School for Scandal, directed by Deborah Warner (Barbican), Pinter's The Hothouse with Simon Russel Beale (Trafalgar Studios), and as The Fool in King Lear with Frank Langella (Chichester Festival Theatre and BAM). On television, Harry's appeared on Friends and Crocodiles, Merlin, Just William, and Garrow's Law (all for the BBC). He was the title character in the ITV/Hartswood Films pilot Joe Mistry.

Steven Atkinson (director) is a co-founder of HighTide Festival Theatre, and is its Artistic Director. He was Literary Manager of Hull Truck Theatre 2006-2007, and he graduated from Reading University in 2005 with a BA in Film & Theatre. Directing credits include: Clockwork by Laura Poliakoff (HighTide Festival); Bethany by Laura Marks (HighTide Festival with the Public Theater); Incoming by Andrew Motion (HighTide Festival, Latitude Festival, Aldeburgh Poetry Festival, House of Commons); Dusk Rings A Bell by Stephen Belber (HighTide Festival, Edinburgh Festival, Watford Palace Theatre); Lidless by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig (HighTide Festival, Edinburgh Festival, West End); Muhmah by Jesse Weaver (HighTide Festival); The Pitch by Nick Payne (Latitude Festival); Bottleneck by Luke Barnes (Soho Theatre, UK tour, Edinburgh Festival); Neighbors by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and Pussy Riot: Hunger Strike (The Bush). Other directing credits include: The Afghan and the Penguin by Michael Hastings (BBC Radio 4), Freedom Trilogy by various (Hull Truck Theatre), and Sexual Perversity in Chicago by David Mamet (Edinburgh Festival).

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