CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, 'CYRANO' & More Set for Theatr Clwyd's 2016 Season

New Artistic Director of Theatr Clywd Tamara Harvey today announces her inaugural theatre season for the company.

The season opens with Associate Director of the Donmar Robert Hastie making his Theatr Clwyd debut with Tennessee Williams' award-winning playCat on a Hot Tin Roof. The cast includes Desmond Barrit, Gareth David-Lloyd, Catrin Stewart and Andrew Langtree.

April de Angelis' critically acclaimed comedy Jumpy receives its regional première in a new production directed by Lisa Spirling; and completing the season is an all Welsh ensemble in Anthony Burgess' adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac featuring new Welsh language poetry by Twm Morys. Phillip Breen and Steffan Rhodri both return to Theatr Clwyd - Breen to direct, and Rhodri to lead the company in the title role.

Highlights of the visiting programme of work include Rambert's The 3 Dancers, Filter's Twelfth Night, Sinfonia Cymru with acclaimed New Zealand violinist Benjamin Baker, a Tennessee Williams' fest in the cinema to compliment Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and mother and daughter artists, Julia and Suzanne Brooker; and from Theatr Clywd's Theatre for Young People, the return of Scattered, Tim Baker's exploration of asylum seekers as two worlds collide.

Tamara Harvey said today, "I'm thrilled to announce my first season as Artistic Director at Theatr Clwyd - one of the most renowned and glorious arts centres in Wales, and home to an illustrious roll call of the finest talent in UK theatre.'

"We open the season with Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - the first time the play has been staged at the theatre. Making his Theatr Clwyd debut, Robert Hastie will direct a cast including Desmond Barrit, Gareth David-Lloyd, Catrin Stewart and Andrew Langtree. We follow this with the regional première of April de Angelis' acclaimed comedy Jumpy which Lisa Spirling directs. Completing my first season, Phillip Breen returns to the theatre where he trained to direct Steffan Rhodri as Cyrano de Bergerac - this new production features Welsh language poetry by acclaimed poet and musician Twm Morys.

"It's an exciting time for us all here at Theatr Clwyd - we look forward to building on Terry Hands' excellent work, and to securing the company's long term future as a vibrant hub for our community and for artists from both near and far during an uncertain time for the arts in the UK."

Before joining Theatr Clwyd as Artistic Director and Chief Executive, Tamara was a freelance director for fifteen years, directing in the West End, throughout the UK and abroad, working on classic plays, new writing, musical theatre and in film. Her most recent production was Pride and Prejudicefor Sheffield's Crucible Theatre.

Harvey was born in Botswana, learned to walk in the United States and grew up in Brighton. She realised she wanted to direct at the age of seventeen when she was accepted on an educational programme as part of the Brighton International Arts Festival, shadowing the co-directors of Noye's Fludde. A year abroad followed, spent in Botswana and New York, where she worked variously as producer, director, lighting board op, intern, administrative associate and casting assistant. Her first production as director was in Botswana, where she produced and directed her own adaptation of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe for the Maitisong International Arts Festival.

She returned to the UK to study at the University of Bristol, where she formed her own theatre company, Bright Angel, producing and directing Romeo and Juliet, Henry V and Laura Wade's Sixteen Winters at the Bristol Old Vic. In London, Bright Angel produced the UK première of Tennessee Williams'Something Cloudy, Something Clear and Wade's Young Emma, both at the Finborough Theatre.

For five years after graduating, she combined assistant directing in opera and theatre with her own productions, working for English Touring Theatre, Garsington Opera, New Kent Opera, RADA, Shakespeare's Globe, on productions in the West End and on tour. She assisted Tony Award nominated director Tim Carroll on the original production of Twelfth Night with Mark Rylance, and also assisted Stephen Poliakoff on Sweet Panic, with Victoria Hamilton and Jane Horrocks.

Her first major productions as director were the all-female Much Ado About Nothing at Shakespeare's Globe, the first UK tour of The Graduate and as co-director with Terry Johnson on One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest with Christian Slater, Frances Barber and Mackenzie Crook.

Most recently Harvey 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 From Here to Eternity, the new musical by Tim Rice, Stuart Brayson and Bill Oakes (Shaftesbury Theatre); Breeders (St James Theatre); The Contingency Plan and tHe dYsFUnCKshOnalZ! (both Bush Theatre); Where the Mangrove Grows (Theatre503); 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); Touch Wood(Stephen Joseph Theatre); Closer (Theatre Royal Northampton) and Tell Me On a Sunday (UK tour).

Harvey cast and directed the theatre plays that form an integral part of Anonymous, the feature film by Roland Emmerich (director of Independence Day). Her 'troupe of players' for the film included Mark Rylance, Jasper Britton and Alex Hassell.

Josie Rourke invited Harvey to be her Associate Director for her final year at the Bush Theatre (2010-11), where she directed Where's My Seat?, five of the Sixty-Six Books and the award-winning The Kitchen Sink - the first three productions in the Bush's new home. She is also a founder member of the Lamb Players and has directed their Much Ado About Nothing; The Merchant of Venice; Love's Labour's Lost and As You Like It. She is a three-time director for the 24 Hour Plays at the Old Vic and has twice been on the panel of the George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright. She is a board member for the National Student Drama Festival, for which she was one of the judges at this year's Festival. She is a trustee of the Peggy Ramsay Foundation and was on the musical theatre panel for this year's Kevin Spacey Foundation Artists of Choice awards.

www.theatrclwyd.com / @ClwydTweets

Anthony Hopkins Theatre

CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF

By Tennessee Williams

Cast includes: Desmond Barrit, Gareth David-Lloyd, Catrin Stewart, Andrew Langtree

Director: Robert Hastie; Designer: Janet Bird

Thursday 4 February - Saturday 5 March

Press night: 10 February at 7pm

Then on tour:

New Theatre, Cardiff Tuesday 8 - Saturday 12 March

Swansea Grand Theatre Tuesday 15 - Saturday 19 March

Oh, you weak, beautiful people who give up with such grace. What you need is someone to take hold of you - gently, with love, and hand your life back to you.

In a plantation-owner's mansion on an airless Mississippi night, faded golden boy Brick and his beautiful but frustrated wife Maggie have gathered with the rest of the family to celebrate Big Daddy's 65th birthday.

As the grandchildren sing and the alcohol flows, deep currents of desire and deceit pull the evening inexorably towards disaster.

Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning drama is one of the greatest of American plays, a classic of twentieth century drama staged now for the first time at Theatr Clwyd.

Tennessee Williams (1911 - 1983) was one of the greatest American playwrights. His principal works include A Streetcar Named Desire (Pulitzer Prize),The Glass Menagerie (New York Critics' Circle Award), The Rose Tattoo (Tony Award for Best Play), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Pulitzer Prize), Suddenly Last Summer, Sweet Bird of Youth, Orpheus Descending and the Night of the Iguana (New York Critics' Circle Award).

Desmond Barrit plays Big Daddy. His many theatre credits include, Damsel in Distress (Chichester Festival Theatre), Harvey (Birmingham Rep & West End), Therese Raquin (Theatre Royal Bath), The Birthday Party (Royal Exchange). For the National Theatre his credits include Habit of Art, The History Boys, Stuff Happens, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, Mountain Giants, The Recruiting Officer, The Wind in the Willows, Three Men on a Horse (Olivier Award), Jacobowsky and the Colonel and The Magistrate; and for the RSC, Henry IV Parts 1 & 2 (Olivier nomination for Best Actor);A Midsummer Night's Dream (Helen Hayes Award), The Comedy of Errors (Olivier Award), King Lear, The Man Who Came to Dinner, The Tempest(Clarence Derwent Award), Twelfth Night, Macbeth, Merry Wives of Windsor and The Constant Couple. Accidental Death of an Anarchist and Real Inspector Hound/Black Comedy (Donmar Warehouse), Dubarry and The Scarlett Pimpernel (Her Majesty's Theatre), Eurydice (Whitehall Theatre) Three Men on a Horse (Vaudeville Theatre), The Lair (Old Vic), Wicked (Victoria Apollo), A View from the Bridge (Greenwich Theatre) and This is a Chair (Royal Court). For television his credits include Endeavour, Northanger Abbey, Young King Arthur, Follow the Star, Madame Bovary, Maxwell's House, The Old Devils, Homer and His Pigeons, Boon, Pirates II, Dalziel and Pascoe, Miracles Extra and True Tilda; and for film, Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, Alice Through the Looking Glass, Rebecca's Daughters, A Midsummer Night's Dream, All for Love and Daylight Robbery.

Gareth David-Lloyd plays Brick. His theatre credits include Twelfth Night (English Touring Theatre), Three Women and a Piano Tuner (Chichester Festival Theatre and Hampstead Theatre), and The Threepenny Opera, 12 Angry Men (national tours). For television, he is best known for his portrayal of Ianto Jones in Doctor Who and Spin-off show Torchwood. He has also appeared in Absolute Power, Rosemary and Thyme, Warehouse 13, Mine All Mine and Beethoven. For film, his work includes I Am Alone, The Good Drug Dealer and the up-coming Dark Signal.

Catrin Stewart plays Maggie. Her theatre credits include The Jew of Malta, Love's Sacrifice (RSC/Swan Theatre), The Cherry Orchard (Young Vic),Mametz, The Devil Inside Him (National Theatre of Wales), Longing (Hampstead Theatre), Romeo And Juliet (Headlong / UK Tour), Buried Child(Leicester Curve), and The Lady From The Sea (Manchester Royal Exchange). For television, her work includes Doctor Who, Misfits, and Stella; and for film, The Library Suicides, Night Shift and On a Knife Edge.

Andrew Langtree returns to Theatr Clwyd to play Gooper - he previously appeared in Oh What a Lovely War. His theatre credits include Oppenheimer,The Shoemaker's Holiday (RSC), A Stroke of Luck (Park Theatre), Sherlock: The Best Kept Secret (West Yorkshire Playhouse and UK Tour), Of Mice and Men (Bolton Octagon), Ghost (Piccadilly Theatre, also China), The Glass Menagerie, Come Blow Your Horn, London Assurance, A Conversation, Six Degrees of Separation (Royal Exchange Manchester ), The Rose Tattoo (National Theatre), The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Glasgow Citizens Thetare),Brighton Beach Memoirs (Oldham Coliseum), and Blood Brothers, Mamma Mia!, Fame (West End). His television work includes The Royal and Cutting It.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is directed by Robert Hastie, Associate Director of the Donmar Warehouse.

His recent work at the Donmar includes acclaimed productions of My Night With Reg by Kevin Elyot (also West End), and Splendour, by Cardiff-born playwright Abi Morgan. In April, Hastie completed the first stage of the Donmar Warehouse's ten year long My Mark project with Michelle Terry, undertaking and filming interviews in schools nationally to document the views of those eligible to vote for the first time in the 2025 general election. His other directing credits include Carthage, Events While Guarding The Bofors Gun (Finborough Theatre), Sunburst (Holborn Grange Hotel), Sixty-Six Books: In The Land Of Uz, Middle Man, David and Goliath, Snow In Sheffield and A Lost Expression (Bush Theatre).

Emlyn Williams Theatre

JUMPY

By April De Angelis

Director: Lisa Spirling; Designer: Polly Sullivan

Wednesday 10 March - Saturday 2 April

Press night: 15 March at 7pm

Well, that's the thing, with children you can't take them back and exchange them.

Theatr Clwyd presents the regional première of the hit Royal Court Theatre and West End comedy Jumpy.

Hilary is 50 and life is passing her by. Her job is under threat, her marriage is sustained only by habit and, worst of all, her 15 year old daughter Tilly is breaking all the rules and driving her mother frantic.

Jumpy is a comedy of a mid-life crisis, teenage rebellion and mother-daughter relationship in meltdown.

April De Angelis' work includes After Electra (Plymouth Theatre Royal and Tricycle Theatre), Jumpy (Royal Court and Duke of York's), Catch (a collaboration with four other female playwrights) and Wild East (Royal Court), A Gloriously Mucky Business (Lyric Hammersmith), Calais (Paines Plough/Oran Mor), Country (Terror Season, Southwark Playhouse), an adaptation of Wuthering Heights (Birmingham Rep Theatre), A Laughing Matter(Out of Joint Theatre Company, National Theatre), The Warwickshire Testimony (RSC, The Other Place), The Positive Hour (Out of Joint Theatre/National Tour) and Playhouse Creatures (Sphinx Theatre Company, later revived by The Old Vic Theatre).

Lisa Spirling is the Artistic Coordinator of the JMK Trust Regional Director's Program and a founder of Buckle for Dust Theatre Company. Her work includes Hello / Goodbye (Singapore Rep Theatre), Deposit, Fault Lines, I Know How I Feel About Eve (Hampstead Theatre), The Nine O'Clock Slot (Ice & Fire Theatre Company / Red Gallery), Donkeys' Years, Here (Rose Theatre Kingston), The Garden of Ms Harriet Figg (Old Vic Theatre 24 Hour Plays Celebrity Gala), Enron (West End recast & UK Tour), Idiots of Ants (Pleasance, Edinburgh / Arts Theatre), Hundreds & Thousands (Buckle For Dust / English Touring Theatre / Soho Theatre), Where We Are Now, Cotton Wool, Terminal Four Play (Theatre503 & Theatre503 at Latitude Festival), Boeing Boeing (Alley Theatre, Texas), Beauty and the Beast (Jacksons Lane Theatre), The Vagina Monologues and Gas and Air (Pleasance, London). She is the recipient of a Creative Industries Award from The Hospital Club, London.

Anthony Hopkins Theatre

CYRANO DE BERGERAC

By Edmond Rostand

Translated and adapted by Anthony Burgess

With additional poetry by Twm Morys

Cast includes: Steffan Rhodri

Director: Phillip Breen; Designer: Mark Bailey; Composer: Dyfan Jones

Thursday 14 April - Saturday 7 May

Press night: 19 April at 7pm

I cannot find the words...

Cyrano de Bergerac, soldier, fighter, lover, and prodigious wordsmith, is desperately in love with Roxanne - but he's got the biggest nose that anyone has ever seen. Christian is beautiful in every aspect, he too loves Roxanne, but he's taciturn, tongue-tied, dumbstruck, in Roxanne's presence he cannot find the words. With Christian's looks and Cyrano's poetry the two set about wooing her as the perfect lover. But for Roxanne is this all too good to be true? After all, what is more important in a man, his body or his soul? What happens when there aren't words for the very thing you want to say? And what happens when you lose yourself in translation?

A fully Welsh ensemble reinterpret this classic of the French language in English, with some new Welsh language poetry by Twm Morys. Set in 'Three Musketeers' era Paris, against the backdrop of war, comic and tragic in equal measure, Cyrano de Bergerac is one of the most epic love stories of all time.

Edmond Rostand (1868 - 1918) was a French poet and playwright. His principal works include Les Romanesques (which was to form the basis for the musical The Fantasticks), La Samaritaine, L'Aiglon and Chantecler.

Writer, screenwriter and composer Anthony Burgess (1917 - 1993) penned this adaptation. He is perhaps best known for his dystopian satire A Clockwork Orange.

Twm Morys is a poet and harper who also writes for television and radio, as well as lyrics, which he sings with his folk-rock group, Bob Delyn a'r Ebillion. After graduating from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, he has worked for BBC Radio Cymru and as a lecturer at Rennes University. In addition to three volumes of poetry (Ofn fy Het, 1995; Eldorado, 1999, with Iwan Llwyd; 2, 2002), Morys has written an important body of essays as columnist for various literary reviews. A son of the writer Jan Morris, he has collaborated with her on the two volumes, Wales, the First Place (Random House, 1982) and A Machynlleth Triad/Triawd Machynlleth (Penguin, 2004). Ein Llyw Cyntaf (Gomer, 2001) is his Welsh adaptation of Jan Morris's novel Our First Leader. Twm Morys is the editor of Barddas, Britain's second best-selling poetry magazine.

Steffan Rhodri returns to Theatr Clwyd to play Cyrano - he previously appeared in Mary Stewart, Great Expectations, The Birthday Party, The Crucible,Betrayal, Dealer's Choice, Bedroom Farce, King Lear. His other theatre work The Hairy Ape (Old Vic), The Mentalists (Wyndham's Theatre), Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (National Theatre), Goya (Gate Theatre), A Mad World My Masters, Candide (RSC), Posh, Absent Friends (West End), The Kitchen Sink (Bush Theatre), Clybourne Park (Royal Court), Abigail's Party (Hampstead/West End), The Father (Chichester Festival Theatre), Richard II(Ludlow), (Theatr Clwyd), The Tempest, Two Noble Kinsmen (Shakespeare's Globe).

For television his work includes Hollow Crown II, Spilt Milk, Under Milk Wood, Hinterland, A Touch of Cloth, Father Brown, Stella, Gavin & Stacey, Wire in the Blood, Belonging; and for film, Under Milk Wood, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Submarine, The Big I Am, Ally G Indahouse, Solomon & Gaenor, Twin Town, Yn Gymsyg Oll I Gyd.

Phillip Breen returns to Theatr Clwyd where he trained under Terry Hands. For the company, The Birthday Party, Suddenly Last Summer, Measure for Measure and the world première of Two Princes by Meredydd Barker. Breen also acted as assistant director with Terry Hands on a number of productions. His other theatre work includes The Shoemaker's Holiday, The Merry Wives of Windsor (RSC), True West (Glasgow Citizens Theatre and Tricycle Theatre), Sex With a Stranger (Trafalgar Studios), A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, The Caretaker, The Shadow of a Gunman and The Resistible Rise or Arturo Ui (Glasgow Citizens Theatre), and The Hard Man (Festival City Theatres/Scottish Theatres Consortium).

www.theatrclwyd.com

@ClwydTweets

Theatr Clwyd Listings

Raikes Lane, Mold, Flintshire, CH7 1YA

Box Office: 01352 701521 (10am - 8pm, Monday - Saturday) / www.theatrclwyd.com

www.theatrclwyd.com

@ClwydTweets

Ticket Prices: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Cyrano de Bergerac

£25, £21, £17, £10

Concessions £2 off top two ticket prices (excluding Saturday evenings)

Previews and First Night £21, £17, £10

Concessions £2 off £21 tickets only (excluding Saturday evening)

Jumpy

£18, Gallery £14

Concessions £2 off (excluding Saturday evenings)

Previews and First Night £15, Gallery £11

Concessions £2 off (excluding Saturday evening)

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Monday - Saturday at 7.30pm
Saturday matinees at 2.30pm
Audio Described performances Saturday 20 February at 2.30pm, Thursday 3 March at 7.30pm
Captioned performance Saturday 27 February at 2.30pm
Talkback: Post-show discussion with members of the company - 25 February and 3 March

Jumpy

Monday - Saturday at 7.45pm
Saturday matinees at 2.45pm
Audio described performance Saturday 26 March at 2.45pm, Thursday 31 March at 7.45pm
Captioned performance Saturday 26 March at 2.45pm
Talkback: Post-show discussion with members of the company - 24 and 31 March

Cyrano de Bergerac

Monday - Saturday at 7.30pm
Saturday matinees at 2.30pm
Audio described performance Thursday 21 April at 7.30pm, Saturday 23 April at 2.30pm
Captioned performance Saturday 30 April at 2.30pm
Talkback: Post-show discussion with members of the company - 28 April and 5 May

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