Cast Announced for ATC/Orange Tree Theatre's WINTER SOLSTICE

The cast for Winter Solstice, which receives its English Language premiere at the Orange Tree Theatre in early 2017, has been announced. Kate Fahy and Nicholas Le Prevost will be joined Laura Rogers, Dominic Rowan and Milo Twomey in this disturbing exploration of the resurgence of the far right across the Western World. To coincide with the inauguration of President Donald J Trump, the production opens in January and is directed by Ramin Gray and presented by Actors Touring Company and Orange Tree Theatre.

Bettina and her husband Albert aren't happy. Bettina's mother is staying for the holidays. Which is awkward. Not least because Bettina's mother met a man on the train. A charismatic, mesmerising man. Whose words carry echoes of a sinister past ...

As a new - or maybe old? - kind of politics rises up around the world, this razor sharp comedy exposes the betrayals at the heart of family and society.

Winter Solstice is the English language premiere of a new play by Roland Schimmelpfennig, the most performed playwright in Germany and one of the country's most original voices, with productions of his work worldwide in over 40 countries. Winter Solstice (Wintersonnenwende) was premiered produced to great acclaim at the Dramaten, Stockholm in 2015. Previous plays include The Golden Dragon and Arabian Night, both presented by Actors Touring Company. Other plays performed in the UK include The Woman Before and Push Up at the Royal Court.

Kate Fahy (Corinna) appeared in the UK premiere of Edward Albee's The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? alongside Jonathan Pryce. Other recent work includes Martin Crimp's Definitely the Bahamas (Orange Tree); Handbagged (Tricycle); After Electra (Plymouth Theatre Royal); and Copenhagen (Watford Palace). TV includes The Suspicions of Mister Winchester, Death in Paradise, Cherished and Danton's Death. Films include Marriage of Reason and Squalor, Archipelago and Defiance.

Nicholas Le Prevost's (Rudolph) theatre work includes Man and Superman, Alan Bennett's People and Colonel Pickering in My Fair Lady (National Theatre); How the Other Half Loves (West End); Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing (RSC); The Philadelphia Story (Old Vic); the title role in Uncle Vanya (Peter Hall Company); and The Wild Duck (Donmar). TV includes Father Brown, Above Suspicion, Cranford, Margaret, Psychoville, Wild at Heart, Half Broken Things, Life Begins, Poirot and The Jewel in the Crown. Films include Testament of Youth, Broken Lines, A Very British Scandal, Bright Young Things, Shakespeare in Love and Land Girls. He has played Jules Maigret on BBC Radio.

Laura Rogers (Bettina) has appeared in A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur (Print Room); Private Lives (UK tour); Tipping the Velvet (Lyric Hammersmith); An Ideal Husband, Pressure and Hay Fever (Chichester); 55 Days (Hampstead); Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, The Comedy of Errors, Timon of Athens, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Taming of the Shrew and Richard III (Shakespeare's Globe). TV includes Holby City, New Tricks, The Smoke, Law and Order, Dates, Twelfth Night, Doctor Who, Bad Girls and The Sins.

Dominic Rowan's (Albert) theatre work includes Medea, Happy Now?, A Dream Play, Iphigenia at Aulis, Mourning Becomes Electra, Three Sisters, The Talking Cure and Private Lives (National Theatre); Giving (Hampstead); The Tempest, Measure for Measure, Henry VIII and As You Like It (Shakespeare's Globe); Ah, Wilderness! and The Cherry Orchard (Young Vic); The Village Bike, Way to Heaven and Forty Winks (Royal Court); Berenice and A Voyage Round My Father (Donmar); and A Doll's House (Young Vic/West End/BAM, New York). He has just appeared in Maria Friedman's production of Stepping Out on tour which transfers to West End in March 2017. TV includes The Hollow Crown: Henry IV, Restless, Law and Order, Catwalk Dogs, Baby Boom, Trial and Retribution, North Square, A Rather English Marriage, Between the Lines, Emma and The Tennant of Wildfell Hall.

Milo Twomey (Konrad) has appeared in Mary Poppins (UK tour); Twelfth Night (Sheffield Crucible); Much Ado About Nothing, Lady Windermere's Fan, Blithe Spirit, The Children's Hour, An Ideal Husband, Harvey and She Stoops to Conquer (Royal Exchange); Flygirl (Unicorn); Richard III (Nottingham Playhouse); Dancing at Lughnasa (Royal & Derngate); Brief Encounter (Kneehigh/UK & US tours); and The Canterbury Tales (RSC/West End). TV includes Hat Hair, X Company, Cuffs, Endeavour, Tyrant, War and Peace, Man Down, The Guilty, Secrets and Words, My Spy Family, Doctors, Band of Brothers and Liverpool One.

Ramin Gray has been Artistic Director of Actors Touring Company since 2012 where his productions have included the new version of Aeschylus' The Suppliant Women adapted by David Greig (The Royal Lyceum and tour), The Events by David Greig (Traverse and Young Vic and UK and international tours 2013-6); The Golden Dragon by Roland Schimmelpfennig (Traverse & UK tour); and Martyr by Marius von Mayenburg (co-production with Unicorn Theatre and UK touring). He was previously Associate Director at The Royal Court Theatre where he directed Vassily Sigarev's Ladybird, Presnyakov Brothers' Terrorism, Marius von Mayenburg's The Ugly One and The Stone, Simon Stephens' Motortown, and Mark Ravenhill's Over There. For the RSC he directed David Greig's The American Pilot. Ramin's extensive work abroad includes the Salzburg Festival, Schaubuehne Berlin, Praktika Moscow, Husets Copenhagen and many more. Ramin recently directed Gerald Barry's much acclaimed opera of The Importance of Being Earnest for the Royal Opera at the Barbican/Lincoln Center.

Actors Touring Company (ATC) makes international, Contemporary Theatre that travels. We create shows with a global perspective: activating and entertaining the audience whilst asking questions of the world around us. Placing the actor at the heart of our work, and employing a lean aesthetic which promotes environmental sustainability, the company have toured the UK and internationally since we were founded in 1980, reaching audiences far and wide.

Current projects include Living with the Lights On written and performed by Mark Lockyer, returning to the Young Vic for an extended run in December 2016, following two national tours; and The Suppliant Women, which will tour in the UK and internationally throughout 2017 and 2018.

Website atctheatre.com
Twitter / Facebook @ATCLondon

The Orange Tree Theatre aims to delight, challenge, move and amaze with a bold and continually evolving mix of new and rediscovered plays in their unique in-the-round space. Over its forty-five-year history it has had an exceptional track record in discovering writers and promoting their early work, as well as rediscovering artists from the past whose work had either been disregarded or forgotten. Since Paul Miller became Artistic Director in 2014, the OT has been recognised for its work with a number of major industry awards, including 5 Offies (Off West End Awards), 3 UK Theatre Awards including London's Most Welcoming Theatre, the Alfred Fagon Audience Award and the Peter Brook Empty Space Award.

During autumn 2016, Orange Tree productions will have been seen in 21 other towns and cities across the country. With Caryl Churchill's Blue Heart at Tobacco Factory Theatres in Bristol, Terence Rattigan's French without Tears on a national tour in a co-production with English Touring Theatre, and Zoe Cooper's new play Jess and Joe Forever in a co-production with Farnham Maltings.

Website orangetreetheatre.co.uk | Email box.office@orangetreetheatre.co.uk
Twitter @OrangeTreeThtr | Facebook/Instagram OrangeTreeTheatre

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