Cast Announced For SALT-WATER MOON at Finborough Theatre

In a production commissioned by the Finborough Theatre, the UK premiere of David French's classic Salt-Water Moon opens at the Finborough Theatre for a four week limited season on Tuesday, 3 January 2023 (Press Nights: Thursday, 5 January 2023 and Friday, 6 January 2023 at 7.30pm). It's a splendid moon-filled night in Coley's Point in 1926.

Young Jacob Mercer has returned home to the tiny and remote Newfoundland fishing village, desperate to win back his former sweetheart, Mary Snow.

But Mary has become engaged to wealthy Jerome McKenzie, and is still hurt and bewildered by Jacob's abrupt departure for Toronto a year earlier.

Even to speak to Jacob will put Mary's wedding plans in jeopardy. Stubborn and independent, she is determined never to forgive Jacob...

A heartbreakingly romantic exploration of young love, set against the shores at the edge of the British Empire.

Salt-Water Moon is a Canadian classic. First staged by Tarragon Theatre, Toronto, in 1984, it has received hundreds of productions around North America and the world since its premiere. It won the Canadian Authors Association Literary Award for Drama, the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play, the Hollywood Drama-Logue Critics' Award, and was a finalist for the Governor-General's Award for Drama. One of the plays that makes up David French's semi-autobiographical 'Mercer plays' series, Salt-Water Moon now receives its long overdue UK professional premiere at the multi-award-winning Finborough Theatre, well known for producing more Canadian plays than any other theatre in Europe.

Playwright David French, one of Canada's most critically-acclaimed and widely-produced playwrights, was born in Coley's Point, Newfoundland and Labrador, in 1939. Although he moved from Newfoundland to Toronto with his family when he was six, the province and its people are a significant part of his works. He is perhaps best known for his semi-autobiographical "Mercer plays" which track the history of a Newfoundland family living in Toronto through three generations: Leaving Home, Of the Fields, Lately, Salt-Water Moon, 1949 and Soldier's Heart. His comedy about backstage life, Jitters, has enjoyed hundreds of productions across North America and abroad. Leaving Home was named one of 1000 "essential plays in the English language" by The Oxford Dictionary of Theatre, and was also named one of Canada's "100 Most Influential Books" by the Literary Review of Canada. He was nominated for the Chalmers Award five times, and won it for Of the Fields, Lately. He won a Dora Mavor Moore Award for Salt-Water Moon, which was also nominated for a Governor General's Award. He was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2001. His many other awards include a Toronto Drama Bench Award for Distinguished Contribution to Canadian Theatre, the Queen's Jubilee Medal 2002, and he was the first inductee into the Newfoundland Arts Hall of Honour. He died in Toronto in 2010. www.davidfrench.net

Director Peter Kavanagh returns to the Finborough Theatre where he directed the sell-out 40th anniversary rediscovery of Paul Kember's Not Quite Jerusalem. He is an award-winning director for theatre, film, television and radio. Theatre includes Cyanide at 5 (King's Head Theatre), the winner of the Kenneth Branagh Writing Award 2021, The Most Dangerous Woman in America (Windsor Fringe),The Labyrinth (Players Theatre, Dublin, Dublin Theatre Festival and Royal Court Theatre), A Door Must Be Either Open or Shut, and The Boor in his own translations from Chekhov (Chichester Theatre Festival), Love and the Art of War (King's Head Theatre), the musical The Good Companions (Watford Colosseum), A Selfish Boy and After Prospero (INK Festival at the Tristan Bates Theatre), Vox Humana (Cockpit Theatre), Endgame (Players Theatre, Dublin), Play, Mrs Warren's Profession (Project Theatre, Dublin), and The Exception and the Rule (Focus Theatre, Dublin).

Film and Television includes Sightings of Bono, starring Bono, I Was the Cigarette Girl with Andrew Scott, which won an award at the Colombia Film Festival and a nomination at the Chicago Film Festival, and Sisters with Lisa Faulkner (BBC2).

Audio includes many award-winning productions for Drama on 3, from Sophocles through Shakespeare and Strindberg to Harold Pinter, James Graham and Howard Barker. Recent Ibsen productions include The Wild Duck in a version by Christopher Hampton with Samuel West and David Threlfall, Brand, Rosmersholm translated by Frank McGuinness with Helen Baxendale, and The Lady from the Sea with Cheryl Campbell. Shakespeare productions include Romeo and Juliet, All's Well That Ends Well, and Measure for Measure featuring Simon Russell Beale, Emma Fielding, Siân Phillips, Saskia Reeves and Bill Nighy. Other notable casts include Benedict Cumberbatch and Lia Williams in Tom and Viv, Sorcha Cusack in Juno and the Paycock, Ian MacDiarmid in Volpone, Fiona Shaw in Playing with Fire, and Stephen Rea and Sinead Cusack in Ulysses. Prix Italia and many other drama awards include a Special Commendation for Landscape starring Harold Pinter and Penelope Wilton. He was nominated for Best Director by the BBC Audio Awards in 2017. He has also written and translated for stage and BBC Television drama.

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