Casting has been announced for The Body of an American, a co-production between Northampton’s Royal and Derngate and the Gate Theatre, London.
The European première of Dan O’Brien’s award-winning drama will feature William Gaminara, best known as forensic pathologist Professor Leo Dalton in Silent Witness, and Damien Molony who plays Detective Constable Albert Flight in the TV series Ripper Street.
The Body of an American tells the story of two men who live worlds apart but a chance encounter over the airwaves sparks an extraordinary friendship.
The two actors take on more than 30 roles “in an exhilarating new form of documentary drama”. It places these two men’s battles—both public and private—against a backdrop of some of the most graphic images of war.
The Body of an American won the inaugural Edward M Kennedy Prize for Drama as well as the L Arnold Weissberger Award and the Pen Award for Drama 2013.
Royal and Derngate’s artistic director James Dacre will direct the production which plays at the Gate Theatre in Nottingham Hill from 16 January until 8 February before transferring to the Underground Studio in Northampton from Thursday 27 February until Saturday 8 March.