Mike Poulton’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities is to return to Northampton’s Royal and Derngate before going on a national tour.
The production had its première in the Royal as part of the 2014 Made in Northampton season and is a co-production with Touring Consortium Theatre Company.
Dickens considered his novel A Tale of Two Cities “the best story I have ever written.” Interweaving one family’s intensely personal drama with the terror and chaos of the French Revolution, it is “an epic story of love, sacrifice and redemption alongside horrific violence and world-changing events”.
The play, directed by Royal and Derngate artistic director James Dacre with design by Mike Britton, includes original music by Rachel Portman and will feature one of the largest acting companies to appear on the Royal stage.
Jacob Ifan, known for playing PC Jake Vickers in the BBC TV series Cuffs, makes his professional stage debut as Charles Darnay. Joseph Timms whose credits include Twelfth Night and Richard III for the Donmar Warehouse on Broadway, plays Sydney Carton.
Northampton-based actress Sue Wallace plays Miss Pross. Her National Theatre credits include Ben Power’s adaptation of D H Lawrence’s Husbands and Sons in 2015 and Alan Bennett’s Untold Stories in 2013. Michael Garner, who played firefighter Geoffrey Pearce in ITV’s London’s Burning for nearly 10 years, is Lorry.
The cast also includes Harry Attwell, Rebecca Birch, Noa Bodner, Jonathan Dryden Taylor, Michael Garner, Christopher Hunter, Shanaya Rafaat, Patrick Romer and Jon Tarcy.
A Tale of Two Cities runs at Royal and Derngate from Saturday 10 until Saturday 17 September. Press night will be Wednesday 14 September.
It then tours to Oxford Playhouse, Richmond Theatre, Bradford Alhambra, Blackpool Grand, Wolverhampton Grand, Theatre Royal Brighton, King’s Theatre Edinburgh, Cheltenham Everyman and the Theatre Royal Nottingham until 26 November.