The Touring Consortium and Royal and Derngate are to produce Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities—the inaugural production when James Dacre took over as artistic director of the Northampton venue two years ago.
Dacre said, “Dickens wrote A Tale of Two Cities in 1859 as a meditation on politics and power, the individual versus the system and the private versus the public. Mike Poulton (adapter), Rachel Portman (composer) and I first mounted this adaptation in the aftermath of the Arab Spring to cast a light on the protests, fanaticism and political unrest that were spreading across the world at that time.
“Our decision along with Jenny King, producer of The Touring Consortium, to revisit the production during this year of elections, referenda and revolutions across the world is motivated by a shared belief that great historical dramas can play an important role in contemporary political conversations by emotionally engaging audiences in human stories, countering the disaffection that seems to dominate so much of today's political debate.
“Theatre and music can be imbued with a passion that a novel can’t capture. Royal and Derngate and Touring Consortium’s A Tale of Two Cities aims to focus on the humanity of Dickens’s novel in a way that gives the historical events an immediacy and urgent relevance for today’s audiences.”
Dickens considered A Tale Of Two Cities the best story he ever wrote. 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 amid horrific violence and world-changing events”.
Casting is to be announced. Design is by Mike Britton, lighting design by Paul Keogan, sound design by Adrienne Quartly, movement direction by Struan Leslie and fight direction by Terry King.
A Tale of Two Cities opens at Royal and Derngate on Saturday 10 September and runs until Saturday 17 September. It then tours to Oxford Playhouse, Richmond Theatre, Bradford Alhambra, Blackpool Grand, Wolverhampton Grand from 19 until 22 October, Theatre Royal Brighton, King’s Theatre Edinburgh, Cheltenham Everyman from 15 until 19 November and the Theatre Royal Nottingham from 22 until 26 November.
Meanwhile, Royal and Derngate is looking for two boys from the local community to take part in the production. Auditions will be held at the theatre on Wednesday 27 July from 4 until 7PM. The boys will alternate the small, non-speaking role of a peasant’s son. They must be aged seven or above and under four feet tall. A registration form and audition notes are available at the Royal and Derngate web site.