Tim Pigott-Smith is to star in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Northampton Royal and Derngate’s first independent tour.
Pigott-Smith, who was nominated for both an Olivier and a Tony Award for the West End and Broadway production of Mike Bartlett’s King Charles III, will play Willy Loman. Further casting will be announced early in 2017.
Royal and Derngate’s artistic director James Dacre said, “our Made in Northampton seasons always aim to present productions that powerfully question the most important issues of our time.
“The year 2016 has been one of seismic social and political change. That’s why Arthur Miller’s American masterpiece Death of a Salesman will begin the season.
“Its central character Willy Loman is facing an uncertain future. On the brink of unemployment and haunted by missed opportunities, he feels abandoned by those around him and ignored by his country. Why does the world no longer work for him? Has his American dream become a nightmare? Death of a Salesman shows how this man, his family and his country face their uncertain future.”
Emerging director Abigail Graham, whose production of Brian Friel’s Molly Sweeney played at The Print Room, Notting Hill and Lyric Belfast in 2013, directs Death of a Salesman.
The play runs in Northampton from 8 until 29 April before touring to Cambridge, Bath, Malvern, Exeter, Canterbury, Portsmouth, Edinburgh and Truro.