Olivier Award nominated Nicholas Le Prevost returns to London's Arcola Theatre following his performance in last year’s The Rivals, to voice the part of Isonzo in The Twelfth Battle of Isonzo.
This battle of wits tragicomedy will be an immersive experience of the blindness that is described by the characters in the play, the roguishly mischievous, 100-year-old Isonzo and his twelfth bride, the wise-beyond-her-years, 17-year-old Tenna.
Nicholas Le Prevost's many stage credits include Man And Superman and My Fair Lady, and film credits include Shakespeare in Love and A Very British Sex Scandal.
In The Twelfth Battle of Isonzo, Tenna will be played by Emily Loomes and stage directions will be read by Liam Smith.
The other one act play in the double bill sees Coronation Street actress Catherine Cusack take the title role in Judith: A Parting From The Body.
This is a re–imagining of the mythic tale of Judith and Holofernes which sees a web of truth and lies surround Israeli widow Judith as she infiltrates the enemy camp to seduce and kill the Assyrian general, Holofernes.
Catherine Cusack's other television work includes Ballykissangel, whilst on stage her credits include Dancing at Lughnasa, The Crucible, All That Fall and Bingo.
Also in the cast are Liam Smith, Kristin Hutchinson and Emily Loomes.
Director Robyn Winfield-Smith has said, “Isonzo, which features two blind characters, has long been the motivating force for our attached access programme.
"We have now extended this idea into the heart of our creative vision for the production: in order to fully explore the literal and metaphorical blindnesses experienced by the characters onstage, we are combining live action with an immersive three-dimensional soundscape to present a thrilling performance in which the audience will pass through different degrees of sightedness during the volatile battle of wits between the characters.
“Brilliantly, this means that Nicholas Le Prevost, who has been with this project since its inception in 2012, will be able to star as Isonzo in this gripping two-hander, whilst simultaneously performing live on the RSC’s Swan stage in Stratford.
"These two plays are by turns light, dark, wickedly entertaining and breathtakingly resonant with global events. The playfully imaginative and seductively charming unreality of Isonzo makes for a thrilling contrast to the all-too-grim reality of Judith, set in a Middle Eastern battlefield and brimming with political potency.”
Controversial playwright and poet Howard Barker has been writing for the stage for more than four decades. His extensive canon of work has been performed nationally and internationally.
Barker, who has also written two works of theatre theory, is artistic director of The Wrestling School, a London–based theatre company established to disseminate his works and develop his "Theatre of Catastrophe" theory.
The Howard Barker double bill—The Twelfth Battle of Isonzo and Judith: A Parting From The Body—plays Arcola Theatre from 25 November to 19 December. Suitable for ages 16+.