Associate director of Nottingham Playhouse Fiona Buffini’s first main-stage production for the theatre will be J B Priestley’s Time and the Conways.
Previously, she was freelance, directing at the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre and in the West End.
Speaking about Time and the Conways, which kicks off the autumn season at Nottingham Playhouse, Fiona Buffoni said, “I’m very excited to bring it to the Playhouse stage as it’s a brutal piece of writing. I can’t wait to get my hands on it and reveal its inner beauty, ugliness and guts.
“We’ve got a big cast and I know they’ll relish the challenge of performing a play that examines the nature of time. At the end of the play, I hope people will reflect on their own lives and think more about the forces that shape our futures.”
Priestley’s drama looks into complacency, class arrogance and the knock-on effect of a family’s mistakes. Beneath the surface of this simple family story, Priestley explores the political and social history of Britain between the wars and the nature of time itself.
Madeleine Girling, winner of the Linbury Prize—“the UK's most prestigious award for stage design”—designs Time and the Conways. She said, “when I first began exploring this play as part of the Linbury Prize, I was fully aware it might never be more than a speculative project.
“Having the opportunity to be a part of that was such a fantastic experience in itself, and now to be working with Nottingham Playhouse in the realisation of that design is beyond anything I could have wished for.
“I’m so excited to be working in this theatre with such brilliantly skilled people and fantastic resources. It will have been over a year since my journey with Time and the Conways began, so finally to see it come to life in this beautiful theatre is going to be a very special moment.”
The cast features Louise Jameson (EastEnders, Doctor Who and Bergerac) as Mrs Conway. She is known for playing Rosa di Marco in EastEnders and Leela in Doctor Who. Her recent theatre credits include Miss Marple in the 2014 tour of Agatha Christie’s A Murder is Announced and Marion in Alan Ayckbourn’s Absurd Person Singular at The Mill at Sonning.
Time and the Conways runs at Nottingham Playhouse from Friday 12 until Saturday 27 September. Press night is Tuesday 16 September.
It is the first play in the Time and Memory season at Nottingham Playhouse: three plays by British writers that all use two time frames to explore the impact of the past on the present.
In October, Nottingham Playhouse and Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre will present Propaganda Swing, a new play by Peter Arnott, and in November Nottingham Playhouse will stage Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia.