The first UK revival of Peter Gill’s Laurence Olivier Award-nominated play The York Realist, which will be staged at the Riverside Studios this autumn to coincide with the writer/director’s 70th birthday, has named its cast.
Jack Blumeneau, Matthew Burton, Stephanie Fayerman, Fiona Gordon, Stephen Hagan, Sam Hazeldine and Sarah Waddell will star in Gill’s 1960s-set love story when it opens later this month.
Originally premiered in 2001 at The Lowry, before making its way to London at the Royal Court and Strand (now Novello) theatre, The York Realist’s tale of two men from different classes and backgrounds finding love but being pulled apart by society and family allegiances won the Critics Circle Award for Best New Play and received nominations in the same category for the Laurence Olivier and Evening Standard Theatre Awards.
It is fitting that this revival, staged by Good Night Out, comes at the Riverside Studios, as Gill founded the theatrical output of the Hammersmith venue which was previously used as a film and television studio.
Gill’s prolific directing career away from the Riverside Studios has taken in Associate Director positions at the Royal Court and National Theatre, where he also founded the National Theatre Studio. His other plays include Small Change, Cardiff East and Friendly Fire.
Among the cast’s previous London credits, Blumeneau appeared in Peter Pan and The Pirates Of Penzance at the Savoy theatre, Fayerman starred in The Carthaginians and The Power Of The Dog at Hampstead theatre, Hagan played Young Vito in The Giant at Hampstead theatre and Hazeldine was seen in Blues For Mr Charlie at the Tricycle theatre.
MA