Jo Stone-Fewings and Peter McDonald have joined the cast of Brian Friel’s Dancing At Lughnasa, which plays at the Old Vic from 26 February to 9 May (press night 5 March).
Stone-Fewings is currently playing the lead role of Hannay in the hit comedy stage adaptation of The 39 Steps at the Criterion theatre. His previous West End credits include The Country Wife at the Theatre Royal Haymarket and See How They Run at the Duchess theatre. He has also worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
McDonald is best known for his television roles in Green Wing, City Of Vice and Sea Of Souls. He was last on stage at the Old Vic in Resurrection Blues, while his other London stage credits include Glengarry Glen Ross at the Apollo theatre, Exiles at the National Theatre and Nocturne at the Almeida theatre. McDonald is soon to be seen on the big screen in The Damned United alongside Michael Sheen.
Brian Friel’s Laurence Olivier Award-winning play Dancing At Lughnasa is a bittersweet reflection of rural Ireland on the brink of industrialisation in the 1930s. It centres on the five Mundy sisters, whose tender story of loss of love and opportunity is played out against the echoes of the 20th century.
Stone-Fewings and McDonald join a cast that already includes Andrea Corr in her stage debut, Niamh Cusack, Michelle Fairley and Susan Lynch. Also joining them are Simone Kirby, who has numerous credits in her native Ireland, and Finbar Lynch, who has previously been seen in London in Not About Nightingales and The Hothouse at the National Theatre and As You Desire Me at the Playhouse theatre.
The cast is directed by Anna Mackmin, whose directorial credits in London include the recent productions of Under The Blue Sky and In Celebration at the Duke of York’s theatre.
Dancing At Lughnasa opens at the Old Vic following Complicit, Joe Sutton’s drama which stars Richard Dreyfuss, David Suchet and Elizabeth McGovern, which opens next Monday.
CB