Harry Lloyd, best known for playing Will Scarlett in the BBC Saturday family drama Robin Hood, is to lead the cast of the Arcola theatre’s summer production of Ibsen’s Ghosts, which is co-produced by ATC and opens in July.
Lloyd is to play Osvald in Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s new version of Ibsen’s exposé of sexual hypocrisy in Victorian society, alongside Suzanne Burden, Paul Hickey, Natasha Broomfield and Jim Bywater.
While Lloyd may be best recognised for his television work, which also includes the 2001 BBC adaptation of David Copperfield, he is quickly building a West End reputation, having appeared in Bash (Trafalgar Studios), The Sea (Theatre Royal Haymarket) and, most recently, A View From The Bridge (Duke of York’s theatre).
Burden also has West End experience, appearing in the Donmar Warehouse’s widely acclaimed production of The Chalk Garden and the Rupert Goold-directed Macbeth, while Broomfield starred in Fiddler On The Roof at the Savoy theatre.
Ghosts tells the story of Mrs Alving (Burden) who, excited by the return of her son after years away, is soon forced to unearth the past and ghosts who refuse to be silenced.
The production is directed by Bijan Sheibani, who will be having a busy summer; he is also making his directorial debut at the National Theatre, where he stages Our Class from September. Sheibani’s other productions include The Brothers Size and Gone Too Far!, the latter winning a Laurence Olivier Award.
Ghosts is not the first time Lenkiewicz has adapted an Ibsen play; she previously worked her linguistic magic on An Enemy Of The People, which was again presented at the Arcola theatre. Her debut play, Soho – A Tale Of Table Dancers, was staged at the East London venue in 2001, since when she has written for the National Theatre (The Night Season, Her Naked Skin), Soho theatre (Shoreditch Madonna, Blue Moon Over Poplar), the Old Vic (A Soldier’s Tale) and BBC Radio 4.
Ghosts follows David Greig’s Dr Korczak’s Example at the Arcola.
MA