The full cast of Sydney & The Old Girl has been confirmed, with Vivien Parry (Les Miserables, A Christmas Carol) and Mark Hadfield (Outlander, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein) joining stage and screen veteran Miriam Margolyes.
Miriam Margolyes in Madame Rubinstein
The world premiere of this new dark comedy from writer and actor Eugene O’Hare (The Weatherman) will run at Park Theatre for one month from 31 October this year.
Sydney Stock (Mark Hadfield) has been stuck living with his mother Nell (Miriam Margolyes) for over 50 years in her dirty East End home. Their relationship is twisted and rocky, filled with the jabs and jibes of a long and chequered past.
Mark Hadfield (right) with Kenneth Branagh and Rob Brydon in The Painkiller, (Photo: Johan Persson)
As a long and complicated feud around family inheritance reaches a head, care worker Marion Fee (Vivien Parry) finds herself neck-deep in the battle, being played as a human pawn.
Eugene O’Hare’s second full length play uses black humour to explore the ways that families obsess about the past and write their own versions of their shared history. The story also explores the rapidly changing landscape of London, and who it leaves behind.
Vivien Parry
This marks Miriam’s return to the Park Theatre following a sell-out run of Madame Rubinstein in 2017. A well-loved figure on both sides of the Atlantic, Miriam’s boasts a broad and impressive career spanning nearly 50 years. Her major film credits include Yentl, Little Shop of Horrors and Cold Comfort Farm. Most recently, Miriam has been presenting her own BBC documentary series, Miriam’s Dead Good Adventure.
Sydney & The Old Girl will be directed by Philip Breen, who has just wrapped up his production of The Provoked Wife for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Philip also directed an all-star host of model and activists for Vivienne Westwood’s new campaigning fashion show, Homo Loquax, at London Fashion Week this February.
The combination of Eugene O’Hare’s acerbic wit and the comedic talents of Miriam Margolyes is an exciting match in this very British tale of the pitfalls of family relationships.