Casting and creative team announced for Barney Norris’ VISITORS at The Watermill
Casting has been announced for Visitors, the major new UK revival of Barney Norris’ award-winning play that will run at The Watermill from 31 March-22 April.
Edie’s mind is starting to falter and Arthur’s legs aren’t what they were but, from the comfort of their armchairs, they dive into a kaleidoscope of memories from their life together. In their sleepy farmhouse at the edge of Salisbury Plain, they await the arrival of a young visitor and a reunion that will expose a family whose closeness is fraying at the seams.
The cast includes Nathalie Barclay (Boeing Boeing, UK tour), Tessa Bell-Briggs (Steaming, West End), Christopher Ravenscroft (Witness for the Prosecution, London County Hall), and Patrick Toomey (Nolly, ITV).
The production will also be directed by Barney Norris who said: “VISITORS is a story about love, the way that love shapes a life, the way that love extracts a toll, the way that love defines us. It’s also a play about people clinging on to ways of life, trying to make the world work for them as it seems to be trying to fall apart. And a play about what it’s like to live in the country. I wrote it fifteen years ago, a love song to the world I come from, and with this production I am bringing it home. The play’s set outside the north Wiltshire village of Pewsey, and the Watermill, I think, is the closest producing theatre to the play’s actual landscape. When Paul Hart, the Watermill’s artistic director, asked if I’d like to do it there, I jumped at the chance.
“Revisiting stories as we go through our lives is a pleasure nearly all of us know - we all see multiple productions of the same Shakespeare, re-read our favourite novels, re-watch our favourite films. Returning to a play I wrote as a younger man has been a fascinating way of marking the passing of my own time. When I first staged this play, nothing had ever really gone wrong in my life. Now, a decade older, having survived some difficult times, and been a carer myself - care and caring are central to the vision of love offered in VISITORS - I look back at this play and I can see how I have changed. That’s exciting and intriguing - it will lead to a different production, and I can’t wait to see how it develops.”
VISITORS has design from Good Teeth, with lighting by James Whiteside, and sound design and composition from Anna Clock.