The Watermill have announced full casting for the brand-new stage adaption of Bill Bryson’s award-winning memoir Notes from a Small Island, which runs at the venue from 3 February-18 March.

Affectionately celebrating the quirks and eccentricities of British life, the piece is adapted by BAFTA and Olivier Award winning playwright Tim Whitnall and directed by The Watermill’s Artistic Director Paul Hart.

Notes from a Small Island kicks off the Newbury-based award-winning theatre’s spring season, and will star Olivier-nominated Mark Hadfield (Thérèse Raquin, National Theatre) as Bill Bryson.

Starring alongside Mark in this world premiere are Bryony Corrigan (The Play That Goes Wrong – West End & Broadway), Wendy Nottingham (Vera Drake), Anne Odeke (As You Like It, The Merry Wives of Windsor & The Comedy of Errors; Shakespeare’s Globe), Steve Pinder (Brookside, Channel 4), Akshay Sharan (Jack Absolute Flies Again, National Theatre) and Hayden Wood (Doctor Who: Time Fracture, West End).

What makes us love this country we call our own? 

From Calais to Scotland, Bill travels the length and breadth of Britain. Why does the nation that produced Marmite, Gardener’s Question Time and people who say “Ooh lovely” at the sight of a cup of tea, hold such a special place in this American’s heart?

Notes from a Small Island spent three years in the Sunday Times bestsellers list, sold over two million copies and was voted on World Book Day by BBC Radio 4 listeners as the book that best represents our British identity.

With signature invention and imagination, the production will embrace the full breadth and playfulnessof Bryson’s life affirming travelogue in The Watermill’s fittingly intimate, quintessentially rural space.

Notes from a Small Island has design by Katie Lias, with lighting by Ali Hunter, sound by Ed Lewis, and projection by George Reeve.

For more information, please click here.