Full company announced for LOCAL HERO at Chichester Festival Theatre

Full casting has been announced for Local Hero, which runs at Chichester’s Minerva Theatre from 8 October–19 November.

Based on the Bill Forsyth film, with a book by David Greig and music and lyrics by Mark Knopfler (formerly of Dire Straits), it will be directed by Chichester Artistic Director Daniel Evans.

The Tony Award-winning American actor Gabriel Ebert will make his UK stage debut as Mac, with Lillie Flynn (as Stella), Paul Higgins (as Gordon), Hilton McRae (as Ben), Jay Villiers (as Happer), and Rodney Earl Clarke, Ali Craig, Julie Cullen, Liz Ewing, Murray Fraser, Craig Hunter, Rachael Kendall Brown, Joshua Manning, Jackie Morrison and Betty Valencia.

Daniel Evans said: ‘I came to Local Hero innocently; the film having passed me by in my childhood. However, the minute I read David Greig’s warm, witty book and heard Mark Knopfler’s seductive folk score, I fell hook, line and sinker. I then watched Bill Forsyth’s extraordinary film and appreciated its resonance immediately. It’s a story for our time where communities and corporations collide. It asks us to readdress how we look at the world by interrogating what we value.’ 

It’s 1983 and hotshot Texan oil executive Mac MacIntyre is dispatched to the tiny Scottish fishing village of Ferness with $30million in his pocket. The bay may have views to die for but it’s the only place that can take the tankers from an offshore oil field, so it’s up to Mac to seal a deal on the locals’ homes and put a refinery in their place.

The villagers aren’t averse to cashing in on the black gold and Gordon, the local hotelier-lawyer-accountant-ceilidh organiser, proves a surprisingly tough negotiator.

But they’ve all overlooked one very important person. And as the northern lights dance in the skies, Mac comes to realise that not everything of value is for sale.

Local Hero is designed by Frankie Bradshaw, with lighting by Paule Constable with Ryan Day, sound by Paul Arditti, musical direction by Richard John, movement direction by Sasha Milavic Davies, video by Ash J Woodward, music production by Guy Fletcher, orchestrations and arrangements by Dave Milligan, casting by Charlotte Sutton CDG and US casting by Jim Carnahan.

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