Picture Credit Mandatory Picture Credit Charlotte Graham
Pictures Shows Cast and Crew at the Premiere The Croft
FULL CAST ANNOUNCED FOR
THE WORLD PREMIERE OF NEW THRILLER
THE CROFT
UK TOUR BEGINS 22 JANUARY 2020
Drew Cain and Simon Roberts play David / Alec and Tom / Patrick respectively in The Original Theatre Company’s new thriller, The Croft by Ali Milles. They join the previously announced Gwen Taylor as Enid, Caroline Harker as Suzanne / Ruth and Lucy Doyle as Laura / Eilene. The UK tour begins at Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham on 22 January 2020.
Drew Cain is best known for his television and film credits including Mission of Honour (also known as Hurricane, directed by David Blair),the TV movies Wallis: The Queen That Never Was and Albert: The Power Behind Victoria, Home Fires, Emmerdale, Hollyoaks, Coronation Street, Tina and Bobby, EastEnders, Waterloo Road and Doctors. Drew will soon be appearing in BBC 1 drama The Nest and Channel 5’s new version of All Creatures Great and Small later this year. His radio credits include Therese Raquin, The Bride of Lamermoor, Stone, Brief Lives, Inventing Scotland and Bright Spark (all for BBC Radio 4).
Simon Roberts’s theatre credits include Witness For The Prosecution (London County Hall), The Mousetrap (St Martin’s Theatre), Untold Stories and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (West Yorkshire Playhouse). His television credits include Agatha Christie’s Poirot, Ein Sommer in Oxford (German TV), Mr Selfridge, Breathless, Absolute Power, The Queen’s Nose, Ted & Ralph and The Fast Show.
Gwen Taylor is best known for playing the title role in the sitcom Barbara, as well as Anne Foster in Coronation Street, Peggy Armstrong in Heartbeat, Rita Simcock in A Bit of A Do, for which she was nominated for a BAFTA TV Best Actress Award, and Amy in Duty Free. Her film appearances include Another Mother’s Son, The Lady in the Van and Monty Python's Life of Brian. Gwen is currently touring the UK in The Lady Vanishes. Her other theatre credits include The Importance of Being Earnest and Night Must Fall (both for Original Theatre), Allelujah! (Bridge Theatre), The Slaves of Solitude (Hampstead Theatre), Driving Miss Daisy (Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre / UK Tour), Calendar Girls (UK tour), the title role in the national tour of Shirley Valentine, Top Girls (Royal Court and New York) and Gertrude in Sir Peter Hall’s production of Hamlet (London’s Gielgud Theatre and national tour).
Caroline Harker is best known for her role as Celia in Middlemarch, as well as WPC Hazel Wallace in A Touch of Frost. Her other notable television credits include Coronation Street, Doctors and Holby City. Caroline’s film credits include Lady Godiva: Back in the Saddle and The Madness of King George. She most recently starred in Relatively Speaking, Breaking Code and Handbagged (Salisbury Playhouse). Her other theatre credits include The Sweet Science of Bruising (Southwark Playhouse), The Chalk Garden (Chichester Festival Theatre) and Pride and Prejudice (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre).
Lucy Doyle recently graduated from RADA and made her professional debut this year at Theatre Royal Bath in Vienna 1934 - Munich 1938 alongside Vanessa Redgrave and Paul Hilton.
The Croft is set in the remote Scottish Highlands village of Coillie Ghille, where we encounter three women from different eras whose lives are intertwined by the croft's dark history. In the 1880’s, we have Enid, the last person left in the village - she's resilient, a survivor, who takes in the Laird's pregnant daughter, Eilene. In 2005, Ruth occupies the croft, which she and her husband Tom bought as a holiday home and where Ruth has her affair with local man, David. In the present day, Laura returns with her friend Suzanne to her parent's croft after her mother Ruth's death. They discover the terrifying truth that lurks within the croft. In this bold and haunting play, the present interweaves with the past, as these women search for love in the midst of great danger. As we watch their stories intertwine and ancient tales surface, can the present heal the past?
The Croft is directed by the award-winning director Philip Franks, with design by Adrian Linford, lighting by Chris Davey, sound by Max Pappenheim and casting by Ellie Collyer-Bristow CDG.
This production is produced by The Original Theatre Company (The Habit of Art, The Night Watch, Birdsong).
Website: www.originaltheatre.com
Facebook: Original Theatre #TheCroft
Twitter: @OriginalTheatre #TheCroft
Age Guidance 14+
2020 UK Tour Schedule
22 – 25 January Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham 01242 572573
www.everymantheatre.org.uk
27 January – 1 February Derby Theatre 01332 59 39 39
www.derbytheatre.co.uk
4 – 8 February Perth Theatre 01738 621031
www.horsecross.co.uk
11 – 15 February Darlington Hippodrome 01325 405405
www.darlingtonhippodrome.co.uk
24 – 29 February Palace Theatre, Southend 01702 351135
www.palacetheatresouthend.co.uk
11 – 14 March Cambridge Arts Theatre 01223 503333
www.cambridgeartstheatre.com
16 – 21 March Ashcroft Playhouse, Fairfield Halls, Croydon 0203 292 0002
www.fairfield.co.uk
24 – 28 March Theatr Clwyd, Mold 01352 344101
www.theatrclwyd.com
31 March – 4 April Richmond Theatre 0844 871 7651
www.atgtickets.com/richmond-theatre
6 - 11 April Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne 0132 341 2000
www.eastbournetheatres.co.uk
15 – 18 April Belgrade Theatre, Coventry 024 7655 3055
www.belgrade.co.uk
The second play in the pair to be made available from Original Theatre is a ghost story set in the wilds of the Scottish Highlands. There is horrible weather, darkness, a traditional Ghillie, and no shop within easy walking distance.
Written by Ali Milles, The Croft takes a true story as inspiration and turns it into a chilling, atmospheric thriller with an eerie soundscape (by Max Pappenheim) and a sense of foreboding. This may be a 21st century holiday home for escaping lovers, but the weight of memory remains.
Cut off from the outside world without a phone signal or working electrics, Laura (Lucy Doyle) and Susie (Caroline Harker, who also plays Laura’s mother Ruth in another timeline), have to deal with their own fears and the atmosphere of spirits all around them.
Chris Davey’s lighting within Adrian Linford’s set helps to give each timeline its own identity, but I found Enid (the supposed 19th century witch, played by Gwen Taylor) a touch caricaturist, and Harker is far more convincing as Ruth than as Susie.
Grief in all its manifestations and the power of suggestion runs throughout Miles’s play, but it is only intermittently successful, such as the build up to the interval and a couple of times in the second half.
I liked the doubling up of roles between the small cast, which hinted at the human parallels between the different times and places, but ultimately this was a production which didn’t quite tick all the boxes for me.
The Croft is available to rent from Original Theatre for a small donation for one more week.
