PETER Duncan, Jonny Clarke and George Banks will be heading the cast of the 2014 national tour of Rachel Wagstaff’s stage play Birdsong, adapted from the novel by Sebastian Faulks, when it comes to the Wyvern Theatre next month.
The three cast members (pictured) marched into the town centre to visit the cenotaph ahead of their performances in Swindon.
Peter Duncan, though perhaps best known as a Blue Peter presenter, began his acting career in the 1970s when he joined the National Theatre.
Recent theatre credits include Denry Machin in The Card (for which he received an Olivier nomination for Best Actor in a Musical), Alan Ayckbourn‘s Things We Do For Love, the twins in Corpse, Stan Laurel in Laurel and Hardy, Macduff in Macbeth and Fantastic Mr Fox, both at the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park, and the title role in Charlie Peace – His Amazing Life And Outstanding Legend at Nottingham Playhouse. Peter will be playing the role of Jack Firebrace in Birdsong.
George Banks, whose previous theatre credits include the tour of The History Boys and Hobson’s Choice at the Sheffield Crucible, and Jonny Clarke, best-known for playing Bart McQueen in Hollyoaks, will join Peter Duncan on stage.
In pre-war France, a young Englishman, Stephen Wraysford, embarks on a passionate and dangerous affair with the beautiful Isabelle Azaire that turns their worlds upside down.
As the war breaks out, Stephen must lead his men through the carnage of the Battle of the Somme and through the sprawling tunnels that lie deep underground. Faced with the unprecedented horror of the war, Stephen clings to the memory of Isabelle and the idyll of his former life as his world explodes around him.
The 2013 tour was hugely successful and critically acclaimed, seen by more than 75,000 people and receiving rave reviews, with audiences calling the show ‘simply stunning’.
Sebastian Faulks is thrilled the show is being re-mounted for 2014, the year that will mark 100 years since the outbreak of the First World War.
The tour of Birdsong will continue to support Help for Heroes, after raising over £50,000 through collections and events on the 2013 tour.
Birdsong will run at the Wyvern Theatre, Theatre Square, Swindon, from Tuesday to Saturday, July 1-5.
www.swindontheatres.co.uk
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