Press Information



1980-2010 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FINBOROUGH THEATRE

Spring Season 2010
Meeting Point Productions Ltd in association with Neil McPherson for the Finborough Theatre presents
THE EUROPEAN PREMIERE
Dream of the Dog

by Craig Higginson.

Directed by Katie McAleese. Designed by Alex Marker. Lighting Design by Michael Nabarro.

Sound Design by Andrew Pontzen. Costume Design by Penn O’Gara.
Cast: Ariyon Bakare. Gracy Goldman. Bernard Kay. Janet Suzman.

Janet Suzman stars in the UK premiere of an acclaimed new South African play, opening for a four week limited season on 27 April 2010 (Press Night: Thursday, 29 April) at London’s Finborough Theatre in its 30th anniversary year.

KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, shortly after the millennium. Patricia and Richard Wiley, an elderly white couple, are packing up to leave the farm they’ve sold to developers. Their preparations are interrupted by the arrival of a young man – ‘Look Smart’ – who used to be one of the black workers on their estate until he disappeared fifteen years ago.

The day before ‘Look Smart’ left, something terrible happened on the Wileys’ farm. But everyone has a different memory of the dreadful event and their own role in it. As the different accounts of their shared past are unravelled, they are all forced to confront their own versions of the truth – with shocking ramifications for their lives today.

Dream of the Dog is a richly textured and complex story of South Africa’s emerging democracy, and its continued negotiation with its past in order to find a workable identity for its future. Critically acclaimed in South Africa, this new play takes an unflinching look at the twin mantras of the post-Mandela age – reconciliation and forgiveness – as it asks whether black and white can ever live together peacefully.

Dream of the Dog received its world premiere in South Africa in 2007, playing at the Grahamstown Festival and the Market Theatre, Johannesburg, where it was nominated for four Naledi Awards (South Africa’s equivalent of the Olivier Awards) including Best New South African Play.

South African born Janet Suzman is a critically acclaimed actress who has previously played many leading roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company, culminating in a memorable Cleopatra, and, most recently, Volumnia for The Complete Works Festival. Her films include The Draughtsman's Contract, The Singing Detective, Fellini's The Boat Sails On, and Nicholas and Alexandra for which she was nominated for an Academy Award (Oscar®), the BAFTA and the Golden Globe awards for Best Actress. Janet is a founding Patron of the Market Theatre, Johannesburg, where she appeared in the Market's opening production in 1976 – The Death of Bessie Smith, directed by Market co-founder Barney Simon; and in 1987 she returned to direct her long-time colleague John Kani in Othello. Janet has been actively involved in developing the script of Dream of the Dog with Craig Higginson.

Ariyon Bakare’s credits include Julius Caesar, Anthony and Cleopatra, The Servant of Two Masters (Royal Shakespeare Company), To Kill A Mockingbird (Salisbury Playhouse), The Merchant of Venice (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield). Film credits include The Dark Knight, After The Rain and Secret Laugher of Women. Ariyon was nominated for Best Actor at the Royal Television Society Awards for his role as Ben Kwarme in Doctors.

Gracy Goldman’s credits include The Lost Voice (Royal Festival Hall), Great Expectations (New Vic Theatre), You Can’t Take It With You (Southwark Playhouse), Chasing The Moment (Arcola Theatre). Television credits include The Bill, Doctors, The Detectives and The Ruth Rendell Mysteries.

Bernard Kay’s many credits include After Haggerty (Finborough Theatre), An Inspector Calls (Garrick Theatre), Death of a Salesman (Lyric Theatre, Belfast), Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2 (Royal Shakespeare Company), Spring Awakening, The Nun (BAC), Platonov (Almeida Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (King’s Head), Galileo (Young Vic Studio), Halpern and Johnson (New End Theatre) Nobody’s Fool (National Tour). Film credits include Dr Zhivago, A Ghost at Monte Carlo, Joy Division, Puritan, The Sewers of Gold, Dinner Date and Carry On Sergeant. Television credits include Casualty, Casualty 1909, Foyle’s War, Jonathan Creek, Robin Hood, A Very British Coup, Century Falls, Kremlin Farewel, The Bill and Pierrepoint.

Award-winning playwright Craig Higginson is the Literary Manager of Johannesburg’s famous Market Theatre. He worked as Barney Simon's assistant at the Market Theatre, and has also worked in the UK where he worked as a Director, Dramaturg and Assistant Director for such companies as the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Young Vic, the Hampstead Theatre and the Almeida Theatre. Craig’s first play, Laughter in the Dark, was premiered by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2000, and he later adapted the script for BBC Radio 3 where it won the prestigious Gold Sony Award for 2004. He has adapted The Lord of the Flies (Market Theatre), written and directed The Perfect Circle (Wits Theatre and Grahamstown Fringe), co-wrote Truth in Translation and Ten Bush (Grahamstown Main Festival and the Market Theatre) and co-adapted The Jungle Book and Brer Rabbit (both Market Theatre). Craig has also published two novels – Embodied Laughter (Pan MacMillan, 1998) and The Hill (Jacana, 2005) - his next two novels, Last Summer and The Landscape Painter, will be published by Picador Africa in February 2010 and 2011 respectively.

Director Katie McAleese was Associate Director on the Olivier Award winning West End production of La Cage Aux Folles, where she directed casts including Roger Allam and John Barrowman. Previous credits as director include The Pope’s Wedding (Young Vic), The Importance of Being Earnest (Derby Playhouse), The Wall (The Junction) and The Revenger’s Tragedy (St Andrew’s Crypt, Holborn). She was also Associate Director on Animal Farm (Derby Playhouse), and an Assistant Director at the Menier Chocolate Factory, Northampton, Derby Playhouse, Theatr Clwyd, English Touring Theatre and in the West End, with directors including Terry Johnson, Terry Hands, Stephen Unwin and Simon Curtis. She trained at the National Theatre Studio, Birkbeck and Cambridge University. Katie has also worked extensively in TV script development, and was Head of Development for Alchemy TV.

The South African Press on Dream of the Dog

“Playwright Craig Higginson set out to write a script that would encapsulate in one scene the issues that permeate our country’s past, present and future. He has succeeded.” The Sunday Independent (South Africa)

“A compelling and well-paced psychoanalysis of post-apartheid South Africa” The Weekender

“This powerful piece of new South African theatre looks at how an incident which one person easily forgets can play on another’s mind and control their lives” The Herald (South Africa)

“Rarely does one have the privilege of seeing a play that is virtually flawless in concept, execution and collaborative impact. Dream of the Dog fits this bill…(the) nuances of texture make for wonderful theatre – the language is beautiful, the tale disturbing for its violence and the deeply buried lies it contains…Rather than offering clichéd insight into what reconciliation might mean in a post-apartheid South Africa, this is a play that revisits past injustices and uncovers hidden lies. Part political thriller part surreal horror, it is riveting.” Cue

PRESS NIGHT: THURSDAY, 29 APRIL 2010 AT 7.30PM

PHOTOCALL: TUESDAY, 27 APRIL 2010 AT 1.00PM-1.30PM

Finborough Theatre, The Finborough, 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED

Box Office 0844 847 1652 Book online at www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk

Tuesday, 27 April – Saturday, 22 May 2010

Tuesday to Saturday Evenings at 7.30pm.
Saturday matinees at 3.00pm (from 8 May 2010).

Sunday Matinees at 3.00pm.

FOR THE FIRST TWO WEEKS OF THE RUN (27 April-9 May 2010):
Tickets £15, £11 concessions, except Tuesday Evenings £11 all seats, and Saturday evenings £15 all seats.

Previews (27 and 28 April) £9 all seats.
£5 tickets for Under 30’s for performances from Tuesday to Sunday of the first week when booked online only. £10 tickets for residents of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea on Saturday, 1 May 2010 when booked online.

FOR THE LAST TWO WEEKS OF THE RUN (11 May-22 May 2010):

Tickets £18, £15 concessions, except Tuesday Evenings £15 all seats, and Saturday evenings £18 all seats.

Performance Length: Approximately 70 minutes with no interval.

For more information, interviews and images, please contact

Neil McPherson on e-mail or 07977 173135 or

Susie Safavi on e-mail or 07875277913
Press releases and images are available to download from http://www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk/pressresources.htm

118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED Telephone +44 (0)20 7244 7439 Fax +44 (0)20 7835 1853

e-mail www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk Artistic Director Neil McPherson

The Finborough Theatre is managed by The Steam Industry. Registered in England and Wales as a company limited by guarantee, no. 3448268.

Registered Charity no. 1071304. Registered address: 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED. A member of the Independent Theatre Council.