Nocturne - Almeida Theatre
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
ADAM Rapp’s one man play Nocturne, in which Matt Wilde directs Peter McDonald, receives its European premiere at the Almeida Theatre where it runs from July 16 to July 26, 2008, as part of the Summer Festival.
Rapp’s one man play explores the accidental killing of a little girl by her teenage brother. Across the decade and a half that follows the teenager becomes a man, and tries to cope with the ramifications of his guilt and the estrangement of his surviving family, while making a desperate search for redemption.
McDonald’s theatre credits include Exiles and The Aristocrats (National Theatre), Resurrection Blues (Old Vic), Days of Wine and Roses and A Lie of the Mind (Donmar Warehouse), The Lieutenant of Inishmore (Garrick Theatre), The Wexford Trilogy (Tricycle Theatre) and, most recently, James McDonald’s production of Glengarry Glen Ross (Apollo Theatre).
His screen credits include The Family Man, Sea of Souls, The Plot to Kill Hitler, Green Wing and Spooks (TV); Nora, I Went Down, Saltwater (for which he won best actor at the Irish Film and Television Awards), The Henchman’s Tales, Felicia’s Journey and November Afternoon (film).
Award-winning Rapp is a novelist, playwright, screenwriter and filmmaker. His work includes Ghosts in the Cottonwoods and Gompers (both produced at the Arcola Theatre), Blackbird (Bush Theatre) and Finer Noble Gases (Edinburgh Fringe Festival); plus Animals and Plants, Stone Cold Dead Serious, Faster, Trueblinker, Dreams of the Salthouse and Red Light Winter (all produced in the US).
Wilde is a former Associate Director of the National Theatre Studio and has worked extensively as a Staff and Associate Director for the National Theatre and Out of Joint. His directing credits include Get Tested for the 24 Hour Plays at the Old Vic, The Sky’s The Limit for Old Vic New Voices, Polar Bear (Birmingham Rep, On Tour for the Royal Court and Liverpool Everyman), Roy Williams’ Slow Time for NT Education, and Roy Williams’ Out of the Fog (Almeida).
With Nicholas Hytner, he was Co-Director on the revival of His Dark Materials, and Associate Director on David Hare’s Stuff Happens (both for the National Theatre). His production of Simon Bent’s Branded has recently been seen at the Old Vic.
For Nocturne, Wilde will collaborate with composer Phillip Neil Martin, most recently Music Creator in Residence at the Royal College of Fashion.
Following its run in Islington, Nocturne will be presented at the Traverse Theatre as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.