The Druid's Rest - Finborough Theatre
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
THE FIRST London revival in sixty years of Emlyn Williams’ The Druid’s Rest will run at Finborough Theatre on Sundays and Mondays, September 6, 7, 13, 14, 20 and 21, 2009.
In a pub in the small Welsh village of Ton-y-maes, the locals are preparing for the Eisteddfod, while the publican’s young bookworm of a son is reading of mystery and murder. Until an enigmatic Englishman arrives who is not who he appears to be…
Drawing on Emlyn Williams’ own childhood in Flintshire, where his parents ran the White Lion Inn, this classic autobiographical Welsh comedy was first produced in 1944 with Richard Burton making his stage debut.
David Cottis (Sam, the Highest Jumper of Them All, Finborough Theatre) directs a cast that includes David Broughton-Davies, Alyn Gwyndaf, Rachel Isaac, Anna Lindup, Joshua McCord, Michael Norledge, Dafydd Wyn Roberts and Bennet Thorpe.
Emlyn Williams (1905-1987) was one of the most successful actors and playwrights of the 1930s and 1940s, sometimes referred to as ‘the Welsh Noël Coward’. His greatest successes include the psychological thriller Night Must Fall (1935), which was filmed in 1937 with Robert Montgomery and Rosalind Russell and again in 1964 with Albert Finney and Susan Hampshire, and the autobiographical The Corn is Green (1938), which was filmed in 1945 and starred Bette Davis.
As an actor his film credits include Hitchcock’s Jamaica Inn, Hatter’s Castle and Alexander Korda’s unfinished I, Claudius (as Caligula to Charles Laughton’s Claudius). For many years, he lived at Dovehouse Street in Chelsea, a short walk from the Finborough Theatre.
Presented by Instant Classics in association with Neil McPherson for the Finborough Theatre, The Druid’s Rest is produced by Tim Newns and designed by Fiona Parker, with lighting and sound by Ben Turnbull.
Tickets: £13, £9 concessions.
Time: 7.30pm.
Performance Length: Approximately 2 hours.
For more information call the box office on 0844 847 1652 or visit the Website
Also at Finborough Theatre: Too True To Be Good