Hampstead Theatre today announces casting for the world premiere of Reykjavik, a new play by Richard Bean and directed by Emily Burns. The production will run from 18 October to 23 November.

 

John Hollingworth (Poldark, Napoleon) will play trawler owner Donald Claxton. He will be joined by Sophie Cox who is making her professional London stage debut; Matthew Durkan (Daddy Issues, BBC; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, The Old Vic); Laura Elsworthy (Corrina, Corrina, Headlong and Liverpool Everyman); Paul Hickey (Brokeback Mountain, Soho Place; House of the Dragon, HBO); Adam Hugill (Standing at the Sky’s Edge, Sheffield Theatre; Sherwood, BBC) and Matt Sutton (Big Big Sky, Hampstead Theatre).

 

February 1975. In freezing weather off the coast of Iceland, the sidewinder Graham Greene ices up, heels over, and sinks in seconds, taking fifteen of her crew with her. Such are the realities of the brutal world of trawler fishing. On impulse, despised trawler-owner Donald Claxton flies to Reykjavik to see the survivors, setting in train an evening of drinking, horseplay, romance and story-telling that will change all their lives forever.

 

Richard Bean revisits Hull’s Distant Water trawling fleet that gave him his 2005 hit Under the Whaleback. His other plays include To Have and To Hold, Kiss Me and In the Club at Hampstead, and One Man, Two Guvnors and Jack Absolute Flies Again at the National Theatre.

 

Director Emily Burns makes her Hampstead Theatre debut. Her previous productions have included Dear Octopus and Jack Absolute Flies Again (National Theatre) and Love’s Labour’s Lost (RSC).

 

The production team, led by Emily Burns, includes designer Anna Reid, lighting designer Oliver Fenwick, sound designer Christopher Shutt, composer Grant Olding, dialect Mary Howland and fight director MC_Combat (Maisie Carter). The Casting Director is Bryony Jarvis-Taylor.

 

Reykjavik plays the Main Stage at Hampstead Theatre from 18 October to 23 November.

 

BOOK REYKJAVIK HERE