Cast

Synopsis

The novel of A Tale of Two Cities, one of Charles Dickens’ most famous works, was published in weekly instalments in 1859 and has gone down in history as having one of the most famous opening lines in literary history. The novel’s iconic characters and themes of sacrifice, love, justice and revenge have kept it constantly in print and led to various adaptions for stage and screen. Set before and during the turbulent times of the French Revolution it is a powerful literary depiction of the effects of inequality and revolution on society that still resonates in today’s modern world.

Directors Notes

In order to give our Kaleidoscope members a chance to appear in a variety of genres we chose a rather more serious piece for the 2015 production after the relative frivolity of Around the World in Eighty Days. With a huge cast, the task of finding a suitable script has become a perennial problem. We chose this adaptation of ‘A Tale Of Two Cities’ as it would be a good contrast to last year’s show and the crowd play such an important role in the development of the story. The cast have done an excellent job in getting to grips with the difficult language and gaining an understanding of the period setting and we have managed to find the laughs in the rehearsals despite the lack of them in the script! It is once again my privilege to be working closely with Katy Gaul on this production. Her talents as a composer are a huge asset to any production and I would like to thank her for all her hard work in bringing the production together and adding so much to the experience of the young performers.

Huge thanks to Nadine Bowman for Stage Managing and to Louise Potter, Sarah Wilson and Liz Keogh for all their hard work on props. We are very lucky to have such a great set building team in Jason Perkins, Terry Robertson and Dennis Keogh. Thanks to Phill Smith and all the lighting team and to Matthew Norwood on sound. I am very grateful to Debbie Linton for all her support throughout the production and for the massive amount of work she has put into the costumes and tuition. She is a marvel. Thanks so much to Amanda Miers for all her work both as a tutor and backstage and to Lynn George, Rhiannon Cawthorne, Karen McCreesh, Rosemary Grainger and all the chaperones. Finally, I would like to thank the parents of our cast who have supported their offspring throughout the rehearsal period and the cast themselves for being so fantastic to work with. I hope you all enjoy the play.