The production will be streamed online on the 1st July and made available to watch for 72 hours after.
It has been announced that Rachel Wagstaff’s highly acclaimed adaptation of Sebastian Faulks’s best-selling novel Birdsong will be streamed online – with a cast in full costume and using video technology.
The production will be streamed on the 1st July, on the anniversary of the Battle of the Somme to help raise money for The Royal British Legion. Tickets cost £10 (if booked before 15 June), £12.50 (standard) or £15 (premium – includes digital copy of the programme).
The performance, introduced and narrated by Sebastian Faulks, is directed by Alastair Whatley (The Original Theatre’s Artistic Director) who said of the news: “Birdsong is a story that explores the endurability of the human spirit and above all the power of love. Sebastian’s novel highlights how, even in times of unimaginable horrors and hardships, there is more that binds us together than breaks us apart; that we are all part of something bigger.”
Birdsong tells a mesmerising story of love and courage, before and during the war. In pre-war France, a young Englishman, Stephen Wraysford, embarks on a passionate and dangerous affair with the beautiful Isabelle Azaire that turns their worlds upside down. As the war breaks out, Stephen must lead his men through the carnage of the Battle of the Somme and through the sprawling tunnels that lie deep underground beneath the battle fields. Faced with the unprecedented horror of the war, Stephen clings to the memory of Isabelle and the idyll of his former life as his world explodes around him.
This performance is set to star: Tom Kay (Stephen Wraysford), Madeleine Knight (Isabelle Azaire), Tim Treloar (Firebrace), Liam McCormick (Arthur Shaw), Malcolm James (Captain Gray), Poppy Roe (Jeanne Fourmentier), Jeffrey Hamer (Colonel Barclay), Stephen Boxer (Rene Azaire), Olivia Bernstone (Lisette Azaire), Samuel Martin (Evans), Max Bowden (Private Tipper), Christopher Harper (Levi), James Findlay (Cartwright) and Tony Green (Military Policeman).
The Original Theatre Company and Birdsong Productions production toured between 2013 and 2018 and was seen by over 250,000 people in over 75 theatres across the UK and in Ireland.
Sebastian Faulks said of the virtual production, “This is a great initiative from The Original Theatre Company and technically very ambitious. The adaptation of novel to play continues to evolve and I’m confident it has reached its best incarnation yet. Some of the best actors in its long life have signed up. Should be enormous fun.”
For more information and to book a ticket visit: https://www.birdsongonline.co.uk/