The world premiere of Rosie Race’s new play will take place at the Northcott Theatre in Exeter from the 4th to the 11th July.
Full casting has been announced for Northcott Theatre Artistic Director Martin Berry’s production, which will open at the theatre on the 7th July.
The cast comprises Emma Stansfield (Roots – Donmar Warehouse, The Tempest – National Theatre, The Crown – Netflix, The Salisbury Poisonings – BBC) as Daphne Du Maurier, Danielle Bird (The Hypocrite – Royal Shakespeare Company, The 39 Steps – UK tour, the Olivier winning The Worst Witch – Royal and Derngate, Hapless – Netflix) as Gertrude Lawrence and Ellen Doubleday, William Mannering (As You Like It – Shakespeare’s Globe, A Woman of No Importance – West End, A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Royal Shakespeare Company, Poldark – Netflix) as Gerald du Maurier and Alfred Hitchcock and Tristan Beint (The Country Wife – West End, The Alchemist – National Theatre, Ghost Stories – West End, Inheritance – Sky Atlantic) as Tommy Browning and Noel Coward.
Inspired by the enigmatic life of Daphne du Maurier, Daphne is an arresting, funny and darkly magical portrait of a woman on the brink, preparing to sign an embargo that will lock away her secrets forever.
As the document waits before her, pen hovering in hand, Daphne is swept into a storm of memory. Time fractures, reality blurs, and the desires, fears and obsessions that shaped her life come roaring back to the surface.
Haunted by her past and torn between public persona and private self, Daphne must confront the fluid identity, fierce imagination and untameable spirit that fuelled some of the 20th century’s most iconic writing.
Martin Berry says: “Daphne du Maurier’s connection to Devon and Cornwall is woven through some of the most important and beloved writing of the 20th century, so this feels exactly the kind of story Exeter Northcott should be telling. What excited us about Rosie Race’s script was that it doesn’t present Daphne as a marble statue or literary monument; instead, it gives us a brilliant, funny, complicated and deeply human woman wrestling with creativity, identity, love and memory.”
The creative team behind the production includes: set and costume design by Laura McEwen, sound design by Dinah Mullen, video design by Nick Laws and lighting design by Marcus Bartlett.
To book tickets visit: https://exeternorthcott.co.uk/events/daphne/