Dickens considered his novel, A TALE OF TWO CITIES the best story he had ever written. Interweaving one family’s intensely personal drama with the terror and chaos of the French Revolution, it is an epic story of love, sacrifice and redemption amidst horrific violence and world changing events.
A TALE OF TWO CITIES was first produced in Northampton in 2014, to great critical and public acclaim, and was director James Dacre’s inaugural production at the theatre. Adapted by Mike Poulton (Fortune’s Fool, Old Vic and Broadway, Wolf Hall RSC, West End & Broadway), with an original score by Oscar-winning composer Rachel Portman (The Cider House Rules, Beloved), UK Theatre Award nominated design by Mike Britton, lighting design by Paul Keogan, sound design by Adrienne Quartly, movement direction by Struan Leslie and fight direction by Terry King.
James Dacre said,
“Dickens wrote A Tale of Two Cities in 1859 as a meditation on politics and power, the individual versus the system and the private versus the public. Mike Poulton, Rachel Portman and I first mounted this adaptation in the aftermath of the Arab Spring to cast a light on the protests, fanaticism and political unrest that were spreading across the world at that time. Our decision along with Jenny King, Producer of The Touring Consortium, to revisit the production during this year of elections, referendums and revolutions across the world is motivated by a shared belief that great historical dramas can play an important role in contemporary political conversations by emotionally engaging audiences in human stories, countering the disaffection that seems to dominate so much of today's political debate. Theatre and music can be imbued with a passion that a novel cannot capture and Royal & Derngate and Touring Consortium’s A Tale of Two Cities aims to focus on the humanity of Dickens’ novel in a way that gives the historical events an immediacy and urgent relevance for today’s audiences.”
A TALE OF TWO CITIES will play at the Alhambra Theatre, Bradford from Tuesday 4 to Saturday 8 October as part of a UK Tour. The professional company will perform alongside a chorus of twelve actors drawn from the local community, to capture the turbulence, anarchy and romance of London and Paris during the tumultuous years of the French revolution.
Created by producer Jenny King, The Touring Consortium Theatre Company is celebrating their 20th anniversary this year.
Jenny King said,
“The company was created in 1996 in response to a need expressed by chief executives of several of the UKs leading touring venues for quality text based drama that reached out to new, young audiences as well as sustaining the interest of core theatre goers. Since its creation we have produced over twenty five productions and played to over a million people, involving some 25,000 young people in our workshops and creative learning programmes.”
