The Young Vic Theatre today announces full casting for its 2023 new season opening production Further than the Furthest Thing, the multi-award-winning modern classic by Zinnie Harris (Macbeth (an undoing), This Restless House, How To Hold Your Breath) in a visionary revival by Genesis Fellow / Young Vic Associate Director Jennifer Tang (AI, Mountains: The Dreams of Lily Kwok). It runs in the Young Vic Main House from 9 March to 29 April with opening night for press on 16 March. Tickets are on sale at www.youngvic.org
Gerald Kyd (The Seagull, Deep Blue Sea) plays Mr Hansen, Archie Madekwe (Midsommar, See) plays Francis, Cyril Nri (Trouble in Mind, The Barbershop Chronicles, The Bill) plays Bill, Kirsty Rider (The Sandman, The Doctor, Nora: A Doll’s House) plays Rebecca, and Olivier Award-winning and Tony Award-nominated Jenna Russell (Fun Home, Piaf) plays Mill, with live vocals provided by Shapla Salique (No Boundaries).
Based on real events on the island of Tristan da Cunha, the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world, the story follows a community haunted by its past and under threat from a modern world in crisis.
On a remote volcanic island in the middle of the Atlantic, the islanders of Tristan da Cunha have lived undisturbed for centuries, defying the swirling currents of modernity. Cut off and exposed to the elements, their survival has created a complex bind with their land. But when one of the inhabitants brings an outsider to the island, their way of life is changed forever.
Director Jennifer Tang’s new interpretation, the first major London staging in more than 20 years, revisits the play through a contemporary lens interrogating the climate emergency and globalisation. It will be the closing production in her role as Genesis Fellow / Associate Director at the Young Vic following her ground-breaking production AI in 2021.
Further than the Furthest Thing premiered in 2000, co-produced by the National Theatre and The Tron Glasgow, and won an Edinburgh Fringe First Award, Peggy Ramsay Award and John Whiting Award and was shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Award.
The creative team is completed by Designer Soutra Gilmour, Lighting Designer Prema Mehta, Sound Designer George Dennis, Composer Ruth Chan, Movement Director Ingrid Mackinnon, Voice and Dialect Coach Emma Woodvine, Musical Director Michael Henry, Illusions Designer John Bulleid, and Casting Director Charlotte Sutton CDG.
