Frantic Assembly has announced its tour dates of The Unreturning, a brand new co-production with Theatre Royal Plymouth. Telling the interwoven stories of three men coming home from war, this new work by Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting winner Anna Jordan will be directed by Frantic Assembly associate director Neil Bettles and marks the 10th anniversary of Frantic Assembly’s award-winning Ignition training programme.
The Unreturning will have its world premiere at Theatre Royal Plymouth on 20 September 2018 before playing at various venues across the UK until 16 March 2019. Additional tour dates will be announced soon.
A British northern coastal town. Three young men are coming home from war. Their stories, set at different times over the last 100 years, are beautifully interwoven in this compelling new play featuring Frantic’s celebrated physicality. The cast will include Jared Garfield, Joe Layton, Jonnie Riordan and Kieton Saunders-Browne.
The Unreturning explores the profound effect that war has on young lives, and asks – what does coming home really mean? What is home? And when experience has shattered you into a million pieces, will home help to put you together again, or treat you as an ugly truth it does not want to confront?
Ignition, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year, is Frantic Assembly’s free, national training programme for young men aged 16-20. The programme seeks out talent in unexpected places, from sports groups to youth centres, and is committed to helping young men find their individual and collective strength. No experience of the arts is necessary to participate. Frantic collaborates with regional arts partners across the UK through its Taster and Trial workshops, from which 12 of the brightest and bravest young men are selected to form the Ignition Company. They then spend five days living and working together in London where they will create an original performance with Frantic Assembly.
All four members of the cast for The Unreturning were part of the Ignition programme before they went on to train professionally and pursue acting careers.
The Unreturning will play at Theatre Royal Plymouth (20 September – 6 October), Nuffield Southampton Theatres Campus (9 – 13 October 2018), Liverpool Everyman (16 – 20 October 2018), Traverse Theatre Edinburgh (22 – 27 October 2018), The Old Rep, Birmingham (30 October –2 November 2018), Theatre Royal Stratford East (16 January – 2 February 2019), Chichester Festival Theatre, Minerva (5 – 9 February 2019), Curve, Leicester (11 – 16 February 2019) and Taliesin Arts Centre (18 – 23 February 2019).
