The Donmar Warehouse has announced the full cast and creative team for A Month in the Country, Brian Friel’s adaptation of Ivan Turgenev’s celebrated play, which runs from 22 August to 3 October.
Donmar Artistic Director Tim Sheader and Executive Director Henny Finch confirmed that Sophie Okonedo will lead the company as Natalya Petrovna in Lyndsey Turner’s new production.
Okonedo, making her Donmar debut, is joined by Thomas Arnold as Arkady Islayev, Jessica Brindle as Katya, Susan Brown as Anna Islayeva, Rachelle Diedericks as Vera Aleksandrovna, Patrick Gibson as Aleksey Belyayev, Mark Hadfield as Herr Schaaf, Michael Hodgson as Alfanasy Bolshintsov, Jonathan Livingstone as Matvey, Alistair Petrie as Michel Rakitin, Daniel Rigby as Ignaty Shpigelsky and Amanda Wilkin as Lizaveta Bogdanovna.
The production reunites Turner with the Donmar, where she previously directed Far Away, Aristocrats, Faith Healer, Fathers and Sons and Philadelphia, Here I Come!.
Joining Turner on the creative team are designer Leslie Travers, sound designer Max Pappenheim, lighting designer Tim Lutkin, movement director and intimacy coordinator Anna Morrissey, composer Angus MacRae and casting director Lotte Hines CDG.
Set in the Russian countryside, the play follows Natalya Petrovna, whose seemingly idyllic life is disrupted by the arrival of a young tutor.
“Hundreds of women would envy me, wouldn’t they?”
According to the synopsis, Natalya appears content with “a life of order, tranquillity and quiet restraint”, but the arrival of a penniless tutor awakens desires that shake the household.
A Month in the Country explores the conflict between passion and propriety as its characters struggle to reconcile duty with their longing for happiness. Friel’s acclaimed reworking of Turgenev’s most famous play receives a new staging in the Donmar’s intimate Covent Garden venue.
Listings and ticket information can be found here
