Marking the centenary of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Arthur Miller’s birth, Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse and Royal & Derngate Northampton will co-produce the world première of Arthur Miller’s ‘play for the screen’ The Hook, adapted for the stage by Emmy Award-winning writer Ron Hutchinson. The play is at the Everyman from Wednesday 1st to Saturday 25th July following its run in Northampton from Friday 5th to Saturday 27th June.
Amidst the political tensions of 1950s America, Arthur Miller’s The Hook was suppressed by the F.B.I. for fear that it could cause unrest in New York’s dockyards. Sixty years on, Brooklyn’s epic waterfront will come alive on stage for the extraordinary story of Marty Ferrara, a longshoreman who challenges the mobsters and gangs of ‘50s New York and takes a stand against the corruption he witnesses from the authorities who control the docks.
The story of a close-knit community grappling with a world of crime and punishment, of changing industry and immigration from abroad, The Hook is a study in integrity and betrayal, charting one man’s struggle for meaningful change. It is a story for our own age of growing unemployment, zero-hour contracts, immigration, industrial change and social tensions.
This world première production by one of America’s most revered playwrights is directed by Royal & Derngate’s Artistic Director James Dacre (King John, R.S.C.; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Royal & Derngate; The Body of an American, Royal & Derngate and The Gate Theatre). The Hook has been adapted for the stage by playwright and prolific screen writer Ron Hutchinson (Moonlight and Magnolias, Goodman Theatre, Chicago; Rat in the Skull, Royal Court; Traffic, U.S.A. Network; Murderers Among Us, HBO).
James Dacre said: “The Hook is, I believe, a culmination of so much that formed Miller as a writer, written during one of the richest and most politicised periods in his career. Written on the eve of the sexual, labour and civil rights movements, it’s a play asks us today both how far we’ve come and how far we still have to go.”
Explaining how this production has come about, Dacre added:“Over several years, our team have created a full transcript of Arthur Miller’s “play for the screen” by collating copies of his typewritten versions of the script and accompanying handwritten notes, working with a number of Miller’s collaborators and scholars on trying to make sense of it all. Drawing upon all these sources – and using only Arthur Miller’s language – Ron Hutchinson has adapted a play envisioned for the screen into an epic stage production that will be performed by a large ensemble cast.”
Much like Brooklyn, the setting for The Hook, Liverpool has a rich history in the docks and in the last century many ships sailed between the two cities from liners to cargo ships, Cunard to White Star. The importance of the community around the dockers is celebrated in Miller’s script and this will come to life on stage thanks to a large ensemble chorus drawn from Liverpool’s local communities to play the dockside community of 1950s Brooklyn alongside the main cast.
The central role of Marty Ferrera is taken by Jamie Sives (Game of Thrones, HBO; The James Plays, National Theatre & National Theatre of Scotland), with Susie Trayling (The Crucible, West Yorkshire Playhouse; King John, R.S.C.) as his wife Therese. The cast also includes Joseph Alessi (Brief Encounter, Kneehigh; Tartuffe, Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse), Tom Canton (The Picture of Dorian Gray, Abbey Theatre), Ewart James Walters (Julius Caesar, R.S.C., Nation, National Theatre), Jem Wall (55 Days, Hampstead Theatre, A Month in the Country, Chichester Festival Theatre), Paul Rattray (Three Sisters, Young Vic, Black Watch, National Theatre of Scotland) and Séan Aydon, Tim Chipping, Sean Jackson and Sean Murray.
Tickets for The Hook are priced at £12 and £20 and are available to purchase from the Box office, by telephone on 0151 709 4776 or online at www.everymanplayhouse.com.
There are several matinee performances: Wednesday 15th July at 1.30pm and Saturday 4th, 11th, 18th and 25th July at 2pm.