Next month sees the Playhouse welcome Theatre6 on their U.K. tour of Moira Buffini’s powerful war drama Gabriel. Starring Liverpool’s own Paul McGann, the tour will be stopping at the Williamson Square venue Liverpool Playhouse Tuesday 4th – Saturday 8th April.
Thirty years since establishing his name in the iconic cult film Withnail and I, Paul McGann, past Doctor Who from Kensington, returns to his home city on his first U.K. tour with Gabriel. Paul’s previous work includes television productions Hornblower and Luther, the film Alien 3, as well as theatre roles including Helen at Shakespeare’s Globe, Butley in London’s West End and Mourning Becomes Electra at the National Theatre. Paul will play the role of Von Pfunz an army commander stationed in Guernsey.
Also from Liverpool, Robin Morrissey will play the title role of Gabriel. Robin was part of the Everyman’s first production after re-opening The Twelfth Night as well as gracing the Playhouse stage in Sex and the Three Day Week, Juno and the Paycock and The Government Inspector (Birmingham Rep). His television credits include Holby City and Doctors (B.B.C.). Sarah Schoenbeck will be playing Lily.
The story of Gabriel is based in 1943 Nazi-occupied Guernsey. Widow and mother Jeanne does whatever it takes to keep her adolescent daughter Estelle and daughter-in-law Lily safe on an island filled with danger and fear. Her toughest test arrives in the form of the terrifying Commander Von Pfunz, whose romantic advances may be the only way to keep her family alive. But tensions intensify when a mysterious young man is washed ashore with no memory of who he is. Fluent in German and English, is he an R.A.F. pilot, an S.S. interrogator, a local boy with amnesia or a saviour sent from heaven? The stakes are high and getting it wrong means certain death.
Cheshire born playwright Moira Buffini (Handbagged, Wonder.land), wrote Gabriel in 1997 where it was performed at the Soho theatre, winning the L.W.T. Plays on Stage Award and the Meyer-Whitworth Award. Directed by award-winning Kate McGregor and produced by Theatre6 this eclectic drama will be kicking off in Richmond, visiting Greenwich, Liverpool, Windsor, Guildford, Eastbourne and Clwyd.
Kate is Artistic Director of Theatre6 and winner of the Noel Coward Trainee Director Bursary at the Salisbury Playhouse. Theatre6 was set up in 2009 and won the Evening Standard Award Best Musical 2014 as co-producers of The Scottsboro Boys. Under Kate’s artistic leadership, the company has undertaken the staging of re-imagined modern classics, adaptations of novels for theatre and championing new writing. Theatre6 create bold and ambitious work, combining stunning visual aesthetic with original music and an international flavour
Tickets for Gabriel are priced at £10-£30* and are available from the Playhouse Theatre Box office, by telephone on 0151 709 4776 or online at www.everymanplayhouse.com.
*A single transaction fee of £2 applies to all phone, counter and internet bookings. Cash payments are exempt from any transaction fees.