Starring Julie Hesmondhalgh (Coronation Street, Broadchurch), The Greatest Play... transfers to the Traverse Theatre for the 2018 Edinburgh Fringe.
JULIE HESMONDHALGH - ONE WOMAN, ONE STORY, A WHOLE UNIVERSE OF POSSIBILITIES
Tara Finney Productions in association with Royal Exchange Theatre
THE GREATEST PLAY IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD…
By Ian Kershaw
Directed by Raz Shaw
3-26 August: Traverse 2
Preview: Friday 2 August, 1.45PM
Press Performance: Friday 3 August 4.15PM
Award-winning actor Julie Hesmondhalgh (Coronation Street, Broadchurch) performs THE GREATEST PLAY IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD… a love story, squashed full of exquisite observation and heartbreaking beauty. In this one-woman show, written for her by her writer husband Ian Kershaw (Coronation Street, Cold Feet, Shameless), Julie takes us on a journey that starts and ends in a small, unassuming house on a quiet unassuming road. A journey that will end up taking us further than we could ever possibly imagined. The production reunites Julie with award-winning director Raz Shaw who she worked with on the critically-acclaimed production of WIT at the Royal Exchange Theatre. The show runs at the Traverse Theatre from 3 - 26 August before transferring to the Exchange in September.
A man wakes in the middle of the night to discover that the world has stopped. Through the crack in his bedroom curtains he can see no signs of life at all…other than a light in the house opposite where a woman in an over-sized Bowie T-shirt stands, looking back at him… The Greatest Play in the History of the World…is a love story, set on Preston Road, but also in space & time.
Julie Hesmondhalgh is best known for her award-winning portrayal of Hayley Cropper in Coronation Street, a role she left after 16 years and won multiple awards including an RTS Award for Best Performance (2013), a National TV Award for Best Serial Drama Performance (2014) and a Best Actress Award at the British Soap Awards (2014). Her theatre credits include The Report with Lemn Sissay and God Bless the Child (Royal Court), Black Roses: The Killing of Sophie Lancaster, Blindsided and WIT (Royal Exchange Theatre). She has also starred in television shows including Broadchurch, Happy Valley, and Black Roses (RTS Award for Best Actress 2015).
Ian Kershaw is an award-winning writer whose credits include Get Ken Barlow (Watford Palace), CandyLand (winner of the North-West Writer Award / Bruntwood Awards 2005) (Royal Exchange), Cinderella (Duke’s Lancaster), The Mist in the Mirror, Star-Cross’d (Manchester Theatre Award winner), Union Street and Bread & Roses (all Oldham Coliseum). Television includes Coronation Street, Cold Feet, EastEnders, Death In Paradise, Shameless, The Mill and the BBC2 film Castles in the Sky. Radio includes Lost & Found (Radio Academy Award winner)
for BBC Radio 4.
Raz Shaw is an award-winning director whose credits include WIT (Best Director - UK Theatre Awards 2016), Things of Dry Hours and The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek (all Royal Exchange Theatre), The God of Soho, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (P.E.N. Award) and Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare’s Globe), Wie Es Will Gefallt (Bremer Shakespeare Company), The Talented Mr Ripley (Theatre Royal, Northampton), Othello, Woman in Mind, Be My Baby (Salisbury Playhouse), Factory Girls and Torn (The Arcola), Gambling (Royal Court/ Soho Theatre).
/ENDS/
For further information, images or interviews please contact
Tara Finney on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 07951 604841
Tara Finney Productions
Tara Finney Productions (TFP) is a multi-award nominated, independent theatre production company. TFP was founded in 2013 to produce Land of Our Fathers, Time Out’s Fringe Show of the Year 2013. The production subsequently transferred to Trafalgar Studios in 2014 and toured England & Wales for 14 weeks in 2015/16 before returning to London's hottest pop-up theatre, Found111.
TFP recently produced All Our Children, the Offie nominated debut play of acclaimed director Stephen Unwin, and last summer was Associate Producer for Ishq at Sadler's Wells as part of the High Commission of Pakistan's 70th anniversary of independence celebrations. This spring, TFP's 20th anniversary production of Enda Walsh's Disco Pigs starring Harry Potter’s Evanna Lynch transferred to the Irish Repertory Theatre, New York, garnering a Critics' Pick from the New York Times and an extended run.
Royal Exchange Theatre
Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre Company transforms the way people see theatre, each other and the world around them. It was named Regional Theatre of the Year in 2016 and School of the Year at The Stage Awards 2018. The Spring–Summer Season features work from an incredible array of artists from across Manchester and beyond. It includes new adaptations Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard translated by Rory Mullarkey, Sarah Frankcom directs Maxine Peake in Samuel Beckett’s masterpiece Happy Days and a new play by Associate Artist Maxine Peake, Queens of the Coal Age opens in June. Associate Artists RashDash and new partners Yellow Earth bring their distinctive performance styles to The Studio.
THE GREATEST PLAY IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD…– Listings Information
Tara Finney Productions in association with Royal Exchange Theatre
THE GREATEST PLAY IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD…
By Ian Kershaw
Directed by Raz Shaw
TRAVERSE THEATRE
3-26 August: Traverse 2
Preview: Thursday 2 August, 1.45PM
Press Performance: Friday 3 August 4.15PM
TICKET PRICES:
Previews tickets £13 (£9) / Standard tickets £20.50 (£15.50/£15/£9.50 concession)
PERFORMANCE TIMES VARY No performance on Mondays
Box Office: 0131 228 1404
10 Cambridge Street, Edinburgh, EH1 2ED
traverse.co.uk
ROYAL EXCHANGE THEATRE
12-22 September: Royal Exchange Theatre Studio
TICKET PRICES:
£12 (£10 concession)
PERFORMANCE TIMES:
Monday - Saturday evenings, 7.30pm
Saturday and Thursday matinees, 2.30pm
Box Office: 0161 833 9833
St Ann’s Square, Manchester, M2 7DH
royalexchange.co.uk
For more information on The Greatest Play..., click here.