Joely Richardson Leads THE LADY FROM THE SEA At The Rose, Opens Feb 23

Joely Richardson stars as Ellida in Ibsen's The Lady from the Sea, at the Rose Theatre Kingston next spring for a limited run.

About the show: Ellida Wangel (Joely Richardson) is married to Dr Wangel, and lives with him and his two daughters. But she feels claustrophobic and restless and swims in the sea every day. Ten years before she promised herself to another man. On a late summer's day he comes to claim her.

Joely has three imminent major film releases - Roland Emmerich's Anonymous with Rhys Ifans, Vanessa Redgrave and David Thewlis; David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo with Daniel Craig, and Red Lights with Robert De Niro and Sigourney Weaver. She is currently filming Thanks for Sharing alongside Gwyneth Paltrow and Tim Robbins.

Golden Globe winner Joely Richardson has starred in seven series of US American TVs Nip/Tuck and, more recently, The Tudors. Her recent stage appearance in Side Effects in New York won resounding plaudits.

Joely can be seen in David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo with Daniel Craig, and soon in Red Lights with Robert De Niro and Sigourney Weaver. She is currently filming Thanks for Sharing alongside Gwyneth Paltrow and Tim Robbins.

The cast also includes the acclaimed actor Malcolm Storry as Dr Wangel, last on the London stage in Ibsen's Ghosts; Madeleine Worrall as Bolette; Alexandra Moen as Hilde; Richard Dillane as Arnholm; Sam Crane as Hans Lyngstrand; Robert Goodale as Ballested; and Gudmundur Thorvaldsson as The Stranger.

This production is directed by Stephen Unwin, artistic director of the Rose. He is an interpreter of Ibsen, having directed five Ibsen productions, including an award-winning Hedda Gabler at the Donmar Warehouse. He has also written a successful book with Michael Pennington on Ibsen, Chekhov and Strindberg, published by Faber and Faber.

Stephen says "It gives me huge pleasure to stage Ibsen's elusive masterpiece at the Rose, and I'm doubly delighted that Joely Richardson has decided to mark her return to the British stage with this collaboration. Edmund Gosse wrote that 'after so many tragedies, this is a comedy…' Certainly, in The Lady from the Sea (1888) Ibsen offers an answer to the riddle that he posed in A Doll's House (1879): a happy marriage is possible, but only under conditions of absolute freedom. This will be my sixth production of Ibsen, but the first that I have staged at the Rose. Ibsen is the great dramatist of the modern world and, in my opinion, second only to Shakespeare"

Set Design is by Simon Higlett; costume design by Mark Boumann; and lighting design by Malcolm Rippeth.

LISTINGS INFORMATION

Dates: Thursday 23 February – Saturday 17 March 2012
Times: 7.30pm; Saturday matinees, 2.30pm (exc. 25 February) plus Thursday 8 March and Tuesday 15 March, 2.30pm
No Sunday performances

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