Introducing Eduard Lewis (top left on the photo above), the director of our community production of A Tale of Two Cities, which takes place in November at Central Hall, Darlington, where Charles Dickens himself read in 1858.
Eduard was Resident Assistant Director at the Royal Exchange in 2013 and trained on the MFA for Theatre Directing at Birkbeck University (2011-2013).This year he has been long listed for the Old Vic 12 and the inaugural RTST Director’s Award.
Directing credits include Maggie and Pierre (Finborough Theatre) Reap (Playwrought - Arcola) Caught (Pleasance Theatre) A Tale of Two Cities (BRIT Programme) Pick One (Theatre Uncut) Bruntwood Prize Ceremony, Crap Dad Island (Royal Exchange Theatre) Daisy Cutter (Warwick Arts Centre Studio). Associate/assistant directed The Lorax (Old Vic) King John, Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Holy Warriors (Shakespeare’s Globe), A Tale of Two Cities (Royal & Derngate), Talk Show (Royal Court), Brilliant Adventures, Cannibals, To Kill a Mockingbird, Orpheus Descending, Accrington Pals (Royal Exchange Theatre).
Eduard arrived in Darlington at the beginning of September to lead the cast in an intensive rehearsal process. Along with associate director Katy Weir, movement director Kane Husbands, and designer Sarah Booth, he will be bringing to the unique setting of Central Hall Dickens' story which is as relevant today as it was when it was published in 1859. He says:
Dickens masterfully sets a love triangle to the backdrop of the most bloody revolution of his era, the French Revolution. He says in the opening of the novel that ‘the times were so like our own as to be almost indistinguishable from them’ and looking to Syria, Turkey and even the Black Lives Matter movement in America we can see that this is truer now than it ever has been. Revolution is a part of the fabric of human society, when we see injustice in the world people rise up and stand against it.
Mike Poulton’s exceptional adaptation takes the core dramatic elements of Dickens’ novel and condenses it into an action packed two-act play. I could not be happier to be bringing this epic story to the unique setting of the Central Hall and to have the privilege of making it with the people of Darlington, for the people of Darlington. It’s a process that Dickens himself, a great lover of the theatre, would be proud of.