Following on from a critically-acclaimed and audience pleasing opening last month, the Barn Theatre’s launch production of the Tony Award-winning musical The Secret Garden will continue its run until 28 April 2018.
Director Dominic Shaw’s folk inspired, actor-musician interpretation of the classic Broadway musical has proved to be the perfect inaugural production for the Cirencester venue.
Originally due to run until 15 April, the first production at the Barn Theatre officially launched the 200-seat venue on 19 March following three years of planning, rebuilding and technical development.
The Secret Garden features a principal cast that includes David Haydn, Jaimie Pruden, Minal Patel, Celeste De Veazey, Daniella Piper, Jenny O Leary, and Alex James Ellison. The ensemble includes Sue Appleby, Steffan Rizzi, Jamie Ross, Celia Cruwys Finnigan and Ben Boskovic.
Based on Frances Hodgson Burnett much loved 1911 novel, The Secret Garden has a script and lyrics by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Marsha Norman and music by Grammy Award winner Lucy Simon.
The ambitious project to create a major producing house at the heart of the development of Cirencester’s Grade II listed Ingleside House has attracted support from leading Broadway director Jerry Mitchell and actors James Dreyfus, Matthew Kelly, Heida Reed and Daisy May Cooper.
Funded by local businessman and resident Ian Carling and his wife Chrissie, the Barn Theatre has benefited from over £4.5 million private investment in the acquisition and development of the site.
Working with former musical theatre performer Iwan Lewis who came on board as the venue’s artistic director in 2015, the couple’s vision is to create an accessible unsubsidised professional theatre. With Ian Carling as chairman and founder of the charitable trust that will operate the theatre, a fundraising campaign will be announced shortly.
Commenting on the new venue, artistic director Lewis, who will make his directorial debut with the Barn’s second production, the play One Minute, said: “We are in the process of creating a truly extraordinary theatrical venue in the heart of the Cotswolds. Our aim is to draw in diverse audiences from all over the country and to share with them remarkable theatre in all its forms. With the additional advantages of a purpose-built education suite and Teatro, our 50-seat onsite restaurant and piano bar, we hope to be able to offer a complete destination theatre experience as well as a comprehensive range of educational programmes onsite.”
Angela Thomas
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