A “lost treasure of Edwardian theatre”, Cicely Hamilton’s Diana of Dobson’s opens the summer season at the New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme.
Written in 1908, Diana of Dobson’s is a “rags-to-riches story mixing comedy with social commentary and set in the unseen world of overworked, underpaid shop girls”.
Diana works at Dobson’s Drapery Emporium. Out of the blue, her upstairs-downstairs world is turned upside down when she inherits enough money to free her from a lifetime of drudgery. But she impulsively decides to spend the lot on a madcap, month-long taste of the high-life.
Posing as a wealthy widow in a luxurious Swiss hotel, she is pursued by the charming Captain Bretherton. But is he attracted to her or to her supposed wealth?
The production is the first of three to be directed by Abbey Wright at the New Vic. Wright, who was staff director to Danny Boyle on the National Theatre’s production of Frankenstein, was last at the Staffordshire theatre-in-the-round directing Richard Eyre’s adaptation of Ibsen’s Ghosts in 2014.
The cast of Diana of Dobson’s features New Vic favourite Andrew Pollard who played Professor Marcus in Graham Linehan’s adaptation of The Ladykillers in 2015, Pastor Manders in Ibsen’s Ghosts in 2014, Phileas Fogg in Laura Eason’s adaptation of Around the World in Eighty Days in 2013, William Boldwood in Thomas Hardy’s Far From the Madding Crowd in 2012, Crichton in J M Barrie’s The Admirable Crichton in 2011 and John in Michael Frayn’s Alphabetical Order in 2010.
The rest of the cast comprises Rosie Abraham (Peter Pan Goes Wrong, Apollo Theatre, West End), Adam Buchanan (Mr Bingley in Pride and Prejudice, Sheffield Crucible, 2015), Brendan Charleson (nightclub boss Mr Boo in Jim Cartwright’s The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, Birmingham Rep and West Yorkshire Playhouse, 2015), Ceri-Lyn Cissone (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, London Symphony Orchestra), Kate Cook, Claire Greenway (Sound of Music Live, ITV), Mariam Hague (Dara, National Theatre), Anne Lacey (Victoria, RSC) and Susannah Van Den Berg (I Love Paris, Orange Tree Theatre).
Diana of Dobson’s runs from Friday 29 April until Saturday 14 May.