David Fielder and Nigel Hastings will star in the first show in Theatre503’s autumn season, And Then Come The Nightjars by Bea Roberts.
And Then Come The Nightjars is a deeply affecting examination of the crisis caused by the Foot and Mouth epidemic of 2001. Set in the rural West Country, it shows how the damage is still evident on the landscape ten years on.
Royal Shakespeare Company veteran, David Fielder (All’s Well That Ends Well, Taming of the Shrew, As You Like It (RSC)) will be playing Michael, who owns a farm in the small South Devon village of Ashwalden. Nigel Hastings (Othello, Henry VI Parts 1 – 3 (Shakespeare’s Globe), Journey’s End (Duke of York’s)) will be joining him as Jeff, a local vet who develops an unlikely friendship with Michael. Amidst a crisis that saw the slaughter of four million animals and the postponement of a general election, the enduring friendship between these two men adds an aching tenderness to the intensely distressing narrative.
This play is one of the two winners of Theatre503’s inaugural international Playwriting Award and was selected from over 1600 submissions. It will be directed by Theatre503’s Artistic Director, Paul Robinson.
Bea Roberts is currently on commission with the BBC, has had work on at the Tobacco Factory, Lyric Hammersmith and Bristol Old Vic and her most recent play was the award-winning Infinity Pool.