The theatre director Emma Rice is to take over one of the lead roles in Wise Children, her adaptation of Angela Carter’s 1991 novel.
The touring production – Rice’s first for her new company, which is also named Wise Children – has its final dates at Richmond theatre in late March and Coventry’s Belgrade theatre in early April. For those performances, Rice will step into the role of Nora Chance. Etta Murfitt has played the part since the play premiered at the Old Vic in London in October last year.
“We’ve been on such a glorious adventure with our company,” said Rice. “I can’t think of a better way to finish our debut tour than stepping into the limelight alongside our wonderful cast to perform in Richmond and Coventry. It’s an honour to share the stage with them and I’m very much looking forward to it!”
Rice, who studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, worked as an actor for Theatre Alibi and Kneehigh, the Cornish company where she eventually became joint artistic director. She then spent two seasons as artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe. After disagreements over her use of sound and lighting, she quit that position, writing in an open letter that the theatre’s board “did not love and respect me”.
The 75-year-old twins Nora and Dora Chance, who are also represented on stage as younger characters, are central parts in Wise Children, which is billed as a “big, bawdy tangle of theatrical joy and heartbreak”. It is fitting, for a play about doubling and the surprises of show business, that the part of Nora will now be shared by two actors, one of whom is the boss of the company.
Murfitt had always planned to leave the tour early as she has another commitment, but it was only recently decided that Rice would take over as Nora. She isn’t the only writer to step into her own show’s lead role. The playwright Natasha Gordon unexpectedly took on a major part in her drama Nine Night when it transferred from the National’s Dorfman theatre to Trafalgar Studios.
