TV actress will play lead in London play set on Cromer pier
Time and Tide is set on Cromer pier and will be performed in London. It stars Wendy Nottingham as May. Pictures: Relish Theatre - Credit: Archant
A Peaky Blinders actress who has also worked with film director Mike Leigh will head the cast of a London play set on Cromer pier.
Time and Tide is set on Cromer pier and will be performed in London. Playwright James McDermott. Pictures: Relish Theatre - Credit: Archant
Playwright James McDermott, from High Kelling, based Time and Tide on the pier and the town's residents.
The cast includes renowned TV, film and theatre actress Wendy Nottingham, who previously lived in Cromer.
She has appeared in Peaky Blinders, Mr Selfridge and Vera Drake, among others, and will play May, who runs a crumbling cafe on the end of the pier.
She will be joined by Paul Easom, from Evita and The Girls, Josh Barrow, famed for Sky One drama Temple and West End play Silk Road, and Elliot Liburd, from Bismillah!
Cromer Pier - Credit: @nunbutaTthang
Mr McDermott, who was born in Weybourne and studied at UEA, said: "I am chuffed to be working with such a talented actress from Cromer to help bring this play about Cromer to life.
"Wendy Nottingham has worked with my writing heroes Victoria Wood and Mike Leigh and so it will be an honour to work with and learn from her."
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His former plays include Fast Food, which starred Jude Law, Street Life, and Rubber Ring, which was a highlight of the Holt Festival in 2017.
He said he based the play on the pier because Norfolk was "a great metaphor for Britain".
He added: "From the outside it looks picturesque, but inside there's the claustrophobia and all the maladies of Britain.
"On the smaller level Norfolk is a beautiful place, but there are lots of things going on underneath that are grittier. There are the council estates and the drug problems. There's a real working class mentality, and that's the underbelly of Norfolk." Born in Weybourne, Mr McDermott is currently writing new plays for Norwich Playhouse and Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds.
Relish Theatre, the group performing Time and Tide, is a previously Norwich-based theatre company that showcases the work of regional talent.
Time and Tide will run at London's Park Theatre between February 5 and 29. Tickets can be booked here: www.parktheatre.co.uk/whats-on/time-and-tide, box-office: 020 7870 6876.
