THE YORK REALIST TRANSFERS TO STRAND THEATRE

THE YORK REALIST TRANSFERS TO STRAND THEATRE

Peter Gill's new play The York Realist, is to transfer to the Strand Theatre from 8th Mar 02 to 20th Apr 02.

The play finishes a sell-out run at the Royal Court Downstairs on 9th Feb 02 where it received good notices from the popular press: GUARDIAN said, "Qualities of emotional intelligence, raw honesty and fascination with the intersection of class and sex." THE INDEPENDENT said, "An exquisitely crafted drama." THE EVENING STANDARD said, "The York Realist by veteran dramatist Peter Gill is sensationally fine and poignant.

The play is directed by Peter Gill , designed by Hartley T A Kemp and produced by English Touring Theatre. It will continue to feature Richard Coyle, Lloyd Owen, Felix Bell, , Ian Mercer, Wendy Nottingham, Caroline O'Neill and Anne Reid.

At heart the play is a gay love story set in York in the early 1960s. While putting on the York Miracle Plays, a middle class young man has met a working class man and tries to persuade him to leave York for London, where he is working in the theatre. But unlike so many working class artists in the 1960s, he stays at home. The play is also a meditation on art, and in particular on the existence of an alternative tradition in English art ­ a working class, realistic tradition that goes back to the York Realist ­ the anonymous author of the York Mystery Cycles whose work is both tough and emotional, unsentimental and profoundly felt.