Cast announced for Five Characters in Search of a Good Night’s Sleep at Southwark Playhouse

Casting has been announced for Five Characters in Search of a Good Night’s Sleep at London’s Southwark Playhouse.

The world premiere production from ViSiBLE, a theatre company dedicated to creating work focused on later life, will open on 29 April having originally been postponed in 2020 due to the pandemic.

The piece is devised by Mike Alfreds and Sonja Linden with the company – Geraldine Alexander, Andrew Hawkins, Sally Knyvette, Gary Lilburn and Vincenzo Nicoli.

Sonja Linden said: “It feels wonderful and very special to reunite our fantastic cast of older actors to share this production, having had to postpone the 2020 run. In this show we explore the universal experience of sleep and those moments where it proves elusive, something that many, particularly as we get older can relate to.”

Five insomniacs try to make it through the night. From dusk to dawn, they struggle with a crisis in their lives which they must resolve by morning. Increasingly conscious of their shortening futures and lengthening pasts, they fill their nights with distracting activities, desperate sleep techniques, evaluations of their lives, delusions, fears, panics and utter foolishness as they prepare to face the day.

Five Characters in Search of a Good Night’s Sleep has been developed over a two-year period through a series of workshop in which all the material for the play was created by the actors.

The production is directed by Mike Alfreds with set and costume design by Agnes Treplin and lighting design by Neill Brinkworth.

Five Characters in Search of a Good Night’s Sleep runs 29 April (Previews from 21 April) – 21 May with tickets on sale now from southwarkplayhouse.co.uk