Stage and screen star Tuppence Middleton (The Motive and The Cue, Downton Abbey) has joined the cast of The Years, which is now playing at the Harold Pinter Theatre for its final five-week run.
She has replaced Romola Garai in Eline Arbo’s adaptation of Nobel Prize winner Annie Ernaux’s semi-autobiographical novel. Garai’s last performance came on Saturday, March 8, with the play ending on April 19.
Middleton joins a company that also includes Deborah Findlay, Gina McKee, Anjli Mohindra and Harmony Rose-Bremner, all playing one woman in this personal and political story, set against the backdrop of a rapidly changing world.
She strikes a pose and the camera shutter clicks: a child playing in the debris of the Second World War. Click. A student discovering parties and men’s bodies. Click. An activist fighting for the right to choose. Click. A wife picking out a velvet sofa. Click. A mother taking her eldest to judo. Click. A lover seducing a younger man. Click. A grandmother presenting her granddaughter to the camera. Click.
The original production and adaptation of The Years was first produced as De Jaren by Het Nationale Theater in The Hague, Netherlands, in 2022. Having previously run to critical acclaim at both the Internationaal Theater Amsterdam and at the Almeida Theatre, The Years is continuing to captivate audiences at The Harold Pinter Theatre and will run until 19 April 2025.
Arbo is the writer and director, with a creative team includes music supervisor and sound designer Thijs van Vuure, set designer Juul Dekker, costume designer Rebekka Wörmann, lighting designer Varja Klosse, casting director Amy Ball and associate director Yasmin Hafesji.
Tickets: www.theyearsplay.com
Top image: Tuppence Middleton – The Years – Photo Credit Helen Murray