Conn Artists and The George Eliot Fellowship Celebrate the Bicentenary of one of the Nation’s most Treasured Authors with a Regional Tour of Stage Play ‘Silas Marner’.
Conn Artists Theatre Company in association with Worthing Theatres and The George Eliot Fellowship present their fresh and uplifting stage version of Silas Marner by George Eliot. The tour opens at the Connaught Theatre, Worthing on Thursday 26th September and tours the UK regionally until Saturday 19th October 2019.
The play tells the story of a poor weaver wrongfully condemned and outcast from society, who becomes a doomed miser and recluse, until he is forced to take in a young orphan girl. Their mutual friendship leads to joy, love and his redemption.
Silas Marner, the great Victorian epic novel, is thrillingly and theatrically brought to the stage in the bicentenary year of George Eliot’s birth by the acclaimed Conn Artists Theatre Company, following on from their hit production of The Four Men.
The heart moving action, set in the early years of the 19th century, is performed by an ensemble cast of seven actors accompanied by music and songs of the period.Silas Marner was originally adapted for the stage by Geoffrey Beevers from George Eliot’s novel of the same name. Originally created by Geoffrey for the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond, this revival by Conn Artists Theatre Company is to tour the play regionally for the first time. Supported by Arts Council England, The George Eliot Fellowship and Worthing Theatres, the production will tour to 14 venues after the Connaught Theatre.
The story contains powerful and socially engaging themes relevant to audiences today including
the integration of the lonely individual into the community and explores social cohesion; the goodness to be found in everyday human relations, the importance of acts of kindness
between people; the pursuit of money not leading to happiness; adoption; and th
e chance of salvation from a point of spiritual despair. This is why Conn Artists have chosen to produce the piece as the issues explored are so topical especially when considering im
migration, the break-up or loss of communities, more diverse and unconventional forms of fa
mily life; and today’s over-emphasis on the accumulation of wealth.
Silas Marner Tour will be showing at: Connaught Theatre, Worthing on 26th, 27th and 28th September – www.worthingtheatres.co.uk and The Capitol, Horsham on 13th October – www.thecapitolhorsham.com.
