The Apple Family
By Richard Nelson
Alongside the run of The Gathered Leaves, PostScript Productions are delighted to present rehearsed readings of The Apple Family and The Gabriels by Richard Nelson, the critically acclaimed play cycles about loss, memory and remembrance in America’s recent past.
The Apple Family is a quartet of plays following the Apple family of Rhinebeck, New York, as they grapple with events both personal and political in their immediate present: the 2010 election (That Hopey Changey Thing), the tenth anniversary of 9/11 (Sweet and Sad), Obama’s re-election (Sorry), and the fiftieth anniversary of JFK’s assassination (Regular Singing).
Delicately constructed and precisely observed, the quartet of plays is a masterpiece of stage naturalism and a powerful reminder of theatre’s unique capacity for civic dialogue and public communion.
13.00 – That Hopey Changey Thing
15.15 – Sweet and Sad
17.30 – Sorry
20.00 – Regular Singing
There will be 30 minute intervals between each reading, and a one hour break before the final reading of each day.
Buying a day ticket to the show will grant you access to all the readings that day.
PostScript Productions is association with Park Theatre.
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Mon
13.00, 15.15, 17.30 & 20.00
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Genre
Drama
In the press
"An extraordinary theatrical event...a contemporary Chekhov"
Michael Billington, The Guardian
"A rare and radiant mirror of the way we live"
Ben Brantley, New York Times
Cast and Creatives
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Selina Cadell
Selina Cadell
Theatre includes: THE TEMPEST (Theatre Royal Drury Lane), A MONSTER CALLS (The Old Vic/Bristol Old Vic), HUMBLE BOY (Orange Tree Theatre), THE DRESSER (Duke of York’s), PEOPLE, THE HABIT OF ART, STANLEY (all National Theatre), THE LINE (Arcola), THE CHERRY ORCHARD (Old Vic & BAM/New York), THE CLEAN HOUSE (Sheffield Crucible), THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR (Chichester Festival Theatre), THE RIVALS (Bristol Old Vic), NOISES OFF (Comedy Theatre), A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (Albery Theatre), TWELFTH NIGHT and UNCLE VANYA (Donmar Warehouse).
TV work includes: MIDSOMER MURDERS, DOC MARTIN series I-X, LITVINENKO, QUEENS OF MYSTERY, LOVE NINA, THE LADY VANISHES, FATHER BROWN, TOAST, UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS, SPOOKS, LEWIS, MIDSOMER MURDERS; BREMNER, BIRD AND FORTUNE; THE CATHERINE TATE SHOW, THE AMAZING MRS PRITCHARD, CASANOVA, SENSITIVE SKIN, FOYLE’S WAR, SWORD OF HONOUR, GREAT EXPECTATIONS, AS TIME GOES BY, PEOPLE LIKE US
Film includes: THE LADY IN THE VAN, PAPADOPOULOS & SONS, GAMBIT, NATIVITY, HEREAFTER, CONFETTI , SNOWCAKE, FESTIVAL, MATCHPOINT, MRS DALLOWAY and THE MADNESS OF KING GEORGE.
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Oliver Cotton
Oliver Cotton
Theatre credits include: Oliver Cotton began his career at the National Theatre when it was under the directorship of Laurence Olivier, and he has continued to work there over the years. His appearances at the National Theatre include: Love For Love, In His Own Write, As You Like It, The Royal Hunt of The Sun, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Oedipus, Summer folk, Troilus and Cressida, Piano, The Crucible, Despatches, The World Turned Upside Down, Half-Life, The Passion, The Madras House, Julius Caesar, Tales From the Vienna Woods, No Man’s Land, Hamlet, Tamburlaine. At the Old Vic he has appeared in: Life X 3, Richard II, A Flea in Her Ear and The Philadelphia Story –and at the Royal Court Theatre: Bingo, Man Is Man, The Duchess of Malfi, The Tutor, Erogenous Zones, Captain Oates Left Sock, The Local Stigmatic, Piano Forte. For the RSC he has appeared in Some Americans Abroad, The Plain Dealer, The Plantagenets, The Marrying of Ann Leete and Brand. At Shakespeare’s Globe, King Henry IV parts I and II and Twelfth Night. In London’s West End he has starred in: An Ideal Husband, Benefactors, Children of a Lesser God, Brand, The Homecoming, Passion Play and Daytona.TV appearances include: The Borgias (Cesare Borgia), Killing Eve, Lovejoy, New Tricks, Assets, Penny Dreadful, Three Musketeers, David Copperfield, The Year of The French, The Party, Redemption, Poirot, The Camomile Lawn, West beach, Sharpe’s Battle, Rhodes, All Quiet on the Preston Front, Innocents, Judge John Deed, Waking The Dead, Margaret, Money and Ripper Street.
Screen credits include: The Borgias (Showtime Networks); Killing Eve (Sid Gentle Films); Lovejoy, New Tricks (BBC); The Assets (Baltic Film Services); Penny Dreadful (Desert Wolf Productions); Three Musketeers (BBC); David Copperfield (BBC); The Year of The French (FR£ Lyon); Poirot (Carnival Film & Television); The Camomile Lawn (Channel 4); Westbeach (BBC); Sharpe (Celtic Films Entertainment); Rhodes, All Quiet on the Preston Front, Judge John Deed, Waking The Dead (BBC); Margaret (Great Meadow Productions); Money (BBC); Ripper Street (Tiger Aspect Productions); Here We Go Around the Mulberry Bush (Giant Film Productions); The Day Christ Died (20th Century Fox); Baby Blue (Shooting Star Film Company); The Dark Knight Rises (The Dark Knight Rises); Gangs of Tooting Broadway (Indian Summer Films); Pope Joan (Constantin Film); Out of the Ashes (Ardent Productions); Shanghai Knights (Touchstone Pictures); The Dancer Upstairs (Fox Searchlight Pictures); Innocents (United Television Stonehenge Films); Beowulf (The Kushner-Locke Company); The Opium War (Emei Film Studio); Eleni (CBS Entertainment Production); The Innocent Sleep (Timedial Films); Son of the Pink Panther (Filmauro); Christopher Columbus: The Discovery (Christopher Columbus Productions); Hiding Out (DEG); The Sicilian (Gladden Entertainment); Firefox (Major Studio Partners); Oliver Twist (Claridge Productions); Us Among The Stones (Caspian Films); and The Last Duel (20th Century Studios).
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Jemma Redgrave
Jemma Redgrave
Theatre credits include: Octopolis and Farewell To The Theatre (Hampstead Theatre); Mood Music (Old Vic); Donkey’s Years (Rose Theatre, Kingston); The Great Game: Afghanistan (Tricycle Theatre); An Ideal Husband and The Cherry Orchard (Chichester Festival Theatre).
Screen credits include: The Beekeeper (dir. David Ayer); Love and Friendship (dir. Whit Stillman); Wolfe (Sky); Doctor Who, Holby City, Silent Witness, The Grid, Frankie, Fish and The Buddha of Suburbia (all BBC); Grantchester, Bramwell and Cold Blood (all ITV); Howard’s End (dir. James Ivory) and the upcoming Russell T Davies series The War Between The Land And The Sea for BBC Studios.
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Rhashan Stone
Rhashan Stone
Theatre credits include: Ghosts (Lyric Hammersmith); Tambo & Bones (Stratford East); Into The Woods (Bath); Fairview (Young Vic); All About Eve (Noel Coward Theatre); The Strange Death Of John Doe and The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide To Capitalism & Socialism (Hampstead Theatre); Our Town (Almeida); Love And Information, Clubland (Royal Court); Simply Heavenly (Young Vic & Trafalgar Studios); Southwark Fair, The Red Balloon, Sweeney Todd (National Theatre); Henry VI, Richard III, Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, Camino Real (Royal Shakespeare Company); A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum (Regent’s Park); Present Laughter (West Yorkshire Playhouse); As You Like It (Cheek By Jowl) and Five Guys Named Moe (Lyric West End).
Screen credits include: Midsomer Murders (ITV); The Chelsea Detective (Expectation); All The Light We Cannot See (21 Laps Entertainment); Hollington Drive (ITV); The Trick (Vox Pictures); McDonald & Dodds (Mammoth Screen); Baptiste (Two Brothers); Finding Alice (Bright Pictures); Keeping Faith (Vox Pictures); Delicious (Bandit Television); Carters Get Rich (Roughcut TV); Apple Tree Yard (Kudos); The A Word (Fifty Fathoms); Ballot Monkeys (Hat Trick); 24 –Live Another Day (Imagine Television); Bluestone 42 (BBC); The Smoke (Kudos); Silk, Black Mirror, Strikeback (Left Bank Pictures); Episodes (Hat Trick); The Land Girls (BBC Drama Group); Outnumbered (Hat Trick); Perfect Day (World Productions); Bodies (Hat Trick) Desmonds (Channel 4); Alone Time (Seraph Films); Eve (Fablemaze); Three And Out (RMPC) and Wondrous Oblivion (APT Films).
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Owen Teale
Owen Teale
Theatre credits include: A Christmas Carol (Old Vic, London and Comedy Theatre, Melbourne); Rutherford and Son (Sheffield Crucible); No Man’s Land (Wyndham’s Theatre and UK tour); Gaslight (Royal Alexandra Theatre, Toronto); The Broken Heart (Globe Theatre); Under Milk Wood (Theatre Clwyd and tour); Macbeth and Mary Stuart (Theatre Clwyd); Creditors (Donmar Warehouse); The Dance of Death (Lyric Theatre); The Country (Royal Court); A Doll’s House (West End and Broadway); Love’s Labour’s Lost, King Lear and Julius Caesar (Royal Shakespeare Company).
Screen credits include: Game of Thrones (HBO); Line of Duty (BBC); The Rig (Wild Mercury Productions); Wolf (BBC One and BBC Wales); A Discovery of Witches (Bad Wolf); The Pembrokeshire Murders (Severn Screen); Traitors (Channel 4); Deep State (Endor for FOX); River (Kudos/BBC); Stella (Sky);The Hollow Crown (Neal Street/BBC); Silk (BBC); Torchwood (BBC); Cleopatra (Hallmark); Kidnap and Ransom (ITV); The Children (ITV); The Last Detective, Lewis (ITV); Save The Cinema (Sky); Dream Horse (Cornerstone Films); Tolkein (Fox Searchlight Pictures); Nocturne (Bonafide Films); Conspiracy (HBO); The Last Legion (De Laurentis Company); King Arthur (Greenhill Productions); Robin Hood (FOX) and The Cherry Orchard (Melanda Film).
Owen trained at the Guildford School of Acting. In 2022 he won the Best Actor at the BAFTA Cymru Awards for Dream Horse, and the 1997 Tony Award for Best Supporting Actor for A Doll’s House.
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Olivia Williams
Olivia Williams
Olivia Williams is a celebrated British actress in film, television, and theatre. She is widely remembered for her role as ‘Anna Crowe’ in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense and as ‘Rosemary Cross’ in Wes Anderson’s definitive film, Rushmore.
Olivia was most recently seen leading HBO’s new adventure drama Dune: Prophecy, as ‘Tula Harkonnen’. The show serves as both a prequel and an expansion of Denis Villeneuve’s revered ‘Dune’ franchise, based on Frank Herbet’s iconic sci-fi novels. Prior to this, Olivia also played ‘Gloria’ in the second season of Sky’s showbiz comedy Funny Woman, alongside Gemma Arterton. Earlier this year she shot the third series of Netflix’s’ Monster alongside Laurie Metcalf and Tom Hollander.
In 2023, Olivia reprised her role as now Queen consort ‘Camilla Parker Bowles’ for the sixth and final season of the hugely popular, Emmy winning series The Crown. For the consecutive years of her tenure in the role, Olivia and her castmates – including Elizabeth Debicki, Lesley Manville and Dominic West – were nominated for ‘Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series’ at the SAG awards.
Olivia appeared in Ten Percent – the UK remake of the hit French series Call My Agent – in 2022. In the same year, she also starred as ‘The President’ in The Impact, joined Sir Lenny Henry in the BBC’s My Name Is Leon, and appeared in the comedy The Trouble with Jessica.
Olivia starred in The Father in 2020. The devastating portrait of an elderly man (Sir Anthony Hopkins) descending into dementia went on to win multiple BAFTA Film and Academy Awards. That same year, Olivia joined HBO’s fantasy series The Nevers. In 2017, Olivia appeared in ITV’s The Halcyon, starred opposite Academy Award winner JK Simmons in the US series Counterpart, and opposite Dame Judi Dench in Victoria and Abdul.
Olivia’s multitude of films projects include starring alongside Paul Bettany and Helena Bonham Carter in The Heart Of Me, for which she received a BIFA award for Best Actress. She appeared alongside Saoirse Ronan and Cate Blanchett in the sleeper hit Hanna, directed by BAFTA-winner Joe Wright. Wright then cast her a second time in his stunning version of Anna Karenina with Keira Knightley. In The Ghost Writer, Olivia won the award for Best Supporting actress from both the US National Society of Film Critics and the London Critics’ Circle for the role ‘Ruth Lang’. She also starred in Sex & Drugs & Rock And Roll with Andy Serkis and Lone Scherfig’s Oscar-nominated An Education. Other credits include Peter Pan, Hyde Park On Hudson, which saw Olivia star opposite Bill Murray for the second time, and David Cronenberg’s 2024 feature Maps To The Stars alongside Julianne Moore and Robert Pattinson. Other film credits include Altar, Man Up, Last Days On Mars, and The Body alongside Antonio Banderas. Olivia has also lent her voice to hugely successful animations Valiant and Justin And The Knights Of Valour. She was handpicked by Kevin Coster to make her film debut in The Postman.
Olivia’s previous TV work includes Salting The Battlefield with Bill Nighy and the highly praised portrayal of Jane Austen in Miss Austen Regrets. She played the lead role in Agatha Christie: A Life In Pictures for the BBC. Olivia was cast as arch manipulator ‘Adelle DeWitt’ in Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse and played the role of scientist ‘Liza Winter’ in Manhattan. Other TV credits include Jane Austen’s Emma, Friends, Case Sensitive and Spaced.
Olivia earned a degree in English at Cambridge University, before studying drama at the prestigious Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
In 2022, she was seen on stage at the Donmar Warehouse in Marys Seacole, after teaming up with Olivia Colman as ‘Alice’ in Rufus Norris’ Mosquitoes at the National Theatre in 2017. In 2015, Olivia astounded audiences in the critically acclaimed production Waste. Olivia’s other theatre credits include Neil Labute’s In A Forest Dark And Deep at the Vaudeville Theatre, Richard III starring Sir Ian McKellen, Love’s Labour’s Lost, and the critically celebrated role of Kitty in Happy Now (all with the National Theatre). She also appeared in The Hotel In Amsterdam at the Donmar Warehouse. She toured with Cheek By Jowl playing Beatrice Joanna in The Changeling and performed in Peer Gynt, The Wives’ Excuse, and Wallenstein (all RSC) and A View From The Bridge (Palace Theatre, Westcliff).
Olivia was appointed as a judge for the Man Booker prize 2016, considering over 150 novels and awarding the prize to Paul Beatty’s The Sellout, the first US winner of the award.
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Richard Nelson
Writer
Richard Nelson
Writer
Richard Nelson has directed over twenty of his plays, as well as those by Chekhov and Turgenev. His plays include The Michaels, Illyria, The Gabriels (Hungry, What Did You Expect? and Women of a Certain Age), The Apple Family Plays (That Hopey Changey Thing, Sweet and Sad, Sorry and Regular Singing), Conversations in Tusculum, Nikolai and the Others, Farewell to the Theatre, An Actor Convalescing in Devon, Goodnight Children Everywhere (Olivier Award Best Play), Two Shakespearean Actors (Tony Nomination, Best Play), Some Americans Abroad (Olivier Nomination, Best Comedy) and others. His musicals include James Joyce’s The Dead (with Shaun Davey, Tony Award Best Book of a Musical, Tony nomination for Best Musical); his screenplays include Hyde Park on Hudson (directed by Roger Michell). With Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, he has co-translated plays by Chekhov, Gogol, Turgenev and Bulgakov. He is an honorary associate artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company and recipient of the PEN/Laura Pels ‘Master Playwright’ Award. He recently directed his play, Notre Vie Dans l’Artat the Théâtre du Soleil, in Paris, translated by Ariane Mnouchkine. He lives in Upstate New York.
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Clarissa Brown
Director
Clarissa Brown
Director
Clarissa first worked with Richard Nelson at the RSC as Assistant Director to Roger Michell on Nelson’s award-winning play Two Shakespearean Actors (1990) and most recently she directed his play An Actor Convalescing in Devon–a one man play written specially for actor Paul Jesson which premiered at Hampstead Downstairs (2024) before touring to the Ustinov, Bath Theatre Royal and the RSC Swan (2025). She has run a number of new writing projects at The Other Place and is an Associate Director of Claque Theatre, founders of Ann Jellicoe’s community play movement –another interest shared with Richard Nelson. Here she directed numerous promenade plays by Jon Oram including their collaboration on the Fightback tour with the Kent Miners. Her work on David Edgar’s community play Entertaining Strangers led to her being Researcher and Associate Director on Edgar’s RSC play Pentecost which won Best New Play of The Year Award. She has made documentaries with Films of Record, received two play commissions from the Hong Kong Fringe and the British Council. Her play Erosion received a commendation from Soho Theatre’s Westminster Prize.
By the same writer
The Gabriels
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Park200
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Past event
The Apple Family freesheet
The Apple Family freesheet
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