News: Dates added and cast finalised for UK tour of Ben Brown’s A Splinter of Ice

Further dates have been added for the UK tour of Ben Brown’s new play A Splinter of Ice. Starring Oliver Ford Davies, Stephen Boxer and Karen Ascoe, the production opens at Malvern Festival Theatre on 8 June.

A brand new political drama, A Splinter of Ice is Original Theatre Company’s first live stage production since the closure of theatres in March 2020.

Cast includes newly announced Karen Ascoe as Rufa Philby, Oliver Ford Davies as Graham Greene and Stephen Boxer as Kim Philby.

The tour is directed by Alan Strachan with Alastair Whatley, with the production also available online until 31 July, filmed at Cheltenham Everyman Theatre, with Sara Crowe as Rufa Philby.

A Splinter of Ice takes place in Moscow 1987 and the cold war begins to thaw. After declining his offer for more than 30 years, novelist Graham Greene travels into the heart of the Soviet Union to meet with his old MI6 boss, Kim Philby.  Under the watchful eye of Russian memoirist and Philby’s last wife, Rufa, the two men set about catching up on old times.

With a new world order breaking out around them, how much did the writer of The Third Man know about Philby’s secret life as a spy and did Philby betray his friend as well as his country?

From the writer of the award-winning West End play Three Days in May, which inspired the Oscar-winning film Darkest Hour, Ben Brown’s new drama explores an unlikely friendship; a friendship interwoven with deceit and loyalty.

The show features design by Michael Pavelka, with original music composed and sound designed by Max Pappenheim, lighting designed by Jason Taylor and casting by Ellie Collyer-Bristow CDG.

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