Introducing Kane Husbands, associate director of our community production of A Tale of Two Cities, which takes place in November at Central Hall, Darlington, where Charles Dickens himself read in 1858.

Kane Husbands is a theatre director specialising in movement, physical theatre and choreography. He has his own company The Pappy Show, and is an associate for National Youth Theatre and Squint Theatre. He is currently a part of Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures and Re:Bourne, 2016/17 Overture cohort. In 2012 and 2014, Kane choreographed the London Olympic, Paralympic and Glasgow Commonwealth Team Welcoming Ceremonies. Kane has choreographed dance-theatre pieces that have toured China, directed mass-ensemble site-specific performances and developed regional community theatre performances. Kane has worked with the National Theatre, Old Vic New Voices, MAC Birmingham, Sheffield Crucible, SCOOP Outdoor Theatre, Rose Bruford College, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, National Youth Theatre, King Abdulaziz Centre  for World Culture, National Theatre Scotland, Tricycle Theatre and others.

Kane is thrilled to be working with the Darlington Civic Theatre on this Community Retelling of Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, of which he says: 

I guess I was excited to work on A Tale of Two Cities for a number of reasons. I haven’t worked that much in the North-East before so I was really curious to spend some time in this part of the UK, and because of the fact this is a community piece spanning a couple of months, I felt I'd really get to know Darlington and the people. The story is an absolute classic, and comments a lot on our current times and the extremes we see in everyday society; the gap between the rich and poor, themes of love and heartbreak, life and death, betrayal, and sacrifice are all thrown in there. I was excited by the epic scale of the piece and I knew an ensemble would really have their work cut out for them in a performance of the scale. In this sense the challenge excites me. Finally, the team show absolute promise. I hadn’t worked with many people who are on board and I knew this would be a really great opportunity for me to work with a whole heap of fantastic and talented people.