THE northern premiere of Arthur Miller's funny, compassionate and profoundly moving play, The Last Yankee opens next week.

David Thacker is back in the director's chair to bring the play to the Bolton Library Lecture Theatre, as the Octagon undergoes a multi-million pound transformation.

Renowned for his work on Miller, Professor Thacker, head of the BA (Hons) Theatre and Performance Degree at the University of Bolton, worked closely with the American playwright and now brings his contemporary drama about mental health to life in the Bolton Library ­— having previously directed acclaimed productions of Miller’s All My Sons, An Enemy of the People and A View From the Bridge at the Octagon Theatre, where he was artistic director.

Author of Death of a Salesman, A View from the Bridge and The Crucible, Miller forged a close professional and personal friendship with director David Thacker and The Last Yankee premiered at the Young Vic in 1993 was directed by Thacker.

The cast for this new production will include David Ricardo-Pearce who performed in David Thacker’s production of Hamlet at the Octagon in 2018, and another familiar face to Octagon audiences, Patrick Poletti who performed in David Thacker’s Arthur Miller productions All My Sons and A View From The Bridge.

Annie Tyson will play opposite Patrick Poletti as Karen Frick. Annie worked with Prof Thacker on Octagon productions Love on the Dole and A Streetcar Named Desire in 2010. Juliet Aubrey worked with Prof Thacker on BBC Television productions of Death of a Salesman, Dalziel and Pascoe, The Mayor of Casterbridge and Measure for Measure.

Prof Thacker said: “The Last Yankee is not one of Miller’s best known works but it is so relevant to issues high on the agenda. It puts mental health and perceptions and understanding of the issue at the forefront and it has huge contemporary relevance. I believe it is even more important now than it was in 1993. Like all of Arthur Miller’s work, it is a prescient, funny and moving play.”

The production, presented by the University of Bolton, Bolton Council and the Library and Museum Services and is supported by the Octagon Theatre.

The play is set in and around a psychiatric hospital in which two men visit their wives. Both women struggle with depression and addiction to prescription drugs.

Once described as ‘the handsomest pair in town’, Patty and her carpenter husband, Leroy, now struggle to make ends meet whilst trying to create a home for their seven children.

John Frick, a wealthy businessman, can’t understand why Karen, ‘a women who has everything she could possibly want’, has inexplicably ‘lost all her optimism’.

In a world where so many people experience mental health concerns, Arthur Miller’s funny, compassionate and profoundly moving play is described as giving hope to us all.

Professor Thacker, head of the BA (Hons) Theatre and Performance Degree at the University of Bolton.

The Last Yankee will be performed in Bolton Library Lecture Theatre from February 28 to March 16

Tickets are available from the Octagon website octagonbolton.co.uk/whats-on/theatre/the-last-yankee/