Further casting is announced for the West End transfer of Chichester Festival Theatre’s critically-acclaimed production of Shakespeare’s King Lear, directed by Jonathan Munby, which will run at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London for 100 performances only from 11th July to 3rd November 2018.
Reprising their roles at the Duke of York’s Theatre, following a sold-out season at Chichester Festival Theatre last year, will be the previously announced Ian McKellen as King Lear, alongside Kirsty Bushell (Regan), Richard Clews (Gentleman Informer / Old Man), Sinéad Cusack (Kent), John Hastings (Curan / Doctor), Jake Mann (Burgundy / Lear’s Knight), Michael Matus (Oswald), Caleb Roberts (King of France), and Danny Webb (Gloucester). They will be joined in the West End by James Corrigan (Edmund), Anthony Howell (Albany), Lloyd Hutchinson (Fool), James Millard, Johanne Murdock, Jessica Murrain, Claire Price (Goneril), Daniel Rabin (Cornwall), Scott Sparrow (Albany’s Man), Luke Thompson (Edgar), Anita-Joy Uwajeh (Cordelia), and John Vernon.
It is also announced that King Lear will be broadcast live to cinemas across the UK and internationally on Thursday 27th September with National Theatre Live. NT Live currently screens to 2500 venues across 60 countries.
Two ageing fathers – one a King, one his courtier – reject the children who truly love them. Their blindness unleashes a tornado of pitiless ambition and treachery as family and state are plunged into a violent power struggle with shocking ends.
Tender, brutal, moving and epic, King Lear is considered by many to be the greatest tragedy ever written.
Ian McKellen returns to the Duke of York’s Theatre where he made his West End debut in the 1964 production of A Scent of Flowers. He has since enjoyed an illustrious career on stage and screen, not least inhabiting some of Shakespeare’s most iconic roles including Hamlet, Macbeth, Iago, Richard II and III as well as in previous productions of King Lear as Edgar, Kent and in the title role.
Jonathan Munby’s credits include his new production of Bryony Lavery’s Frozen in the West End; First Light for Chichester Festival Theatre; All the Angels, The Merchant of Venice and Antony and Cleopatra for Shakespeare’s Globe; and Wendy & Peter Pan for the RSC.
£5 tickets will be available as part of Chichester Festival Theatre’s Prologue scheme for 16-25 year olds. Tickets can be purchased on the day of performance in person from the Duke of York’s Box Office, when proof of age ID will be required.
ATG Productions, Chichester Festival Theatre, Gavin Kalin Productions and Glass Half Full Productions present Chichester Festival Theatre’s production of King Lear by William Shakespeare which is directed by Jonathan Munby, designed by Paul Wills with lighting by Oliver Fenwick, music and sound by Ben Ringham and Max Ringham, with movement direction by Lucy Cullingford and fight direction by Kate Waters.
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