Simon Callow gets Inside Wagner’s Head at Royal Opera House in September

Simon Callow will write and star in a one-man show about Richard Wagner at the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Studio this September.

The show, which is titled Inside Wagner’s Head, promises to be “as controversial as the man himself”. Specially commissioned for this year’s Deloitte Ignite contemporary arts festival curated by Stephen Fry and The Royal Opera, it runs from 6-29 September.

Callow, who has previously performed in solo shows based on the lives of Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare, will draw on Wagner’s own writing including his autobiography for the show, which “tries to show what Wagner was actually like, and what it was like to be around him”.

Callow said of the German composer: “To know Wagner is to become obsessed by him. I’ve tried to show how utterly original the man was. How shocking, how funny, how profound, how destructive. He is one of the absolute Titans of Western Art who often behaved disgracefully. I hope the audience will be appalled, amused and finally moved by the man. I certainly have been.”

Inside Wagner’s Head is directed by Theatre Royal Plymouth artistic director Simon Stokes, with design by Robin Don, lighting design by Rick Fisher and sound design by Adrienne Quartly.