Theatre News

Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart bring No Man's Land to the UK

The actors will perform Harold Pinter’s play on a UK tour and in the West End

Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart
Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart

Actors Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart will reunite to star in Harold Pinter's No Man's Land in the UK.

The play arrives following a run in New York in 2014 and opens at the Sheffield Lyceum on 3 August. It will then tour the UK before arriving in the West End at Wyndham's Theatre on 8 September for 14 weeks.

The duo starred together in Samuel Beckett's surreal piece Waiting for Godot which ran at the theatre Royal Haymarket in 2014, and then transferred to New York where it ran in rep with No Man's Land.

The play follows two ageing writers Hirst and Spooner who meet in a pub in Hampstead and get increasingly drunk as the evening wears on. Sean Mathias directs the production which received positive reviews on Broadway, including four stars from the New York Times. McKellen plays Spooner, while Stewart plays Hirst.

McKellen said: "Playing Spooner to Patrick’s Hirst on Broadway was a constant joy, which is why I am delighted to be back with him in the West End."

Stewart added: "I saw the original production of No Man's Land three times in one week at Wyndham's Theatre. I made a promise to myself that one day I would play Spooner or Hirst but to be doing it back at Wyndham's with Ian McKellen was a fantasy I never entertained."

The first production of No Man's Land opened at the National Theatre (when it was based at the Old Vic Theatre) in 1975 and starred Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud. It then transferred to Wyndham's Theatre.

In the West End, there will be over 100 tickets per performance priced at £20 or less. Other venues in the tour include Theatre Royal, Newcastle, Theatre Royal, Brighton and New Theatre, Cardiff.

No Man's Land runs at the Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield between 3 and 13 August before touring the UK. It arrives in the West End at Wyndham's Theatre for a 14 week season from 8 September.

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