New season announced at Theatre Royal Bath

American actor F Murray Abraham will star in the upcoming production of The Mentor in Theatre Royal Bath's Ustinov Studio.

Abraham won an Academy Award in 1983 for his role as Salieri in the film Amadeus and recently starred on the small screen in Homeland and The Good Wife.

He takes on the lead role in Daniel Kehlmann's play, which will be directed by Laurence Boswell, where an aging author comes head to head with a young rising literary star.

Elsewhere, Matthew Dunster will direct Plastic, Marius von Mayenburg's satire on political correctness in the Ustinov Studio.

Theatre Company Cheek By Jowl will arrive at the main house in Bath with their touring production of The Winter's Tale, while Headlong will bring a new production of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, directed by Sam Pritchard. The show will focus on class identity and how our voices define us.

Amanda Abbington will also star in a 40th anniversary production of Mike Leigh's Abigail's Party ahead of a West End transfer.

Later in the season Jessica Swale's play Nell Gwynn will run at the Theatre Royal after the show's run in the West End. The theatre also hosts a new production of Joe Orton's What the Butler Saw, which is a co-production between Bath and Leicester's Curve Theatre. Rufus Hound will star in the piece alongside Dakota Blue Richards. The show will be directed by Nikolai Foster.

The already announced Shirley Valentine will open in Bath with Jodie Prenger starring, while Sasha Regan's production of The Mikado will also run at the theatre.