Gambon Plays Falstaff for NT Travelex Henry IVDate: 17 August 2004
Michael Gambon (pictured) is confirmed to play Falstaff in Shakespeare’s Henry IV Parts 1 & 2 at the National Theatre next year (See The Goss, 10 Aug 2004).
Though exact dates have not yet been finalised, the two plays, directed by NT artistic director Nicholas Hytner, will be the opening productions in the 2005 Travelex £10 season in the NT Olivier. They will begin previewing in April and then open together in early May 2005.
The double bill follows Hytner’s 2003 staging of the bard’s subsequent history play, Henry V, which starred Adrian Lester and won this year’s Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers’ Choice Award for Best Shakespearean Production. Henry V launched the inaugural Travelex season, in which two-thirds of the seats in the National’s largest auditorium are reduced to just £10 for four productions running in repertory over six months.
Gambon was a member of the National’s 1963 inaugural season, under the directorship of Laurence Olivier at the Old Vic, but his last major NT outing was 1995’s premiere of David Hare’s Skylight, which transferred to the West End and Broadway. More recently, he’s been seen on stage in Endgame (earlier this year with comedian Lee Evans) and The Caretaker in the West End and Caryl Churchill’s A Number at the Royal Court.
The Dublin-born actor’s many screen credits include The Singing Detective, Dancing at Lughnasa, The Insider, Sleepy Hollow, Longitude, Gosford Park, Charlotte Gray, Sylvia, Angels in America and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
No further casting or creative details for Henry IV have yet been announced.
- by Terri Paddock
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