Fiennes Leads Cast of 100 for BITE Julius CaesarDate: 3 December 2004
British film star Ralph Fiennes (pictured) is due to return to the London stage next year to lead a 100-plus cast in Deborah Warner’s epic new staging of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. The production will play from 20 April to 14 May 2004 (previews from 14 April) at the Barbican Theatre prior to a European tour to Paris, Madrid and Luxembourg.
Fiennes will play Mark Antony in the classic political tale of conspiracy and treachery in ancient Rome. The actor returned to the stage twice in 2003, in the world premiere of Christopher Hampton’s The Talking Cure at the National and in the RSC’s revival of Ibsen’s Brand in Stratford and the West End.
A former RSC regular, Fiennes' more recent Shakespeare appearances in the capital have included celebrated Almeida productions of Coriolanus and Richard II as well as the 1995 Hackney-based Hamlet, which won him a Tony and a New York Drama Desk Best Actor Award when it transferred to Broadway. Fiennes' award-winning film work includes Schindler's List, The End of the Affair, Onegin, The English Patient, Quiz Show, Oscar and Lucinda and Strange Days.
No further casting has yet been announced for Julius Caesar, which will be designed by Tom Pye, with lighting by Jean Kalman, music by Mel Mercier and sound by Christopher Shutt. The Shakespeare follows this year’s success with The Black Rider, starring Marianne Faithfull, as only the second show produced by the Barbican itself. It’s co-produced with Theatre National du Chaillot, Paris, Teatro Espanol, Madrid and Grand Theatre de la Ville, Luxembourg, in association with the Young Vic Theatre Company.
Other highlights announced today as part of the BITE:05 (Barbican International Theatre Events 2005) programme include the Abbey Theatre Dublin’s centenary production of Sean O’Casey’s The Plough and the Stars (running from 18 to 29 January) and the French-language production of Carol Rocamora’s two-hander Ta main dans la mienne (Your Hand in Mine), directed by legendary British theatre director Peter Brook (26 January to 12 February).
- by Terri Paddock
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