Jacobi & Grandage Reunite for King Lear???

The current Donmar West End production of Twelfth Night at Wyndham’s Theatre is the third collaboration between actor Derek Jacobi and director Michael Grandage, and it’s unlikely to be the last. In an exclusive post-show Q&A at our Whatsonstage.com Outing to the production this week (See News, 7 Jan 2009), Jacobi declared Grandage to be “the best, greatest director that we have in this country … I revere this man”.

Amongst his future aspirations, Jacobi acknowledged that he was getting to a point where he’s readying himself to jump through the King Lear “hoop”, which he’d like Michael Grandage to direct – but not too soon.

Jacobi told Whatsonstage.com theatregoers: “If you have any aspirations to be a classical actor, then as a young actor you go through the Hamlet hoop to try to be accepted into the club, and then as an older actor you go through the Lear hoop … I do want to do it, but I just want to do it at the right time. Of course I want to do it with Michael as well. But Ian McKellen has just done it. That makes it unplayable for the next two years at least.”