Fences starring Lenny Henry comes to West End in June
As previously tipped, the Theatre Royal Bath revival of August Wilson’s Fences starring Lenny Henry will transfer to the West End’s Duchess Theatre in the summer.
The production, which is directed former Talawa artistic director Paulette Randall, opened in Bath last month and is currently on a UK tour. It will run at the Duchess from 19 June to 14 September 2013.
Wilson’s 1983 play, which forms part of the late dramatist’s epic
ten-play cycle about the black experience in 20th-century America,
centres on Troy Maxson (Henry), a former baseball star who is now a garbageman
and consumed by bitterness.
Fences was written in 1983 and made its Broadway premiere in 1987, starring James Earl Jones.
It went on to win a Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for
Drama. The play, which is set in Pittsburgh in 1957, was recently
revived on Broadway in an acclaimed production starring Denzel
Washington, though rumours of a West End transfer failed to materialise.
It was previously seen in the West End in 1990, in a production at the Garrick Theatre starring Yaphet Kotto and Adrian Lester.
The play marks the latest in a line of theatre roles that Lenny Henry – best known as a stand up comic and presenter of Red Nose Day – has tackled recently. He starred in the title role of Northern Broadsides’ production of Othello in 2009 and the National’s modern dress staging of The Comedy of Errors in 2011.
Come on our WhatsOnStage Outing to Fences on 17 July and get your top-price ticket, programme and access to our exclusive post-show Q&A, all for £30. Click here to book.
