Theatre News

Wire Stars in Sheffield Othello, CFT Syndicate

The Wire stars Clarke Peters and Dominic West will be reunited in a major revival of Othello, the centrepiece of Sheffield Theatres 40th anniversary season which will open in the Crucible Theatre on 20 September (previews from 15 September) running to 15 October 2011.

Sheffield Theatres’ artistic director Daniel Evans will direct Peters and West, who played Detective Lester Freamon and Jimmy McNulty in the cult American show, as Othello and Iago, alongside founding artistic director of the Crucible Theatre Colin George who returns to play Brabantio and Gratiano.

Peters’ theatre credits include Porgy and Bess (Savoy Theatre), Simply Heavenly (Trafalgar Studios), Mourning Becomes Electra, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (National Theatre), The Iceman Cometh (Almeida Theatre and on Broadway), Chicago (West End and on Broadway) and Kiss of the Spiderwoman (Shaftesbury Theatre). Last year he starred in a revival of Five Guys Named Moe, the 1990 West End musical for which he wrote the book, which travelled to the Edinburgh Fringe before a London run at the Theatre Royal Stratford East.

His television work includes Treme, Damages, The Corner, Jonathan Creek, Medics and Masculine Ending and for film Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, Freedomland, Gulliver’s Travels, Valediction, Endgame, Marley and Me and Notting Hill.

Dominic West‘s stage credits include Life is a Dream (Donmar Warehouse), Rock ‘n’ Roll (Duke of York’s Theatre), The Voysey Inheritance (National), As You Like It (Wyndham’s Theatre), Design for Living (Broadway), The Country Wife (Crucible Theatre) and The Seagull (Old Vic). He is currently starring in Simon Gray‘s Butley which opens at the Duchess Theatre on 6 June (previews from 31 May) following a short run in Brighton which ends on 28 May.

On screen West has been seen in John Carter of Mars, The Awakening, Johnny English Reborn, Centurion, From Time to Time, 300, Hannibal Rising, The Forgotten, Mona Lisa Smile, Rockstar, 28 Days and A Midsummer Night’s Dream with television credits including Appropriate Adult, The Hour, The Devil’s Whore and Nicholas Nickleby.

Colin George was appointed artistic director of the Crucible in 1965 and was involved in the design and building of the theatre. His was artistic director of the State Theatre Adelaide and Head of Acting at the Academy for Performing Arts in Hong Kong. His recent television credits includes ITV’s Afterlife, Doctors for the BBC and on film Shadow of China, Wong Fay Hung and documentary drama Northwest Passage.

Othello will be designed by Morgan Large with lighting design by Lucy Carter and sound design by Alex Baranowski.


Chichester Festival Theatre have announced full casting for their upcoming production of The Syndicate with Oliver Cotton, Cherie Lunghi and Jane Bertish joining the previously announced Ian McKellen and Michael Pennington in Mike Poulton’s new version of Eduardo De Filippo’s dark comedy.

Oliver Cotton‘s theatre credits include The Grapes of Wrath at Chichester, As You Like It and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead for the National Theatre, The Philadelphia Story The Old Vic, and West End productions of Benefactors, Children of a Lesser God and The Homecoming.

Cherie Lunghi‘s screen credits include the title role in the television series The Manageress, as well as Casualty and the film Excalibur. She was also a contestant in the 2008 series of Strictly Come Dancing.

Jane Bertish‘s stage credits include The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby at Chichester, transferring to the West End and Toronto, Tales from Vienna Woods for the National and Phaedra at the Old Vic and in the West End.

Ian McKellen is reunited with director Sean Mathias – who directed him to Whatsonstage.com Award-winning effect in Waiting for Godot in 2009 – to play an Italian crime boss named Don Antonio in The Syndicate which runs from 2 to 20 August 2011 (previews from 21 July). The production also stars Michael Pennington.


Finally, full casting has been announced for The Railway Children which returns to Waterloo Station from 28 June (previews from 18 June) to 4 September 2011.

Joining the previously announced Marcus Brigstocke are Pandora Cliffford (Mother), David Baron (the Old Gentleman), Mark Holgate (Jim), Elizabeth Keats (Mrs Perks), Tim Lewis (Peter), Stephen Beckett (the Father and Doctor), Amy Noble (Roberta), Blair Plant (Shepansky), Amanda Prior (Mrs Viney and Cook) and Grace Rowe (Phyllis).

They are joined by ensemble members Francesca Ellis, Felicity Houlbrooke and James Rigby.

Staged in the former Eurostar terminal, the production finished an extended run on 2 January this year, having opened on 12 July 2010 (previews from 4 July). The show boasts a set featuring the old Gentleman’s saloon carriage from the 1970 film version and a period steam train – the ‘Stirling Single’ – from the National Railway Museum, where the production was first seen in 2008.

Adapted by Mike Kenny from E Nesbit’s classic 1906 novel, it’s directed by York Theatre Royal artistic director Damian Cruden, with lighting by Richard G Jones, music by Christopher Madin and sound by Craig Vear.