Warren Mitchell Brings Mr Green to West End, 8 Apr

As previously reported News, 12 Jul 2007), Warren Mitchell (pictured) will return to the West End this spring, recreating his title performance in Jeff Baron’s multi award-winning 1996 play Visiting Mr Green. Following a regional tour which launched last September, the production transfers to Trafalgar Studios 1 for a limited season from 8 April to 10 May 2008 (previews from 3 April).

Jewish widower Mr Green is almost hit by a speeding car driven by corporate executive Ross Gardiner. Found guilty of reckless driving, Ross is ordered to spend the next six months making weekly visits to Mr Green. Family secrets are revealed and old wounds reopened as both men come to understand and tolerate one another’s differences.

Since its premiere in 1996 in Massachusetts, Visiting Mr Green has enjoyed a year-long run in New York, where Eli Wallach starred, as well as more than 300 other productions in 37 countries and 22 languages. Mitchell, now 82, has played Mr Green twice before this current UK run: in a 1999 production at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, and in a record-breaking Australian run.

Though he’s worked extensively on stage in both the UK and Australia over his 75-year career, the actor remains best known as the objectionable ‘Alf Garnett’ in TV’s long-running Till Death Do Us Part. His other recent stage credits include Art, The Homecoming and Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman as well as The Price, which he appeared in twice at the Tricycle Theatre, on tour and in the West End, winning the 2004 Olivier for Best Performance in a Supporting Role.

In the West End, Mitchell is joined in Baron’s two-hander by Gideon Turner (Romeo and Juliet, The Changeling). Visiting Mr Green is directed by former Chichester Festival Theatre director Patrick Garland. The production is designed by Sean Cavanagh, with lighting by Ben Cracknell and sound by Peter Cox, and produced by Ian Fricker.

– by Terri Paddock