Madame de Sade - Dame Judi Dench stars
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
IN 2009, Dame Judi Dench will return to the West End to star in Japanese playwright Yukio Mishima’s 1965 play, Madame de Sade. Part of the Donmar Warehouse’s year-long residency at Wyndham’s Theatre, it will run from March 18 (previews from March 13) to May 23, 2009.
A rarely seen drama, Madame de Sade centres on five women affected by the debauchery of the Marquis de Sade, including his wife and mother. In the cast of six, Dench will play the Marquis’ mother-in-law, Madame de Montreuil. Michael Grandage, the Donmar’s artistic director, will direct.
Dench last appeared in the West End, at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, in Peter Hall’s 2006 revival of Noel Coward’s Hay Fever.
Her other recent London credits include All’s Well That Ends Well, The Breath of Life, The Royal Family (again directed by Hall and co-starring Peter Bowles), Filumena, Amy’s View and A Little Night Music. And last winter, she appeared at Stratford in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s musical version of The Merry Wives of Windsor, part of the RSC’s year-long Complete Works Festival.
Her film credits are equally numerous and include Notes on a Scandal, Casino Royale, Mrs Henderson Presents, The World Is Not Enough, Tea with Mussolini, Shakespeare in Love and Mrs Brown.
As yet, no further casting has been announced for Madame de Sade, which is the third production scheduled for the Donmar’s West End Season.
Also planned are Tom Stoppard’s new version of Chekhov’s Ivanov (September 12 to November 29, 2008) in which Grandage will direct Kenneth Branagh in the title role; Twelfth Night (December 5, 2008 to March 7, 2009) starring Derek Jacobi as Malvolio, again directed by Grandage; and finally, Kenneth Branagh will direct Jude Law in the title role of Hamlet (May 29 to August 22, 2009).
Read more about the Donmar’s future plans