Six Degrees of Separation - casting announced
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
ANTHONY Head and Lesley Manville will star in David Grindley’s revival of John Guare’s Six Degrees of Separation, which runs at the Old Vic from January 19 (previews from January 7) to April 3, 2010.
First performed on Broadway in 1990, Guare’s play is inspired by the true story of a flamboyant con artist who convinced wealthy residents of Manhattan’s Upper East Side that he was Sidney Poitier’s son.
In 1992, it received its London premiere at the Royal Court Theatre, with Stockard Channing reprising her Broadway role alongside Adrian Lester and Paul Shelley. That production went on to win the Olivier Award for Best New Play. And in 1993, it was adapted for film, again starring Channing but this time with co-stars Donald Sutherland and Will Smith.
Head’s recent theatre credits include the Savoy’s 2003/4 double bill Peter Pan and The Pirates of Penzance in which he played not one, but two pirate villains – Captain Hook and the Pirate King; and Otherwise Engaged, alongside Richard E Grant.
His numerous screen credits include Merlin, Spooks, The Family Business, Manchild, Silent Witness, Little Britain, Dr Who and, of course, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Manville previously appeared at the Old Vic in 2007 in the stage adaptation of Pedro Almodovar’s Oscar-winning 1999 film, All About My Mother. Her other theatre credits include Pillars of the Community, The Alchemist, His Dark Materials and Some Girls. She has also appeared in films such as High Hopes, Secrets and Lies, Topsy-Turvy and Vera Drake.
Joining Head and Manville in the cast of Six Degrees of Separation will be RADA graduate Obi Abili (Dido Queen of Carthage, The Brothers Size, Fabulation, Angels in America), Steven Pacey (La Cage Aux Folles), Sarah Goldberg, Michael Goldsmith, Sara Stewart, Paul Stocker and Kevin Trainor.
Inherit the Wind continues at the Old Vic until December 20, 2009.
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