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Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
THEATREGOERS now have five new productions to look forward to
at London's Donmar Warehouse.
Starting on July 20, 2005 is Mary
Stuart, starring Janet McTeer and Harriet Walter.
It will run until September 3, 2005.
Newly announced is Christopher Hampton's The Philanthropist
which will run from September 8 to October 15, 2005. Leading the
cast will be Simon Russell Beale who was last seen at the Donmar
in the award-winning double bill of Uncle Vanya and Twelfth
Night.
A 'bourgeois comedy' written in response to Moliere's The
Misanthrope, The Philanthropist finds a bachelor
don striving to please his academic friends while struggling with
sex, marriage, anagrams and the meaning of life. All this after
the Prime Minister and his cabinet have been assassinated and
England's favourite writers are being systematically killed off.
Hampton's other works include the highly-acclaimed Les Liaisons
Dangereuses and The Talking Cure.
The Philanthropist is followed from October 20 to December
3, 2005, by Sam Shepard's The God of Hell, which
will be directed by Kathy Burke.
A black comedy described by Shepard as 'a take-off on Republican
fascism', The God of Hell introduces audiences to dairy
farmers Frank and Emma whose lives are uneventful. Until that
is, they find a mysterious man hiding in their basement and government
officials knocking at their door.
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To date, Shepard has written 45 plays,
eleven of which have won Obie awards. He was also awarded the
Pulitzer Prize for Buried Child which, only last year,
was staged at the National Theatre. Another of his plays, The
Late Henry Moss, can be seen at the Almeida from January
12 to March 4, 2006.
Next up and running from December 8, 2005, to February 18, 2006,
will be David Eldridge's new version of Ibsen's The Wild
Duck, which will be directed by the Donmar's artistic
director, Michael Grandage, who is currently presiding over Guys
and Dolls.
Ibsen's drama follows the son of a wealthy businessman as he
strives to uncover his father's duplicity and free his childhood
friend from the lies on which his life is based.
Earlier this year, Eldridge adapted Festen for the Lyric
Theatre.
Finally, Grandage will direct Mark Ravenhill's new play, The
Cut which will run from February 23 to April 1, 2006,
and star Sir Ian McKellen (pictured) in his Donmar debut.
The story revolves around Paul, a man with a shocking secret.
Ravenhill's previous plays include Shopping and F**king,
Some Explicit Polaroids and most recently, Mother Clap's
Molly House.
Mckellen, who is widely regarded as one of Britain's finest stage
actors, recently fulfilled two of his life's ambitions - playing
Widow Twankey in the pantomime, Aladdin, and appearing
in Coronation Street.
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