Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart are to reunite on stage this year in Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land.
Directed by Sean Mathias, the production will tour the UK before transferring to the West End.
Performances begin at the Lyceum Theatre in Sheffield on 3rd August with the show set to visit Newcastle, Brighton and Cardiff.
No Man’s Land will then play a limited 14 week engagement at the West End's Wyndham’s Theatre between 20th September (previews from 8th September) and 17th December 2016. Interestingly, Pinter’s play was first performed at the Wyndham’s in 1975 with Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud, following its premiere at the National Theatre.
Mathias' production of No Man’s Land was first seen at the Cort Theatre in New York whilst in repertory alongside Waiting for Godot, also starring stage and screen friends, McKellen and Stewart. The production of Waiting for Godot had transferred from London where it received a sell-out run at the Theatre Royal Haymarket.
Set and costume design is by Stephen Brimson Lewis with lighting by Peter Kaczorowski. Further casting to be announced.
One summer’s evening, two ageing writers, Hirst and Spooner, meet in a Hampstead pub and continue their drinking into the night at Hirst’s stately house nearby. As the pair become increasingly inebriated, and their stories increasingly unbelievable, the lively conversation soon turns into a revealing power game, further complicated by the return home of two sinister younger men.
Patrick Stewart (Hirst) says: “I saw the original production of No Man's Land three times in one week at Wyndham's Theatre and would have seen it more if I could have afforded the tickets. I made a promise to myself that one day I would play Spooner or Hirst but to be doing it back at Wyndham's with Ian McKellen was a fantasy I never entertained.”
Ian McKellen (Spooner) says: “Playing Spooner to Patrick’s Hirst on Broadway was a constant joy, which is why I am delighted to be back with him in the West End.”
Ian McKellen has had a 55 year long career on stage and on screen. For the Royal Shakespeare Company he has played Romeo, Macbeth, Iago and King Lear and at the National Theatre, in productions of Coriolanus, Richard III, Uncle Vanya and The Seagull. He gained his first Oscar nomination for Gods and Monsters and his second for Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He is Magneto to Patrick Stewart’s Xavier in the X-Men movies, Richard III and most recently Mr Holmes.
Patrick Stewart has numerous notable stage credits to his name including Anthony and Cleopatra, The Tempest, Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice, The Master Builder and his acclaimed solo adaptation of A Christmas Carol. Known world-wide as Captain Jean Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Professor X in the X-Men franchise, his additional film and TV credits include the 2009 TV movie adaptation of Hamlet alongside David Tennant, Ahab in Moby Dick, Ricky Gervais’ Extras, the new US comedy series, soon to be seen on UK TV, Blunt Talk, the soon to be released thriller Green Room as well as Wilde Wedding with Glenn Close and John Malkovich.
Photo Credit: Luke Fontana
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