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Dateline: 14th June, 2007
Lithgow Joins RSC Twelfth Night John Lithgow, the US actor best known for his work in film and TV such as The World according to Garp and Third Rock from the Sun, joins the cast to play Malvolio in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Shakespeare’s dark comedy, Twelfth Night.
Neil Bartlett directs this new production which will have a cross gender cast with some female actors taking on male parts, and vice versa.
"Twelfth Night shows a capricious disregard for the normal rules of gender," Bartlett says. " Girls disguised as boys fall in love with men, men fall in love with girls while thinking they are boys, and women marry boys who in fact turn out to be girls! In the original production of the play, this whirligig of gender mayhem would have been further compounded by the fact the girls and women, like all of Shakespeare’s female characters, would have been played by young men. Taking my cue from Shakespeare’s own exploration of the troubled relationship between disguise and desire, I’m looking forward to seeing what happens when this magical play is performed by a company in which gender and role are not necessarily paired as nature intended..."
This production is largely cross cast with the RSC’s touring production of Nancy Meckler’s The Comedy of Errors which embarks on a UK tour from October this year.
Neil Bartlett was Artistic Director of the Lyric Hammersmith theatre from 1994 to 2004 where he directed thirty-seven productions including an Olivier-nominated Pericles as well as Kleist’s The Prince of Homberg and Marivaux’s The Dispute - both co-productions with the RSC. Most recently his acclaimed adaptation of Dickens’ Oliver Twist for the American Repertory Theatre played in Boston, New York (where it won an Obie), and at the Berkeley Rep, and he has just staged his own translation of Genet’s The Maids for the Brighton Festival. His latest novel, Skin Lane, was published in March this year.
John Lithgow is a seasoned theatre actor in the States where he won a Tony Award for his Broadway debut in David Storey’s The Changing Room in 1973. Since then he has appeared in major roles in My Fat Friend, Trelawney of the “Wells”, Comedians, Anna Christie, M.Butterfly, Beyond Therapy, Bedroom Farce, The Front Page and most recently Retreat from Moscow. His musicals include Sweet Smell of Success (for which he won a second Tony award) and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. His film credits include The World According to Garp, Terms of Endearment, All That Jazz, Blow Out, Twilight Zone; the Movie, 2010, Buckaroo Banzai, Harry and the Hendersons, Raising Cain, Ricochet, Cliffhanger, Orange County, Shrek, Kinsey and most recently Dreamgirls. Also in the cast are Jason Merrells, making his RSC debut as Orsino (also playing Antipholus of Syracuse in Comedy of Errors); Siobhan Redmond as Maria as well as Adriana in The Comedy of Errors. For the RSC she has appeared in The Spanish Tragedy, and played Beatrice in Michael Boyd’s Much Ado About Nothing; Iain McKee and Chris New, making their RSC debuts as the twins Sebastian and Viola, respectively. They will also take on the role of the Dromio twins in the company’s cross cast production of The Comedy of Errors. Marjorie Yates will play Sit Toby Belch. Her previous work for the RSC includes Aline Solness in The Master Builder, The Duchess of York in Richard III and Widow Blackacre in The Plain Dealer (all 1988/9 season) and more recently a witch in Macbeth (1994). The cast also includes Tobias Beer (Valentine), Matt Blair (Curio), Tim Chipping (Captain), James Clyde (Feste), Tom Davey (Officer/Lord/Sailor), Daniel Francis (Lord/Sailor/Officer), Stewart W Fraser (Priest), Joanna Howarth (Fabian), Annabel Leventon (Sir Andrew Aguecheek), Barnaby Power (1st Officer) and Rachael Spence (Lady). Other casting will be announced later.
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