Michael Pennington is to lead the cast of Shakespeare’s King Lear which opens at Northampton’s Royal and Derngate before touring to nine venues around the country.
Pennington, twice nominated for an Olivier Award, has played numerous roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company in a career spanning more than 50 years. He was co-founder of the English Shakespeare Company.
He played John of Gaunt in the RSC production of Richard II at the Barbican in 2013. More recently he took the role of Anthony Blunt in Alan Bennett's Single Spies at the Rose Theatre, Kingston in 2014.
Pennington played Lear at the Shakespeare Center, New York in 2014. The Royal and Derngate production will mark the first time he has taken the role in the UK.
Playing his daughter Cordelia is Beth Cooke who was Hero in Much Ado About Nothing at the Old Vic in 2013. Catherine Bailey is Goneril and Sally Scott is Regan. Pip Donaghy plays Gloucester. Other cast members include Shane Attwooll (Cornwall), Reginald Edwards (Burgundy), Joshua Elliott (Fool), Gavin Fowler (Edgar), Caleb Frederick (France), Adrian Irvine (Albany), Scott Karim (Edmund), Tom McGovern (Kent) and Daniel O’Keefe (Oswald).
King Lear will be directed by Max Webster, associate director of the Old Vic. He directed Dr Seuss’s The Lorax at the Old Vic in 2015 and Sarah Ruhl’s adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando in 2014 and Christopher Sergel’s stage version of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird in 2013, both at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester.
Webster said, “in the year that marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, it’s thrilling to be directing one of his greatest tragedies, and to be working with Michael Pennington who is one of the most respected Shakespearean actors of our time. I look forward to our talented cast bringing a gripping new interpretation to audiences across the UK.”
The production was to have been directed by Philip Franks who has withdrawn to recover from an operation.
The creative team includes designer Adrian Linford, lighting designer Natasha Chivers and composer Matthew Bugg.
King Lear takes to the Northampton Royal stage from Friday 1 until Saturday 23 April.
It then tours to Oxford Playhouse, Theatre Royal Brighton, Richmond Theatre, Grand Opera House York, Manchester Opera House, Theatre Royal, Bath, Hall for Cornwall in Truro, Cambridge Arts Theatre and Malvern Theatre.