Shane Richie will play Archie Rice in a new production of John Osborne’s The Entertainer—chosen as one of the greatest plays of the 20th century by Michael Billington in his book The 101 Greatest Plays.
The adaptation will tour the UK from August this year, playing Manchester’s Opera House from October 28 to November 2.
For the first time since its 1957 première, it will be given a new setting. Archie Rice is a washed-up entertainer playing a summer season. As his soldier son sails with the Task Force to liberate the Falklands, his daughter Jean returns from campaigning against the war and Archie’s professional and personal lives collide.
Richie has balanced a 40-year career between theatre, film and TV and he has been a regular fixture on prime time TV.