Former Coronation Street actor Eric Potts will be taking on his dream role as Bottom in Stafford Festival Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night's Dream at Stafford Castle.
“I’ve wanted to play this role since leaving drama college,” says Potts.
“I did a radio version a few years ago but it’s taken 26 years to be able to play Bottom on stage!”
This will be his fourth Stafford Festival Shakespeare production.
Peter Rowe is returning to direct, marking his fifth consecutive year with Stafford Festival Shakespeare.
He previously directed Romeo and Juliet, The Comedy of Errors, The Merry Wives Of Windsor and Twelfth Night.
Rowe has set A Midsummer Night's Dream in the late-Victorian era and describes it as "a very special play and it’s not for nothing that it’s the favourite outdoor Shakespeare.
“It’s a beautiful play about illusion and reality and how close being in love is to being mad and the madness of being in love.”
Playing the four lovers will be Craig Fletcher as Lysander, Jennifer Greenwood as Hermia, Eamonn O'Dwyer as Demetrius and Georgina White as Helena.
The rest of the cast comprises of Andy Cresswell, Robert Fitch, James Haggie, Anthony Hunt, Simone James, Paul Kissaun and Lanre Malaolu.
A Midsummer Night's Dream opens on Thursday (June 27) and runs until Saturday 13 July.