The Stage

Stewart will lead RSC return

Published Wednesday 19 July 2006 at 16:50 by Alistair Smith

Patrick Stewart will headline the Royal Shakespeare Company’s London programme this winter, appearing in both Antony and Cleopatra and The Tempest, both lined up to transfer from Stratford.

The RSC is planning to bring three of its productions from the Complete Works season to the West End later this year, with Much Ado About Nothing as the third show to be staged at one of three Delfont Mackintosh playhouses - the Novello, the Gielgud or the recently christened Noel Coward.

Stewart will feature as Antony alongside Harriet Walter as Cleopatra in the production, directed by Gregory Doran, which has already opened in Stratford, while he will appear as Prospero in Rupert Goold’s staging of The Tempest. Meanwhile Green Wing actress Tamsin Greig and Joseph Milson will feature as Beatrice and Benedick respectively in Marianne Elliot’s production of Much Ado About Nothing.

The line-up will mark the second year in a five-year partnership between Cameron Mackintosh and the RSC. Under the agreement Mackintosh’s theatres will play host to the company when it transfers its productions to London until 2009.