The Stage

Irons returns in Embers

Published Tuesday 11 October 2005 at 15:40 by Liz Thomas

Jeremy Irons is to return to the West End for the first time in 17 years in new play Embers.

The production, which will open at the Duke of York’s Theatre on March 1 next year, has been adapted by Christopher Hampton and will be directed by Michael Blakemore - both Tony Award winners.

He will play a retired general awaiting the arrival of an old friend in Hungary during the Second World War. Casting for his co-star is currently under way.

Director Michael Blakemore told The Stage: “I have known Jeremy for many years and I consider him a superb actor. He was wonderful when he did Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing on Broadway. So often our best actors are swept away to film and television, but the stage is their true home and I’m delighted he’s returning to it to be in this show.”

Irons, who was last seen on stage as Richard II and in Aphra Behn’s The Rover with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1988, first made his name as Charles Ryder in Brideshead Revisited in 1981.

The actor starred opposite Meryl Streep in The French Lieutenant’s Woman and later won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Claus von Bulow in 1990 hit Reversal of Fortune.

Last year he starred in Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven and opposite Al Pacino in the silver screen adaptation of The Merchant of Venice. Television audiences have just seen him as the Earl of Leicester in Channel 4’s Elizabeth I.