Colm Feore to Star in Straford Shakespeare Festival's 'Macbeth' and 'Cyrano'

Celebrated stage and screen actor Colm Feore will return to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in 2009 to play two leading roles on the Festival stage, Macbeth and Cyrano de Bergerac. “William Shakespeare’s Macbeth involves a journey for the theatre artist that may well be the darkest ride of them all. It leads into a black hole of terror and meaninglessness, and it is not for the faint of heart,” says artistic director Des McAnuff, who will be directing the play.

“I can think of no actor that is better equipped in terms of his talent and his skill-set than
our leading player, Colm Feore. I have wanted to work with Colm for more than 25 years,
and I can’t believe my good fortune in getting to work with him on this extraordinary role
in one of my favourite plays.”

Mr. Feore’s Stratford credits include the title roles in Don Juan (in both English and French), Coriolanus, Hamlet, Richard III and an earlier production of Cyrano de Bergerac. Other lead roles at the Festival include Fagin in Oliver!, Iago in Othello, John Worthing in The Importance of Being Earnest and Professor Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady.

Mr. Feore will be directed in Cyrano de Bergerac by Donna Feore, his wife. Their other Stratford collaborations include Oliver!, which Ms Feore directed and choreographed, and Don Juan and My Fair Lady, on which she served as choreographer. Mr. Feore will next be seen in the upcoming season of the hit TV series 24, playing the president’s husband, First Gentleman Henry Taylor. He also co-stars next month in Clint Eastwood’s Changling, opposite Angelina Jolie. Mr. Feore is known across Canada for his faithful portrayal of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in the acclaimed miniseries Trudeau, for which he was named best actor at both the Gemini Awards and the Monte Carlo TV Festival. He was also a regular on Slings and Arrows.

His motion pictures include The Chronicles of Riddick, Paycheck, Chicago, The Deal, The Red Violin, Bon Cop, Bad Cop and Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould. On Broadway Mr. Feore played a critically acclaimed Cassius in Julius Caesar, alongside Denzel Washington in 2005. At New York’s Public Theatre he appeared as Claudius in Hamlet in 2000.

In addition to Macbeth and Cyrano de Bergerac, the Stratford Shakespeare Festival’s 2009 season will feature A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Julius Caesar, Bartholomew Fair, West Side Story, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Three Sisters, The Importance of Being Earnest, Phèdre, The Trespassers, Zastrozzi and Rice Boy. Further casting announcements will be made as details become available.