The Donmar Warehouse's 2006 season will be high in starpower, with performances by Sir Ian McKellen, Sir Derek Jacobi, Claire Higgins, Michael Sheen and others.
With Deborah Findlay, Olivier Award-winner McKellen will star in Mark Ravenhill's The Cut. The show concerns "Paul (who) is an
ordinary man with a shocking secret. At home, he is a loving husband
and father. At work, he administers the cut. In a society sickened by
his profession, Paul struggles with his conscience and longs to tell
the truth." The play by Ravenhill (Mother Clap's Molly House, Shopping and F***ing) will be directed by Michael Grandage, the artistic director of the acclaimed theatre whose recent directing credits include Guys and Dolls, Don Carlos and Grand Hotel. It will run from February 23rd through April 1st.
Olivier-winner Higgins, who is currently appearing in the London revival of The Night of the Iguana, will headline Phaedra. "Phaedra harbours a guilty secret - an overwhelming passion for her
stepson Hippolytus, but he has a revelation even more terrible that
would tear their world apart." An adaptation by Frank McGuinness of the Racine tragedy (McGuinness also adapted the Hecuba in which Higgins starred), it will run from April 6th through June 3rd in a production directed by Tom Caims.Jacobi, also an Olivier Award-winner, will take top billing forJohn Mortimer's A Voyage Round My Father.The "autobiographical play is the affectionate portrait of a
son's relationship with his father. Growing up in the shadow of the
brilliant barrister, who adored his garden and hated visitors, and
whose blindness was never mentioned, the son continually yearns for his
father's love and respect." Directed by Thea Sharrock, it will run from June 8th through August 5th.
Michael Sheen, who has received three Olivier Award nominations for performances in Amadeus and other plays, will be featured in the world premiere of Peter Morgan's Frost/Nixon. Running from August 10th through October 7th, it will also be helmed by Grandage. The show recounts how "David Frost's interviews with Richard Nixon, following the Watergate scandal in 1972 and the President's humiliating resignation, drew the largest audience for a news interview ever. Could this British talk-show host be the one to elicit an apology from the man who committed one of the biggest felonies in American political history?"
Henrik Ibsen's The Wild Duck, in a new translation by David Eldridge and directed by Grandage, is currently running through February 18th at the Donmar Warehouse.For more information, visit www.donmarwarehouse.com.