John Lithgow to Star in RSC's Twelfth Night, 8/30-10/6

Tony Award-winner John Lithgow will play Malvolio in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Shakespeare's dark comedy, Twelfth Night.   The production will run at the Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon from August 30th through October 6th, with opening night set for September 5th. 

Neil Bartlett directs this new production which will have a cross gender cast with some female actors taking on male parts, and vice versa – as he explains:

"Twelfth Night shows a capricious disregard for the normal rules of gender. Girls disguised as boys fall in love with men, men fall in love with girls while thinking they are boys, and women marry boys who in fact turn out to be girls! In the original production of the play, this whirligig of gender mayhem would have been further compounded by the fact the girls and women, like all of Shakespeare's female characters, would have been played by young men. Taking my cue from Shakespeare's own exploration of the troubled relationship between disguise and desire, I'm looking forward to seeing what happens when this magical play is performed by a company in which gender and role are not necessarily paired as nature intended..."

This production is largely cross cast with the RSC's touring production of Nancy Meckler's The Comedy of Errors which embarks on a UK tour from October this year.

John Lithgow won a Tony Award for his Broadway debut in David Storey's The Changing Room in 1973. Since then he has appeared in major roles in My Fat Friend, Trelawney of the "Wells", Comedians, Anna Christie, M.Butterfly, Beyond Therapy, Bedroom Farce, The Front Page and The Retreat from Moscow. His musicals include Sweet Smell of Success (for which he won a second Tony award) and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. His film credits include The World According to Garp, Terms of Endearment, All That Jazz, Blow Out, Twilight Zone; the Movie, 2010, Buckaroo Banzai, Harry and the Hendersons, Raising Cain, Ricochet, Cliffhanger, Orange County, Shrek, Kinsey and most recently, Dreamgirls.  His most successful TV role of Dr Dick Solomon in the comedy series "Third Rock from the Sun" ran for six years and won him a Golden Globe, two SAG awards and The American Comedy Award. His other TV credits include "The Day After," "Resting Place," "Baby Girl Scott," "My Brother's Keeper," "Don Quixote" and "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers." He is also the author of best selling children's books.

The production will also feature Jason Merrells as Orsino, his real life brother Simon Merrells as Antonio, Siobhan Redmond as Maria, Iain McKee and Chris New as the twins Sebastian and Viola, respectively, and Marjorie Yates as Sir Toby Belch. The cast also includes Tobias Beer (Valentine), Matt Blair (Curio), Tim Chipping (Captain), James Clyde (Feste), Tom Davey (Officer/Lord/Sailor), Daniel Francis (Lord/Sailor), Stewart W Fraser (Priest), Joanna Howarth (Fabian), Annabel Leventon (Sir Andrew Aguecheek), Rachael Spence (Lady)

Full casting will be announced shortly.

The production is designed by Kandis Cook with music composed by Simon Deacon and Lighting designed by Chris Davey.

Photo of John Lithgow by Craig Brockman