DON CARLOS is the Centerpiece of Exeter Northcott Theatre's 50th Anniversary Season

Artistic and Executive Director of Exeter Northcott Theatre Paul Jepson today announces a major new revival of Schiller's Don Carlos with Tom Burke leading the company as Rodrigo, Marquis of Posa. Gadi Roll's production is presented in a co-production with Nuffield Southampton Theatres and Rose Theatre Kingston. The production is the centrepiece of the Exeter Northcott's 50th anniversary celebrations. The production opens in Exeter on 16 October, with previews from 11 October and runs until 20 October 2018 ahead of performances in Southampton and Kingston. The production reunites Burke and Roll following their previous collaboration on Don Juan Comes Back From the War at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry.

Don Carlos, son and heir to the tyrannical Philip II, is desperately in love with his stepmother, Elizabeth, to whom he was once betrothed. To resolve his all-consuming passion, Carlos enlists the help of his closest friend. Enter Rodrigo, Marquis of Posa, who dreams of freedom for his people and becomes an unlikely power broker in the King's duplicitous court.

Written just two years before the French Revolution, Schiller's Don Carlos engages with themes of justice, equality, freedom of expression and conscience, religious bigotry and state persecution and is as relevant today as ever.

Paul Jepson said today, "I first met Tom when I directed him at RADA, and it's wonderful to reunite for our major new revival of Schiller's masterpiece Don Carlos in a co-production with Nuffield Theatres Southampton and Rose Theatre Kingston. It is an incredibly resonant play given the intolerance in the contemporary world. Gadi's production is at the heart of our 50th anniversary season, and forms a major part of our produced programme."

Tom Burke commented, "Don Carlos is a play that speaks for today - it's themes as relevant now as when Schiller wrote it. Gadi Roll and I are thrilled to open the production with Paul and the team at the Northcott ahead of performances in Southampton and Kingston."

Friedrich Schiller's (1759 - 1805) principal works for the stage include The Robbers, Intrigue and Love, The Wallenstein Trilogy, Mary Stuart and William Tell.

Robert David Macdonald (1929-2004) was a playwright, translator and director. He was co-director of the Citizens' Theatre Company, Glasgow and wrote fifteen plays for the company including Dracula, Camille, De Sade Show, Chinchilla, No Orchids For Miss Blandish, Summit Conference, A Waste Of Time, Don Juan, Webster, Anna Karenina, and Conundrum. As a translator he translated/adapted over seventy operas and plays from ten different languages, including such operas as, The Threepenny Opera (Glasgow/ENO North), Tamerlano, Flight From The Harem, The Barber Of Seville, Aida (WNOC), Marschner's Vampire!, Cosi Fan Tutti (Hintlesham); and plays, Figaro, Orpheus, The Human Voice, Conversation At Night, Achterloo, Shadow Of Angels, The Balcony, The Blacks, The Screens, The Government Inspector, Tasso, Faust I & II, Brand, Hedda Gabler, Maskerade, The House Of Bernada Alba, School For Wives, Don Juan, Enrico Four, Phedra, Mary Stuart, The Seagull, Around The World In Eighty Days, Lulu and Clavigo.

Tom Burke plays Rodrigo, Marquis of Posa. His theatre work includes The Deep Blue Sea, The Doctor's Dilemma (National Theatre), Reasons to be Happy (Hampstead Theatre), Reasons to be Pretty, Macbeth (Almeida Theatre), Design for Living (The Old Vic), for The Donmar Warehouse, Creditors (also New York, winner of the Ian Charleson Award) and The Cut, and Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare's Globe). His television work includes Strike, The Musketeers, War and Peace, Utopia, The Hour and Great Expectations; and for film, The Libertine, The Enlightenment, The Collectors, Donkey Punch, Telstar, Chéri, An Enemy to Die For, Cleanskin, Only God Forgives, The Invisible Woman and The Hooligan Factory.

Gadi Roll has directed over sixty productions for the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, Teatr Polski, Wroclaw, American Repertory Theatre Boston, Stari Teatr Krakow, Habima National Theatre, Cameri and Beit-Lessin Theatres Tel Aviv, Jerusalem Khan Theatre, Haifa Theatre and Beer-Sheva Theatre, Israel. Credits include Iphigenia at Aulis, The House of Bernarda Alba, Les Parents Terrible, Don Juan Comes Back From the War, Pains of Youth, Romeo and Juliet, The Duchess of Mal?, Measure for Measure, 'Tis a Pity She's a Whore, The Robbers, Don Carlos, Spring Awakening, Waiting For Godot, 1913, The Park, Quei Oust, A View from the Bridge, The Lady from the Sea, No End of Blame, Amadeus and Saved.

Tickets and information: www.exeternorthcott.co.uk
Box Office: 01392 726363

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