Irons, Rickman and More Set for JOHN MORTIMER AT THE COURT...AND LATER AT THE BAR

Full casting has been announced for the Royal Court's John Mortimer AT THE COURT...AND LATER AT THE BAR. The cast will include Broadway stars Jeremy Irons, Alan Rickman, and Harriet Walter. Further casting includes Sinead Cusack, Joanna David, EdWard Fox, Tom Hollander, Richard Johnson, Emily Mortimer, Alessandro Nivola, and Dominic West. The evening will be curated by Stephen Jeffreys and Nina Raine will direct. The evening will take place November 15th.Tickets will be £125 each, with proceeds going to The Royal Court Theatre's Writers Development Fund.

Sir John Mortimer, who died in January 2009, was Chairman of The Royal Court Theatre from 1990 until 2000, overseeing its major redevelopment programme in the mid-Nineties, and President from 2000 until his passing. As well as a hugely successful career as a QC, he was an acclaimed novelist, playwright and anti-censorship campaigner.

Dominic Cooke, Artistic Director of the Royal Court, said of Sir John: "As one of Britain's most eloquent, and successful, champions of free speech and campaigners against censorship, he was a peerless role model to us all. His loss is felt deeply by anyone who met him, or who experienced his love of theatre, his passion for justice, or his incomparable zest for life."

Rickman worked extensively with various British repertory and experimental theatre groups on productions including The Seagull and Snoo Wilson's The Grass Widow at The Royal Court Theatre, and has appeared three times at the Edinburgh International Festival. In 1978, he played with the Court Drama Group, performing in several plays, most notably Romeo And Juliet and A View from the Bridge. While working with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) he starred in, among other things, As You Like It. He was the male lead in the 1985 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, directed by Christopher Hampton, which was a sellout.[6] When the show went across the Atlantic in 1986, Rickman went on with it to Broadway and there earned a Tony Award nomination for his performance. Rickman has performed on stage in Noel Coward's romantic comedy Private Lives, which transferred to Broadway after its successful run in London at the Albery Theatre and ended in September 2002. Rickman had reunited with his Les Liaisons Dangereuses co-star Lindsay Duncan, and director Howard Davies for this Tony Award-winning production. Rickman directed the play My Name Is Rachel Corrie in April 2005 at The Royal Court Theatre, London, and won the Theatre Goers' Choice Awards for best director.

Jeremy Irons is currently starring in Broadway's Impressionism, a new play by Michael Jacobs, directed by Jack O'Brien. Trained at Bristol Old Vic. London Theatre: Godspell, Rear Column, Embers. RSC: Wild Oats, Winter's Tale, Richard 11, The Rover. National Theatre: Never So Good. NY: The Real Thing (Tony, Drama League Awards), A Little Night Music. Film includes: Dead Ringers (NY Critics Best Actor), Reversal of Fortune (Academy, Golden Globe Awards), Betrayal, French Lieutenant's Woman, Moonlighting, Mission, Kafka, Waterland, Damage, M.Butterfly, The Lion King (voice of Scar), Diehard with a Vengeance, Stealing Beauty, Lolita, Man in the Iron Mask, Eragon, Merchant of Venice, Being Julia, Casanova, Kingdom of Heaven, Appaloosa. TV: "Langrishe Go Down," "Brideshead Revisited," "Tales from Hollywood," "Longitude," "Elizabeth" (Emmy, Globe, SAG Awards). Directed Mirad a Boy from Bosnia. Other Awards: European Film Academy, Cezar, Officier des Artes et Lettres.

Stephen Jeffreys' plays for the Royal Court include The Libertine and I Just Stopped By To See The Man. His other work for the stage includes Lost Land (Steppenwolf), The Clink (Paines Plough/Riverside), A Going Concern (Hampstead) and A Jovial Crew (RSC). He was previously Literary Associate at the Royal Court, and is currently a member of the Royal Court's governing Council.

Nina Raine's previous directing credits include Shades (Royal Court), Behind the Image (Royal Court - Rough Cut), Unprotected (Liverpool Everyman / Traverse), for which she won the TMA award for Best Director, Vermillion Dream (Salisbury Playhouse) and Eskimo Sisters (Southwark). She made her playwriting debut with Rabbit (Old Red Lion / West End), which she also directed, and which won the 2006 Evening Standard Award and the 2006 Critics' Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright.

For more information, visit the Royal Court's website at www.royalcourttheatre.com.

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