Richard Wilson To Star In KRAPP'S LAST TAPE, Sheffield

With The Brian Friel Season and The Full Monty both currently in rehearsals, Artistic Director Daniel Evans announces that Richard Wilson will take to the stage at Sheffield Theatres for the first time in Samuel Beckett's masterpiece, Krapp's Last Tape.

This one man play, directed by Polly Findlay, sees Krapp sitting alone on his 69th birthday listening to a tape recording he made 30 years earlier. The production opens in the Studio on 1 July, with previews from 25 June, and runs until 19 July.

Tickets are on sale to Centre Stage members from Saturday 1 February and to general public on Saturday 8 February.

Samuel Beckett (1906 - 1989) was an Irish writer, dramatist and poet. He wrote in both English and French, and his principal works include Endgame, Happy Days and Waiting for Godot. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969.

Associate Director of Sheffield Theatres Richard Wilson's theatre work as an actor includes A Little Hotel on the Side (Theatre Royal Bath), Malvolio in Twelfth Night (West End and RSC), Whipping It Up (Bush Theatre, West End and national tour), Peter Pan (Royal Festival Hall), Waiting For Godot (Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester), What The Butler Saw (National Theatre), The Weekend (national tour and West End), Uncle Vanya (Traverse Theatre),Operation Bad Apple, An Honourable Trade and May Days (Royal Court) and Normal Service (Hampstead Theatre). His portrayal of Victor Meldrew in One Foot in the Grave has won him numerous awards including the British Comedy Awards Top Television Comedy Actor Award and two Light Entertainment BAFTA Awards. Other television work includes Merlin (series regular Gaius), New Tricks, Demons, Kingdom, Reichenbach Falls, A Harlot's Progress, Doctor Who, Born and Bred, King of Fridges, High Stakes, Life Support, In the Red, The Lord Of Misrule, Only When I Laugh, Tutti Frutti and Hot Metal. Film work includes Love And Other Disasters, Women Talking Dirty, The Man Who Knew Too Little, A Passage to India, Whoops Apocalypse, Gulliver's Travels, Prick Up Your Ears, Fellow Travellers, How To Get Ahead In Advertising, A Dry White Season, Carry on Columbus and Soft Top Hard Shoulder. Wilson is also an acclaimed theatre director.

Polly Findlay returns to Sheffield Theatres to direct - she previously worked for the company on A Taste of Honey. Her other credits include Protest Song (NT Shed), Warhorse (Berlin), Proof (Menier Chocolate Factory), The County Wife (Royal Exchange), Antigone (National Theatre), Good (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester), The Swan and The Nightwatchman (Double Feature - National Theatre, Paintframe), Derren Brown: Svengali (Shaftesbury Theatre / UK Tour), Twisted Tales (Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith), Honest (Royal & Derngate and Milnes Bar, Edinburgh), Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (Arcola Theatre), The Door Never Closes (Almeida), Eigengrau (Bush Theatre), Fermentand Short Fuses (Bristol Old Vic), Thyestes (Arcola Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (BAC), MIC:roscope (Lilian Baylis, Sadler's Wells) and Blasting (Small Feet Festival at the Cottesloe, National Theatre). In 2007 she was the recipient of the JMK Award for Young Directors.