Royal Shakespeare Company's production of King Lear to be recorded at Pinewood Studios
22 January 2008
The RSC’s recent production of King Lear, directed by Trevor Nunn and with Ian McKellen in the title role, is to be captured on HD TV at Pinewood Studios after its West End run at the New London Theatre finished on 12 January.
The sell-out show, which originated at The Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon in April 2007 before embarking on an international tour and West End run, started shooting on 17th January for two weeks, retaining nearly all members of the original cast (see below).
The project is led by Richard Price and Chris Hunt of The Performance Company, an associate of Richard Price Television Associates, who have both worked with Trevor Nunn on previous projects. Price and Nunn’s relationship goes back 25 years, to the award-winning RSC production of Nicholas Nickleby in 1981 which won the top US Emmy award and was recently re-run on BBC 4 over the Christmas season.
This will be the second project on which Price has worked with Nunn and McKellen – McKellen played Iago in Nunn’s RSC production of Othello which was recorded in 1991. Price has also taped Nunn’s productions of Porgy and Bess in 1992, and recorded his National Theatre productions of Oklahoma! in 1999 (which won an international Emmy in 2000) and The Merchant of Venice (2000). Chris Hunt was joint producer on both.
King Lear is due to be transmitted on Channel 4 in December 2008 (date to be confirmed) as well as being broadcast on PBS in the autumn. It will also be broadcast by a number of other TV stations internationally, including NHK Japan as well as being available on worldwide DVD (details to be confirmed).
The joint producer and associate director is Chris Hunt (who is also a Director of The Performance Company) and the line producer is Andy Picheta.
Further information
For information on the project please contact either;
Philippa Harland
RSC Head of Press
020 7845 0512
philippa.harland@rsc.org.uk
or
Richard Price at RPTA
020 3008 6511
richardprice@RPTA.co.uk
Notes to Editors
King Lear performed in repertoire with Chekhov’s The Seagull at The Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon from 24 March – 23 June 2007.
Both shows then toured to Singapore, Melbourne, New York, Minneapolis and Los Angeles before returning to the New London Theatre from November 2007 – January 2008.
Production photographs from the show are available to download free of charge by registering on www.epo-online.com but new photographs of the filmed version will be available in due course.
The cast
Ben Addis (King of France), Frances Barber (Goneril), Keiran Bew (Knight), Adam Booth (Knight ) Zoe Boyle (Lady in Waiting), Russell Byrne (Doctor), Naomi Capron (Maid), Monica Dolan (Regan), Branwell Donaghen (Herald), Romola Garai (Cordelia), William Gaunt (Gloucester), Richard Goulding (Messenger), Julian Harries (Albany), John Heffernan (Oswald) Peter Hinton (Duke of Burgandy), Jonathan Hyde (Kent), Melanie Jessop (Servant), Seymour Matthews (Curan), Sylvester McCoy (Fool), Ian McKellen (Lear), Ben Meyjes (Edgar), David Weston (Gentleman), Guy Williams (Cornwall), Philip Winchester (Edmund).
