THE TEMPEST
Ralph Fiennes will return to the Theatre Royal Haymarket to play Prospero in William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, directed by Trevor Nunn. The Tempest will run from 27 August – 29 October, with press night on 06 September 2011. The Tempest is produced by the Theatre Royal Haymarket and Triumph Entertainment Limited. Further casting will be announced shortly.
Almost certainly Shakespeare’s last play, The Tempest can lay claim to being the first ever work of magic realism. Marooned and left to die on a remote island, Prospero can command spirits, create apparitions and manipulate the elements. By using his magic, he assembles his enemies to take revenge on them, and in the process awakens in Miranda, his teenage daughter, her first experience of love. The theme of reconciliation gives immense emotional force to Shakespeare’s farewell to the stage.
Ralph Fiennes was last at the Theatre Royal Haymarket playing the title role in Brand. His extensive theatre credits include the title role in Oedipus and Jung in The Talking Cure for the National Theatre, Faith Healer at Dublin’s Gate Theatre and on Broadway, God of Carnage at the Gielgud Theatre, Julius Caesar at the Barbican and on tour as well as many productions for the Almeida Theatre including the title roles in Hamlet, Ivanov, Richard II and Coriolanus, and, for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Edmund in King Lear, Henry VI in The Plantagenets, and Troilus in Troilus and Cressida. His multi award-winning film career includes The Constant Gardner, Sunshine and Schindler’s List, as well as the English Patient, The Duchess, End of the Affair, Quiz Show and The Reader. More recently he made his mark as one of literature’s most terrifying villains, the evil Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter series of films and was nominated for an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his performance in HBO’s bio-pic Bernard and Doris. In 2009 he filmed roles in Clash of the Titans, Cemetery Junction, Nanny McPhee 2 and the final instalments of the Harry Potter films. In 2010 he directed and starred in a feature film of Shakespeare’s tragedy, Coriolanus which he also produced. The film was invited to premiere In Competition at the 2011 Berlin Film Festival and will open at the end of 2011.