Sir Ian McKellen, one of Britain’s leading actors, is heading back to the West End next year, to play Falstaff in Player Kings, a new drama adapted from Shakespeare’s Henry IV Parts 1 and 2.
The production will run the Noel Coward Theatre, running from 1 April to 22 June 2024.
Produced by Ambassador Theatre Group Productions, Player Kings is adapted and directed by award-winner Robert Icke (The Doctor). Further casting will be announced.
Ahead of the Noel Coward Theatre, the production will preview at New Wimbledon Theatre from 1 March to 9 March 2024, and Manchester Opera House from 14 to 23 March 2024.
Director Robert Icke said in a statement: “It’s a genuine honour to work with one of our greatest Shakespearean actors, Ian McKellen, especially as he tackles one of the most iconic Shakespearean roles – and one he’s previously never turned his hand to. It’s an exciting challenge to bring together two of Shakespeare’s plays into one production, and I’m so excited to share Player Kings with audiences in the West End and across the country. I’m also thrilled that we’ll have at least 60 dedicated £30 tickets for those under 30 at every performance, including in some prime spots in the auditorium.”
Actor Ian McKellen said: “I decided to become a professional actor at Cambridge in 1959, when I was in John Barton’s undergraduate production of Henry IV. Derek Jacobi played Prince Hal and I was the ancient Justice Shallow. Ever since, the plays have been among my favourite Shakespeares, although through the years I’ve resisted offers to play John Falstaff. Robert Icke’s ingenious adaptation was irresistible.”
Alongside Icke, the creative team of Player Kings will include Design by Hildegard Bechtler; Lighting Design by Lee Curran; Sound Design by Gareth Fry; Casting Director Julia Horan; and Fight Director: Kev McCurdy.
McKellen was last on stage in the West End playing a Shakespeare role back in 2018, with King Lear breaking box-office records at the Duke of York’s Theatre.
Ian McKellen is currently starring in Frank & Percy at The Other Palace theatre in London, alongside Roger Allam.
Last month, a new movie version of Hamlet was announced, starring Ian McKellen; and he also stars in forthcoming new movie The Critic alongside Gemma Arterton, which had it’s premiere at the Toronto International Festival.
Tickets to Player Kings go on general release for New Wimbledon Theatre and Manchester Opera House tomorrow, Thursday 16 November at 10am; ATG+ members can buy tickets from 12 noon today. London tickets for the Noel Coward Theatre go on general release on 21 November at 10am – you will be able to buy tickets here. Or sign-up to our alerts to hear about booking.
Player Kings is produced by Ambassador Theatre Group Productions, Gavin Kalin Productions and No Guarantees.
Book tickets to PLAYER KINGS at the Noel Coward Theatre in London
After years of saying he wouldn’t, Ian McKellen has finally, kind of, cracked and decided to give his Falstaff – albeit it in a new play that uses Shakespeare’s Henry plays has its source material.
The part of the fat, uproarious counsellor to the young Prince Hal is one that he has long avoided, but he told Christiane Amanpou on CNN back in February that he may finally agree to take on the mammoth and legendary Shakespeare role.
After Roger Allam played Falstaff at Shakespeare’s Globe back in 2010, Sir Ian said in his one-man show Ian McKellen on Stage – With Tolkien, Shakespeare, others… that it had made him give up any desire to play the chubby knight, as Allam’s performance could not be topped. (Sir Ian and Roger have recently been starring alongside each other in Frank and Percy, which is also another West End transfer contender.)
But McKellen has had a number of past opportunities to play Falstaff.
When Gregory Doran was running the RSC and was staging the Henrys, he famously asked Ian McKellen to star as Falstaff, but McKellen declined, saying that it was not the part for him. Doran told The New Yorker that McKellen said “Why are you looking for Falstaff when you live with him?”. Doran subsequently cast his longtime partner Antony Sher in the part, and thanks to McKellen, was a huge success in Stratford-upon-Avon and around the world. Sher sadly died in December 2021.
McKellen also told Canada’s The Globe and Mail in 2018 when asked about giving up Shakespeare that “I probably said that and somebody probably wrote it down. I don’t know. Where do you go after playing King Lear? I don’t want to play Falstaff; it’s another big part but I’ve never quite understood that person.”
Promoting his panto Mother Goose on CNN, which played the Duke of York’s Theatre at the beginning of the year, he told Amanpou that “Yes, I think I’m probably going to do more Shakespeare…I’ve been asked to play Falstaff, which is a mighty part in two of my favourite plays, Henry IV, Part I and Part II.”
He went on to say that “It’s a part I’ve resisted and may still resist, but I am considering it… I think it’s a very difficult part. Do I want something difficult at the moment? Well, perhaps I do, yes, I would like the challenge, yes.”
Book tickets to PLAYER KINGS at the Noel Coward Theatre in London
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