Two of the most iconic plays of the 20th Century, Harold Pinter’s NO MAN’S LAND and Samuel Beckett’s WAITING FOR GODOT, are coming to Broadway for a limited season, starring four well known actors: Sir Patrick Stewart (Hirst / Vladimir), Sir Ian McKellen (Spooner / Estragon), Shuler Hensley (Briggs / Pozzo) and Billy Crudup (Foster / Lucky)!
Enjoy this lovely backstage video as the four gentlemen opened with Harold Pinter’s NO MAN’S LAND in the Berkeley Rep last night.
Further info provided by the producers
Ian McKellen won the Tony Award for his performance in Amadeus in 1981. Patrick Stewart first appeared on Broadway in Peter Brook’s production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1971 and won the Drama Desk Award for A Christmas Carol in 1992. McKellen and Stewart have appeared together on stage twice before – in the 2009 West End production of Waiting for Godot and in the 1977 premiere of Tom Stoppard’s Every Good Boy DeservesFavour. Billy Crudup, won a Tony Award for The Coast of Utopia in 2007. Shuler Hensley won a Tony Award for Oklahoma! in 2002. Sean Mathias, Tony nominated for his direction of Indiscretions, directed Billy Crudup in The Elephant Man in 2002.
In Harold Pinter’s NO MAN’S LAND we wonder if two writers, Hirst (Patrick Stewart) and Spooner (Ian McKellen) really know each other, or are they performing an elaborate charade? The ambiguity – and the comedy – intensify with the arrival of two other men, Briggs (Shuler Hensley) and Foster (Billy Crudup). Do all four inhabit a no-man’s-land between the present and time remembered, between reality and fantasy?
WAITING FOR GODOT, Samuel Beckett’s most popular play worldwide, follows two consecutive days in the lives of Vladimir (Patrick Stewart) and Estragon (Ian McKellen), who divert themselves by clowning around, joking and arguing, while waiting expectantly and unsuccessfully for the mysterious Godot. Their waiting is interrupted by two strangers, Pozzo (Shuler Hensley) and Lucky (Billy Crudup).
Designs for the productions will include sets and costumes by Stephen Brimson Lewis (twice Tony-nominated for Indiscretions), lighting by Peter Kaczorowski (a Tony Award winner for Contact and The Producers) sound by Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen (Breakfast At Tiffany’s), projections by Zachary Borovay (Ann) and Hair by Tom Watson (The Assembled Parties).
To find out more on the productions, please also visit www.TwoPlaysInRep.com.