Jeremy Irons to return to RSC in ‘The Gods Weep’

Latest News: Irons makes RSC return

First published: 07 Jan 2010

Actor Jeremy Irons will return to the Royal Shakespeare Company this spring to lead the cast of a new play The Gods Weep.
The world premiere, by Dennis Kelly, plays at the Hampstead theatre between February and April.

Oscar-winning actor Irons rejoins the RSC after 23 years away to star in Kelly’s The Gods Weep, a play about a corporate giant who decides to split his power among his subordinates, unleashing a bloody struggle.

The multi award-winning star of stage and screen, whose film credits include Reversal Of Fortune – for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role – Dead Ringers, The Lion King and Die Hard With A Vengeance, last worked with the company in the 1986/7 season when he appeared in The Winter’s Tale and Richard II. His most recent London stage appearances came in 2006’s Embers and 2008’s Never So Good.

Irons is joined in the cast of The Gods Weep by Nikki Amuka-Bird, Karen Archer, Neal Barry, Babou Ceesay, Sam Hazeldine, Joanna Horton, Stephen Noonan, Luke Norris, Sally Orrock, Helen Schlesinger, Laurence Spellman, John Stahl and Matthew Wilson.

The RSC premieres open a Hampstead theatre spring season which also includes Sebastian Barry’s new play about Hans Christian Andersen’s visit to Charles Dickens’s home, Andersen’s English, and Jonathan Harvey’s new play Canary.

Show Details: The Gods Weep

Colm has taken a lifetime to build his empire. With brutal rigour he has shaped the world around him in his own image.
But when he decides to divide power between his subordinates, the world he has created rapidly begins to fracture. Having unleashed a bloody power struggle Colm is forced to confront the very human cost of his actions as around him the body count begins to rise. Dennis Kelly’s savage new play explores what happens when corporate greed and state security frighteningly overlap.

Dennis Kelly is an acclaimed and multi award-winning playwright whose recent work includes Orphans, DNA, Love and Money and Osama the Hero which premiered at Hampstead Theatre. He is currently under commission by the RSC to write the book of Matilda, A Musical to be staged in late 2010

Maria Aberg directs following her celebrated RSC production of Roy Williams’ Days of Significance.

Performance Details

Venue – Auditorium

March: 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 (2:30pm), 20 (7:30pm), 22, 23, 24 (2:30pm), 24 (7:30pm), 25, 26, 27 (2:30pm), 27 (7:30pm), 29, 30, 31 (2:30pm), 31 (7:30pm)
April: 2, 3 (2:30pm), 3 (7:30pm)

showing at: Hampstead Theatre

box Office: 020 7722 9301