After Le Carre, it’s a Stoppard revival for Rev’s Tom
TOM HOLLANDER is returning to the stage in a Tom Stoppard classic.
The actor, who was a knockout in the hit John Le Carre BBC drama The Night Manager, opposite Tom Hiddleston, will star in a rare revival of Stoppard’s 1974 drama gem Travesties, which will preview at the Menier Chocolate Factory in September, with an official first night on October 4.
Hollander will play — or rather portray — Henry Carr, who’s the allseeing narrator of the play, in which he crosses paths with James Joyce and Lenin, and mixes it up with Gwendolen and Cecily from The Impor- tance Of Being Earnest, as well as folk from the Dada art movement. Patrick Marber will direct.
Menier’s artistic director David Babani told me Marber had been working closely with Stoppard on text revisions. ‘They’ve done some tinkering, back and forth, and I do think the production will definitely have Tom Stoppard’s new stamp on it, no question,’ Babani said.
He admitted that Travesties, which won major awards in London and New York when it originally opened back in 1974, could be a ‘challenging’ play.
But it’s a real coup to secure Hollander, who has been busy of late with television dramas such as Rev, which he also writes.
Babani said it had been a ‘perfect storm kind of week’ for the Menier, which saw its production of The Color Purple win Tony awards for British leading lady Cynthia Erivo and best revival of a musical.
Meanwhile, a transfer from New York of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods, which opens at the Chocolate Factory in July, began rehearsing on Monday.
Priority tickets for Travesties will go on sale on Monday; with general ticket sales starting on June 27.