BACKSTAGE: The cast and creative of No Man's Land at Wyndhams Theatre

About NO MAN'S LAND

One summer’s evening, two ageing writers, Hirst and Spooner, meet in a Hampstead pub and continue their drinking into the night at Hirst's stately house nearby. As the pair become increasingly inebriated, and their stories increasingly unbelievable, the lively conversation soon turns into a revealing power game, further complicated by the return home of two sinister younger men. 

'Harold Pinter's masterpiece is back in a glowing revival' - Time Out New York

'An irresistible celebration of two actors' love affairs with their scripts' - New York Times

Don’t miss this rare treat of two master actors in Pinter’s comic masterpiece.

 

NO MAN'S LAND Cast & Creative

The Cast

IAN MCKELLEN - SPOONER

Multi award-winning Ian McKellen has had a 55 year long career on stage and on screen. For the Royal Shakespeare Company he has played the roles of Romeo, Macbeth, Iago and King Lear and at the National Theatre, in productions of Coriolanus, Richard III, Uncle Vanya and The Seagull. He gained his first Oscar nomination for Gods and Monsters and his second for Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He is Magneto to Patrick Stewart’s Xavier in the X-Men movies, other films include Richard III and most recently Mr Holmes.

PATRICK STEWART - HIRST

Multi award-winning Patrick Stewart has numerous notable stage credits to his name including Anthony and Cleopatra, The Tempest, Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice, The Master Builder and his acclaimed solo adaptation of A Christmas Carol. Known world-wide as Captain Jean Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation and as Professor X with Ian McKellen in the X-Men franchise, his additional film and TV credits include the 2009 TV movie adaptation of Hamlet alongside David Tennant, Ahab in Moby Dick, Ricky Gervais’ Extras, the new US comedy series, soon to be seen on UK TV, Blunt Talk, the soon to be released thriller Green Room as well as Wilde Wedding with Glenn Close and John Malkovich.

Creative Team

HAROLD PINTER - WRITER

Harold Pinter was born in London in 1930. He lived with Antonia Fraser from 1975 until his death on Christmas Eve 2008. (They were married in 1980).

After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and the Central School of Speech and Drama, he worked as an actor under the stage name David Baron. Following his success as a playwright, he continued to act under his own name, on stage and screen. He last acted in 2006 when he appeared in Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape at the Royal Court Theatre, directed by Ian Rickson.

He wrote twenty-nine plays including The Birthday Party, The Dumb Waiter, A Slight Ache, The Hothouse, The Caretaker, The Collection, The Lover, The Homecoming, Old Times, No Man’s Land, Betrayal, A Kind of Alaska, One For The Road, The New World Order, Moonlight and Ashes to Ashes. Sketches include The Black and White, Request Stop, That’s Your Trouble, Night, Precisely, Apart From That and the recently rediscovered Umbrellas.

He directed 27 theatre productions, including James Joyce's Exiles, David Mamet's Oleanna, seven plays by Simon Gray (one of which was Butley in 1971, the film of which he directed three years later) and many of his own plays including his last, Celebration, paired with his first, The Room, at The Almeida Theatre in the spring of 2000.

He wrote 21 screenplays including The Pumpkin Eater, The Servant, The Go-Between, The French Lieutenant's Woman and Sleuth.

In 2005 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature. Other awards include the Companion of Honour for services to Literature, the Legion D’Honneur, the European Theatre Prize, the Laurence Olivier Award and the Molière D'Honneur for lifetime achievement. In 1999 he was made a Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature. Harold Pinter was awarded 18 honorary degrees.

SEAN MATHIAS - DIRECTOR

British film and theatre director, writer and actor, Sean Mathias has been a long-time collaborator with Ian McKellen having directed him in numerous theatre roles including Uncle Vanya, Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads, August Strindberg’s The Dance of Death, Waiting for Godot (alongside Patrick Stewart) and Bent which he later directed on film, winning the ‘Prix de la Jeunesse’ award at the Cannes Film Festival. Other notable West End and Broadway theatre credits include Design for Living, Anthony and Cleopatra, The Elephant Man, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, A Little Night Music, Company and Les Parents Terribles which went on to be nominated for nine Tony Awards on Broadway under the title Indiscretions.

STUART THOMPSON

Stuart Thompson Productions is a Tony Award-Winning producer on Broadway. Recent West End credits include King Charles III which STP subsequently co-produced on Broadway this past autumn. Other shows produced on Broadway include The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time with the National Theatre, No Man’s Land and Waiting for Godot directed by Sean Mathias with Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with Scarlett Johansson, Death of a Salesman directed by Mike Nichols with Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem with Mark Rylance, The Motherf**ker with the Hat with Chris Rock and Bobby Cannavale and A View from the Bridge with Liev Schreiber and Scarlett Johansson. STP is the executive producer of the three USA companies of The Book of Mormon as well as a co-producer in London.

PLAYFUL PRODUCTIONS

Matthew Byam Shaw, Nia Janis and Nick Salmon founded Playful Productions in 2010.

As Producer and General Manager productions include: Hangmen (Wyndham’s Theatre), Mack & Mabel UK and Ireland tour, American Buffalo (Wyndham’s Theatre), The Audience (Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre - Broadway, Apollo Theatre and Gielgud Theatre, also a record-breaking, worldwide digital broadcast with NT Live), Wolf Hall: Parts 1 & 2 (Winter Garden Theatre - Broadway), Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies (Aldwych Theatre), Shrek The Musical (UK & Ireland tour), The Weir (Wyndham’s Theatre), South Downs/The Browning Version (Harold Pinter Theatre), Sweeney Todd (Adelphi Theatre), Flare Path (Theatre Royal Haymarket), Yes, Prime Minister (Gielgud Theatre, Apollo Theatre, Trafalgar Studios and three UK tours), Krapp’s Last Tape (Duchess Theatre), Red (Golden Gate Theatre - Broadway) and Enron (Noël Coward Theatre).

As General Manager productions include: Kinky Boots (Aldelphi Theatre), Blithe Spirit (Gielgud Theatre), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane), Wicked (Apollo Victoria Theatre, UK and Ireland tour), Dirty Dancing (Aldwych Theatre, two UK tours and Piccadilly Theatre), Shrek The Musical (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane), Million Dollar Quartet (Noël Coward Theatre), Clybourne Park (Wyndham’s Theatre) and the forthcoming Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill (Wyndham’s Theatre, June 2016) and Groundhog Day (Old Vic, July 2016).

STEPHEN BRIMSON LEWIS - DESIGNER

Stephen Brimson Lewis is Director of Design for the Royal Shakespeare Company and his productions this year include the King and Country Season at the Barbican, in China and at BAM in New York and the groundbreaking production of The Tempest.

Previous productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company include: Death of a Salesman, Volpone, Antony and Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Merry Wives the Musical, All’s Well That Ends Well, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Othello, Believe What You Will, The Taming of the Shrew, The Tamer Tamed, Timon of Athens, Macbeth, King John and Much Ado About Nothing. 

Other theatre includes: No Man’s Land (Broadway/ Berkley Rep), Waiting for Godot (West End/ Broadway/UK/international tour), The Lion in Winter, The Tempest and Flarepath (Theatre Royal Haymarket, Trevor Nunn season), An Ideal Husband, Ghosts, Becket, Design for Living (Olivier award) and Arsenic and Old Lace (all West End), Acorn Antiques the Musical and Dirty Dancing (West End/international/UK tour), Stephen Fry’s Cinderella (Old Vic), Indiscretions (Tony Award nominations for Best Scenic Design and Best Costume Design) and Rose (Broadway), Les Parents Terribles (Olivier award), A Little Night Music, Private Lives, Marat/Sade, Inadmissible Evidence, Once in a While the Odd Thing Happens, Uncle Vanya, Mrs Klein and American Clock (National Theatre), Relative Values (Theatre Royal Bath), Heartbreak House, The Master Builder, Separate Tables and Racing Demon (Chichester Festival Theatre), A Chorus Line and High Society (Sheffield Theatres), Arcadia (Bristol/Birmingham), The Illusion and Dreaming (Royal Exchange Manchester) and Julius Caesar (Young Vic/Tokyo Globe).

Opera includes: La Bohème (Welsh National Opera), The Barber of Seville (Costumes, Royal Opera House), The Legend of Joseph (Deutsche Staatsoper), Tales of Hoffman (Sydney Opera House), Othello (Set, Vienna State Opera) and Dorian Gray (Monte Carlo Opera).

Film as Production Designer includes: Bent and Macbeth. 

PETER KACZOROWSKI - LIGHTING DESIGNER

Broadway credits include: over 50 plays and musicals including Beautiful; The Carole King Musical, No Man’s Land and Waiting for Godot (starring Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart), The Country House, Love Letters, The Assembled Parties, Venus in Fur, Anything Goes, A View From the Bridge, Waiting for Godot (starring Nathan Lane and Bill Irwin), Young Frankenstein, Curtains, Grey Gardens, Heartbreak House, The Pajama Game, Seascape, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Wonderful Town, Anna in the Tropics, The Producers, Contact, The Music Man, Kiss Me Kate and Steel Pier, among many others.

West End credits include: Beautiful; The Carole King Musical, Driving Miss Daisy, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Producers, Kiss Me Kate, Contact, Jackie: An American Life, She Loves Me and Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music. 

Off-Broadway credits include: Extensive credits for Manhattan Theater Club, Roundabout, The Public (both downtown and at the Delacorte), New Group, Playwrights Horizons, 2econd Stage Theatre, Classic Stage, Signature and The Vineyard, as well as 20 Encores concerts at City Center. Productions include Grey Gardens, Violet, The Paris Letter, Death Defying Acts, My Old Lady, The Monogamist, Twelve Dreams, Song of Singapore and Grandchild of Kings.

Opera credits include: The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Los Angeles Music Center Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand, Santa Fe Opera and Seattle Opera. Outside the US: Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Scottish Opera, Opera North, The Edinburgh Festival, Maggio Festival Florence, L’Arena di Verona, Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, Operbonn, Teatro Sao Carlos Lisbon and Nissei Theatre Tokyo.

Awards include: Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Dramalogue, Ovation and Hewes design awards. 

ANNE MCNULTY CDG - CASTING DIRECTOR

Anne McNulty CDG was Casting Director at the Donmar Warehouse for 20 years, where she cast over 100 productions.

Credits includes: Photograph 51, The Cripple of Inishmaan (also Cort Theatre, New York), A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Henry V (Michael Grandage Company), Bakkhai and Carmen Disruption (Almeida Theatre), Macbeth (Manchester International Festival and New York Armory), Betrayal UK casting (Ethel Barrymore Theatre, New York), Good People (Hampstead Theatre and Noël Coward Theatre), The Crucible and Into the Woods (co-cast with Jerry Knight-Smith for Manchester Royal Exchange), Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me (Chichester Festival Theatre), Outside Mullingar (Ustinov Studio Bath), Brian Friel season: Afterplay, Translations and Wonderful Tennessee (Sheffield Crucible) and casting consultant for The El Train – three one-act plays by Eugene O’Neill (Hoxton Hall).